Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for June 2016

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Mexico: Fox wants to debate Trump

I wonder what Fox’s reaction would have been when Fox was running for office, if a former President of the U.S. had challenged him to a debate on Mexico’s immigration policy,
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Challenges Trump To Debate

Former Mexican President and noted Trump dogger Vicente Fox challenged Donald Trump to a debate on Thursday.

“I’m willing to come here, to come here, to the States, if it’s for a debate,” Fox stated on WABC radio’s Election Central with Rita Cosby. “A direct personal debate with him.”
. . .
Fox said he hoped the debate would lead to Trump listening and engaging in a discussion with facts and numbers and not just be “lying and cheating to people, saying blah, blah, blah.”

As much as I dislike Trump, I wonder at times if Fox is on the Trump payroll, because while Fox may be playing to his home audience, this sort of thing helps Trump here.

MEANWHILE,
Smuggling network guided illegals from Middle East terror hotbeds to U.S. border

Terrorists from groups besides ISIS crossing U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis says (H/T PowerLine)

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Puerto Rico: The art of being a deadbeat

Greg Ip phrases it more elegantly:
Sovereign Default: It’s Not Personal, Just Business. Government debt restructuring becomes routine as Greece, Puerto Rico show emptiness of ‘moral obligation’ to repay

Less than three years after the governor of Puerto Rico called repayment of its debt a “moral obligation,” the U.S. territory is headed for the fourth-largest government default on record.

Though markets have met the event with a shrug, that shouldn’t diminish the significance of the moment. It underlines how much the stigma about government default has faded. Investors would be wise to build this risk into their calculations when lending to governments from now on, especially since arithmetic suggests more defaults are on the way.

If you think I’m too harsh os my island of origin, allow me to point out that, when you are mentioned in the same category as Greece, you are on the wrong track.

UPDATE
Linked to by the Pirate’s Cove. Thank you!

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Venezuela: Argentina’s OAS tit-for-tat

As mentioned earlier, OAS chief Luis Almagro called for a meeting to discuss Venezuela’s human rights violations of the Democratic Charter.

Almagro needs at least eighteen votes to sanction Venezuela, which may prove difficult.

Caricom countries are still hopeful they could continue their very profitable Petrocaribe arrangements with Venezuela, as described in this article from Jamaica,

In essence, when the market price of oil exceeds $40 per barrel, the monetary value representing between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of each sale is loaned to the Government of Jamaica. This loan is to be repaid over a period of 25 years at the rate of 1 per cent per annum. Where the market price of oil is below $40, the monetary value representing between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of each sale is available to the Government of Jamaica as a loan for 17 years at 2 per cent. In either case, therefore, Jamaica receives a loan from Venezuela on concessionary terms.

Whether their hopes are realistic remains to be seen, but for now they are siding with Venezuela.

Another hurdle comes from Argentina. Casto Ocando, writing at Vértice (link in Spanish), reports on the internal battle lead by Argentina against the OAS sanctioning Venezuela.

Ocando has the documents,

Venezuela is trying to buy time and calls for “dialogue”; John Kerry, consistent with the Obama administration’s never-ending streak of “smart diplomacy“, supports this call for “dialogue,” and so does Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, Juan José Arcuri.

Why Argentina?
Diplomatic sources revealed to Ocando that Argentina’s current foreign minister and former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, Susana Malcorra, has pledged to support to Venezuela at the OAS in exchange for Venezuela’s vote at the UN.

in practical terms this means that Malcorra will block OAS sanctions against the Venezuelan communist regime so she gets to be chief of the United Nations. Great values for a Secretary General at the UN cesspool.

And she has Macri’s backing because it will add to his administration’s “achievements.”

H/t Alek Boyd’s FB feed.

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.



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Cuba: chief of investigations for National Revolutionary Police tours Key West naval air base

“What fresh hell can this be?”

The chief of investigations for Cuba’s National Revolutionary Police, a part of the military-controlled Ministry of the Interior, where

he plays a key law enforcement role in a state where beating and arresting human rights activists is considered law enforcement,

toured the U.S. naval air base in Key West, Fla., on April 21,

at the invitation of the U.S. military command for Latin America.
. . .
Welcome to the brave new world of military-to-military contact with Cuba, the Obama administration’s latest idea for engagement with that island nation.

The WaPo editorial board advises caution (emphasis added),

Normalizing military-to-military ties between the United States and Cuba, for the sake of fighting drugs or other “common threats,” would imply that civilian rule doesn’t matter so much to us anymore — that Cuba’s military is morally equivalent to its hemispheric counterparts — when, in fact, it is deeply complicit in political repression and corruption.

“Would imply that civilian rule doesn’t matter so much to us anymore”? Call me a cynic, but, when it comes to the Obama administration, that train left the station a long time ago.

UPDATE
Linked to by Frontpage. Thank you!

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Mexico: The fake kidnapping?

Mexican headlines took time from Trump-bashing to news on the kidnapping and subsequent rescue of soccer player Alan Pulido.

Now Anonymous México claim the kidnapping was fake (video in Spanish),

Ildefonso Ortiz has the details,

despite the international media attention that the case garnered, the hacktivist group Anonymous Mexico released a video on Sunday afternoon claiming that the kidnapping and the high profile rescue as nothing more than a political maneuver by government officials looking to better position their candidates.“This is a montage aimed at fooling thousands of gullible Mexicans into thinking that Mexican authorities have the capacity to carry out operations of this magnitude,” the Anonymous character wearing a Guy Fawkes mask said in Spanish. “Mexican authorities are inept for these types of rescues, they don’t have the minimal training needed to face off against these situations. Stop fooling the people of Mexico.”

Ortiz explains,

As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the lack of security conditions in the state has become one of the main concerns among residents of the border state and could be a deciding factor in the upcoming gubernatorial elections. In Ciudad Victoria, where Pulido’s kidnapping took place, Breitbart Texas has been reporting on how two rival factions of the Los Zetas cartel have been fighting for control of the city. The brutal violence has resulted in an increase in kidnappings, shootings, shootouts and almost daily beheadings as well as other gruesome executions. 

UPDATE
Linked to by Doug Ross. Thank you!

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