Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

December 7, 2016 By Fausta

Putin’s deal: Cuba for Ukraine?

Reuben Johnson speculates,
Exiles: Putin Could Offer Trump a Deal on Cuba. Putin seeking to take pressure off deteriorating Russian economy

Post-Fidel Castro Havana may lose its long-time protector and guarantor of security, Russia, according to Cuba-watchers in Miami’s community of exiles and dissidents.

They predict Russian President Vladimir Putin will offer the incoming Trump administration a free hand to deal with Cuba as it sees fit in return for the United States recognizing Moscow’s invasion and annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea.

The assessment comes from former Cuban officials who fled the island nation under the rule of Fidel Castro. They said Putin is seeking to use the recent passing of Castro as an opportunity to take the pressure off a deteriorating domestic economic situation back in Russia.

It is an interesting premise, but my initial reaction while I read the article was, “Is this a trial balloon?”, and if so, from whom?

To say that I distrust reports based on unnamed sources, especially if those are “former Cuban officials” – and the report is not found elsewhere – is to put it mildly.

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Filed Under: Cuba, politics, Russia, Vladimir Putin Tagged With: Fausta's blog

October 11, 2016 By Fausta

Venezuela’s Maduro and Putin hold photo op in Turkey

Following the news that Russia wants military bases in Cuba, here’s another interesting note: Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro palsying with Putin at the World Energy Congress in Instanbul.

Putin announced that

non-Opec member Russia was ready to work with the cartel in imposing measures to limit oil production, in comments that propelled the price of crude to its highest levels in a year.
. . .
Nicolas Maduro, President of Opec member Venezuela which has seen its economy battered by the low oil prices, said a “new mechanism” was needed to keep up prices.

For his part, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 

capped off a series of presidential addresses on the first day of the World Energy Congress by some of his biggest political and energy allies — Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı, whose government is not recognized anywhere except in Turkey.

The reports do not mention if, following the speeches, Erdoğan, Putin, Maduro, Aliyev and Akinci held hands and sang Kumbaya.

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.



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Filed Under: oil, Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, Vladimir Putin Tagged With: Nicolas Maduro

October 10, 2016 By Fausta

Cuba: Russian military bases next?

While the news cycle was obsessing on other things, this was news on Friday,
Russia ‘considering military bases in Cuba and Vietnam’

Russia is considering plans to resume its military presence in Vietnam and Cuba, the country’s deputy defence minister says.
Nikolai Pankov announced a review of the decision to close the two bases more than a decade ago.
. . .
Mr Pankov told the Russian parliament on Friday they were “dealing with the issue” of the two bases, Russian news agencies reported.
He declined to go into detail.

This would come as a surprise only to those who don’t recall that two years ago I posted that Russia was seeking military base(s) in Cuba, according to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

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Filed Under: Cuba, Fausta's blog, Russia Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Nikolai Pankov, Sergei Shoigu

July 6, 2016 By Fausta

Cuba: Oh, goody! A Russia-Cuba nuclear deal!

Shot:
While the FBI was kissing the rule of law good-bye in the USA, the news was released that According to Russia’s official legal information website, Russia and Cuba will sign an agreement on cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear energy, for peaceful use, of course:

The draft agreement provides for cooperation in fundamental and applied nuclear research, including nuclear medicine, nuclear waste disposal, nuclear and radiation safety, production of isotopes, and training of nuclear sector specialists.

Take a look:

Chaser:
North Korea’s Special (Concerning) Relationship With Cuba

Y’all worrying about global warming flooding Miami, maybe should re-prioritize your concerns..

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Filed Under: Cuba, Russia Tagged With: Fausta's blog

June 23, 2016 By Fausta

Nicaragua: New Russian spy site

Moscow Building Spy Site in Nicaragua. Signals intelligence facility part of deal for 50 Russian tanks (h/t Stephen Green). Not content with simply sending spy ships to Cuba, now

The Russian government is building an electronic intelligence-gathering facility in Nicaragua as part of Moscow’s efforts to increase military and intelligence activities in the Western Hemisphere.

The signals intelligence site is part of a recent deal between Moscow and Managua involving the sale of 50 T-72 Russian tanks, said defense officials familiar with reports of the arrangement.

Exit question, what does Nicaragua need fifty Russian tanks for?



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Filed Under: Nicaragua, Russia Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Monroe Doctrine, smart diplomacy

June 17, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Russian team barred from Olympics

This breaking news brought to you by Capt. Louis Renault,
Russia’s Track and Field Team Barred From Rio Olympics

Russia’s track and field team has been barred from competing in this summer’s Rio Games because of a far-reaching doping conspiracy, an extraordinary punishment that might be without precedent in Olympics history.

I am shocked, shocked, about allegations of Russian doping!

If the Olympics were held in Chicago, the women teams would need no doping. All they would have to do to win is to have the male athletes self-identify as female and beat the girls.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Olympics, Russia Tagged With: Capt. Louis Renault, Fausta's blog

June 8, 2016 By Fausta

Cuba: Russia, North Korea, tax havens in Panama

All in the week’s news,

First, the tax havens:
The Miami Herald reports,
Panama Papers show Cuba used offshore firms to thwart embargo

Highlights:
At least 25 companies in tax havens had Cuban links

A brother of Raul Castro’s son-in-law appears in the leaked documents

Cuba was at the heart of a deal to export Russian oil that involves a Lebanese company

But wait, there’s more! Russia-Lebanon-Havana connection

One of the more intriguing schemes mentioned in the documents puts Cuba at the heart of a deal to sell Russian oil to Latin America through a company registered in Panama by the Bassatne family. The family controls BB Energy, a conglomerate founded in Lebanon in 1937 that buys and sells 16 million metric tons of crude and derivatives each year. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy had $10 billion in revenues in 2012.

Read the whole thing.

—————————————

Rep. Joe Pitts writes about Russian ports and NATO:

. . . Russia’s best option was, and has been, to borrow from other countries and use their warm water ports to extend its global reach.

Cuba is one of the most obvious examples. Even though it’s not on the Mediterranean, it demonstrates how enlarged Russia’s scope is with the gain of Cuba’s friendly warm water ports. Russian vessels have utilized Cuba’s installations, along with Nicaragua and Venezuela’s, to reach west across the North Atlantic. As a result, Russia announced in 2014 that it would be reopening an “eavesdropping base” 150 miles away from U.S. soil: In Cuba. Through the access to these strategic ports, Russia’s reach handily extended across the Atlantic.

I had posted about the port.

—————————————

Via Capitol Hill Cubans, The North Korea-Cuba Connection. Havana’s continued cooperation with Pyongyang is an alarming blow to the normalization process.

How Illegal Trade Persists Between Cuba and North Korea

Despite the immense international controversy resulting from Cuba’s 2013 arms sales to North Korea, sporadic trade linkages between the two countries have continued largely unhindered. In January 2016, Cuba and North Korea developed a barter trade system, which officially involved transactions of sugar and railway equipment.

According to Curtis Melvin, an expert at the Washington D.C.-based U.S. Korea Institute, barter trade is an effective way for Cuba and North Korea to evade international sanctions without depleting their hard currency reserves. Cuba’s use of sugar as a medium of bilateral trade has close parallels with Myanmar’s historical use of rice in exchange for North Korean military technology assistance. This form of trade has been vital for the North Korean regime’s survival in wake of the Soviet collapse and more inconsistent patronage from China.

Bottom line:

While the Obama administration has removed Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list and taken a big stride toward lifting the Kennedy-era embargo on Cuba, Havana’s continued cooperation with Pyongyang is an alarming blow to the normalization process.

Smart diplomacy!

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Filed Under: Cuba, North Korea, Russia Tagged With: BB Naft, Fausta' blog, Panama Papers, smart diplomacy

May 2, 2016 By Fausta

The beer-less Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

21st Century Socialism at work: TEN years ago I posted that Hugo Chávez had taken over the beer trucks. Now Empresas Polar closes its breweries because the government

hasn’t allocated the dollars the company needs to pay for imported raw materials such as malted barley.

Polar says it’s been warning the country for a year about the need for sufficient access to foreign currency “to keep making products demanded by Venezuelans.”

ARGENTINA
Obama pokes fun at Trump’s foreign policy experience: ‘Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina . . ’

The Triumphant Return of Argentina to International Capital Markets

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Judge Orders Morales, Alleged Son to Take DNA Tests

BRAZIL
Brazil registers 91,387 possible Zika cases in two months

CHILE
Chile: An Island of Stability in South America

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s economic outlook darkens: report

CUBA
Philip Hammond becomes first Foreign Secretary to visit Cuba since 1959 Revolution

ECUADOR
Rescuers Pull 72-Year-Old Man From Rubble 13 Days After Ecuador Earthquake

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Leaving EU would fuel Argentine aggression towards Falkland Islands, official claims

JAMAICA
Cuba and Jamaica to sign multi-destination agreement

MEXICO
Four Questions about the ‘5th Bus’ in Case of Mexico’s Missing 43

Other View: Mexico’s Faltering Efforts to Fight Corruption

PANAMA
Grueling Trek to U.S. Leaves Thousands of Cuban Migrants Stranded in Panama

#PanamaPapers: How ex-Nigerian minister bought two penthouses in Panama for N837million

Panama’s Economy Grows as Rest of Latin America Stalls. Region Faces Worst Scenario since 1982, IMF Report Explains

PARAGUAY
Paraguay may serve as a convenient “gateway” for Russia to the markets of other Mercosur countries, head of the Paraguayan Congress Mario Abdo Benitez said.

PERU
PHOTOS: 33 Rescued Circus Lions Airlifted From Peru To South Africa

The animals were rescued from circuses in Colombia and Peru after both countries passed new laws to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, according to ADI.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico debt rescue plan engulfed in Great Recession ‘bailout’ politics

SURINAME
Islamic bank offers billion-dollar loan to Suriname (emphasis added),

A delegation from the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) has ended a fact finding visit here offering Suriname a loan of US$1.75 billion, Finance Minister Gilmore Hoefdraad has announced.
. . .
Hoefdraad said government was considering the loan and that while projects that will be funded through this loan would be taken through a rigorous selection process, funds would immediately be made available to finance imports of social merchandise, such as basic goods and medicines.
. . .
Hoefdraad said that while the enormity of the loan could be daunting, as it regards 40 per cent of the gross national product (GDP) of Suriname, the money would help the country bridge the economic crisis it is facing.

VENEZUELA
Venezuela turmoil may alter region’s energy landscape



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Russia, Venezuela Tagged With: Falkland Islands, Fausta's blog, Iguala, Suriname

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