Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Peru: PPK visits Trump

Not much coverage on this, the “first sit-down meeting” with a Latin American president,
Peru’s President Talks Growth, Trade and ‘Bridges’ With TrumpU.S. President Donald Trump on Friday held his first sit-down meeting with a Latin American leader since taking office, and was told by visiting President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peru that Peruvians “prefer bridges to walls.

Mr. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker and ex-World Bank economist, came to discuss economic growth in the region and problematic hot spots such as Venezuela.
. . .
Peru has a free-trade agreement with the U.S., China, Canada and European Union, among others. It was also a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact from which Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S., and the Pacific Alliance, a four-member Latin American group that includes Mexico, Chile and Colombia.

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Peru: Where in the world is Alejandro Toledo?

Apparently former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo was trying to get to Israel, which does’t want him. He was flying from San Francisco, since he’s a visiting professor at Stanford University.

Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has urged his US counterpart Donald Trump to consider deporting fugitive ex-Peruvian leader Alejandro Toledo.

The US has said that it is unable to arrest the ex-leader until further information on the case against him has been shared, Peruvian officials say.

Rick Moran has more details,

What makes this case unusual is that the U.S. denied what amounts to a routine request from Peru. This is especially true with no explanation forthcoming from the Departments of State or Justice.

While it’s true there was no warrant or request for extradition, the U.S. would have normally held Toledo as a courtesy to the Peruvian government.

Unless there’s a deal in the works where Toledo would provide information. Let’s not forget Odebrecht has already lost a lawsuit in the U.S.

Toledo asserts that he’s not a fugitive,

“Tell me where in the world is Alejandro Toledo”

Toledo apparently remains in the San Francisco area as of the writing of this post.

However, if he’s actively trying to leave the U.S., the likelihood of deportation to Peru must be a lot closer than we’re being led to believe.

And,
Has Peru filed a formal extradition request?

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Colombia & Peru: Presidents and Odebrecht

 

Santos on the left, Toledo center, two other men

Andrea Zarate reports on how the Odebrecht Corruption Scandal Ensnares Leaders of Peru and Colombia, specifically Toledo of Peru,

Peruvian prosecutors accused the former president, Alejandro Toledo, of accepting $20 million in bribes from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht in exchange for infrastructure contracts, including the rights to build a highway connecting Peru to Brazil.

and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner Santos of Colombia,

In Colombia, prosecutors said Tuesday that President Juan Manuel Santos’s re-election campaign in 2014 might have received about $1 million from Odebrecht, according to The Associated Press. The country’s top prosecutor, Nelson Martinez, said the donations had come through a third party working on behalf of the company, The A.P. reported. Mr. Santos did not comment.

As you may recall, Odebrecht allegedly had a department in charge of bribing officials around the world.  It appears they were very thorough.

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Peru: Odebrecht pipeline contract cancelled UPDATE: Odebrecht expelled

As you may recall, Peru demanded cash from Odebrecht ahead of any plea deal talks.

Now the country is cancelling a contract with Odebrecht to build a $7-billion natural-gas pipeline:

Mines and Energy Minister Gonzalo Tamayo said on Monday the Southern Peruvian Gas Pipeline consortium, which is majority-owned by Odebrecht, failed to meet Monday’s deadline to secure financing and would be officially told on Tuesday that the contract will be rescinded.

Mr. Tamayo said the consortium would also be assessed a $262-million penalty for not completing the contract to build the 700-mile-long pipeline to transport cheap natural gas from the Amazon to towns across the southern highlands and on to the Pacific. Odebrecht has a 55% stake in the project. Spain’s Enagas has 25%, and Peru’s Graña y Montero has 20%.

Odebrecht has admitted to paying $29 million in bribes in Peru.

In other Odebrecht news, theBrazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki, who

was scheduled to start reviewing testimony in coming weeks from 77 executives and employees of the Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, which last month signed a leniency agreement with U.S., Brazilian and Swiss authorities

died in an airplane crash last Thursday. President Michel Temer will name his replacement, who in turn “can either keep the process moving or bring it to a halt,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

UPDATE
Peru Moves to Oust Brazilian Construction Company Odebrecht Over Bribes. Peru is the second country to bar the company after Odebrecht admitted to paying hundreds of millions of dollars to win contracts

Last week, Colombia said it was working to remove Odebrecht from the country after the firm admitted paying $11 million to secure road and other projects.

Ecuador and Panama have also barred Odebrecht from signing contracts for new public works pending the completion of their probes.
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Peru: PPK on TPP

The WaPo’s Lally Weymouth interviews Peru’s president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a.k.a. PPK. They talked about Trump, but more importantly, about China and the Trans Pacific Partnership,

Q. Your first foreign trip as president was to China. Are you looking to Asia for growth because Trump is threatening trade barriers?

A. China is our biggest market. It is about 22 percent of Peruvian exports — mostly metals but also some sophisticated agricultural products. We have no issues with China the way others may have with [its claims in the South China Sea].

Q. You are trying to get the Chinese to invest here?

A. The Chinese have two huge copper mines here. They are looking at several other projects.

Q. If the U.S. opts out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership , will China move in and ask TPP countries to join its own Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership?

A. Right. This is a group that will include India, which is important for us because India is the one country we don’t have a trade treaty with. The idea we floated during the recent meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is that the Pacific Alliance countries — that is Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile — join the Free Trade Agreement of Asia and the Pacific (FTAAP). Basically, the FTAAP is the APEC countries without the U.S.

TPP was more ambitious, but it also had its detractors. It didn’t include China, which is the bigger player in the Pacific. Also on pharmaceuticals, the period of tests would have gone from five to 10 years, which might have raised the cost of pharmaceuticals in countries like Peru. So there was some opposition to it. A lot of the business people here love TPP.

Q. How about yourself?

A. I don’t love TPP so much. China is our biggest customer. So how can we support something that excludes them?

Read the whole thing.

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The pre-debate Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Yes, there’s a presidential debate tonight. Meh.

ARGENTINA
Argentina plans eurobond

Probe into Nisman’s death will go to federal courts

Stiuso habló de una “guerra” entre espías tras la muerte de Nisman. La versión del ex director de la SIDE sobre su pelea con el espionaje K

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?”

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)
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.

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



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The last Monday in August Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

The big news of the week: The announcement that the FARC and the Colombian government had finalized a peace agreement, which, from the looks of it, will not be signed by the president of Colombia or the FARC’s top leader.

Almost unnoticed: Iran’s LatAm tour.

ARGENTINA
Vile: Argentinian pupils wearing Nazi armbands attack Jewish students in ‘Mengele village’

BOLIVIA
Bolivian miners lift roadblock after deputy minister beaten to death

BRAZIL
Spats in Brazil Senate Slow Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. Insult-slinging lawmakers impede process before suspended president takes the stand next week

Brazil Police Seek Charges Against Ex-President Lula da Silva and His Wife. Prosecutors to decide on asking judge to indict the couple over alleged corruption

How USA Today unraveled Ryan Lochte’s Rio drama; US swimmer Lochte ‘won’t respond’ to Brazil false claim charge. Cynics would say that Lochte provides a useful distraction.

CHILE
Chile’s pensions:The perils of not saving. A pioneering system, now in need of reform

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s opposition paints apocalyptic picture of post-conflict, for good reason.

CUBA
Iranian press gloats over Iran’s new Latrine sphere of influence

Chávez y la brujería: cómo Castro llenó Venezuela de espías-babalawos Read more here: http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/venezuela-es/article98079552.html#storylink=cpy

Captive Nations Presentation: Cuba, Human Rights and U.S. Policy

ECUADOR
Iran, Ecuador discuss ways to strengthen oil prices

HAITI
Latest Email Leaks Keep Exposing Clinton Foundation Corruption. Still more evidence that the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s State Department were one and the same

When Clinton was secretary of state, donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation correlated to large increases in weapons exports from the U.S. to the countries which donated. With Clinton’s help, Clinton Foundation donor Claudio Osorio won a $10 million loan in 2010 from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation meant to be used to build houses in Haiti. Corrupt Venezuelan banker Gonzalo Tirado hired Jonathan Mantz, a Clinton fundraiser, and made a donation to the Clinton Foundation in order to avoid being extradited to Venezuela.

MEXICO
Morelos: Mexican state buries over 100 people in mass grave, including torture victims

Of the 117 bodies found, 17 could not be identified as they were either too badly decomposed or because they had been decapitated or were missing other body parts. Four of the 84 showing signs of having suffered violent deaths had bullet holes in their skulls.

Records Debunk Mexican First Lady’s Story in Miami Condo Scandal. New Investigation Suggests Nieto’s Wife Paid Taxes Legally

According to an investigation by Univision, Rivera asked Pierdant to pay her taxes on the property as “a favor between friends.”

An information request to the Miami-Dade County Tax Office revealed the actress actually hired two law firms to cover those taxes, including during the years of 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.

PANAMA
The Lost Girls of Panama: The Full Story. The mysterious deaths of two young tourists in Panama puzzled examiners and shocked nations on both sides of the Atlantic; now secretly leaked documents reveal what happened.

PERU
Ayahuasca: a brain-altering chemical, rife with dangerous side-effects, taken in an isolated locations, what could possibly go wrong? Filipino tourist dies in hallucinogenic ritual in Peru.

PUERTO RICO
Last person out, please turn off the lights: Puerto Rico: An island’s exodus

ST. KITTS
ATIP docs for [Justin] Trudeau’s St. Kitts trip reveal undisclosed costs for “Tour Manager”

Not only were taxpayers on the hook for the costs of bringing the government-funded nanny—even though she didn’t appear on one version of the flight manifest—but also thousands of dollars for Trudeau’s tour manager to tag along, even though it wasn’t an official trip of any kind.

URUGUAY
Not very high times: Weeks From Selling Pot, Uruguay Producer Sees Future in Hemp

Weeks before selling its first ounce of pot at pharmacies, International Cannabis Corp. is already betting that hemp – a variety of cannabis – will be a much bigger market than selling the psychoactive part of the plant, according to Chief Executive Officer Guillermo Delmonte. Hemp and its extracts can be used in food, cosmetics and medicine

VENEZUELA
American Joshua Holt now a political prisoner in Venezuela

Venezuela ex-mayor Ceballos sent to prison from house arrest

Venezuela’s Inflation Rate Now Approaching Lunacy Levels

FARC soon to a Venezuelan arepera near you

Venezuela opts for cardboard coffins as wooden caskets become unaffordable. The country is adopting bio-coffins that come at one-fourth the cost of traditional caskets. “Bio-coffins.”



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The #Rio2016 Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, week 2

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.

ARGENTINA
Theresa May reaches out to Argentina with ‘mutual respect’ as she works to ease restrictions on the Falkland Islanders exploiting their oil reserves

BOLIVIA
Evo Morales Confirms Bolivia’s Economic Downturn

BRAZIL
Brazil Mourns Olympics Guardsman Shot in Ambush.Out-of-town officer was part of large security contingent deployed to Rio for Games

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,

Mexico’s President Faces New Scrutiny. President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose past two years in office have been shadowed by a conflict-of-interest scandal linked to a Mexico City mansion, is facing new scrutiny linked to the first family’s use of a luxury apartment in Miami.

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

Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega shows his true colors. Since taking office in 2007, the president has concentrated power in his family’s hands

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,



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