Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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A new view on the United Nations

I have a post coming up at noon on Pres. Trump’s UN speech, but wanted to point out separately a very important point: The purpose of the UN, as delineated in the speech.

Elliot Abrams (h/t Just One Minute) explains it (emphasis added),

He reminded the delegates that the United Nations was never meant to be a gigantic bureaucracy that would steadily become a world government. Rather, he said, it is an association of sovereign states whose strength depends “on the independent strength of its members.” Its success, he argued, depends on their success at governing well as “strong, sovereign, and independent nations.”

Trump cleverly turned patriotism — love of one’s own country, and what he called the necessary basis for sacrifice and “all that is best in the human spirit” — into the basis for international cooperation to solve problems that nations must face together

Latin Americans view the UN and other international, non-elected, supra-national organizations (such as the International Court of Justice) as saviors of sorts – regardless of corruption and other scandals. They would do well to live by this instead (and I repeat): The UN’s success depends on their [countries’] success at governing well as “strong, sovereign, and independent nations.”

But then, that would be truly revolutionary, wouldn’t it?

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17 LatAm and Caribbean countries in “Major Illicit Drug Producing and Major Drug-Transit Countries” list

At LAHT (emphasis added),

That list of countries, which does not necessarily reflect the counter-narcotics efforts of their governments or their level of cooperation with the US on illegal drug control, comprises Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Bolivia and Venezuela were designated as countries that had “failed demonstrably” during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements.

Count ’em:

  1. Bahamas,
  2. Belize,
  3. Bolivia,
  4. Colombia,
  5. Costa Rica,
  6. Dominican Republic,
  7. Ecuador,
  8. El Salvador,
  9. Guatemala,
  10. Haiti,
  11. Honduras,
  12. Jamaica,
  13. Mexico,
  14. Nicaragua,
  15. Panama,
  16. Peru,
  17. Venezuela.

Bad news on Colombia, which should not surprise readers of this blog,

But the novelty of this year’s memorandum was the decision to threaten Colombia, Washington’s closest ally both in the Latin American region and in the fight against drug trafficking, with decertification.

The US “seriously considered designating Colombia as a country that has failed demonstrably to adhere to its obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements,” the presidential memorandum stated, citing the “extraordinary growth of coca cultivation and cocaine production over the past 3 years, including record cultivation during the last 12 months.”

Record coca cultivation and cocaine production, that is, taking place as the FARC, the world’s largest narco-terrorist organization, becomes a political power.

In a somewhat related vein,
I’ve been watching the third season of Netflix’s morality tale, Narcos, where art imitates life. It takes place during the 1990s and, as the saying goes, “The more things change . . .”

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Pence cuts LatAm trip short due to NoKo

Rather than returning on Friday, Vice President Mile Pence is cutting short his trip to Latin America so he can join the president at a meeting about North Korea, but he’s still going to Panama.

The White House announced Wednesday that Pence would travel to Camp Davidwith the president on Friday to meet with the White House national security team to discuss South Asia strategy.

VP Pence is currently in Chile, where he urged Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Mexico to isolate North Korea during his news conference with Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet.

Trade between Latin American countries and North Korea is not significant.

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News from our hemisphere gone AWOL

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.



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Russia Russia Russia

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.

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Venezuela, the world’s deadliest country

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.”

Dangerous cities list: Latin America confirmed as world murder capital. Venezuelan capital of Caracas heads the ranking with 130.35 homicides for every 100,000 inhabitants

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)

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A mild case of mid-blog crisis: “I’m tired”

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.

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