Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

By

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?

Share

By

Brazil, Colombia, Guyana border towns overwhelmed by Venezuelans in need of medical care

Sabrina Martín at Panampost writes,
Venezuela’s Medicine Shortages Overwhelming Border Cities in Guyana, Colombia, Brazil. The ongoing problem is getting worse,

Venezuela’s political crisis has bled into widespread food and medical shortages for some time now, causing families to travel to neighboring countries such as Colombia in search of basic healthcare and vaccines for children.

If you were wondering about the thousands of Cuban doctors sent to Venezuela under the Barrio Adentro oil-for-doctors program, last January the Miami Herald reported, Dumping medicine, faking patients: Cuban doctors describe a system that breeds fraud

“I worked for three and a half years as a dentist in Venezuela, and it was horrible dealing with the statistics,” said Rodríguez, who defected from the program late last year and is in Colombia awaiting a U.S. visa. “I might see five patients a day, but I had to say I’d seen 18, and then throw all that medicine away, because we simply had to.”

Trashing medicine in a country where it’s desperately needed was painful, doctors said. But if they were caught giving it away — or even worse, selling it — they would be kicked out of the mission and sent back to Cuba. And regular audits of their supplies meant they needed them to match their patient count.

There’s a lot of money involved (emphasis added),

“You have to understand that Venezuela pays Cuba based on statistics, not based on what’s really happening in the clinics,” he explained.
. . .
Dentists are particularly under the gun because Venezuela pays for their services in cash, as opposed to crude, workers said.

Communism does not work.

In other news,

Share

By

Nikki Hailey’s human rights op-ed

U.S. ambassador to the UN writes at the WaPo: The U.N. Human Rights Council whitewashes brutality

The president of Venezuela, whose government shoots protesters in the street, recently thanked the international community for its “universal vote of confidence” in that country’s commitment to human rights.

The Cuban deputy foreign minister, whose government imprisons thousands of political opponents, once said Cuba has historic prestige “in the promotion and protection of all human rights.”

How can these people get away with saying such things? Because they have been elected to the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose members are — on paper — charged with “upholding the highest standards” of human rights.

On paper only, since

Venezuela is a member of the council despite the systematic destruction of civil society by the government of Nicolás Maduro through arbitrary detention, torture and blatant violations of freedom of the press and expression. Mothers are forced to dig through trash cans to feed their children. This is a crisis that has been 18 years in the making. And yet, not once has the Human Rights Council seen fit to condemn Venezuela.

Cuba’s government strictly controls the media and severely restricts the Cuban people’s access to the Internet. Thousands are arbitrarily detained each year, with some political prisoners serving long sentences. Yet Cuba has never been condemned by the council; it, too, is a member.

Read the whole thing.

Share

By

Colombia: Santos presents FARC peace agreement to UN Security Council

LAHT reports,

Santos submitted the document to the Security Council’s president in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who confirmed that he would travel to the northern Colombian city of Cartagena next week for the signing of the peace agreement.

It’ll be interesting to see who actually gets to sign the agreement; the document I read last month (which is titled “final agreement”) did not show President Santos or Timoleón Jiménez a.k.a. Timochenko (who will remain as FARC leader) as signatories.

Share

By

Venezuela: Argentina’s OAS tit-for-tat

As mentioned earlier, OAS chief Luis Almagro called for a meeting to discuss Venezuela’s human rights violations of the Democratic Charter.

Almagro needs at least eighteen votes to sanction Venezuela, which may prove difficult.

Caricom countries are still hopeful they could continue their very profitable Petrocaribe arrangements with Venezuela, as described in this article from Jamaica,

In essence, when the market price of oil exceeds $40 per barrel, the monetary value representing between 30 per cent and 70 per cent of each sale is loaned to the Government of Jamaica. This loan is to be repaid over a period of 25 years at the rate of 1 per cent per annum. Where the market price of oil is below $40, the monetary value representing between 5 per cent and 25 per cent of each sale is available to the Government of Jamaica as a loan for 17 years at 2 per cent. In either case, therefore, Jamaica receives a loan from Venezuela on concessionary terms.

Whether their hopes are realistic remains to be seen, but for now they are siding with Venezuela.

Another hurdle comes from Argentina. Casto Ocando, writing at Vértice (link in Spanish), reports on the internal battle lead by Argentina against the OAS sanctioning Venezuela.

Ocando has the documents,

Venezuela is trying to buy time and calls for “dialogue”; John Kerry, consistent with the Obama administration’s never-ending streak of “smart diplomacy“, supports this call for “dialogue,” and so does Argentina’s ambassador to the OAS, Juan José Arcuri.

Why Argentina?
Diplomatic sources revealed to Ocando that Argentina’s current foreign minister and former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s chief of staff, Susana Malcorra, has pledged to support to Venezuela at the OAS in exchange for Venezuela’s vote at the UN.

in practical terms this means that Malcorra will block OAS sanctions against the Venezuelan communist regime so she gets to be chief of the United Nations. Great values for a Secretary General at the UN cesspool.

And she has Macri’s backing because it will add to his administration’s “achievements.”

H/t Alek Boyd’s FB feed.

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.



Share

By

Venezuela: Central Bank head Merentes lost his cash

A 17 year old girl stole $300,000, along with €40,000 and three Rolex watches from Central Bank president Nelson Merentes, who has not reported the theft. Whether you call that much money lying around petty cash or bug-out moolah, Merentes doesn’t want to answer questions.

The story came to light after Merentes, age 61, allegedly hired a private detective to find out who took the cash, according to Runrunes (link in Spanish).

As it turns out, 17 year old Hyser Betancourt was one of a long string of young girlfriends that, according to journalist Manuel Isidro Molina, include the current Miss Venezuela Mariana Jimenez.

Molina reports that Merentes paid Osmel Souza (president of the Miss Venezuela pageant) $500,000 to secure the Miss Universe title for Mariana Jimenez, but she did not win.

For now, Betancourt says her cousin is the one who took the money, Betancourt and her mom are working Instagram for all it’s worth wanting to be known as the Venezuelan Kardashians, and Merentes is not talking.

Meanwhile,

The United Nations General Assembly has identified Venezuela among nine countries that are not allowed to vote in the current 70th Session because of arrears in paying their dues.

But look at the bright side: Hugo Chavez’s daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez, is now just another billionaire in the Big Apple and unable to vote in the Security Council.

That’s another day in the Bolivarian Revolution.



Share