Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

April 12, 2017 By Fausta

Cuba: Venezuela’s Maduro drops by for advice

Nicolás Maduro sought advice from Raúl Castro

Venezuela erupted into the fifth day of violent protests in a week Monday, as President Nicolas Maduro traveled to Cuba seeking support from fellow leftist leaders at a regional gathering.

The ALBA  meeting went as expected, and Maduro returned to a jeering crowd that pelted him,

Aquí está el amor que te tienen @NicolasMaduro tu único logro ha sido destruir nuestra Venezuela pic.twitter.com/6hhHKejwEu

— Angel Medina Devis (@AngelMedinaD) April 12, 2017

Caracas Chronicles has photos of Sunday’s protests.

And then there’s this,

Sometimes a single act of defiance has enough dignity for an entire country #venezuela pic.twitter.com/n8Qlk3dE0F

— Edgar Ramírez (@edgarramirez25) April 10, 2017

(h/t Babalu.

Post redone to include omitted material)

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, Fausta's blog, Venezuela Tagged With: ALBA, Nicolas Maduro

March 13, 2017 By Fausta

You too, can now be a Certified Latin American Idiot!

You can become a Certified Latin American Idiot: Not just any idiot, but an honest-to-goodness Idiot With A Certificate™.

All you need is money to travel to Argentina, room, board, and presto! You are an Idiot With A Certificate™.

And you are readily recognized as a communist agitator.

What’s not to love?

Carlos Eire reports:

This new seminar was established by the communist assembly ALBA (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas), according to the Castro regime web site “Cubadebate” and the Argentine communist web site “Marcha.”

The seminar will meet four times between April and July in Córdoba, at the Clínica Che Guevara, and in Buenos Aires, at the Anfiteatro Eva Perón,  and will feature speakers from the Castro Kingdom and elsewhere.

Those who attend the seminar will be awarded diplomas.

The intended audience is described as “militantes de organizaciones populares y sociales” (militants from social and popular organizations).  In other words: communist agitators.

The seminar is open to the general public, nonetheless, and will charge no fees whatsoever.

I checked and, indeed, Telesur and the other websites mentioned above did report it.

One question,, though: ALBA used to be sponsored by Venezuelan oil, so who’s paying for the seminars? If this is, what about the Venezuelans who are dumpster-diving?

But I digress.

Those of you who already are Perfect Latin American Idiots, here’s your chance to evolve into an Idiot With A Certificate™.

UPDATE
Trending at BadBlue.

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Filed Under: Argentina, Che Guevara, Communism, Fausta's blog, Fidel Castro Tagged With: ALBA, Eva Peron

March 6, 2017 By Fausta

Bolivia: Evo goes to Cuba

While the locusts attack Bolivia’s crops, Evo Morales was in Cuba last week, reportedly for treatment of a throat ailment,

Morales, 57, went to Cuba for treatment on Wednesday after a sore throat robbed him of his voice, causing him to cancel public appearances.

The government news agency said it was an emergency trip.

While at the hospital, Raúl Castro dropped by for a visit,

85% #Bolivia no cree a #EvoMorales se fue a #Cuba a buscar asesoramiento de #Castro @hfontova @Fausta @CapitolCubans @Michaelhache pic.twitter.com/KD0tnXtY9w

— LatinAmericanFreedom (@LatAmFr) March 5, 2017

Reportedly, the FARC’s Timochenko also dropped by.

Evo recovered and landed in Caracas to participate in the latest ALBA summit and commemoration of the fourth anniversary Hugo Chávez’s death.

He was still sounding a little raspy.



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Filed Under: Bolivia, Cuba, Evo Morales, Fausta's blog Tagged With: ALBA, Timochenko

December 11, 2015 By Fausta

Latin America: Packrat malware targeted #Nisman

Huge, years-long, malware attack on the political opposition and the independent press in the ALBA countries,

Revealed: Mystery 7-year cyberspy campaign in Latin America. Bogus propaganda websites punt malware to likely marks (emphasis added)

Security researchers have uncovered a seven year-long malware campaign against Latin America.

Citizen Lab found that journalists, activists, politicians, and public figures in Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil and Venezuela have been targeted by a large-scale hacking campaign since 2008.

The campaign, dubbed Packrat, uses bogus websites and social media accounts for fake opposition groups and news organisations in order to distribute malware and conduct phishing attacks.

The attackers, whom we have named Packrat, have shown a keen and systematic interest in the political opposition and the independent press in so-called ALBA countries (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas), and their recently allied regimes. These countries are linked by a trade agreement as well as a cooperation on a range of non-financial matters.

Security tools firm AlienVault uploaded Citizen Lab’s findings on Packrat to its threat-sharing platform OTX in order to warm the general community of the emerging threat and its indicators of compromise. Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary lab focused on global security.

Not only Nisman was hacked, but also Lanata,

The security researchers caught the scent of the Packrat attackers in Ecuador this year before tracing their nefarious activities back to attempts to compromise the devices of Alberto Nisman, an Argentine prosecutor known for doggedly probing a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing, and investigative journalist Jorge Lanata in Argentina last year. Further work revealed a pattern of systematic electronic spying dating back to 2007.

Hacked has more,

A Sophisticated Hacker Operation
John Scott-Railton, the lead Citizen Lab researcher at the University of Toronto’s Munk School for Global Affairs, said the operation is highly targeted. He said Packrat carefully chooses and relentlessly pursues its targets.hacker

The hackers used the same Internet domains for years even though there was some exposure in doing this, a technical convenience. Cybercriminals normally do not do this for fear of being caught by law enforcement.

The researchers found 35 types of booby-trapped files and used domains hosted by companies in the U.S., Uruguay, Sweden, Spain, France, Brazil and Argentina.

About two dozen “seeding” sites resided on servers owned by GoDaddy.com LLC, a U.S.-based web hosting company, for much of the past two years. GoDaddy-hosted domain names included login-office365.com, mgoogle.us, update-outlook.com and soporte-yahoo.com.

Researchers alerted most of the providers Friday and asked that they shutter Packrat’s known infrastructure. Nick Fuller, a GoDaddy spokesperson, said GoDaddy acts immediately after identifying a problem website.

Packrat Targeted Nisman
The researchers started the investigation after determining that Packrat had targeted Nisman, who died mysteriously of a gunshot wound in January while attempting to bring charges against Argentina’s president.

Researchers said Packrat sent Jorge Lanata, an Argentine journalist, the same virus Nisman received a month prior to his death.

The virus was designed to communicate with the same Internet domains used to spy on Ecuadorean opposition figures who found Packrat malware in their emails using search scripts the researchers wrote.

Not that it’ll make any difference on the Nisman murder investigation – that’s not going anywhere.

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Filed Under: Argentina Tagged With: ALBA, Alberto Nisman, Fausta' blog, Jorge Lanata, Pack Rat

August 25, 2014 By Fausta

The prehistoric seals Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerThere you have it: Seals helped Europeans wipe out Native Americans
Europeans have long been blamed for wiping out 95 per cent of Native Americans by bringing foreign diseases to the New World. But a new study suggests seals could be partly to blame

The research shows that tuberculosis is likely to have spread from humans in Africa to seals and sea lions, who then carried the disease to South America and transmitted it to Native populations long before Europeans landed on the continent.

ARGENTINA
Argentina Presents Plan to Bypass U.S. Courts, Pay Creditors; later, Argentina debt plan ruled ‘illegal’
Argentina’s plan to ask investors holding defaulted bonds to swap them for new locally issued debt is ruled “illegal” by a US court.

Companies fear radical turn in Argentina

The government’s unorthodox economic management came under further scrutiny on Thursday when beef exports were suspended to combat inflation, despite dollar shortages.

BOLIVIA
Bolivia Exports More Than 20,000 Metric Tons of LPG in 1H 2014

BRAZIL
Brazilian Police Officers Acquitted of Murder Charges
A jury has acquitted four police officers of murder charges in the 2012 shooting death of a suspected car thief, a case that attracted attention to the lethality of Brazilian police.

CHILE
Rerun time: Peru in Diplomatic Squabble With Chile
Map Shows Triangle of Land as Belonging to Peru

COLOMBIA
Rebel Attacks in 2014 on Colombia Oil Infrastructure Cause $531 Million in Losses

[The president of the Colombian Petroleum Association, Francisco Jose Lloreda] called on the government to provide security guarantees irrespective of whether a peace deal is reached with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in talks in Havana dating back to 2012.
. . .
The FARC and ELN have carried out numerous attacks in recent months on oil infrastructure, particularly pipelines and tanker trucks in the northern provinces of Arauca and Norte de Santander, which border Venezuela, and in Putumayo, which borders Ecuador

CUBA
Moringapalooza Cretin Summit 2014: Caracastan’s Maduro visits his master Nosferatu in Havana

Must-Read: Cuban Catholic Youth Activists Write Pope Francis

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Miley Cyrus Banned from Performing in Dominican Republic on ‘Morality Grounds’

ECUADOR
Ecuador President Rafael Correa Seeks Law Allowing Perpetual Re-Election
Popular Leader Setting Stage for Expected Fourth Run in 2017

Top-Down Digital Currency Coming to Ecuador, with Ban on Competition
Imminent Prohibition Covers All Unofficial Physical, Digital Currencies

EL SALVADOR
Saving El Salvador: Why The Vatican Needs To Make Archbishop Romero A Saint; I disagree.

GUATEMALA
General Dies in Crash
A top Guatemalan general and four other officers were killed on Wednesday when the helicopter they were in crashed near the country’s northern border with Mexico, Guatemala’s government said.

“Meet the Press” covered Rand Paul’s pro bono eye surgery in Guatemala and larded it with impugnment of his motives. Paul has been doing pro bono work for decades.

HONDURAS
In Honduras, U.S. deportees seek to journey north again

LATIN AMERICA
ALBA Meets UN Security Council Over Gaza

Why the Pacific Alliance Puts Mercosur to Shame
Protectionist Panderers No Match for Liberal, Free-Market Integration

Build the Border Fence Already!

MEXICO
Mexico Unveils New Police Force
President Enrique Peña Nieto inaugurated a 5,000-strong unit of the federal police that is tasked with protecting key parts of Mexico’s economy from violent drug gangs.

Are we supposed to believe that Mexican authorities are keeping track of who’s crossing? Mexico Dismisses Perry Claim Islamic State Could Have Crossed U.S. Border
The Mexican embassy in Washington Friday dismissed Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s claim that “there’s a very real possibility” extremists from the Islamic State have already snuck into the U.S. over the southern border.

"They were just never heard from again." A Mexican cartel incinerated hundreds of victims: http://t.co/h2KiBto0hX pic.twitter.com/MQ5p1jhMMz

— VICE News (@vicenews) August 17, 2014

NICARAGUA
Nicaraguans, safe at home, feel little reason to flee to U.S.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/18/4296029/nicaraguans-safe-at-home-feel.html#storylink=cpy

PANAMA
New Challenges for Panama Canal at 100

PARAGUAY
Paraguay seizes nearly one ton of cocaine in DR Congo-bound rice

PERU
Peru’s Congress Rejects Prime Minister’s Cabinet for Second Time
Various Lawmakers Demand Changes to President Ollanta Humala’s Administration

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico to Use Old Traffic Network to Lay Fiber-Optic Cables

URUGUAY
The Rights Abuses Uruguay Doesn’t Want You to Know About
A small South American country has been making big strides in human rights. But it’s still got some work to do.

VENEZUELA
VenEconomy: Venezuelan Government Goes for More Censorship, Barbarism

Got Shortages? Chavistas Sic “Operation Queue Killer” on Cash Registers
Pricing Superintendent Rebukes Defective Checkouts, Announces Biometric Rationing

The week’s posts and podcast:
Ecuador’s new fake currency

Good luck with that!

TSA: Illegals without ID can fly with ‘Notice to Appear’

Argentina’s shell game

Colombia: Luis Carlos Cervantes murdered

Is Populism beatable?

Would “gender mainstreaming” fix the border crisis?

Argentina: “Qui cum canibus concumbunt cum pulicibus surgent”

Briefly interrupted

The Panama Canal Centennial roundup

At Da Tech Guy Blog
Biometrics and the police state

Podcast
Panama Canal, Argentina, Mexico & US-Latin America stories of the week


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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, FARC, Guatemala, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, news, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: ALBA, ELN, Fausta's blog, Pacific Alliance, Rand Paul

December 17, 2013 By Fausta

Venezuela: Diplomats confirm Venezuelan links to drug trafficking

Spain’s ABC: Diplomats confirm Venezuelan links to drug trafficking

Information published by ABC regarding negotiations between Nicolás Maduro’s staff—when he was foreign minister—in an FMLN drug trafficking operation in El Salvador, has corroborated suspicions that existed in Venezuelan political and diplomatic circles.

“This news confirms what many already knew about the significant and growing presence of drug trafficking in Venezuela and its important relations with the top echelon in the government and the Armed Forces,” former Venezuelan ambassador to Sweden and Guyana, Sadio Garavini commented. “Venezuela has become a center of command and control of international drug trafficking since the expulsion of the DEA (U.S. anti-drug agency) of the country and the indefinite suspension of the effective partnership with former United States cooperation in the fight against drugs.”

This should come as no surprise to Fausta’s Blog readers.

Additionally, the links extend to Colombia’s FARC, El Salvador’s FMNL, and Hezbollah:

leaders of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador are linked to the Colombian guerrillas, while stressing the massive financial backing from Venezuela to the FMLN, which has been done to take complete control of the country.

“The FMLN and Alba Petroleos of El Salvador – the entity that funnels Venezuelan aid – has taken over the country in ways the United Fruit Company would have never imagined: from airlines to mass purchases of land in the capital, coffee crops above price, pharmacies, banks, and media outlets. Montsant also points to reports and studies by the University of Salamanca, demonstrating the influence of Venezuelan oil through Alba Petróleos on Salvadorans leaders, enabling a patronage policy that seeks votes in the popular sectors.

The ABC article is titled Diplomáticos confirman la conexión de Venezuela con el narcotráfico
Destacan que la tradicional alianza del chavismo con la guerrilla colombiana de las FARC ha sido un factor esencial en ese comercio ilegal

(Diplomats confirm Venezuela’s links to drug trafficking
They assert that chavismo’s alliance with the FARC Colombian guerrilla is an essential factor of the illegal trade.)

Last week, ABC had reported that Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro’s mediated an FMLN deal with the FARC back when he was vice-president (link in Spanish) allowing drug flights landing in the state of Apure, Venezuela.

UPDATE:
Linked by Babalu. Thanks!


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Filed Under: cocaine, Colombia, crime, drugs, El Salvador, FARC, Latin America, news, Nicaragua, Venezuela Tagged With: ABC, ALBA, Alba Petroleos of El Salvador, Fausta's blog, FMLN, Hezbollah, Nicolas Maduro

June 10, 2013 By Fausta

Colombia join NATO?

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos got his neighbors in a flutter by hinting that he would like Colombia to join NATO, unlikely as that may sound,

According to Santos, Colombia has been collaborating with NATO for a long time. “We have always been clear about that,” he said in a press conference in London as reported by Los Angeles’ Hispanic newspaper La Opinión. “We will continue our relationship with the alliance.”

The Colombia president met up with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday, where the allusions to becoming a “partner” of NATO started pouring in. As vague as Santo’s remarks have been about his country’s possible candidacy for the alliance – there were no words uttered about the application process, time frame or how they would meet the requirements for such membership – the very thought of Colombia joining NATO has sparked alarm in other countries in Latin America. The Ministers for Defense of both Ecuador and Brazil expressed their reservations about such an event, and pointed out that this issue should be discussed “throughout the region.”

While the current Colombian defense minister said no to NATO membership,

Santos, himself a former defense minister, announced over the weekend that “NATO is going to sign an agreement with the Colombian government, with the Ministry of Defense, to start a whole process of reaching out, of cooperation, also with a look at entering that organization.”

You’re not alone if you’re confused about the issue of geography,

That puzzled NATO officials because Colombia, as a country close to the equator, does not meet a NATO rule restricting membership to North Atlantic nations.

but at least it got a rise out of the Venezuelan regime (plus Bolivia and Brazil).

According to Daniel Duquenal,

Bogota is also, among other things, implying that South American institutions lack seriousness and thus it prefers to look elsewhere for countries that may not love Colombia but at least will deal with Colombia on a serious basis. If you ask me, being a mere associate of the NATO group is definitely more reassuring than being a member of UNASUR where the only thing that matters is what Brazil says. The US of A may be the driving force of the NATO but it has been quite clear that in the last decade and a half its country members participate or not at will in NATO actions though the general aim is respected: democracy and freedom from tyranny.

Santos is sending out a message by meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, and now with the NATO statement: if the ALBA/Foro de Sao Paulo countries were counting on him simply because of the FARC negotiations taking place in Cuba, they need to think again.

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Filed Under: Colombia, Latin America Tagged With: ALBA, Fausta's blog, Foro de Sao Paulo, Juan Manuel Santos, NATO

February 6, 2012 By Fausta

The (brief) Carnival of Latin America & the Caribbean

LatinAmerARGENTINA
The War for Oil… And Squid?, via Instapundit

Prince William’s Falklands tour ‘is his duty to the RAF’
Former Chief of the General Staff General Sir Mike Jackson says Prince William’s arrival in the Falkland Islands is a routine part of life in the Royal Air Force.

BRAZIL
Brazil’s President Flexes Clout in Cuba Trip

Standoff between striking police, soldiers

CHILE
Competition in Chile
The shine comes off

CUBA
Since Fidel is such an exemplary figure of virtue, Pope Benedict XVI to receive Fidel Castro back into the Catholic Church?

Political Repression in Cuba: Rundown for the week of January 30th, 2012

WashPost Coos ‘So Nice to Meet You, Havana’ (But Bring Your Own Charmin)

HAITI
Haiti’s judiciary
Just what the Doc ordered

HONDURAS
What’s the Honduran government’s cut of your travel costs?

LATIN AMERICA
ALBA bloc of nations to see new members
Suriname and St Lucia are seeking membership in the ALBA group of left-leaning nations, as the bloc continues to flex its muscle and take jabs at the United States.

MEXICO
Carlos Slim
Let Mexico’s moguls battle
Mexico suffers from two near-monopolies. It should let them fight each other

Mexico conservatives back woman presidential candidate

PUERTO RICO
17 Dominican migrants die trying to get to Puerto Rico

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Fateful Presidential Primary
Chávez’s political opposition attempts to unify behind a candidate.

Venezuela everyday more like Cuba, will smell like it soon

February 4th. 1992: A Day Of Shame For Venezuelans

The week’s posts:
Holder insults Puerto Rican Congressman
Weirdest theft of the year: Chilean ice
Venezuela: Who armed the kids?
Law-abiding Mexicans arm themselves
Fast & Furious: No one’s responsible
Venezuela: Jews fleeing persecution


28797
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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Chile, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Latin America, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: ALBA, Carlos Slim, Falkland Islands, Fast and Furious, Fausta's blog, St Lucia, Suriname

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