Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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The dropping helicopters Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

The Indian helicopters that Ecuador bought keep falling off the sky, but the bigger story is Iran’s continued presence in the region.

ARGENTINA
China to supply Argentina five “Malvinas Class” offshore patrol vessels
Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is expected to sign agreements with China to increase military co-operation, including construction of new warships for the Argentine Navy, during her current state visit to Beijing, according to media reports and Jane’s Defense Weekly.

Argentinian president to write letter to Mia Farrow over tweets
Fernández will write letters to the actress and Martina Navratilova in response to tweets about the mysterious death of a federal prosecutor

Death of prosecutor leaves Argentina’s Jewish community angry and distrustful
The mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, who was investigating a 1994 terrorist attack, has alarmed many Jews but others warn against over-simplifying the case

BOLIVIA
Stranger in a Strange Land: An Internship Gone Bad

BRAZIL
Rio carnival downsizing and another cancelled as Brazil feels the pinch
Brazil is tightening its purse strings ahead of the 2016 Olympics and carnivals across the country are downsizing or have been cancelled

CHILE
Chile’s Bachelet Renews Bid to Legalize Abortion
Religious Groups Prepare to Fight Proposed Exemptions

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s FARC rebels invite Miss Universe to attend peace talks
Newly crowned beauty queen Paulina Vega Rebels surprised after being invited to assist guerillas’ peace negotiations with the government.

CUBA
A Tally of What Cuba Owes the World

FPI Bulletin: More Questions than Answers at Cuba Hearings

ECUADOR
Jorge Zabala presenta denuncia ante Consejo de la Judicatura
Posibilidad de fraude procesal, alerta defensor de los hermanos Isaías

Ecuador Grapples With Grounded Freighter
Ecuador has declared a 180-day state of emergency in the protected Galápagos Islands, while it continues to unload and work toward refloating a freighter that ran aground last week.

GUATEMALA
Guatemala volcano eruption forces evacuations
Fuego volcano belches black ash, forcing 100 residents to be moved out and closing the capital’s international airport

IMMIGRATION
Obama administration issues 5.5M work permits to non-citizens; critics call it ‘shadow’ immigration system

POPE FRANCIS: APPLY RULE OF LAW WHEN DEALING WITH IMMIGRANTS

MEXICO
Experts question Mexican investigation of 43 students’ disappearance
Argentinian forensic team hired on behalf of students’ parents says government presented biased analyses of the scientific evidence

Two US Army Vets Missing In Mexican Border City With Raging Cartel War

Conflict of interest in Mexico
A false start
Mixed messages in a new anti-corruption campaign

MISERY INDEX
The five most miserable countries in the world at the end of 2014 are, in order: Venezuela, Argentina, Syria, Ukraine, and Iran.

NICARAGUA
Can a Chinese billionaire build a canal across Nicaragua? Depends on who else is backing him up.

PANAMA
Panama Becomes First Latin American Nation to Join Coalition Against ISIS

PERU
Peru’s no-convictions politician
A failed labour reform exposes the limits of pragmatism

PUERTO RICO
It’s called “rule of law”: Puerto Rico Restructuring Law Thrown Out in Bondholder Win

Investment funds of Franklin Resources Inc. and OppenheimerFunds Inc., which hold more than $1.5 billion in bonds issued by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, convinced a federal judge in San Juan that bankruptcy law and the U.S. Constitution trump the commonwealth’s legislation.

The law, passed under threat of a fiscal emergency, would have allowed public utilities such as the power authority, or Prepa, to negotiate with bondholders to reduce their debt loads, potentially forcing investors to accept unfavorable terms, according to the funds’ complaint.

URUGUAY
Uruguay questioned Iranian diplomat over fake bomb near Israeli embassy
Convincing-looking dummy bomb detonated outside Montevideo offices
Iranian ambassador summoned to Uruguayan foreign office in December
Diplomat denied any connection but has now left country

Jose Mujica Was Every Liberal’s Dream President. He Was Too Good to Be True.
He spoke truth to power, and legalized marijuana and abortion. So why are Uruguay’s progressives so disappointed?

VENEZUELA
Venezuela accuses UK of smuggling ‘spy glasses’ into trial of opposition leader
Leopoldo Lopez’s father says it was he, not a British diplomat, who brought in the video glasses, but prosecutor claims there was collusion with the family

Nelson Mandela’s Lawyer on a Mission for Leopoldo’s Release
Irwin Cotler Joins Imprisoned Opponent’s Defense Team amid Human-Rights Row

Running Out of Time: Dimming Prospects for Reform in Venezuela

Venezuela Maduro: State seizes supermarket chain

The week’s posts and podcast:
Separated at birth?

Sunday evening tango: Mario Bournissen & Laura Rusconi

Uruguay: Iranian diplomat expelled after bomb explosion near Israeli embassy

Argentina: And now the spy is missing

Moral equivalence strikes again

Cuba: Next, O will give away Gitmo

Colombia: Is that a Russian RPG in your pocket?

China: Cristina’s twit UPDATED

Argentina: #Nisman is front-page news at the NYT

Argentina: Nisman wanted Cristina’s arrest UPDATE

50 Shades of meh

At Da Tech Guy Blog:
A few thoughts about Bruce Jenner

Univision plays the world’s smallest violin

Podcast:
On Silvio Canto‘s

[Post corrected for html errors]



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Mexico: What happened to the 43 students?

#HastaEncontrarlos

As readers of this blog may recall, 43 student teachers disappeared four months ago in Iguala, in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Now Mexico’s Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam says there is “legal certainty” they were murdered – raising even more questions, but Mexico’s president says it’s time to move on.

Read my article here.

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Mexico: No rule of law


Teacher protesting the #Ayotzinapa disappearance of the 43 student teachers. His shirt reads “I AM A TEACHER. I defend education. I defend my people. I defend my country.”

Mary O’Grady looks at Mexico’s Rule of Law Crisis
The fate of 43 missing university students and corruption allegations test President Peña Nieto’s pledge to transform the country.

Until now the president has been able to ignore Mexico’s legendary lawlessness. He has been riding an international wave of excitement around the opening of the energy sector, with few questions asked. But unless he wants to make common cause with the hard left—which thinks it has him on the ropes because of the missing students—he needs to admit his mistakes, purge his cabinet and make the rule of law job No. 1.

That would be a first in Mexico’s history, a country that sees, as O’Grady puts it, “the traditional use of the criminal-justice system as a profit center for the state.”



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The #Ayotzinapa students Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

The week’s top headline is that authorities may have found the remains of the 43 student teachers missing since September. The state of decay of the remains makes it necessary that they will be sent to the University of Innsbruck in Austria, which officials said had the most advanced forensics laboratory, for further attempts at identification.

Violent protests and the social media hashtag #YaMeCansé are symptomatic of how Mexicans are fed up with their government’s inability to stop the drug cartels.

ARGENTINA
Factory Explosion Leaves 66 Injured in Argentine City of Cordoba

Argentine Journalist on Trial for Not Revealing Sources

Argentine president Cristina Kirchner admitted to hospital with fever
Cristina Kirchner admitted to hospital for tests after feeling unwell

BELIZE
S&P Switches to Positive on Belize Outlook

BOLIVIA
Concern in Bolivia Over Increase in Sexual Violence Vs. Girls

BRAZIL
Despite Rousseff, extreme poverty grows for the first time in a decade
The number of Brazilians living in extreme poverty grew for the first time in a decade, according to government figures. The Institute of Economic Research reported that the number of people in households with incomes below the poverty threshold of 30 dollars rose from 10.1 to 10.5 million people, which means a 3.7% increase.

Brazil’s economy
After the election, the reckoning

CHILE
Former President Calls for Drug Decriminalization in Chile

COLOMBIA
Colombian Rebels’ Attacks Set Back Nation
Rebel assaults on Colombia pipelines have crimped one of Latin America’s most dynamic economies and raised questions about the outlook for Colombia as a reliable provider of crude to the U.S.

Memorial plaque removed in Colombia
A controversial plaque unveiled last week by Prince Charles in the Colombian port city of Cartagena is removed after local opposition.

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica struggles to manage $1.7 billion in development loans

CUBA
Hiding the Real Cuba

For the 4th time, Castro regime postpones trial of political prisoner Sonia Garro; dozens of activists arrested

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
The Dominican Republic pulls out of Inter-American Court of Human Rights

ECUADOR
How China’s Appetite Feeds An Ecuadorian Shrimp Boom
With shrimp consumption booming in China and production falling in traditional exporters like Vietnam, Ecuador is stepping in. It’s the latest food chapter in a globalized world.

IMMIGRATION
Amnesty and Impeachment
Absent the credible threat of impeachment, Obama will pardon millions of illegal aliens.

JAMAICA
Reggae, coffee and sunny beaches: Discover Jamaica
OUR WRITER falls in love with the music, culture and people of Jamaica

MEXICO
Mexico gang ‘admits student deaths’
Mexican gang members have confessed to killing more than 40 students who went missing six weeks ago, officials say – but families are sceptical.

PANAMA
After the Panama Canal Zone

PERU
Putin Welcomes Peruvian President

PUERTO RICO
Murder Rate Down; 2014 May Bring US Commonwealth Its Lowest Number of Homocides in 15 Years

VENEZUELA
Venezuela reaps benefits of Cuban “medical internationalism”

Dengue fever soars by 2,475% in Venezuela’s capital city

Reuters: Bid for Venezuela’s subsidiary Citgo continues
Any deal for Citgo, which could be worth USD 10 billion, could help to reshape the US refining landscape

Idiocy And Airlines In Venezuela

Venezuela shows the biggest global drop in the 2014 Prosperity Index

The week’s posts and podcasts:
Mexico: Remains of #Ayotzinapa students found

He can have my Volvo for US$500,000

Brazil: A petition to the White House

Mexico: 22,000 missing, 43 of them are the #Ayotzinapa students

About last night

Venezuela: $15 smugglers jailed, $3.08 billion a year smugglers go free

Mexico: Iguala mayor arrested

At Da Tech Guy Blog:
Why Obama should not be impeached when he grants executive amnesty

Comparing voting in NJ to voting in FL

Podcasts:
Election night extravaganza

US-Latin America issues with Fausta Rodriguez Wertz & Michael Prada

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Mexico: Remains of #Ayotzinapa students found


Demonstrators last month

Mexican Official: Remains Believed to Be Students Found
Investigators have found the incinerated remains they believe belong to the missing 43 students who were allegedly abducted by police and handed over to a local drug gang to be executed, Mexico’s attorney general said.

The remains will be sent to the University of Innsbruck in Austria, which officials said had the most advanced forensics laboratory, for further attempts at identification. Because of the extent of the incineration, Mr. Murillo Karam said he set no deadline.

Mexico missing student: Gang members ‘confess’ to killing 43 in Iguala and burning their bodies

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Mexico: Iguala mayor arrested

BBC reports,
Mayor held in Mexico missing caseJose Luis Abarca stands up during a meeting with state government officials in Chilpancingo on 8 May 2014
Police in Mexico say they have arrested the fugitive mayor of the town of Iguala, where 43 students went missing in September.

Jose Luis Abarca was detained by federal police officers in the capital, Mexico City, a police spokesman said.

Abarca’s wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda was also arrested.

All 43 students are still missing. The BBC has a timeline:

Timeline: Iguala disappearance

26 Sept: Students from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa travel to Iguala to protest and raise funds

Night of 26 Sept: Police stop the students, 6 people are shot dead, 43 students disappear

30 Sept: Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca asks for leave from his post, which is granted

4 Oct: Mass graves are found near Iguala containing 28 bodies

19 Oct: Federal police are deployed to Iguala and replace the municipal force

22 Oct: Mexico’s prosecutor general says an arrest warrant has been issued for Mr Abarca, his wife and the town’s police chief

23 Oct: Guerrero state governor Angel Aguirre resigns

29 Oct: President Enrique Pena Nieto meets the relatives of the missing students and promises a “renewed search plan”

4 Nov: Mr Abarca and his wife are arrested in Mexico City

In other crime news, Mexican Regional Security Chief and Wife Shot Dead
Tamaulipas Is Across Border From Texas

The dead man, Gen. Ricardo Niño Villarreal, was security chief for the area around Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas. The area is considered the turf of the Zetas drug cartel, which has been doing battle with the Gulf cartel.



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Mexico: #Ayotzinapa backlash in Mexico Bronco

The 43 students are still missing. Here are today’s headlines:

Mexican Tied to Missing Students Is Killed
Death of Benjamin Mondragón, Alleged Head of Guerreros Unidos, Comes After Protests

The alleged leader of a Mexican criminal band that prosecutors accuse of colluding with police in the disappearance of 43 college students was killed on Tuesday during a shootout with security forces, federal officials said.

The security forces had tracked Benjamin Mondragón to a house in a suburb of Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, where the battle took place, officials said.

The officials said Mr. Mondragón led the Guerreros Unidos gang, which they said collaborated with police in the September shooting deaths of six people and the subsequent disappearance of the college students—whom most officials presume to be dead—in Iguala, a city in Guerrero state.

The death of Mr. Mondragón, known as Benjamón, or Big Ben, came a day after teachers and students burned and vandalized parts of Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre’s office and the state’s local legislature, demanding the return of the missing students and the governor’s resignation.
. . . .
But the incident in Iguala is a reminder of what Mexicans call “Mexico Bronco,” or “Untamed Mexico”—a wild land rife with poverty, cronyism and violence. Entire states and hundreds of cities and towns are in the grip of drug gangs and corrupt police and city halls, security experts say. The rule of law is shaky: Fewer than 3% of homicides are solved, officials say.

Protesters Burn State Building in Southern Mexico
Students, Teachers Clash With Police as Anger Flares Over Disappearance of 43 Young People

Missing Mexico students: Iguala eyewitness account

The search continues in Mexico for 43 students who have been missing since 26 September following clashes with the police. Omar Garcia is one of the students who witnessed the deadly clashes in which six people died. Here he describes what he saw that evening and what he thinks may have happened to his 43 fellow students.
. . .
We think the municipal police took them – what we think happened is that they kept them somewhere and then, as we say, “disappeared” them – like so many thousands of others in this country who are missing.

The Twitter tag is #Ayotzinapa

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