Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Bolivia ends all term limits

Evo’s now president-for-life:

A ruling by Bolivia’s Constitutional Court allowing President Evo Morales to stand for a fourth consecutive term in office in 2019 has been described as a “blow to democracy” by his opponents.

The court lifted constitutional limits on re-election arguing that they violated candidates’ human rights.

The BBC lists,

Changes to presidents’ term limits:

  • 1967 constitution: States that presidents can serve a maximum of two terms in office, but not back to back
  • 2009 constitution: Lifts ban on serving consecutive terms, but presidents are still limited to two terms
  • 2016 referendum (rejected by voters): Proposed dropping term limits
  • 2017 constitutional court ruling: Scraps term limits

Since the court ruling applies not only to the president but to all elected officials, Evo’s cronies get to stay on, too.

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Bolivia: Evo tweets about the JFK files

President-for-life (or until 2025, or so he says) Evo Morales has been tweeting about the JFK files released last week:

Bolivian President Evo Morales said this weekend that Chile made a “secret offer” to grant the country access to the ocean in exchange for an alliance against Peru. Morales made the statements this Sunday, October 29 when documents concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy were released by Unites States President Donald Trump. The documents allegedly contain evidence of the proposed alliance.

The alleged “offer” was made in December 1975 during Chile’s Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, and includes an offer of a 6.2-mile passage to the ocean.

Last time I checked, Pres. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, so it’s unclear why 1975 events would be included in the files, but hey, we’re talking about Evo here.

As far as the Chile-Bolivia border dispute goes,

The International Court of Justice of The Hague is waiting on the oral arguments of both countries that will take place during the first semester of 2018. A ruling is expected during the second half of the year.

I doubt that the ICJ will give any weight to the JFK flies.

But one never knows.

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Bolivia: Evo goes to Cuba

While the locusts attack Bolivia’s crops, Evo Morales was in Cuba last week, reportedly for treatment of a throat ailment,

Morales, 57, went to Cuba for treatment on Wednesday after a sore throat robbed him of his voice, causing him to cancel public appearances.

The government news agency said it was an emergency trip.

While at the hospital, Raúl Castro dropped by for a visit,

Reportedly, the FARC’s Timochenko also dropped by.

Evo recovered and landed in Caracas to participate in the latest ALBA summit and commemoration of the fourth anniversary Hugo Chávez’s death.

He was still sounding a little raspy.



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Cuba: What the hey is Moringa?

I was visiting Babalú Blog and came across this post by Carlos Eire: Evo Morales enthusiastic about Moringa pills given to him by Fidel Castro

“It’s such an important nutrient. Fidel now sends me Moringa pills,” said Evo Morales, president of Bolivia.

Evo just visited Fidel, to help him extend his 90th birthday celebrations.

El coma-andante Fidel has been promoting the cultivation of the Moringa plant for years, promoting it as a “miraculous tree” and urging its cultivation.

Carlos had added an illustration with the benefits, and a caption,

Moringa: the cure for everything, including original sin

Google is my friend, so I found moringa on  WebMD. There are some side effects (emphasis added)

Moringa is POSSIBLY SAFE when taken by mouth and used appropriately. The leaves, fruit, and seeds might be safe when eaten as food. However, it’s important to avoid eating the root and its extracts. These parts of the plant may contain a toxic substance that can cause paralysis and death. Moringa has been used safely in doses up to 6 grams daily for up to 3 weeks.

There isn’t enough information to know if moringa is safe when used in medicinal amounts.

Regarding the “Nutrition for infants . . . and pregnant and nursing mothers,”

Special Precautions & Warnings:

Pregnancy and breast-feeding: It’s LIKELY UNSAFE to use the root, bark or flowers of moringa if you are pregnant. Chemicals in the root, bark, and flowers can make the uterus contract, and this might cause a miscarriage. There is not enough information available about the safety of using other parts of moringa during pregnancy. Stay on the safe side and avoid use.

Moringa is sometimes used to increase breast milk production. Some research suggests it might do this, however, there isn’t enough information to know if it is safe for the nursing infant. Therefore, it is best to avoid moringa if you are breast-feeding.

Back in the olden days, there were similar remedies with anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory properties,

So better check WebMD before you take advice from Evo and Fidel.

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Bolivia: Evo Morales didn’t have a son

As you may recall, I posted last month about Evo’s girlfriend, the Chinese deals, and the campaign to be president-for-life,

Back in March I linked to an English language article summarizing Evo Morales’s missing child story and how it relates to corruption, Beyond the Zapata scandal: Outsourcing Bolivia’s National Development to China

“The basic details behind the scandal have been confirmed by President Morales himself. In 2007 or shortly before, the President had a relationship with Gabriela Zapata, resulting in a child who died shortly after birth. Zapata went on obtain a university education and alaw degree, and in 2013 was contracted by the Chinese company CAMC Engineering which won an estimated $580 millionin work from the Bolivian state, of which,$366 million was awarded after Ms. Zapata was hired to represent the company.”

As it turns out, Evo’s child is eight years old (link in Spanish), but Evo not only claims the child is dead, he threw in the clink Zapata’s aunt for asserting that the child is alive, which is one heck of a way to avoid a paternity suit.

In yet one more bizarre twist to the already-weird baby story, now it tuns out that Bolivian President Evo Morales’s “Secret Son” Was a Hoax.Son Who Appeared in Court Was Borrowed From Family Friend

First and foremost, I apologize to all involved (including Evo) for assuming that child was his.

I should have waited for the DNA test results.

No word as to whether any DNA tests were performed.

Now that that’s out of the way, it turns out that Evo’s former girlfriend Gabriela Zapata borrowed the boy from his natural parents, Victor Carlos Vega and Isela Chávez, for five years. Claudio Rivera Guzmán (the son of Pilar Guzmán, Zapata’s “spiritual” aunt – whatever that means) and another family member, Juan Garrido Espinoza, plus Zapata’s lawyers, William Sánchez Peña and Wálter Zuleta, were also found to be involved illegally in the hoax, so now all of them are in the clink.

You can’t make this up if you try.

————————————————

We talked about this and other topics in last night’s podcast,

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Bolivia: Evo’s girlfriend, the Chinese deals, and the campaign to be president-for-life

The NYT has an editorial on Evo Morales’s corruption, with the catchy title The Worst Boyfriend in Bolivia

If Bolivia’s widening political scandal were to be turned into a soap opera, a fitting title would be “Heartless Ex-Boyfriend.” The protagonists: a Machiavellian statesman and a former paramour. The plot: She threatens to expose him as a monster, but he is determined to stay in power indefinitely, even if he has to jail, silence and discredit her and his critics.

Back in March I linked to an English language article summarizing Evo Morales’s missing child story and how it relates to corruption, Beyond the Zapata scandal: Outsourcing Bolivia’s National Development to China

The basic details behind the scandal have been confirmed by President Morales himself. In 2007 or shortly before, the President had a relationship with Gabriela Zapata, resulting in a child who died shortly after birth. Zapata went on obtain a university education and a law degree, and in 2013 was contracted by the Chinese company CAMC Engineering which won an estimated $580 millionin work from the Bolivian state, of which,$366 million was awarded after Ms. Zapata was hired to represent the company.

As it turns out, Evo’s child is eight years old (link in Spanish), but Evo not only claims the child is dead, he threw in the clink Zapata’s aunt for asserting that the child is alive, which is one heck of a way to avoid a paternity suit.

I also had a prior post describing the scandal’s effect on Evo’s campaign to be allowed to run for reelection in 2019.

Evo has been in office since 2006. The coca growers want Evo as president until 2035, and Evo is doing his darnest to oblige. Considering the billions of dollars involved, why wouldn’t he?

All that dough got to your head?

The NYT also has a Review: ‘A Moment of Silence’ Follows the Evo Morales Era in Bolivia

While he delivered a constitution that recognized the rights of native groups, the film asserts that he resorted to the tactics of the leaders he despised. When his proposals undermined his constituency, the people protested, only to be met by government brutality, according to chilling testimony. “What does the president want?” one woman asks. “All these people voted for him.”

The editorial also points out the pattern of repression (emphasis added),

She [Gabriela Zapata] and her lawyers also said she has damaging information about the president’s right-hand man, Juan Ramón Quintana, the minister of the presidency.

But whether any of this intriguing material will be allowed to surface — and whether Ms. Zapata will get to defend herself and name names — is now in doubt. Last week, the government jailed her defense lawyer, Eduardo León, and an aunt, Pilar Guzmán, who had corroborated her assertion that Mr. Morales’s son was in fact alive. Mr. León, a prominent lawyer, has attended court hearings wearing a sign with the words “political prisoner.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Morales’s allies in Congress have been peddling bills that would curtail freedom of the press and regulate social media. What they fail to see is that Mr. Morales’s defeat in February resulted from damning facts, not critical news coverage. And they are clearly nervous about the insider account of corruption Ms. Zapata stands to tell if she gets her day in court.

On Tuesday, Mr. Morales announced a new referendum campaign, saying that the first one had been tainted by “lies” about the Zapata case. “During the second inning, we’ll see who is who,” he said.

Bolivia’s index of economic freedom has tanked since Evo came to power:

Let’s hope the new referendum campaign fails.

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Bernie supporters, stop calling it “democratic socialism”. Call it what it is: Communism.

As you may know, I follow Venezuelan news every day. As in everything else, the headlines follow trends, and the latest trend in Venezuelan news is “democratic socialism.”

Some of it has to do with Bernie Sanders, whose platform actively promotes the so-called “democratic socialism.”

According to Wikipedia,

Democratic socialism is a political ideology that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production, with democratic management of enterprises within a socialist economic system. The term “democratic socialism” is sometimes used synonymously with “socialism”; the adjective “democratic” is often added to distinguish it from the Marxist–Leninist brand of socialism, which is widely viewed as being non-democratic.

Which, in practical terms,  means that communism is palatable if everybody votes for it so nobody has a right to complain. Your rights to private property and self-determination are done for either way, no matter what color lipstick that pig wears.

It’s like being a little pregnant.

Yesterday John Hinderaker posted on THE TRAGEDY OF DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM (emphasis added),

The Times does a good job of describing the disastrous state of health care in Venezuela–there is much more at the link–but never mentions the cause of the disaster, democratic socialism.
. . .
For a more perceptive analysis of Venezuela’s problems, see this excellent roundup by AEI’s Mark Perry. Among other headlines: “Hungry Venezuelans Hunt Dogs, Cats, Pigeons as Food Runs Out.” That is what happens under Bernie Sanders’ democratic socialism. Currently, inflation is running at stratospheric rates, and Venezuela can no longer afford to buy the paper needed to print more worthless currency.

The Washington Examiner explains how Venezuela is ‘democratic socialism’ in action, and concludes,

In recent years, polls have shown that younger Americans have become less wary of socialism. Many of them now “feel the Bern” in the current presidential elections. They were still children, or not even born yet, when the Berlin Wall fell. They have had few opportunities to see socialism in action because (for good reasons) there have been few new experiments with it in the time since.

They need to be told the full story of Venezuela, so that they can see how even a democratically elected socialist regime can bring a once-prosperous country to its knees. The unbending Maduro is giving them a unique chance to see it all play out in real time.

I hope they will listen. However, I am skeptical.

Almost ten years ago hundreds of emails and comments rained down abuse on me when I reported that Hugo Chávez declared himself a Marxist, because, after all, he was a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” and I could not understand the difference.

Here’s the thing: I was quoting Chávez’s own words to the National Assembly, (starting at 0:16 in the video)

“Como ya le dije, pues, y entonces dije, bueno, yo además de cristiano, yo no soy sólo cristiano, yo soy un revolucionario, ¡y también soy marxista!”

(My translation) “As I told him, then, I then said, well, in addition to being a Christian, I’m not only a Christian, I am a revolutionary, and I am also a Marxist!”

As for Venezuela’s failure, true Bernieskees will assert that Maduro failed to follow Hugo’s stellar policies, as a former friend insisted two years ago, and that’s why things went wrong.

And let’s not forget the ones who think thins are bad in Venezuela because their currency exchange system is a mess, and after all,

Venezuela isn’t quite as socialist as many people assume.

As I said, Venezuela’s just a little pregnant, in their eyes.

THE OAS IN THE NEWS:
The OAS has a new Secretary General, Luis Almagro, following former Marxist José Miguel Insulza‘s retirement last year. Almagro is taking a hard line on Venezuela:
OAS Head Blasts Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Former Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro says leader verging on becoming ‘petty dictator’.

Mr. Almagro said he was considering applying the OAS’s Democratic Charter to Venezuela, as requested Monday by New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch, and earlier by Venezuela’s opposition-led Congress.

As I explained last Saturday, were the OAS to declare that Venezuela had violated its Democratic Charter, the country could be expelled from the OAS [See OAS Democratic Charter], which would mean pariah status for the country that Hugo Chávez envisioned leading the Hemisphere.

Maduro called Almagro a CIA agent, and Almagro hit back,

Mr. Almagro accused Mr. Maduro and his allies of stealing public money and called on him to release “the people you hold prisoner for their ideas.” He also urged the Venezuelan president to stop subverting the opposition-run parliament.

“You will never be able to give back the lives of children who have died in hospitals because they did not have medicine, you will never be able to free your people from so much suffering, so much misery, so much distress and anxiety,” Mr. Almagro wrote.

The secretary general exhorted Maduro to allow the referendum to take place this year, arguing that “when politics are polarized the decision must go back to the people.” To continue resisting a vote, which Mr. Maduro seems determined to do, “would make you just another petty dictator, like so many this Hemisphere has had.”

Mr. Almagro is expected to convene a special session at the OAS to discuss the erosion of democracy in Venezuela. Adhering to democratic principles is a requirement for membership in the OAS, which was established in 1948.

Of course, Maduro could take the same attitude Evo Morales had when Evo declared himself a Marxist seven years ago,

(My translation:) “One can not understand that anyone would be expelled from the OAS for ideological reasons. I am a Marxist-Leninist, too, so what? Are they going to expel me?”

However, since Maduro no longer has money to buy himself the love of other heads of state as Hugo used to, the OAS decision may actually carry some weight. It certainly opens the door to other leaders to take on Maduro, not only at the OAS but also Mercosur and Unasur.

IN OTHER MADURO NEWS,
His wife’s nephews are scheduled to be tried on drug charges on November 7 in Mahattan. They claim the 800 kilos of cocaine belonged to Diosdado Cabello and Tarek El Aissami.

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