Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for January 2016

January 25, 2016 By Fausta

The January blizzard Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Mid-Atlantic and North Eastern states are digging out from the snow, while the Southern Hemisphere enjoys its summer.

Just as they do every year.

Here are the week’s headlines:

ARGENTINA:
Macri at Davos: For the first time in a decade, an Argentine president visits the World Economic Forum. Argentina Eyes $20 Billion in Investment in 2016, Macri Says

BOLIVIA:
Evo Morales celebrates 10 years in powerThe president will be remembered as the country’s first indigenous head of state

BRAZIL
Another Capt. Louis Renault moment: Brazil’s Former President Defends His Handpicked Successor, and Himself. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vows to preserve legacy of Workers’ Party, credited for taking millions out of poverty

CHILE
Chile losing ground as top copper producer as metal price in the pits

COLOMBIA
A new plan for Colombia: Juan Manuel Santos seeks support for peace in Washington. I’ll be very surprised if Uribe shows up,

All being well, the talks will culminate in an agreement by March 23rd, and the FARC’s demobilisation. So it is appropriate that Barack Obama has invited Messrs Santos, Uribe and Pastrana to Washington on February 4th to commemorate “15 years of bipartisan co-operation through Plan Colombia”, along with George W. Bush and Mr Clinton. Mr Pastrana, a largely forgotten figure, was quick to accept. The election campaign in the United States may make it hard for Messrs Bush and Clinton to do so. According to Semana, a newsweekly, Mr Uribe, too, may stay away, vitiating one of the meeting’s tacit aims—to shore up bipartisanship in Colombia

Bomb Sniffing Dog Dies but Saves 30 Soldiers in Colombia

CUBA
Without Free Speech, Cuba Remains Trapped in Totalitarian Unanimity. A Simple Compromise Can Satisfy All Sides of the Embargo Debate

ECUADOR

Zika virus: women in Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador advised to postpone pregnancy

Recommendation made by countries’ health ministers after sharp increase in babies born with brain defects in Brazil as US extends travel warning for pregnant women

GUANTANAMO
Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al Sawah: Obama releases top al Qaeda explosives expert from Guantanamo
HAITI
Haiti elections postponed a third time

GUATEMALA
11 Guatemalan Soldiers Indicted for Disappearances of 558 Indigenous People

MEXICO
Murders Jumped 8.7% in Mexico in 2015; First Increase Since 2011. Statistics seen as a blow to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s efforts to contain crime

Thousands of Americans Losing Jobs as Factories Shutter, Move to Mexico

A cry from Tamaulipas, Mexico: Life in a Militarized State

Lucero Sanchez: ‘El Chapo’ Mexico: Regional lawmaker quizzed over ‘jail visit’

PANAMA
Panama Canal sets sights on transshipment tied to new locks

PARAGUAY
The world’s fastest-growing tourist destinations revealed: Paraguay, Tajikistan and Iceland named as new hot spots

  • Paraguay took home the number one spot after almost doubling tourism numbers and welcoming 1.28million guests
  • United Nations World Travel Organisation released the list revealing where tourism levels rose fastest in 2015
  • The countries making up the top 17 include the Seychelles, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, Japan, Niue and Colombia

PERU
Archaeologists find remains of women sacrificed 1,000 years ago in Peru

PUERTO RICO
Some days Capt. Louis Renault works overtime:
Talks to Restructure Puerto Rico Power Company’s Debt Collapse

The creditors blamed the utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or Prepa, for the collapse of the talks, saying its officials had decided to let an expiration date pass without taking action. Prepa is one of the largest single issuers of Puerto Rico’s $72 billion debt, most of it in the form of municipal bonds.

URUGUAY
Omar Abdelahdi Faraj: AP source: Ex-Guantánamo detainee arrested in domestic violence case in Uruguay. The captive was freed to Uruguay in December 2014

Guess Which South American Nation Is More Democratic than the U.S. Uruguay Is Latin America’s Lone Bright Spot; Haiti, Cuba the Most Authoritarian

VENEZUELA
Fears of Venezuela Default Grow Amid Oil Plunge. The plunge in the price of oil is causing more investors to bet that Venezuela will default on its $120 billion pile of foreign debt, an event that would trigger a messy battle over the country’s oil shipments and deepen its economic and political crisis.

Vile: Venezuelan prison authorities strip-search both wife and mother of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Leopoldo Lopez’s wife and mother have been strip-searched on entry to a Venezuelan prison



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Evo Morales, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Capt. Louis Renault, Fausta' blog, Guantánamo, Lucero Sanchez, Mauricio Macri, Omar Abdelahdi Faraj, Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al Sawah, Zika virus

January 25, 2016 By Fausta

Forum: Is The Movement Conservative’s Attack On Donald Trump Justified?

At the Watchers’ Council,



Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question
:Is The Movement Conservative’s Attack On Donald Trump Justified?

The Independent Sentinel: It’s justified because they have a right to their opinion and they back it up. I am not saying I agree or disagree, but these attacks on people for expressing their opinions is the same kind of intolerance we see from the leftists.

The problem is National Review Online gave up all semblance of neutrality.

The Daley Gator : Hell yes it is justified. We want to nominate, then elect the most principled person running. And every candidate should understand, as should their supporters, that their candidates record will be looked at. The very reason I do not support, or trust Trump is his lack of any Conservative record, as well as his lack of consistent, principled positions. Throw in his penchant for being about himself, and his nasty habit of attacking anyone who dares disagree with him, and there you go. And do not even get me started on this birther crap!

GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD:Justified? Well, it is politics. And cats have a right to be heard with their caveats and concerns. National Review’s issue on Trump featuring tons of real live conservatives from way back is an interesting example. Nearly 2 dozen bits about how Trump is at best semi conservative – at worst a full blown progressive liberal in sheep’s clothing.

The effect of that issue may have been blunted by GOV Palin. The commentary on these articles online is all over the place. Besotted paleo cons, grass roots conservatives, new time conservatives some neoconservatives, plenty of Paul Bots etc.

It’s justified, sure. The real quiz is – will it be effective? Will people switch over to the half Canadian guy instead? Or go all the way the Rubio way? Or will people gird their loins, stick with the cat that brought them to the hoopla so to speak?

We are all fixing to find out!

JoshuaPundit : Allowable? Certainly. Justified? That’s a different question entirely.
[Read more…]

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Filed Under: bloggers, politics Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Watchers Council

January 24, 2016 By Fausta

Sunday palate cleanser: Manon

More Villazon, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona

Libretto here (follow the links).



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Filed Under: entertainment, music, opera Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Rolando Villazón, Sunday palate cleansers

January 23, 2016 By Fausta

En español: Kate del Castillo en la Unidad de Quemados



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Filed Under: humor, Mexico Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Kate del Castillo, Paco Almaraz

January 22, 2016 By Fausta

Venezuela: Leopoldo Lopez’s wife, mother, stripped and molested

Despicable:

Venezuelan prison authorities strip-search both wife and mother of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. Leopoldo Lopez’s wife and mother have been strip-searched on entry to a Venezuelan prison

“Yesterday in Ramo Verde they put me in a room, took away all my clothes, my bra, my sanitary towels,” she said.

“Totally naked they made me open my legs various times.

“They did the same to Leopoldo’s mother, but in the room when the children were with her. Manuela and Leopoldo Santiago saw everything.”

NTN24 interviewed them (in Spanish),

In other Venezuelan news,
Fears of Venezuela Default Grow Amid Drop in Oil Prices. Country’s ability to pay creditors seen as increasingly in doubt

Venezuela opposition rejects Maduro’s ‘economic emergency’ decree

The Podemos corruption scandal grows:
La dirigente de Podemos que viajó a Venezuela estaba condecorada por el sector opositor .María José Aguilar recibió la Medalla de Servicios Distinguidos de la Cruz Roja Venezolana en 1989, durante el Gobierno de Carlos Andrés Pérez. Un hecho relevante si tenemos en cuenta que ‘Acción Democrática’, el partido político de dicho presidente, forma parte de la coalición que derrotó al chavismo en las últimas elecciones legislativas.



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Filed Under: Communism, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Leopoldo López, Lilian Tintori, Podemos

January 22, 2016 By Fausta

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

At the Watchers’ Council,

http://primitivehebrews.org/_Media/pasted-file_med-2_med.jpeg

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” – Sir Winston Churchill

Peace is purchased from strength. It’s not purchased from weakness or unilateral retreats. – Benyamin Netanyahu

“Let’s set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace–and you can have it in the next second–surrender. – President Ronald Reagan

“Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.” – President Andrew Jackson

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_nEAkWOufFU/T366WMxCdrI/AAAAAAAABOg/easpV-8FMnM/s1600/Joshua_Dali_Sun.jpg

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s Barack Obama’s Real Legacy – America, Humiliated is about America’s recent interaction with Iran. It reveals why everything the Iranian and our State Department told us about the recent incident with two of our naval vessels are outright lies,and in particular why Iran chose that particular time for this incident. Here’s a slice:

When is a world power in serious decline? One indication is when neither its leaders, its military or its citizens begin losing the ability to command respect from foreign powers.

Our recent engagement (if you could call it that) with Iran is one shameful indication of such a decline.

The official story out of Washington is that two of our Riverine gunships manned by U.S. Marines somehow accidentally wandered off course into Iranian territory, where one of them broke down. The Iranian IRG naval forces showed up,impounded the two boats and detained our sailors briefly, repaired the damage and after an apology and confession of wrongdoing from the American commanding officer sent them on their way. Much was made of how kindly the Americans were treated by their captors, and how this was a triumph of diplomacy, exactly why the Iran deal needed to be implemented.

Most of the above paragraph is sheer horse manure. Instead, the capture of the two gunboats was deliberately planned and carried out in international waters and designed to send a sharp message the White House, which shamefully collaborated in this farce.

The gunboats were reported taken near Farsi Islands, which is the official naval base for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. According to the White House, these two boats were en route to Kuwait from our base in Bahrain. Since these boats are shallow draft vessels, they could have sailed fairly close to the Arabian side of the Gulf, hugging the shoreline. These are fast boats, and the trip should have taken just over an hour.There was no reason to go anywhere near Iran.

http://www.persiansarenotarabs.com/_upload/custom/map12jpg_55deb12b5da40.jpg

Somehow, these two gunboats wound up 70 miles off course, near an IRG naval base. And captured by what amounts to a couple of small motor boats with a fraction of their armaments and manpower:

Given the advanced radar, GPS systems and skill of the crew, does it seem logical that these two gunboats would err this much? The answer, of course is that they didn’t.

Former SEAL Matt Bracken caused a firestorm online with comments on Twitter and Facebook, and what he had to say was corroborated from one of my regular readers who shared his knowledge of these kinds of missions.

For an open-water transit between nations, the course is studied and planned in advance by the leaders of the Riverine Squadron, with specific attention given to staying wide and clear of any hostile nation’s claimed territorial waters. The boats are given a complete mechanical check before departure, and they have sufficient fuel to accomplish their mission plus extra. If, for some unexplainable and rare circumstance one boat broke down, the other would tow it, that’s why two boats go on these trips and not one! It’s called “self-rescue” and it’s SOP.

This entire situation is in my area of expertise. I can state with complete confidence that both Iran and our own State Department are lying. The boats did not enter Iranian waters.

What likely happened is that IRG forces intercepted the two gunboats on the normal route between Bahrain and Kuwait, jammed their communications and ordered them back to Farsi Island. The gunboats likely cooperated because they were ordered not to create an incident. And their ROE prohibit them from firing unless they were fired upon by their superiors. It’s quite likely the IRG was aware of these rules of engagement.

The IRG stripped the ships of their GPS units and all communications devices and even took the sim cards from the crew’s cellphones, so no real record of where the gunboats were actually seized would exist. Then they forced them to pose on their knees, to take pictures that went all over the world. And of course, there was that confession by the captain of violating Iranian waters:

The Iranians made a huge propaganda coup out of this:

A senior Iranian military commander in charge of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed that the 10 U.S. sailors who were recently captured and subsequently released by the Islamic Republic “started crying after [their] arrest,” according to Persian language comments made during military celebrations this weekend.

Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the IRGC, which is responsible for boarding the U.S. ships and arresting the sailors, claimed in recent remarks, the “American sailors started crying after arrest, but the kindness of our Guard made them feel calm.”

Hossein went on to brag that the incident provides definitive evidence of the Iranian military’s supremacy in the region.

“Since the end of the Second World War, no country has been able to arrest American military personnel,” the commander said, according to an independent translation of his Persian-language remarks made Friday during a “martyrs’ commemoration ceremony” in Isfahan.

“I saw the weakness, cowardice, and fear of American soldiers myself. Despite having all of the weapons and equipment, they surrendered themselves with the first action of the guardians of Islam,” Ahmad Dolabi, an IRGC commander, said in Persian-language remarks at a prayer service in Iran’s Bushehr providence.

“American forces receive the best training and have the most advanced weapons in the world,” he added. “But they did not have the power to confront the Guard due to weakness of faith and belief.”

Much more at the link, including Iran’s motivation for doing this when they did.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Michael Totten with North Africa Exports Rape Culture to Germany submitted by The Razor.

Totten is one of the more knowledgeable commentators on the Middle East, simply because he reports what he sees on the ground in person rather than sitting in an air=conditioned hotel while some stringer he hired tells him what the local powers that be want him to hear. In this article he discusses what’s going on in Europe right now and reveals it as an inherent part of the culture these refugees come from. Do read it.

Here are this week’s full results. The Right Planet was unable to vote this week, and one other member submitted an incomplete vote in the non-Council category. Neither was subject to the usual 2/3 vote penalty for not voting:

Council Winners

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: bloggers Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Watchers Council

January 21, 2016 By Fausta

Today’s Cpt. Louis Renault moment brought to you by a UK inquiry

Litvinenko case: UK inquiry says Putin probably approved ex-spy’s killing.

For a fuller aroma, the NYT’s article, Putin ‘Probably Approved’ Litvinenko Poisoning, British Inquiry Says, quotes (emphasis added),

[British Home Secretary Teresa May] said that the British assets of the two Russian men suspected in the killing, Andrei K. Lugovoi and Dmitri V. Kovtun, would be frozen and that the Russian ambassador would be summoned to be told of Britain’s response.

Mr. Litvinenko died 22 days after ingesting green tea from a pot laced with polonium 210 — a rare and highly toxic isotope — in the company of Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun. He was 43. The three men had met in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London.

Mr. Lugovoi, now a member of Parliament in Russia and the recipient of a medal from Mr. Putin, said the accusation that he murdered Mr. Litvinenko was “absurd,” Interfax reported, and a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, said the Litvinenko case “is not among the topics that interest us.“

Take it away, Louis!

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Filed Under: UK, Vladimir Putin Tagged With: Alexander Litvinenko, Andrei K.Lugovoi, Capt. Louis Renault, Dmitri V. Koutun, Fausta' blog

January 21, 2016 By Fausta

Argentina: Macri at Davos

Mauricio Macri headed to Davos in a commercial flight (unlike his predecessor, who skipped Davos but whose private jet was paid by the people of Argentina). He’s scheduled to meet with David Cameron,

The new Argentinian president, Mauricio Macri, will meet David Cameron at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week in a warming of ties that have long been chilled by a dispute over the Falkland Islands.

The one-on-one talks, which were confirmed to the Guardian by a senior aide on the eve of Macri’s flight to Europe, underscore a softening of rhetoric over the islands following last month’s change of government in Buenos Aires.

It makes for a good photo-op for domestic consumption, and a charm offensive for everybody else.

The Financial Times reports that Macris’ government will announce a

$5bn loan from a group of international banks led by JPMorgan and HSBC to boost central bank reserves

and a proposal on the defaulted hedge funds.

In other Macri news,

President Mauricio Macri moved to allow Argentina’s air force to track and forcibly take down illegal drug-smuggling flights into the country, prompting critics to say Wednesday that he should be consulting the congress on such matters.

Meanwhile, As Nisman Death Anniversary Falls, Argentina Renews AMIA Investigation Efforts.

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Filed Under: Argentina, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Argentina, Davos, Fausta' blog, Mauricio Macri

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