Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for September 2016

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Venezuela: Miami Herald correspondent expelled; Demonstrations today

Miami Herald correspondent Jim Wyss detained and expelled from Venezuela in advance of protest rally

The day Wyss arrived in Caracas, two journalists from Al Jazeera and other news organizations had been turned away when they tried to enter the country. The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday that Venezuela has denied entry to at least six journalists who wanted to cover a protest scheduled for Thursday to demand a recall referendum on President Nicolás Maduro.

El Nuevo Herald has a live feed of today’s demonstrations,

Venezuelans Converge on Capital to Press for Vote on President. Tens of thousands gather in Caracas as opportunity to oust Nicolás Maduro’s Socialist government begins to wane

“May the street speak, may the street speak with people, and may the street speak in peace, and may the street speak in democracy.”



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Mexico: Media lose their sh*t over Trump

Mexico’s media, which have been taking out the sledge-o-matic and going full Gallagher on Donald Trump, are now in a full-froth frenzy.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had invited both Trump and Hillary Clinton. While it’s possible the Mexican president never expected either to accept the invite, Trump decided to show up anyway.

Prior to Trump’s visit, this week Mexican media had been obsessing over the sudden death of singer Juan Gabriel. The visit erased Juan Gabriel’s name from the headlines, and replaced it with Trump’s. Grief turned into wrath.

Twitter lit up like the hay truck in Breaking Bad,

while the TV talking heads and newspapers joined in.

There may be five stages of grief, but Mexico’s media have three stages of wrath:

Stage One: Before Trump landed,
The visit was announced late on Tuesday, and the initial reaction was, as it is in grief situations, denial,

“Mexicans invited Trump to visit?!?! BUT WHY?!?! Do they want to find out what the wall will look like?”

Stage Two: The actual visit,
The morning appointment was rescheduled to start at 3pm Mexico time. A few protesters took to the streets to express “indignation, shame and anger,”

“How can the president invite someone to our country who has offended us, who has humiliated us, who has treated us badly as Mexicans?”

Former president Vicente Fox piped in,

“We don’t like him. We don’t want him,” former Mexican President Vicente Fox told CNN. The former president called Peña Nieto a “traitor” for extending the invitation to Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Mexico over the last year and has vowed to force the nation to pay for construction of a massive border wall.

Open-borders activist and so-called journalist™ Jorge Ramos piled on both Trump and Peña Nieto,

Here’s the press conference,

Pay close attention to the 21:00 point where the press ask questions. Trump seamlessly took over the question and answer section. Peña Nieto looked like he had been hit with a 2 x 4 on the side of the head.

Stage Three: The aftermath,
Trump was already in his plane flying to Arizona by the time Peña Nieto roused himself enough to tweet that Mexico’s not paying for the wall:
“From the start of the conversation, I made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”

Open-borders activist and so-called journalist™ Jorge Ramos is crying bitter tears. In today’s WaPo,
Jorge Ramos: Peña Nieto was meek with Trump. Latino voters in the U.S. won’t be. He questions the timing,

The timing for the hurried meeting was completely off: It was just hours before Trump’s speech on immigration in Phoenix, and just one day before Peña Nieto’s State of the Union address. Not only that; Mexicans are still mourning the death of a musical legend, Juan Gabriel.

Because matters of state should take second tier to pop singers? At least Ramos reminded his audience (emphasis added)

(A disclosure I’ve made before: My daughter, Paola Ramos, works for the campaign of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic opponent.)

During Trump’s immigration speech last evening, Mexican historian Enrique Krauze resorted to name-calling,

“Trump should have never set foot on Mexico. I’m now listening to him [speak] against immigrants. Our “friend’s” fascist essence has never been clearer.”

Maybe Don Enrique forgot the time then-president Calderón showed up at the U.S. Congress condemning U.S. law.

Krauze’s son, León, who is currently promoting his new book on Mexican immigrants to the U.S. (most are undocumented), this morning admits that Donald Trump went to Mexico and won – begrudgingly, since according to him,

International bullying got the presidential seal of approval.

Trump went to Mexico, and perhaps what the pundits fear most is that “The world is run by those who show up”, and Trump did.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

RELATED:
The Diplomad:

Trump’s not even president and he has gotten Mexico to agree to “improve” NAFTA! Not to mention, of course, that Peña did not reject the idea of a wall to protect “both countries.”

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