Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for October 2016

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El Salvador: Videos of ruling party FMLM pledging to provide millions of dollars to 3 main gangs

InSight Crime’s Juan José Martínez d’Aubuisson and Carlos Martínez found Videos Show FMLN Leaders Offering El Salvador Gangs $10 Mn in Micro-credit, apparently violating an anti-gang law that the FMLN promoted and helped pass six years ago.

The two Barrio 18 factions involved are Barrio 18 Revolucionarios and Barrio 18 Sureños, (emphasis added)

The two videos — obtained by Factum, El Faro and InSight Crime — show members of the ruling Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional – FMLN) party — which has controlled El Salvador’s government since 2009 — meeting with leaders of the MS13 and the two factions of the Barrio 18 gang, and pledging to provide millions of dollars in aid to the gang members.

The videos, which were taken surreptitiously, clearly show the faces of current Interior Minister Aristides Valencia and former Congressman Benito Lara, who was later security minister between June 2014 and January 2016, and has since become a presidential adviser on security- and gang-related matters.

The emergence of the videos comes just months after El Faro revealed an audio recording in which Valencia discussed with gangs a secret electoral pact for the second round of the 2014 presidential elections. The former FMLN guerrilla commander turned politician Salvador Sánchez Cerén won that election by a narrow margin.

Video,

At one point in the video, a gang leader reads a document, which appears to be outlining the plan Valencia refers to. The document states that the micro-credit fund would be used by the gangs to create companies, and that the responsible body to decide who would lend money would be a “credit committee.”

Valencia then explains that the gang members would be the actual committee

Read the full report here.

Parting question,
Now that the FARC is seeking to position itself as a political institution, will other criminal groups use that as a template in their respective countries?

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Brazil: Rio goes for Republican

The Partido Republicano Brasileiro’s Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop, won the mayoral election in Rio de Janeiro with 59% of the vote.

A Republican, evangelical, bishop of the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God), you say? Hillary may need a bigger basket for the deplorables, but the PRB is not affiliated with the U.S. Republican party.

But I digress.

The mayoral election results favored the smaller parties,
Brazilian Voters Oust Old Guard in Mayoral Elections. Marcelo Crivella, an evangelical bishop, wins race to be next leader of Rio de Janeiro (emphasis added)

The other major contest was in Belo Horizonte, capital of the second-most-populous state. Alexandre Kalil, former president of a local soccer club, narrowly defeated João Leite, the team’s former goalkeeper. Mr. Kalil, of the little-known Humanist Solidarity Party, campaigned by saying he isn’t a politician; Mr. Leite is a member of the major conservative Brazilian Social Democracy Party.

Relative outsiders were expected to win key battles over rivals from major parties such as Ms. Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, or PT, which had held the presidency for more than 13 years.

New President Michel Temer’s center-right Brazilian Democratic Movement Party failed to capitalize on the PT’s woes, merely holding its ground in the first round of elections thanks to strong results in smaller cities. Voters soundly rejected the party’s candidates in key metropolitan areas including São Paulo and Rio.

“The public is tired of the conventional parties: the machine, the corruption,” said Leonardo Zuardi, a retired 59-year-old bank worker on his way out of a polling station in Rio’s upper-class Leblon neighborhood.

Now, where have I heard that?

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The Halloween Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

ARGENTINA
Vatican, Argentina to open ‘dirty war’ files. The initial opening will be restricted to those directly affected by the purges from 1976 to 1983

The Vatican and Argentina’s bishops have finished cataloguing their archives from the country’s “dirty war” and will soon make them available to victims and their relatives who have long accused church members of complicity with the military dictatorship. The 3,000 files being released, though, are a fraction of the documentation believed to be in the possession of the Argentine church.

A joint statement Tuesday by the Vatican and the Argentine bishops’ conference said the process of digitizing the archives had been completed and that procedures to access the information would be forthcoming. No date was set, and the opening for now is restricted to victims, detainees, their relatives and the religious superiors of victims who were priests or nuns.

BOLIVIA
Gold Rush in Bolivia sparks conflict between miners and the community. Community members and miners are clashing north of Bolivia’s La Paz. Meanwhile, Bolivian Amazon rivers are being affected by the excessive dumping of mercury.

BRAZIL
Brazil Turns Away From Establishment Politicians in Local Elections.

Even as President Michel Temer struggles to assure investors that Brazil is politically stable, this month’s municipal elections show restless voters fed up with Brazil’s ruling class and willing to gamble on unconventional newcomers

CHILE
Is Chile leaning to the right again?

COLOMBIA
Colombia government peace team to meet with Uribe allies

CUBA
What could possibly go wrong? Congress: Cuba to Share Critical U.S. Intel With Iranian Spies. Intel sharing with Cuba endangers America, lawmakers warn

ECUADOR
HABITAT III: UN conference agrees new urban development agenda creating sustainable, equitable cities for all

He said that the action-oriented outcome document, known as the New Urban Agenda, enshrined now in the ‘Quito Declaration on Sustainable Cities and Human Settlements for All,’ should be seen as an extension of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, agreed by 193 Member States of the UN in September 2015.

GUATEMALA
Comparing Presidential Corruption Scandals in Guatemala and Brazil: Part 2

HAITI
Clinton Campaign Coordinated With State Department to Answer Foundation Questions About Haiti. Clinton faced questions about $500,000 donation from Algeria

Following a report in the Washington Post that the foundation raked in millions from foreign governments while Clinton was at the State Department, Clinton’s team discussed over email how to address questions about the Algeria donation from other outlets.

JAMAICA
More soldiers for western Jamaica

Government has announced plans to augment the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in western Jamaica in an effort to have speedier and more effective response to any violent upsurge in that section of the island

MEXICO
The daily struggle for life in Ecatepec, Mexico’s most dangerous city. At least 600 women have been murdered since 2012 in this slum, half-an-hour from capital

DoD Official: U.S.-Mexico Military-to-Military Relationship ‘Worth Strengthening’

Clinton Trots Out Mexican Music Legend Vicente Fernández on Univision, Telemundo, as she panders,

PANAMA
COPA Launches New Low Cost Carrier to Colombia and More (H/T JC)

Panama’s Copa Holdings has unveiled a new low-cost carrier, Wingo, as it aims to turn its loss-making Colombian operations around.

Bogota-based Wingo will operate its first flight on 1 December, and will take over all of Copa Colombia’s routes except its flights to and from Panama City.

PUERTO RICO
Patients left in limbo as more doctors flee Puerto Rico

URUGUAY
Possible new home for Gitmo ex-detainee unhappy in Uruguay, but Lord knows where,

The group did not say which country made the offer and it was unclear if Dhiab has travel documents. Uruguayan officials did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday.

VENEZUELA
Opposition Protests Will Be Met With Colectivos: Venezuelan VP



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Did Weiner cut a deal?

We know that

a trove of emails described by the F.B.I. director as pertinent to the now-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server were discovered on a computer belonging to Anthony D. Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, a top aide to Mrs. Clinton.
. . .
The F.B.I. is investigating illicit text messages that Mr. Weiner, a former Democratic congressman from New York, sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. The bureau told Congress on Friday that it had uncovered new emails related to the Clinton case — one federal official said they numbered in the tens of thousands.

By all appearances, the FBI appears to have him on sexting a minor, which may qualify sexual misconduct. If the girl involved was not yet fifteen years old at the time Weiner did the sexting, things may look dismal indeed.

So my question is, did Weiner and his attorneys offer that computer as a bargaining chip?

Especially if the computer contained emails destroyed after they were subpoenaed?

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Dwarf and tequila for Hillary’s birthday

The first female candidate for President of the United States celebrated her 69th birthday by dancing salsa with a dwarf and getting a bottle of tequila.

But where Hillary shows up, the Clinton Foundation must not be far behind; read all about it here: Dwarf and tequila for Hillary’s birthday.

Related:
Hacked memo offers an angry glimpse inside ‘Bill Clinton Inc.’



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Venezuela: General strike today

The opposition declares it a huge success.

I’m skeptical.

We talked about Venezuela in yesterday’s podcast

Related:
Venezuelan Leader Nicolás Maduro Orders Big Boost to Minimum Wage. Decree raising wage by 40% comes a day before opposition plans a national strike

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Venezuela: More demonstrations

Headlines:
The Taking of Venezuela: Thousands demand recall referendum to oust President MaduroA policeman died and at least 140 people were detained during protests which took place across the nation.

The protests follow last week’s suspension of a push to for a second referendum to remove Maduro, which would end 17 years of socialism in the South American OPEC nation. Maduro has accused the opposition of seeking a coup with US help and has vowed there will be no plebiscite on his rule.

Thousands Protest in Venezuela as President Calls Emergency Meeting. Residents in the grip of an economic crisis demand the right to recall Maduro; opposition urges nationwide strike

Many of the opposition’s top leaders also said they wouldn’t participate in coming talks with the government meant to defuse the political crisis. Those talks are scheduled for Sunday on the resort island of Margarita, with the Vatican serving as a mediator.

Blogs:
Daniel says The rebellion has started

Caracas Chronicles posted this tweet,
#26Oct Tachira: Shoot me because I’m hungry, a demonstrator told the GNB [Bolivarian National Guard] barricade at CNE [National Elections Headquarters]”

More tweets:

Armed men in civilian clothes attacking demonstrators,

The demonstrations remind me of what Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau said in their book, The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed, about political demonstrations in France,

Demonstrations and protests are political forums in France. After the slaughters at Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cache grocery, 5 percent of France’s total population took to the street. North Americans, who don’t protest in the street nearly as much as the French do, interpret it as a sign of unrest, if not political chaos. In fact, it’s the opposite: if the French couldn’t protest, that would lead to political chaos.

In Venezuela’s case, the unarmed populace has near-zero odds of succeeding against the armed government.

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