American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
Tropical Storm Nate rolled toward Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula after drenching Central America in rain that was blamed for at least 22 deaths, and forecasters said it could reach the U.S. Gulf Coast as a hurricane over the weekend.
The storm could reach Louisiana as a hurricane this weekend.
UPDATE
AM Costa Rica has photos h/t Old Timer
“Nate will move northward over the central Gulf of Mexico on Saturday and make landfall along the U.S. upper Gulf coast on Sunday,” according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brett Rossio.
Nate is likely to make landfall somewhere from the Florida Panhandle to southeastern Louisiana. The exact point of landfall will be determined once the storm begins to move north of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Good Lord, deliver us.
Nicaragua’s inflation is under control, and the economy has been growing at a steady 4-5% pace in the last few years. Why?
Andrés Velasco, Professor of Professional Practice in International Development at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, reports on The Sandinista Shell Game (h/t JC)
The Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement has provided only a weak boost for new exports. Unlike neighboring Costa Rica, Nicaragua has no high-tech industry. And maquila (assembly and re-export) activities are much sparser than in El Salvador or the Dominican Republic, let alone Mexico. In the Atlas of Economic Complexity compiled by Harvard Kennedy School researchers, Nicaragua ranks 106th out of 124 countries.
That is one reason to be skeptical about the sustainability of Nicaragua’s recent economic growth. Another is the disappearance of Venezuelan aid. No one is sure how much money the Venezuelan regime pumped into Nicaragua, but one hears estimates from reputable sources of around $500 million a year for nearly a decade.
That is a lot of money in a country with a GDP of barely $13 billion. It allowed Ortega to stimulate the economy while buying support from key constituencies. But with Venezuela’s economy in free fall and the country sliding into political chaos, such largesse has ended.
Nicaragua’s recent economic growth plausibly owes much to a phenomenon that would be familiar to the Vietnamese: low-income countries that achieve a modicum of macroeconomic stability often experience a growth spurt. In relatively backward economies, where “everything remains to be done,” it is easy, early on, to spot profitable investment opportunities.
But the law of diminishing returns eventually kicks in. Once the basics of a consumer economy are in place, sustaining high returns requires developing new products, building new sectors, and penetrating new markets.
All of which Nicaragua lacks.
In case you wondered, the Canal remains an illusion.
Daniel Ortega, age 70, took 71% of the vote after 21% of ballots were counted, setting his third consecutive term, this time with his wife Rosario Murillo, 65, as vice-president and heir apparent.
Mr. Ortega’s apparent victory wasn’t a surprise. Months earlier, the main opposition coalition was blocked by the courts from participating in the election. The courts and Nicaragua’s electoral authorities are controlled by Mr. Ortega, analysts and opposition leaders say.
Hardly surprising, when the Sandinistas control all of the country’s institutions, including the Supreme Court, and, of course, the elections authority,
Mrs. Ortega’s known for her fashion statements,
In her spare time, according to the WSJ, she “is mostly responsible for the day-to-day running of the poor Central American country.”
As the article points out,
Mr. Ortega, now 70, has spent more time in power—21 years over two stints—than the late Mr. Somoza
and he’s keeping the family business, thankyouverymuch,
In August, Mr. Ortega named his wife as his running mate in the coming election. She is already his government’s chief spokesperson and de facto prime minister. One of Mr. Ortega’s sons is in charge of a proposed $40 billion plan by a little-known Chinese businessman to build a transcontinental canal through Nicaragua. Economists and environmentalists say the plan is far-fetched.
Ian Bremmer’s book The End Of The Free Market, describes the model Ortega’s following,
A number of authoritarian governments, drawn to the economic power of capitalism but wary of uncontrolled free markets, have invented something new: state capitalism. In this system, governments use markets to create wealth that can be directed as political officials see fit.
Yes, there’s a presidential debate tonight. Meh.
ARGENTINA
Argentina plans eurobond
Probe into Nisman’s death will go to federal courts
En su testimonio, afirmó que se dio una orden ilegal a Migraciones para saber sus movimientos, reveló el dueño de un teléfono clave y vinculó a Aníbal Fernandéz.
Argentina Seeks To Export Its Human Rights Policy
BOLIVIA
“Narcos”. Artículo completo de Veja sobre Evo y Álvaro – Evo Morales and his vice-president Álvaro García Linera, investigated by the DEA.
Give it up, Evo: Bolivia’s Morales accuses Chile of restricting access to ports
BRAZIL
Brazil’s Supreme Court Gives OK to Open Probe of New President Temer
Judge approves preliminary investigation, which is based on plea-bargain testimony by a key witness that implicates President Michel Temer, other PMDB members
CHILE
CIA found ‘convincing evidence’ Chilean dictator was behind 1976 D.C. attack
The latest revelations about the Cold War-era case come on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading opponent of the Pinochet regime and onetime Chilean foreign minister, and his think-tank colleague, Ronni Moffitt, in a car bomb on D.C.’s Embassy Row.
COLOMBIA
“The FARC’s abortionist confessed to [performing] 400+ abortions on abused girls. Is there pardon, justice, and reparation?”
El abortista de las Farc confesó más de 400 abortos practicados a niñas abusadas. ¿Hay perdón, justicia y reparación? #Villavicencio pic.twitter.com/Wt4xuMt3ny
— Óscar Iván Zuluaga (@OIZuluaga) September 22, 2016
CUBA
How Kim (DPRK) and Castro (Cuba) Blackmail Abe (Japan)
Nearly on a monthly basis, some senior North Korean is on a “working visit” to Cuba. Or some senior Cuban regime official is on a “working visit” to North Korea.
With the exception of China, there’s no other nation in the world that North Korean officials visit with such frequency.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Dominican Republic’s Former Anti-Drug Chief Sentenced to 20 Years
ECUADOR
Ecuadorian Police Oust Dozens of Cubans Demanding Visas from Quito Park
IMMIGRATION
HILLARY: THE THIRD WORLD HAS A “RIGHT” TO MOVE TO THE UNITED STATES. No, they don’t.
JAMAICA
American says he wants to protect Jamaica’s natural ganja
MEXICO
Priest Killings Highlight Mexico Govt’s Credibility Problem
NICARAGUA
Nicaragua rejects U.S. bill for loans with strings attached (emphasis added)
Nicaragua on Thursday criticized a proposal by U.S. lawmakers that would require the Central American country, which will hold elections in November, to make political changes in order to receive international loans.
. . .
The Nicaraguan government was responding to the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday. A version was introduced by Senator Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate earlier this month.The bill proposes blocking Nicaragua from obtaining loans from international financial institutions unless the country “is taking effective steps to hold free, fair, and transparent elections.”
On Nov. 6, Nicaraguans will vote for president and 90 members of the National Assembly.
President Daniel Ortega is the favorite as he seeks his third consecutive term.
PANAMA
Smithsonian opens climate change lab in Panama
PARAGUAY
Polka lessons
Budgets have been roughly in balance and public debt is low. The central bank aims for an inflation rate of 4.5% and usually gets close. Commercial banks are healthy (in part because they charge high interest rates and face little competition). Regulation, like the tax code, is business-friendly. Independent trade unions, suppressed under Stroessner, are weak.
PERU
Peru President Says Unasur Unable to Resolve Venezuela Crisis
PUERTO RICO
Where were you when the lights went out? The Puerto Rico blackout, from space
URUGUAY
More on Abu Wa’el Dhiab: Uruguay says ex-Gitmo detainee demands exceed government
“The Uruguayan government is doing everything possible,” Vazquez said. “But as I’ve said in the past: If the countries where the Syrian citizen wants to go don’t take him, we can’t do anything about it.”
VENEZUELA
Military and Police Corruption: Venezuela’s Growing Evil
The big all-over-the-world stupid story of the week: Ryan Lochte and three other swimmers got drunk and gave Brazilians an excuse to feign outrage over their country being embarrassed; I’m still waiting for the Brazilians to be embarrassed over the body parts washing on shore during the Olympics or over the six Brazilians a day who die at the hands of state security forces.
Meanwhile, a new word enters the lexicon, Iranophobia (emphasis added),
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will tour six Latin American countries next week to “foil the Iranophobia plots promoted by Israel,” the Islamic Republic’s semi-official state news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.
. . .
Zarif will be accompanied on his visit to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela by a 60-member economic delegation.
Unlike Ali Baba, whose entourage was only forty-strong.
ARGENTINA
This may explain a number of things: Freudian psychoanalysis is so popular in Argentina, even prisoners go once a week
BOLIVIA
Bolivia opens ‘anti-imperialist’ military school to counter US foreign policies
The Santa Cruz academy was initially inaugurated in 2011 as the “ALBA School” after the now-weakened regional alliance that includes Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba.
Morales’s invitation to that event of then-Iranian defense minister Ahmad Vahidi provoked an uproar in neighboring Argentina, where judicial authorities have accused Vahidi of a role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people.
BRAZIL
less than 3% of robberies in Rio, and less than 8% of murders, led to criminal sentences from 2003 to 2006.
Mercosur malaise 1: Brazil Summons Uruguay Ambassador as Mercosur Tensions Rise
Brazil summoned Uruguay’s ambassador on Tuesday after the neighboring country’s foreign minister accused Brazil of trying to “buy” its vote to block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc.
In comments to lawmakers last week that were made public on Tuesday, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said his government was “angry” with Brazil’s attempt to prevent Caracas from leading the regional group that also includes Argentina and Paraguay.
. . .
Since Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May, her replacement Michel Temer has moved the country away from leftist allies such as Venezuela and toward traditional allies the United States and Europe.Argentina and Paraguay, once close allies to Caracas, have also moved to undermine Venezuela as the OPEC nation’s socialist government struggles with economic and political crises.
CHILE
Freight train falls into river after bridge collapses in Chile
COLOMBIA
InSight Crime three-part report: Colombia Elites and Organized Crime
Are New Groups Already Moving In On FARC Drug Empire?
The Libertarian Case against the Santos-Farc Agreement in Colombia
CUBA
One Year Later: Assessing President Obama’s Failed Cuba Strategy
HAITI
UN admits role in Haiti’s deadly cholera outbreak
JAMAICA
Bolt ends Olympic career with ninth gold
MEXICO
El Chapo’s Son Kidnapped? Ivan ‘El Chapito’ Guzmán Tweets Amid Reports Of His Abduction By Rivals
Mexico Michoacan: Police accused of executing 22 in ranch assault
NICARAGUA
Nicaragua struggles to control fire at sole refinery
PUERTO RICO
‘Gold Medal My Way of Giving Back to Puerto Rico’: Puig
URUGUAY
Mercosur malaise, 2: [Argentina’s] Malcorra blames Uruguay for leaving Mercosur ‘in limbo’. FM says Montevideo ‘should have waited’ before dropping bloc’s pro-tempore presidency
Hungry Venezuelans break into Caracas zoo and butcher a horse
While the pools turn green, the athletes are breaking records and earning medals, even if some (like Ryan Lochte and four teammates) get mugged at gunpoint by men in police uniforms.
BOLIVIA
Evo Morales Confirms Bolivia’s Economic Downturn
Israeli Wrestler Takes Olympic Gold Without Winning Single Match After All Muslim Opponents Forfeit‘
NBC PANIC: RIO RATINGS HIT LOW…
From green pool to missing pontoon, problems won’t go away…
At The Economist, they’re not into records:
Why few records will be broken in Rio: The human body may have reached its limits
The factors fuelling America’s dominance of gymnastics
Why Pacific-island nations are so good at rugby
Olympians have discovered new fads and superstitions
CHILE
Chile’s privatized social security system, beloved by U.S. conservatives, is falling apart
COLOMBIA
Good luck with that: Colombia wants involvement of pope and UN in post-conflict courts.
CUBA
The fruits of “smart diplomacy”: Fidel Castro Lambasts US And Obama On 90th Birthday. The veteran Communist firebrand mocks attempts by America to kill him during Havana’s long Cold War stand-off with Washington.
Judicial Watch Investigates Starwood’s Hotel Deal With Cuban Military
MEXICO
Jorge Ramos Moves Towards Hitting Campaign Trail for Hillary. He will continue to call himself a “journalist,” which brings to mind this,
Ricardo Pierdant, a Miami-based businessman, in 2013 paid close to $30,000 in property taxes on behalf of first lady Angélica Rivera for an apartment she owns in Miami, according to tax records seen by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Pierdant is a close friend of Mexico´s first family, according to Mr. Peña Nieto´s office.
The first lady purchased her apartment in the wealthy island enclave of Key Biscayne in 2005.
Mr. Pierdant subsequently purchased another apartment directly above Ms. Rivera’s, according to Miami property records.
Texas Family Among Those Kidnapped by Los Zetas Cartel in Mexico
NICARAGUA
Nicaragua’s president makes a farce of democracy
PANAMA
IDEAS PANAMA PAPERS Joseph E. Stiglitz and Mark Pieth: Why We Left the Panama Commission
PARAGUAY
Murders Add to Fears of Narco War in Eastern Paraguay
Paraguay recalls ambassador in diplomatic dispute with Venezuela
Earlier this week, socialist Maduro accused Paraguay of being part of “an extreme right wing alliance” aimed at blocking Venezuela from assuming its role as head of Mercosur as scheduled during the second half of the year.
PERU
PPK works out: Peru’s 77-year-old new president isn’t acting his age. And Peruvians love it.
PUERTO RICO
1 in 4 Puerto Ricans will have Zika by end of year…
URUGUAY
Montevideo Is Considering Joining The Pacific Alliance Trade Bloc, since Peru and Colombia issued an invitation.
VENEZUELA
Again, Venezuelans cross into Colombia after border is reopened
Invictus, via Miguel Octavio,
