Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

By

Venezuela: Pope Francis intervenes

Following the talk of impeachment after the government cancelled the recall vote, Nicolás Maduro made an unscheduled stop by the Vatican, where Pope Francis advised Maduro to hold talks with the opposition (emphasis added),

In a statement, the Vatican said the pope received Mr. Maduro “within the framework of the worrisome, political, social and economic situation that the country is going through.”

“The Pope thus invited the President to undertake with courage the path of sincere and constructive dialogue, to alleviate the suffering of the people,” the statement added. Mr. Maduro, in a message posted on his official Twitter account, called it an “excellent private meeting with deep spirituality.”

A spokesman for Mr. Maduro and Jesus Torrealba, head of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, a coalition of opposition parties known as MUD, said the talks would begin Sunday on Margarita Island under the mediation of the Vatican and the Union of South American States, known as Unasur.

This latest political theater will work to Maduro’s advantage:

  1. The pressure is now on the opposition, again.
  2. It provides the regime an opportunity to defuse unrest.
  3. The Pope has already given Maduro legitimacy, with an added a special frisson of “consulting to a Higher Power” for the gullible, by receiving him.
  4. The Catholic Church gives its imprimatur to the talks by acting as mediator.
  5. The Church-mediated talks are a very important distraction from the country’s ruinous state, and will change nothing.
  6. In the immediate future, it waters down the impact of the protests scheduled for tomorrow.
  7. More importantly, as the article mentions, “Indeed, the announcement, which surprised some of the country’s top opposition leaders, many of whom apparently weren’t included in the talks, risks a split in the antigovernment alliance.”

Indeed, the Vatican meeting and the upcoming talks serve the only purpose of providing Maduro with a screen to which hide his denial of democracy,   to borrow the WaPo’s phrase.

The Washington Post editorial board recommends instead that the United States should be coordinating tough international action. I estimate a zero chance of that.

Related:
Caracas Chronicles translated the Vatican Communiqué

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

Share

By

No, if you are Catholic, you can not be pro-abortion

Pro-abortion Democrats like the Catholics for Choice, Nancy Pelosi, and Tim Kaine call themselves Catholic but ignore the Church’s doctrine on abortion, a doctrine dating back to the origins of the Church, either out of convenience, political expedience, willful ignorance, or moral obfuscation (or a combination of all) to promote the Hillary agenda and their party’s culture of death.

Read my post, No, if you are Catholic, you can not be pro-abortion

Share

By

Argentina: Perilous papal peronist politics

Dr Samuel Gregg’s special report:
Poverty, Politics, and the Church in Pope Francis’s Argentina. Argentina is trying to break with 70 years of populism, corruption, and general economic decline. But in the age of the Argentine pope, what role will the Church play in this process?

Some of the same reform-minded Catholics, however, also mentioned that Pope Francis’s undisguised skepticism about economic liberalization and markets in general—which they describe as having become more rhetorically-charged and even radicalized since his election to Peter’s Chair—is helping fuel populist opposition to long-overdue changes.

They—and I—doubt this is the pope’s intention. Nevertheless, they point to speeches such as Francis’s remarks to the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Bolivia last year, delivered while sitting next to Bolivia’s arch-populist president Evo Morales. Such remarks, they claim, provide cover for Argentina’s own career-populists: people who, for all their talk about defending el pueblo, oppose any meaningful change to a status-quo that maintains their power but which has steadily eroded the Argentine economy’s ability to lift the poor out of their misery.

Read the whole thing.

Share

By

Argentina: The Scholas Ocurrentes fraud

Yesterday I posted the Lanata YouTube (in Spanish),

I didn’t have time to post on one of the topics Lanata covered, the Scholas Ocurrentes fraud (starting at 39:10 into the video). Luckily, PanamPost has the story:
Pope Francis’ Foundation Under Fire over Embezzlement Allegations. Journalists Reveal Subsidies, Incomplete Headquarters from Former Cristina Kirchner Administration

Argentinean journalist Jorge Lanata revealed that, during former President Cristina Kirchner‘s rule, the Planning Ministry financed the works to the tune of ARS$10 million (US$663,400).

However, the building, which should have been finished nine months ago, is only 40 percent complete and the expenses already exceed the budget.

The president of Scholas Ocurrentes, José María del Corral, said he was not aware of the building’s construction and claimed he was even asking the current Macri administration help to build one.

But the Sunday TV show aired images of a half-finished building with a sign clearly indicating the construction of Scholas Ocurrentes’ headquarters.

Furthermore, the former Planning Minister, Julio de Vido, had publicly announced the construction as part of the state program “Enamorar,” a AR$260 million (US$17.2 million) investment that also included other buildings and artistic and educational projects.

And then there were Cristina’s multiple visits to the Vatican (on which I posted about last year,)

Kirchner Propaganda in the Vatican

Another irregularity allegedly took place last year, in the midst of the presidential campaign, when Scholas Ocurrentes invited the Planning minister to set up a recital in the Vatican.

The event cost Argentineans AR$5.6 million(US$377,540) and was paid through the public Argentinean universities San Martín and Tres de Febrero.

The journalists claimed that during the event, which marked the closing of Scholas’ Fourth World Congress, an ad boasting the Kirchner administration was shown.

Lanata also reported on auctions for trips to the Vatican, which were unauthorized by Scholas, and the participation of celebrities, among them Messi, who – in unrelated news – was sentenced yesterday to 21 months in jail for tax fraud in Spain.

Share

By

Ecuador: Correa goes to the Vatican via NYC

Rafael Correa is in New York City today to promote business in Ecuador. Unfortunately, as Glenn Garvin states,

The World Bank predicts Ecuador’s economy will shrink 2 percent this year, and Correa’s popularity is going even faster. The research company (CQ)Market says his approval rating has dropped to 31 percent, and only 28 percent of those polled believe what he says.

Ecuador is rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2015, Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2015, and Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2015. Ecuador’s approval of 16 amendments to its Constitution were recently deemed by Freedom House to be in violation of democratic principles.

A reader also pointed out that

A whole host of international organizations have repeatedly denounced Ecuador’s record on corruption, repression and freedom of speech. See some of them here.

No word on whether the people meeting with Correa in NYC know or even care about that, but he will present a paper at the Vatican’s Centesimus annus: 25 Years Later conference, along with Bernie Sanders adviser Jeffrey Sachs and Bolivia’s Evo Morales. Bernie is a participant.

And then some wonder why I am a lapsed Catholic.

UPDATE:
Linked to by The Amazon Post. Thank you!

Share

By

#VaticanFeelsTheBern

Following up on yesterday’s article, did Bernie Sanders invite himself to the Vatican?
Sanders’s Vatican Invitation Sparks Accusation of ‘Discourtesy’

The president of the academy said Friday that Sanders didn’t follow proper protocol — he failed to contact her office — and that his presence threatens to make the event political. The academy’s chancellor said he arranged the invitation and defended the Vermont senator.

Meanwhile,

The office of the pope moved to distance the pontiff from the visit. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said Sanders had been invited “not by the pope but by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.” Lombardi told the Italian news agency Ansa: “For the moment there is no expectation that there will also be a meeting with the pope.”

Bernie will be at the Vatican on tax day, April 15.

Share