American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
When it comes to Latin America, one can only wish other “journalists” were in the same league as Mary O’Grady. They might even find a Russia Russia Russia angle – and a little China for measure. No wonder The Diplomad is as bored with it all as I am.
Read my post, News from our hemisphere gone AWOL.
This morning in the news: Dozens of Russia-related stories on every home page. All-Russia headlines.
Latin American and Caribbean stories in the home pages of
New York Times: 0
BBC: 0
Drudge Report: 0
Real Clear World:
Venezuela
Wall Street Journal:
Latin America
The hemisphere has otherwise vanished from American media.
UPDATE
OH, LOOK!
Russian, Venezuelan Leaders Discuss Energy Projects in Phone Talks – Kremlin.
Really, guys, I’ve had it with the RussiaRussiaRussia stuff.
Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.
Wednesday June 14: Lopez-Rivera, Puerto Rico, Brazil and other Latin America stories….click to listen….. https://t.co/NzFUUBZRCa
— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) June 14, 2017
Four Venezuelan cities are in the list of top-ten deadliest (not including areas considered to be war zones), while Caracas tops the list. Acapulco, Mexico is #2.
Worse yet, “Forty-three out of the world’s 50 most violent cities are in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Forty-three out of the world’s 50 most violent cities are in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to an annual report by Mexico’s Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice (CCSPJP). The list does not count cities currently considered to be in combat zones.
The Igarapé Institute in Brazil has confirmed this situation, noting that 14 out of the 20 countries with the highest homicide rates are in the same part of the world.Latin America and the Caribbean are home to eight percent of the global population, yet account for 33% of homicides.Venezuela has the dubious honor of being the only country with four cities in the top 10, with the capital, Caracas, leading the world ranking at 130.35 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants.The Mexican city of Acapulco comes in second with 113.24 homicides per 100,000 residents, followed by San Pedro Sula in Honduras, with a rate of 112.09 per 100,000.
The list:
The 10 most dangerous cities in the world, according to the CCSPJP, are the following (figures represent murders per 100,000 residents):
1. Caracas, Venezuela (130.35)
2. Acapulco, Mexico (113.24)
3. San Pedro Sula, Honduras (112.09)
4. Distrito Central, Honduras (85.09)
5. Ciudad Victoria, Mexico (84.67)
6. Maturín, Venezuela (84.21)
7. San Salvador, El Salvador (83.39)
8. Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela (82.84)
9. Valencia, Venezuela (72.02)
10. Natal, Brazil (69.56)
Here we are, another day, another pearl-clutching headline.
By now, the WaPo and their buddies are habitually playing the part of the scorned crazy girlfriend. Trump is trolling the media, has been doing so for decades.
The average person out there is tuning both of them off, the way you close the window when the neighbor’s kids are making too much noise outdoors.
Let me tell you from experience: This is not a good thing.
I’ve been blogging about Latin American and Caribbean news for over a dozen years. Most news from the region are bad. The effect is that even I am getting fed up from a constant stream of bad news about people who won’t learn.
Not that they can’t learn.
They won’t learn.
There are times when I’ve been tempted to use a headline from the 1980s and switch the names in the article, In the case of Nicaragua, you don’t even need to change the name.
My readers are getting tired, too; but it’s not just my readers. Readership on LatAm stories is declining – all you have to do is look at the comments and reactions to LatAm news on any news outlet and compare them to those on any other region over a period of time.
Then end result is that of total indifference, which arguably is not good for a representative republic where a well-informed citizen is an asset.
For now, “I’m tired”
You can call it a mild case of mid-blog crises. I’ll continue blogging on LatAm when the mood strikes, while developing outside interests as I always have.
For now, at least.
Op-ed by José Cárdenas, China’s Great Leap Into Latin America, following China’s 20-year presence in our hemisphere,
The numbers are staggering. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, and its bilateral trade with Latin America and the Caribbean has since skyrocketed, from $15 billion in 2001 to $288.9 billion in 2013 — an increase of almost 2000 percent. That number now represents 6 percent of China’s total foreign trade, an increase from 2.7 percent in 2000. (Some 13 percent of Latin America’s trade is now done with China, up from negligible levels in 2000.)
In the past decade, China’s two biggest development banks have provided $125 billion to Latin America — more than the combined total lending of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
This is only the beginning, folks, since China wants to “double bilateral trade and to increase investment stock value by 150 percent over the next decade.”
How China is adapting to the region’s new governments as the CELAC falters makes for fascinating reading.
Background post from 2011:
CELAC: Chavez’s latest “alternative”
and archived for your listening convenience:
Today's podcast live 2pmEastern: #Venezuela and other LatAm stories hosted by@SCantoJr https://t.co/FQqbksspma
— Fausta (@Fausta) May 1, 2017
The WSJ reports that, for the first time in twelve years (emphasis added),
Fourteen nations plan to issue a joint statement in coming days calling on the government of President Nicolás Maduro to release political prisoners, return full powers to the National Assembly and set a timetable to hold regional elections that Venezuela has indefinitely postponed, according to Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
. . .
The countries expected to sign the letter are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and the U.S. Countries that have refused to sign are Venezuela’s closest allies, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
This long-overdue step is a marked departure from the Obama administration’s policy.
As you may recall, Pres. Trump met with Venezuelan dissident Lilian Tintori, who is married to political prisoner Leopoldo López, last month in the White House.
Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner & husband of @liliantintori (just met w/ @marcorubio) out of prison immediately. pic.twitter.com/bt8Xhdo7al
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2017
the U.S. Treasury Department, following a lengthy investigation, announced that it had identified Maduro’s vice president, Tareck El-Aissami, as a drug kingpin, freezing his assets and barring U.S. entities from engaging in transactions with him.
The new diplomatic approach is not limited to relations with Venezuela; The WSJ also points out (emphasis added),
The diplomatic effort to encourage change in Venezuela has allowed Mexico to work closely with the new administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on an issue that isn’t related to trade, immigration or a border wall. “It’s not the motivation, but it helps having a common cause,” Mr. Videgaray said.
U.S.-Mexico relations are not as hostile as the propaganda media in both countries would have you believe.
As you may recall, two weeks ago I pointed out that the Trump administration has close enough relations with Mexico’s Foreign Secretary that Videgaray can meet with them directly by simply calling Secretary of State Tillerson the night before.
Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.
UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.
