Diego Maradona - Fausta's Blog

November 13, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: Maradona’s €7.5 million woes

Maradona, the curiously hairless multi-millionaire socialist former soccer superstar is accusing his former wife Claudia Villafañe of embezzling.

Argentinean judge freezes assets of Maradona’s former wife. Ex-soccer star is accusing Cecilia Villafañe of embezzling €7.5 million of his fortune [approx. US$8 million]

In a bitter fight that is also being played out in the media, the 1986 World Cup winner has accused Villafañe of secretly purchasing properties in Miami using his money when they were still married. The couple wed in 1989 and divorced in 2003, but they did not liquidate their joint assets.

“There was a crime committed relating to concealment of properties,” the lawyer said. “When she asked for a [bank] loan in 2002, she put on her application that she was single. The bank is now going to file a complaint against her for fraud, which entails that her [US] visa will be revoked. A criminal complaint has been filed in Miami.”

Unlike him, she’s taking the high ground,

“I am never going to speak badly about him or do anything to harm him. It is just not my style,” she said.

I’ve never understood the adoration for Maradona, who recently has been campaigning for Scioli, but he does manage to come up with some doozies.

October 26, 2015 By Fausta

Argentina: Scioli, Macri tied, runoff will be on Nov 22

Both at 35%, even when Scioli, Cristina’s anointed, was regarded as “clear favorite.”

Scioli had brought Maradona along on the campaign trail,

A few headlines from around the world:
WSJ: Argentina Heads for Presidential Runoff in Shock Result

At stake are Mrs. Kirchner’s trademark policies, including heavy government spending to expand welfare programs, currency controls and import barriers. Economists say those policies have stalled the economy and spurred 25% annual inflation, but her supporters say she has redistributed wealth and brought stability to a country that suffered an economic collapse in 2001 when it defaulted on its debt. Mrs. Kirchner has a 42% approval rating, according to polling firm Management & Fit, the highest of any departing president in modern Argentine history. She is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.

The Guardian: Argentina’s presidential election headed for second round after no clear winner. Preliminary results put ruling coalition’s Daniel Scioli and opposition candidate, Mauricio Macri, neck and neck

Until the result, Scioli – a former racing boat champion – was the clear favourite, but the result was a disappointment to supporters. They had hoped a strong mandate would help them resist calls for drastic changes to Kirchner’s leftwing policies that have been popular with the public, but left the economy with a host of problems.

El Pais: Argentina faces presidential runoff after unexpectedly tight vote. Conservative Macri surprises voters by closing in on government candidate Scioli

The tight race means that Argentineans will head to the polls again on November 22, and many observers believe it likely that Macri, a conservative millionaire businessman, will defeat Scioli and end 12 years of leftist Kirchnerite governments.

Clarin: For the first time in 28 years, peronists lost the governorship of the Buenos Aires Province. Scioli y Macri a segunda vuelta y Vidal con un gran triunfo. En la presidencial quedaron con poca diferencia y habrá balotaje el 22 de noviembre. La candidata del PRO venció a Aníbal F. y desplazó al PJ de la gobernación tras 28 años

Un par de horas más tarde, se confirmaría lo peor para el Gobierno: no sólo Scioli estrenará la segunda vuelta presidencial, sino que después de 28 años, el peronismo perdió la gobernación de la provincia de Buenos Aires. La cándida María Eugenia Vidal vencía esta madrugada al duro Aníbal Fernández por varios puntos. También la oposición se alzaba con un triunfo en varios municipios clave de la Provincia (Tres de Febrero, Quilmes, Morón, Pilar, Mar del Plata, Bahía Blanca) y en una provincia históricamente peronista como Jujuy. Cambio de época.

[My translation:
A couple of hours later came the worst news for the Government: Not only will Scioli go to a runoff, but, for the first time in 28 years, peronists lost the governorship of the Buenos Aires Province. Newby María Eugenia Vidal won by several points over veteran Aníbal Fernández. The opposition scored wins in several of the Province’s key municipalities (Tres de Febrero, Quilmes, Morón, Pilar, Mar del Plata, Bahía Blanca) and in the traditionally peronist province of Jujuy. Change of an era.]

Le Monde: En Argentine, un revers pour la présidente Cristina Kirchner [In Argentina, a setback for president Cristina Kirchner.]

This puts Massa, Cristina’s former cabinet chief, in an interesting position.
NYT: In Argentina Elections, Tight Vote Yields Presidential Runoff

The candidates signaled an intense new phase of campaigning ahead of the runoff election on Nov. 22. Sergio Massa, a former ally of Mrs. Kirchner’s who moved into the opposition, could find himself in the role of kingmaker after securing 21 percent of the vote in the partial count, with analysts questioning whether he will forge an alliance with Mr. Macri.

Channel News Asia: Argentina’s Massa coy on role in any presidential run-offPresidential challenger Sergio Massa, who almost certainly placed third in Argentina’s presidential election on Sunday, congratulated his rivals on their result and vowed to remain in the political fight.

I have several links in this morning’s Carnival regarding the many challenges ahead for Argentina’s next president.

The November 22 runoff will be the first in Argentina’s history.

June 3, 2015 By Fausta

Venezuela: Maradona for FIFA president!

Before we get to Maradona, this:
Venezuela’s currency isn’t worth a penny

Just a month ago, $1 was worth 279 bolivars. That was already pretty dismal for Venezuela. Now $1 equals 408 bolivars, according to the unofficial exchange rate, which most Venezuelans get when they try to trade currency.

Put another way, one bolivar equals $0.002 — less than a penny. The country’s currency has lost nearly half its value since the beginning of May, according to dolartoday.com, a website that tracks the unofficial exchange rate.

It’s another sign that Venezuela is arguably the world’s worst economy.

Elsewhere in the nuthouse,
Diego Maradona backed for FIFA presidency by Venezuela’s Maduro

Speaking on his national television program, Maduro said Argentine football legend Maradona had been calling out FIFA for decades, only to be laughed at. Maradona has been a high-profile supporter of the 16-year-old socialist revolution launched in Venezuela by late President Hugo Chavez.

Just weeks ago, the 1986 World Cup winner wrote a column in The Telegraphnewspaper in England blasting Blatter as a “dictator for life,” while calling FIFA “a disgrace.”

Maradona has exhibited disgraceful behavior of other sorts over the years, but I’m inclined to agree with him on FIFA.

Heck, things are so crazy Maradona may even get the job.

We’ll talk about this in tonight’s podcast at 8PM Eastern.

August 2, 2010 By Fausta

The exiled Cuban political prisoners Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmer Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. I dedicate this week’s Carnival to the courageous men and women who have resisted the oppressive Communist regime in Cuba. Here is Mary O’Grady’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Zapata Lives
Castro forces dissidents to accept exile as the price of release from his dungeons.

Zapata’s passing sparked international outrage, and on July 7 the regime yielded to the pressure. It agreed to release the independent journalists, writers and democracy advocates who had been jailed during the 2003 crackdown on dissent, known as the Black Spring.

Yet only the naïve could read Castro’s forced acquiescence as a break with tyranny. It is instead a cynical ploy to clean the face of a dictatorship. It is also an effort to reclaim respectability for the world’s pro-Castro politicians, including Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos. No one understands this better than the former prisoners.

Those sent to Spain have not hidden their joy about getting out of Cuban jails. “There are no words to fairly describe how amazed and excited I was when I saw myself free and next to my wife and daughter again,” Normando Hernández González told the Committee to Protect Journalists in a telephone interview. But Mr. Hernández, an independent journalist, hasn’t minced words about Cuban repression either.

In a telephone interview with Miami’s Radio Republica, he talked about his “indescribable” time in jail. “It’s crime upon crime, the deep hatred of the Castro regime toward everyone who peacefully dissents. It is a unique life experience that I do not wish upon my worst enemy.”

The regime tried to spruce up the former prisoners by dressing them in neatly pressed trousers, white shirts and ties. But they brought tales of horror to Spain. Ariel Sigler, a labor organizer who went into prison seven years ago a healthy man but is now confined to a wheel chair, arrived in Miami on Wednesday.

These graphic reminders of Castro’s twisted mind have been bad for Mr. Moratinos’s wider agenda, which is to use the release of the prisoners to convince the European Union to abandon its “common position” on Cuba. Adopted in 1996, it says that the EU seeks “in its relations with Cuba” to “encourage a process of transition to pluralist democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as a sustainable recovery and improvement in the living standards of the Cuban people.” Mr. Moratinos’s desire to help Fidel end the common position is a source of anger among Cuban dissidents.

The former prisoners also resent their exile, after, as Mr. Hernández puts it, “being kidnapped for seven years.” He explained to Radio Republica: “The more logical outcome would be, ‘Yes, you are freeing me. Free me to my home. Free me so I won’t be apart from my sister, from my family, from my people, from my neighbors.’” Instead he says he was “practically forced” to go to Spain in exchange for getting out of jail, and to get health care for his daughter and himself.

Cuba’s horrendous prison conditions are no secret. In his chilling memoir “Against All Hope” (1986, 2001), Armando Valladares cataloged the brutality he experienced first hand as a prisoner of conscience for 22 years. A steady stream of exiles have echoed his claims. But another bit of cruelty is less well understood: For a half century the regime has let political prisoners out of jail only if they sign a paper saying they have been “rehabilitated” or, when the regime is under pressure, if they agree to leave the island. Getting rid of the strong-willed, while being patted on the back for their “release,” has been Castro’s win-win.

Now some prisoners are refusing to deal. Ten of the 52, including Óscar Elías Biscet, famous for his pacifism, say they will not accept exile as a condition of release. These brave souls remain locked up.

Read a few reports from the Miami Herald: