Oil breaks $40 barrier for first time in six years, which is very important news for our hemisphere.
ARGENTINA
Menem vows to reveal evidence that could shed light on AMIA attack
The defence of Menem today requested the Federal Oral Court No. 2 (TOF 2), that is leading the investigation into the cover-up of the 1994 deadly attack, to have the Senate withdraw Menem’s state secrets privilege warning the release of the information “could affect” the interests of the Nation and “the breaking of peaceful coexistence” with other countries.
BRAZIL
Translation: Merkel reminds Rousseff that Germans want to get paid. Merkel calls for a free trade accord between the Europe Union and Mercosur. During the “surprise” visit,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Brazil’s government on Thursday to further open its markets to foreign companies, and said she saw an opportunity to reach a free-trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc. Merkel is on a two-day visit to Brazil with a large delegation of government officials and representatives from German companies.
CHILE
Study: Chile likely to draw from stabilization fund due to copper price drop
COLOMBIA
Colombia slashes gold holdings by two-thirds amid July rout
The reason for and timing of the move are not known, but it came as institutional and speculative investors pulled more cash en masse from commodities, ending a decade-long boom, as the stock market crash in China reignited concerns about demand from the world’s biggest consumer of industrial raw materials.
CUBA
Obama Plays the Clinton Vietnam Card to Normalize Relations With Cuba, but Turns it On Its Head
Before restoring full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, President Clinton eased a majority of the economic sanctions. A mistake. However, by the time he did this, the Soviets were mostly gone from Vietnam; Vietnamese forces had pulled out from Cambodia and replaced with a UN peacekeeping force; and thousands of former South Vietnamese officials had been freed from political prisons and exiled to other nations including the United States.
What ultimately made it politically palatable for Clinton to remove sanctions was a 1993 Senate Select Committee report on POW matters that afforded Clinton the domestic political cover he needed to move forward to ease sanctions. Vietnam also started to return POW remains and allowed U.S. inspectors as part of the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting (JTF-FA) to visit various places throughout the country to investigate POW/MIA claims.
ECUADOR
Ecuador Protests: Correa’s Oil Crisis, Policies Could Spell End Of Latin America Success Story
Ecuador’s Cotopaxi volcano roars back to life, locals speak of lava flow fears and damage to tourism
GUATEMALA
Prosecution requests impeachment of Guatemala president Otto Perez
JAMAICA
IMF Considering Adjusting Some Measures Under Deal With Jamaica
International Monetary Fund (IMF’s) Mission Chief to Jamaica, Dr Uma Ramakrishnan says the fund is considering relaxing some of the targets under Jamaica’s economic support programme
MEXICO
Miguel Ángel Jiménez Blanco, Mexican who led search for mass graves found shot to death
Activist’s group had unearthed 129 bodies in Guerrero, where students went missing last year.
He worked for the politically active group called the Union of Towns and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (known as UPOEG)
Previously Deported Illegals Caught Smuggling Thousands of People Across Border
3-Time Deported Top Mexican Drug Trafficker Caught Illegally Re-Entering Texas
NICARAGUA
Why am I not surprised? China’s Building a Huge Canal in Nicaragua, But We Couldn’t Find It
PANAMA
Turkey’s new direct connection to Panama may facilitate terrorist financing for Hamas
Turkey and Panama have no international trade to speak of, raising questions as to why, of the 28 countries not served by the airline, is Turkish Airlines expanding to Panama.
Likewise, New nonstop flight from Dubai to Panama a terrorist financiers’ dream? (h/t JC)
Financiers for Hezbollah and a number of other sanctioned Middle East terrorist groups must be jumping up and down for joy, for their jobs will become much easier. The amount of international trade between Panama and the Middle East is nominal, but the nonstop flights will greatly facilitate both illicit (i.e. money laundering) transactions, and terrorist financing operations.
Expect more of that if Obama’s Iran deal goes through.
PARAGUAY
Rogelio Livieres Plano, ousted bishop in Paraguay, dies at 69
PERU
The migrant nation
Urbanisation in Peru has brought citizenship but also a host of problems
Now Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani has been unceremoniously dumped from his occasional column at El Comercio, Peru’s oldest privately-owned newspaper, after his writings were proved to include plagiarised words of popes.
PUERTO RICO
Governor Luis Fortuño On The Lessons The US Must Learn From Puerto Rico
The former Governor of Puerto Rico explains that “bottom line, you can never tax yourself out of a hole.”
VENEZUELA
Good luck with that: Venezuelans Launch Mises Institute to Take Down ChavismoLibertarians Offer Ideological Cure to Economic Crisis
The week’s posts and podcast:
Nicaragua: Where’s the canal?
The Falklands: Pope Francis, what fresh hell can this be? UPDATED
Somebody tell Al Sharpton Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens
Venezuela: Cuban doctors stuck in limbo, as the country collapses
Cuba: Air-travel, credit cards next . . . by executive action?
Menendez on Iran: Failure Theater, or not?
Cuba: “Who fears the billboard?”
“Culture is how we pass the time between hypocrisies.”
Mexico: @Leon_Krauze looks at the big White House
Podcast: Cuba, marches in Brazil & other US-Latin America stories of the week
ARGENTINA