Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

March 26, 2018 By Fausta

Guatemala: The Bitkov case

Guatemalan Attorney General Thelma Aldana, at the urging of the United Nations’ International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala and the Kremlin, has convicted Igor Bitkov, his wife, Irina, and their 26-year-old daughter, Anastasia, in spite of lack of plausible evidence.

Mary O’Grady describes the Kremlin revenge:

Mr. Bitkov was the owner of the St. Petersburg-based North-West Timber Company (NWTC). In 2005 he borrowed money from a handful of Russian state banks to upgrade some of his factories. Around the same time, a senior executive of one of the banks that lent him money asked to buy 51% of the company, Mr. Bitkov told me from prison through his Guatemalan lawyer Rolando Alvarado last week. He turned down the offer.

From 2005 to 2007 NWTC revenues grew by 30%, according to company financial statements. In 2007 Sberbank valued the company at $428 million. By 2008 he’d repaid 71% of the loan, along with interest due. NWTC was worth 2.7 times the remaining $158 million owed. Nevertheless, Mr. Bitkov says, in April 2008 the banks demanded that he immediately repay the balance.

He couldn’t comply and the company was forced into bankruptcy. Mr. Bitkov alleges that the bankruptcy administrator sold NWTC’s assets at fire-sale prices to entities controlled by various executives of the banks.

The Bitkovs feared for their lives and fled the country.

And that was only the beginning of their woes. Read the rest here.

This case raises many questions. For instance, I do not understand why the whole family is persecuted – after all, they lost all their assets. Why is the UN involved in this? What was the banks’ initial involvement?

And on and on. Should we just look at this as another instance of the long reach of tyranny and corruption?

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Filed Under: Fausta's blog, Guatemala, Russia Tagged With: Igor Bitkov, Thelma Aldana

December 27, 2017 By Fausta

Embassies in Jerusalem: Why Guatemala?

The facile answer to “Why Guatemala?” is, of course, foreign aid.

But there’s more to it.

Read my post, Embassies in Jerusalem: Why Guatemala?



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Filed Under: Fausta's blog, Guatemala Tagged With: Da Tech Guy Blog

December 26, 2017 By Fausta

Around the Hemisphere

I’m enjoying the Season with family, but here are a few headlines,

ARGENTINA
Say what? Argentina’s pro-business President Mauricio Macri is inviting low-cost airlines to invest in Argentina’s uncompetitive air-travel market, as long as they do something they do nowhere else: keep their prices high.

BOLIVIA
Germany and Switzerland to help build coast-to-coast railway in South America.

Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Switzerland to sign an agreement to construct a railway line across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Supporters say the project will boost trade and create jobs.

HONDURAS
Honduras Opposition Candidate Concedes Election After U.S. Backs President Juan Orlando Hernández

PERU
PPK pardoned Fujimori; now Police in Peru have fired tear gas and clashed with thousands of protesters angry at the authorities’ decision to pardon ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST,

Guatemala follows US in planning Israel embassy move

Guatemala, along with 12 other countries, had their embassies in Jerusalem until 1980, when they moved them to Tel Aviv after Israel annexed East Jerusalem, in a move not recognised internationally. All other countries still have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

Guatemala and Israel have a long history of political, economic and military ties. The Central American country is also a major recipient of US aid – something which Donald Trump threatened to cut to states that voted in favour of the UN resolution.

Israel is in talks with more than 10 countries — including some in Europe — about potentially moving their respective embassies to Jerusalem, according to officials.

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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Fausta's blog, Guatemala, Israel, Peru Tagged With: Juan Orlando Hernandez

March 10, 2017 By Fausta

Trump does Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador a favor

Monica Showalter explains how (emphasis added),

But the bigger favor is the one he’s done for Central America, particularly the “northern triangle” states of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.  Those nations, plus Mexico, in varying degrees, are in a demographic death spiral, losing too many people in prime working years they cannot afford to lose.  Their window of development is getting narrow, a UCLA professor of economics explained to me.  The statistics here show that by 2025, the fertility rate will be just 2.08% for the region as a whole, which is at or below replacement rate.  The years following will be below replacement rate.  Immigration, which primarily involves young people in their prime working years, has been a disaster for those countries, as has been their government’s dependence on remittances.  There is not just a negative effect of dollars coming in to displace local productivity; there is also a social cost as families are broken up by migration.  In fact, the IMF has pointed out that remittances tend to keep a country artificially underdeveloped.  The money itself tends to benefit government cronies and make corruption less costly.

So let’s not kid ourselves as to what has happened.  Trump’s statements and tweets have spared Americans billions in costs associated with illegal immigrants.  But they have spared Central Americans the near fatal cost of unchecked emigration.

Just the other day I posted on how Mexico is spending US$50million on legal aid for immigrants to fight deportation in the U.S., since the country makes more money from Mexicans who leave the country than from those who stay.

Plus immigration is a useful pressure valve for the discontent.

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Filed Under: El Salvador, Fausta's blog, Guatemala, Honduras, illegal immigration, immigration

February 28, 2017 By Fausta

Guatemala: Women of Waves waved away

Dutch abortionists NGO Women of Waves, who bill themselves as an “Organization using a Dutch ship to provide abortion services in countries where this is difficult or illegal,” were expelled from Guatemala after a three day stay.

Guatemalan authorities

said they [Women of Waves] had lied when they applied for tourist visas and would not be allowed to work in Guatemala.

The Dutch group, Women on Waves, offers free abortion services to women in countries where the procedure is banned.

It takes women in the early stages of pregnancy out to international waters, where the abortion is performed.

Abortion is only allowed in Guatemala when the mother’s life is at risk.

A spokeswoman for Women on Waves confirmed that they had been told to leave the country immediately, but she said its lawyers had appealed against the decision.

A military vessel escorted the WOW vessel to international waters.

Photo from Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre,

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Filed Under: abortion, Fausta's blog, Guatemala Tagged With: Women of Waves

February 22, 2017 By Fausta

Guatemala: Gloria Alvarez live at Prager U

From Facebook Live,

Guatemalan political activist Gloria Alvarez! Talking about socialism, capitalism, immigration, and more!

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Filed Under: economics, Guatemala Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Gloria Alvarez, Prager U

December 23, 2016 By Fausta

Immigration: Central American border surge from the Northern Triangle

From the WSJ:
Central Americans Surge at Border Before Trump Takes Over. Migrants from violence-plagued El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala push north in anticipation of new administration’s tougher border measures

The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 47,214 migrants along the southwest U.S. border in November, an increase of 44% compared with November 2015. It was the Border Patrol’s busiest month since June of 2014, when illegal entries from Central America were cresting.

Over the past six months, Border Patrol agents have caught nearly 240,000 migrants, an average of more than 1,300 a day—30% more than the same period a year earlier.

Click on the graph to read the article:

Related:
Assaults on Border Patrol Agents Up 230 Percent

More at InSight Crime:
Honduras news

Report Says El Salvador Gangs Have Created a Parallel State

Cargo Robberies in Northern Triangle Hamper Regional Commerce

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Filed Under: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, illegal immigration, immigration Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Northern Triangle

October 31, 2016 By Fausta

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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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Abu Wa’el Dhiab, Clinton Foundation, COPA, Habitat III

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