Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for June 2016

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Greg Gutfeld compares coverage on Vz vs #Brexit

especially when Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, and possibly the second-largest gold ores.

No, they don’t.

Ace also has the sting.

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The Russian spy facility in Nicaragua Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

A very big deal we haven’t been paying attention to: Russia is building an electronic intelligence-gathering facility in Nicaragua.

ARGENTINA
Argentina raises Falklands negotiations at UN meeting – is that why Macri is so desperate to have Malcorra named as UN Secretary General?

A Cautionary Tale of ‘Stem Cell Tourism’

Ephedrine Traffic: Kirchner’s Cabinet Chief in the Crosshairs Again

BOLIVIA
Sex, lies and paternity claims: Bolivia’s president reels amid tumultuous scandal

The Jewish year is 5776, and the Chinese is 4712; now Bolivia’s leader wants you to know: It’s the year 5524. Set Your Clocks Forward: Bolivia’s President Says That It’s the Year 5524

BRAZIL
As the Olympics Near, Brazil and Rio Let the Bad Times Roll

WADA Suspends The Only Doping Lab in Brazil

Brazil’s Shuttered Anti-Doping Lab

Come to the Olympics in Brazil — Zika is under control, says Brazil’s health minister.

#Rio2016: World is ready, but is Brazil?

CHILE
Chile to preserve Colonia Dignidad cult archive

Colonia Dignidad’s documents spelling out the torture and other abuses that happened in the cult are important in investigating crimes of the Chilean military dictatorship, the National Monuments Council said while announcing its decision to preserve the archive.

The closed, cult-like community was set up in 1961 by former Nazi and convicted pedophile Paul Schäfer, ushering his decades-long rule over hundreds of mostly German expats. Schäfer and other cult members molested children and prevented adults from leaving the estate in central Chile.

After General Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile in 1973, the cult leadership started cooperating with the regime and offering their premises as a torture camp and a warehouse for weapons and poison gas.

Chile returned to democracy with Pinochet stepping down in 1990, leading to a public shift on the status of the German enclave. Schäfer was forced to flee the country in 1997, but was arrested in 2005 and died in prison in 2010.

COLOMBIA
Peace, at last, in Colombia

Historic Peace Agreement in Colombia

Let’s hope it holds.

CUBA
House lawmakers blocked from visiting Cuba. Chairman McCaul’s Cuban Visa Crisis

Obama dispatches Shaquille ‘Kazaam’ O’Neal to apartheid Cuba as ‘Sports Envoy’

ECUADOR
Venezuela vs. Ecuador (Chavismo vs. Chavismo Dollarized)

Sweden asks to meet Julian Assange inside Ecuador embassy

MEXICO
From Mexicata:
New Criminal Justice System now in effect throughout Mexico, Office of the Mexican Presidency

‘The Vulture of Impunity’ casts a Shadow over ‘Mexico’s Moment,’ by J. Tadeo (openDemocracy)

Three Key Takeaways from Mexico’s Regional Elections, by Ben Raderstorf and David Alzate (Inter-American Dialogue)

As Cartels Ebb, Kidnapping is on the Rise in Mexican States, by Patrick Corcoran (InSight Crime)

NICARAGUA
Is Moscow preparing for new Cold War? Russia agrees to build spy base in Nicaragua and prepares to deploy missiles on Polish border

Russia and Nicaragua have agreed a deal for an electronic spy base
Moscow will also give Nicaragua 50 tanks as part of the deal
In the 1980s Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime was a sworn enemy of US
Russia has also announced plans to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad enclave

PANAMA
Panama Canal Expansion Opens Tomorrow

Redone Panama Canal deepens port rivalries

Panama Canal expansion will affect shipping — but how?

PARAGUAY
Drug Czar Steps Down After Deadly Anti-Cannabis Operation

PERU
PICTURED Peru Two drugs ‘mule’ living the high life with her cocaine-smuggling pal after being released from jail. Northern Irish stunner Michaella McCollum Connolly pictured enjoying her glamorous new-life in capital city Lima

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Governor suspends payments on infrastructure debt

URUGUAY
CHAIRMAN ROYCE: FORMER GITMO DETAINEE’S ESCAPE FROM URUGUAY UNDERSCORES NEED TO HALT FUTURE RELEASES. He was in Brazil, doing what?

VENEZUELA
Venezuela petition signatures ‘validated’. Venezuelan opposition leaders say they have validated enough signatures on a petition to move to the next stage in a process to remove President Maduro.

Mass Famine Is Imminent as Neighbors, Washington Stand By

UPDATE
Linked to by Da Tech Guy. Thank you!



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Cuba: Dr. Biscet finally receives his Presidential Medal of Freedom

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was awarded in absentia in 2007 for his dedication to advancing human rights and democracy in Cuba.

Here is his speech (emphasis added),

Cruel and inhuman punishments, torture, the imprisonments and shootings for dissenters are the instruments of state terror that are used to keep the Cuban people subjugated. This is a Cold War state where my people still live and that we do not accept.

(h/t Babalu)

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#Brexit wins

Yes, Brexit wins.

Britain Votes to Leave the European Union

Not long after the vote tally was completed, Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in the bloc, appeared in front of 10 Downing Street on Friday morning to announce that he planned to step down by October, saying the country deserved a leader committed to carrying out the will of the people.

A victory for independence,

The vote for Brexit (52 percent of Britons cast ballots to leave the EU) is a vote for sovereignty and self-determination. Britain will no longer be subject to European legislation, with Britain’s Parliament retaking control. British judges will no longer be overruled by the European Court of Justice, and British businesses will be liberated from mountains of EU regulations, which have undermined economic liberty.

For the second time in 80 years that little Island has bought the world a space in which others could rediscover their own hardihood.

The Tories should now strive to make the U.K. a pro-growth model.

Roger Kimball writes from London.

Memeorandum has a huge thread.

I’m going to celebrate by watching the third season of Peaky Blinders. Note: if you start watching PB, you may not be able to tear yourself off. (I watched the first season with subtitles, until I got used to the accents.)

For now, here’s fireworks,

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Gitmo alumnus off to the Balkans

and not just any guy, but Bin Laden’s [alleged] former bodyguard,

Red marks the spot

U.S. Sends Guantanamo Prisoner to Montenegro

The prisoner, Abdel Malik Ahmed Abdel Wahab Al Rahabi, was one of the first to arrive at the facility when it opened in January 2002. He was never charged with a crime, but U.S. officials suspected he was one of Osama bin Laden’s body guards, according to leaked prison documents.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Nicaragua: New Russian spy site

Moscow Building Spy Site in Nicaragua. Signals intelligence facility part of deal for 50 Russian tanks (h/t Stephen Green). Not content with simply sending spy ships to Cuba, now

The Russian government is building an electronic intelligence-gathering facility in Nicaragua as part of Moscow’s efforts to increase military and intelligence activities in the Western Hemisphere.

The signals intelligence site is part of a recent deal between Moscow and Managua involving the sale of 50 T-72 Russian tanks, said defense officials familiar with reports of the arrangement.

Exit question, what does Nicaragua need fifty Russian tanks for?



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#Brexit referendum day

Richard North of EU Referendum is live blogging

14:36: I am not sure I can get my head round the idea of legions of clerks, armed with erasers, secretly rubbing out “leave” votes and replacing them with votes for the other side. However, when it comes to the use of pens, it was instructive to note that we were offered that option at our polling station.

Telegraph live coverage, latest headline: EU Referendum: Polling stations forced to close by floods, as final polls show race ‘too close to call’

Roger Kimball: Will There Always Be an England?

So long as Britain remains tethered to the European Union, Brussels will be able to impose all the regulations it wants via other treaties. Ultimately the debate over Brexit is a debate over sovereignty, which is a fancy word for freedom. Today’s vote is historic because on it rests the future freedom of Great Britain. Will it be absorbed still further into the (more or less) soft bureaucratic totalitarianism of the European Union, gradually extinguishing its common law traditions, or will it reassert its prerogatives of self rule? My record as a political prognosticator has been ostentatiously poor yet I venture, with some trepidation, to say that my reading of the tea leaves suggests that the spirit of independence has not been entirely bred out of the British electorate. There are apparently no exit polls for the referendum, so we won’t know until very late tonight whether (to end with another song) Britain will still be able to sing “Rule, Britannia” and its famous refrain “Britons never, never, never will be slaves.” That’s not the fate that David Cameron, to say nothing of his Continental masters, have in mind, but today, perhaps for the last time in a generation, the British voters have a choice.

Bookmaker.eu (a gambling site) sent me their link, which is not displaying live. See this note from the Telegraph:

“Punters have been waiting until the day of the vote to part with their cash and REMAIN is all they’re interested in. As a direct result LEAVE has drifted out to 7/1 and that could move out even further as the day goes on.”

Hmmmm . . .

Twitter #Brexit

Memeorandum threads:

Seth Barrett Tillman / THE NEW REFORM CLUB:

Alexander Hamilton on Brexit  —  After an unequivocal experience of the inefficiency of the subsisting federal government, you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America.  The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less …
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Drudge Report:
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