Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

January 8, 2018 By Fausta

Mexico: AMLO in sheep’s clothing

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, best known as AMLO, is running for president of Mexico.

The thing is, communism doesn’t sell, so he’s wearing moderate clothing,

Mr. López Obrador does not seem to have given up on his dream to revive Mexican corporatism, in which government intervenes heavily in the economy. But he does recognize that his economic instincts are a liability in a national election. So he’s playing them down and marketing himself as a moderate who will defeat crony capitalism and champion social justice.

The promise to fight corruption strikes a chord with Mexicans, and Mr. López Obrador leads with a plurality in early polling in a race that is likely to feature more than three candidates.

But!

But he has two important vulnerabilities. First, there are major contradictions between his economic agenda and the aspirations of the young nation. Second, he is not always viewed by Mexicans as the squeaky-clean messiah he makes himself out to be.

Oh, that.

Remember the 43 missing Iguala students?

Residents of Iguala told La Opinión that the gang moved into the town only after José Luis Abarca became its mayor with Mr. López Obrador’s backing. One local told La Opinión that Mr. López Obrador ignored warnings from townspeople that Mr. Abarca had ties to the cartel.

As if that were not enough, AMLO has proposed amnesty for drug kingpins in exchange for peace with the cartels.

The election is in July. What could possibly go wrong if he wins?

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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Filed Under: elections, Fausta's blog, Mexico Tagged With: #Ayotzinapa, AMLO, Iguala

January 4, 2018 By Fausta

Colombia: Odebrecht and elections

Luke Taylor reports on how The Odebrecht Corruption Scandal Is Already Shaking Up Colombia’s Presidential Vote

In August, Colombia’s Supreme Court called on President Juan Manuel Santos and several former ministers to testify about Odebrecht bribes to the Colombian government that the attorney general’s office says exceed $27 million. Investigations have already revealed that both of Santos’ election campaigns, in 2010 and 2014, received money from Odebrecht.

In December, the Democratic Center party led by Santos’ predecessor and key opposition figure, Alvaro Uribe, was also implicated when a former vice minister of transportation, Gabriel Garcia Morales, was sentenced to prison for taking $6.5 million in bribes in exchange for awarding Odebrecht a road construction contract in 2010 worth more than $1 billion. Morales has promised to testify against other Colombian officials, according to the attorney general’s office.

These scandals have discredited some of Colombia’s biggest political figures, including both the Santos and Uribe administrations, and could have significant effects on the upcoming presidential election, which will take place in two rounds in March and May.

As a result,

The fallout from Odebrecht has created the space for an unlikely leftist coalition. The image of many mainstream politicians has reached an all-time low, and polls show that corruption is currently the single biggest political issue for Colombian voters.

Taylor examines the coalition in the article.

How the elections turn out remains to be seen, but without a doubt, Odebrecht’s bribery machinery, a.k.a. the smoothly-run Division of Structured Operations, with its own hierarchy, its own accountants, and its own off-the-books communications system, called Drousys, kept a finger on the pulse of Latin American corruption.

In other election news,
FARC’s Political Party to Deploy Network of Militias throughout Colombia.

Timochenko said that the guidelines for FARC policies will be made through the creation of Tactical Units of the People throughout the country that will be responsible for spreading their propaganda in which he will collect men and women from amongst the common people.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Filed Under: Alvaro Uribe, Colombia, elections, FARC, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Juan Manuel Santos, Odebrecht, Timochenko

October 23, 2017 By Fausta

Argentina: Big win for Macri’s coalition, Cristina goes to the Senate

Good news for the country, and for the hemisphere:
Argentine President’s Coalition Wins Midterm Elections.Mauricio Macri’s Let’s Change group garners broad backing in key provinces, easing his path to new tax cuts and other market-friendly policies.

How about Cristina? Mixed news (emphasis added),

Mr. Macri’s top Senate candidate in Buenos Aires province, Esteban Bullrich, outpolled former president Cristina Kirchner by about 41% to 37%, hindering her hopes of regaining control over the Peronist political movement.

Though Mrs. Kirchner won one of three Senate seats at play in the province, her failure to best Mr. Bullrich will likely embolden her Peronist rivals, many of whom support Mr. Macri and don’t want her to seek the presidency again.

More:

Fernandez’s second-place showing still grants her one of the province’s three Senate seats under Argentina’s list system. One third of the Senate and half of the house were elected, and Macri’s coalition will not have a majority.

As I understand it, this means that, even when she’s not head of the Peronists, she gets immunity from prosecution as long as she is a Senator.

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Filed Under: Argentina, elections, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Esteban Bullrich, Mauricio Macri

October 16, 2017 By Fausta

Venezuela: More election fraud

Yesterday Venezuela held elections for its 23 state governors, and as usual, amidst more fraud. Of course, Maduro’s party, the PSUV, won.

Clueless NPR was surprised.

Mary O’Grady writes on Venezuela’s Latest Election Fraud. Maduro allowed the phony balloting only to preserve the illusion of democracy.

Sunday’s exercise in the Cuba-backed dictatorship was a sham.

Maduro had other motives as well. He wants to lull Venezuelans into the false sense that a transition away from communism is possible at the ballot box. That illusion has so far held back rebellion.

He also seeks to legitimize his illegal “constituent assembly,” elected on July 30—from an unchallenged list of candidates—to replace the Legislature and rewrite the constitution. He said voting Sunday was an endorsement of the new assembly and any opposition governor who will not swear allegiance to it will be removed.

The fraud was under way long before the first vote was cast. The dictatorship announced the election only a month in advance. Candidates rushed to submit their names under a five-day deadline. Later the regime decided to hold a day of primaries. But when antigovernment candidates who lost the primaries asked to withdraw and throw their support to the primary winners, the regime refused to take their names off the ballot.

And then polling stations were relocated.

Caracas Chronicles looks Down the Sketchy Election Fraud Road, Again.

Daniel Duquenal calls it A grotesque electoral fraud. As one of his commenters said, “Dictatorships don’t leave with votes.”

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Filed Under: Communism, elections, Fausta's blog, Venezuela Tagged With: Nicolas Maduro, PSUV

June 26, 2017 By Fausta

Argentina: Cristina runs for Senate

Anything to get immunity:

Cristina Kirchner Files Candidacy Papers for Argentina’s Senate. Senate race would be seen as a referendum on ex-president’s populist legacy and her successor’s market-friendly policies

Former President Cristina Kirchner filed papers on Saturday to run for Argentina’s Senate, launching a campaign that could, if elected, give her congressional immunity from federal prosecution for alleged money laundering and racketeering during her presidency.

About those three separate federal cases that she’s already been indicted,

In one case, a judge ruled that Mrs. Kirchner ran a criminal “gang” aimed at profiting from the illegal disbursal of government funds for infrastructure projects. In another case, she was indicted over accusations she ordered Argentina’s central bank to illegally trade derivatives, costing the country about $5.5 billion.

But wait! There’s more:

If Mrs. Kirchner wins in October, she would be eligible to run for the presidency again in 2019, when Mr. Macri finishes his first four-year term.

One can only hope there are not enough stupid people to vote for her. She only needs 25% or so to get a Senate seat, according to the above article.

UPDATE
Trending at Bad Blue.

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Filed Under: Argentina, elections, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

April 28, 2017 By Fausta

Ecuador: Media fined for not carrying article

Four newspapers and three TV stations were fined US$3,750 each for not carrying a story on presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso.

Ecuador fines media for not publishing a story

Ecuador has fined seven media companies for not publishing a story that it deemed of public interest.

The state’s media watchdog said the press had a duty to cover a story about the supposed offshore dealings of opposition politician and recent presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso.

The investigation was published in an Argentine newspaper in March.

The watchdog and the media companies have accused each other of censorship. Appeals are under way.

The ruling was made against newspapers El Comercio, La Hora, Expreso and El Universo, and television channels Televicentro, Teleamazonas and Ecuavisa.
. . .

The report, “Lasso: the offshore tycoon”, was first published by Argentina’s left-wing Pagina 12 newspaper, and was picked up by various other Ecuadorean news outlets ahead of the country’s election on 2 April.

The Committee to Protect Journalists asserts that “No government anywhere, including in Ecuador, has any business telling the news media what to cover,” and reports,

In defending its actions before Supercom, lawyers for El Comercio argued that the original Página/12 story was poorly reported, failed to include a response from Lasso, and that publishing the unverified allegations would have violated an Ecuadoran law barring media from promoting or denigrating candidates immediately before elections.

Freedom House has rated Ecuador’s press status as “not free.”

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Filed Under: censorship, Ecuador, elections, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Guillermo Lasso

April 24, 2017 By Fausta

About the French elections

I highly recommend Nidra Poller’s 5-part series,

Part 1 can be found here – click.

Part 2 can be found here – click.

Part 3 can be found here – click.

Part 4 can be found here – click.

Part 5 can be found here – click.



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Filed Under: elections, Fausta's blog, France Tagged With: Nidra Poller

April 21, 2017 By Fausta

Ecuador: Partial recount results predictable

Predictably,

Following a recount of almost 1.3 million votes in Ecuador, the electoral council has confirmed left-wing candidate Lenín Moreno as the winner of the presidential poll held on 2 April.

The recount slightly boosted Mr Moreno’s margin over his conservative rival, Guillermo Lasso.

Mr Lasso had demanded a full recount citing allegations of fraud but the national electoral council only agreed to a recount of 10% of the votes.

Cue Capt. Louis,

Where’s the OAS?

But monitors from the Organization of American States said they considered “a recount of this magnitude and under these norms to be an exercise in transparency”.

More like an exercise in futility.

UPDATE:
Linked to by Silvio Canto. Thank you!



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Filed Under: Ecuador, elections, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Capt. Louis Renault, Guillermo Lasso, Lenín Moreno, OAS

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