Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. As the title indicates, it’s been a year since Mel Zelaya was thrown out of office. He and his teddy bear are also gone from his tin foil-lined room at the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern:
The UN Office for Drugs and Crime’s report

ARGENTINA
Collateral damage

Cristina se reunió con empresarios antes del comienzo de la cumbre del G20

Seventy-five years ago today

BARBADOS
Barbados and Panama sign double taxation agreement

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Bottles Build Houses

BRAZIL
Brazil’s foreign policy
An Iranian banana skin
Lula has little to show for his Tehran adventure

Lula’s adventure in Tehran smacks of the overconfidence of a politician who basks in an approval rating of over 70% and who sees the Iraq war and the financial crisis as having irreparably damaged American power and credibility. But the United States is still Brazil’s second-largest trading partner. Although some American and Brazilian officials are keen to prevent ill-will over Iran from spoiling co-operation in other areas, it nevertheless may do so. The United States Congress may be even less willing to support the elimination of a tariff on Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol, for example.

Lula wants the UN reformed to reflect today’s world, with Brazil gaining a permanent seat on the Security Council. But by choosing to apply his views on how the world should be run to an issue of pressing concern to America and Europe, and in which Brazil has no obvious national interest, Lula may only have lessened the chances that he will get his way.

Lula skips G20 summit due to deadly Brazil floods

CHILE
Piñera’s (dis)approval

Entrevista a Josep Montaner, “El rol de la sociedad civil ha de ser activo en cualquier situación” Video in Spanish,

Josep Montaner _ Rol de la sociedad civil from Plataforma Urbana on Vimeo.

COLOMBIA
THOMSON: Santos sweeps to the presidency
Platform for security, stability and development win b

Good news from Colombia, but does Obama appreciate it?

Ros-Lehtinen: Recognizing Colombia’s presidential election and the U.S.-Colombia alliance Ros-Lehtinen Resolution on Colombia Elections Passes House

Will Washington treat Colombia’s Santos as an ally?

COSTA RICA
Father’s Day in Costa Rica

CUBA
When Learning Turns to Dust

“Cuba experts”

Ramiro on a hunger strike?

Syrian president due in Havana on Sunday

Interviews With Dr. Darsi Ferrer and Juan Juan Almeida

ECUADOR
UPDATE: Filmmakers Argue Against Ruling In Chevron Case

HONDURAS
A year without Mel Zelaya

More intromission by US Ambassador Llorens and G-16

JAMAICA
Mr Coke turns himself in

Jamaican drug lord captured

MEXICO
Mexican Violence Crosses Borders; Attracts Media Attention

Mexico Represents Single Biggest Drug Trafficking Threat to U.S.

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua’s Sandinistas accused of paying for power
Daniel Ortega’s ruling Sandinistas Front is using strong-arm tactics to limit opposition, observers say.

PANAMA
Washington Post on retiring to Panama

PARAGUAY
Journalists in the crosshairs of Paraguayan People’s Army

PERU
Peruvian Franken-Corn Defamation Case Update

Keiko Fujimori Leads Peru Presidential Poll, El Comercio Says

Keiko Fujimori says “I will be in the second round” for president of Peru in 2011

Peru judge rules Van der Sloot confession valid

PUERTO RICO

Students approve strike pact. Back in the olden days when I was a student at the UPR they were striking, too, but no one slept in cute little tents on campus. Either way, the strikes are a total waste of time.

VENEZUELA
Today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern: UN: Most of the cocaine going to Europe passes through Venezuela

The report launched by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) expresses concern about Venezuela due to the existence of cells of armed insurgent groups, such as the Bolivarian Liberation Front and civilian militias supported by the government.

WDR 2010 website. PDF file: full report.

Syrian president meets with Chavez in Caracas

Revolutionary Rot, But News It’s Not: AP Ignores Venezuela’s ‘Battle for Food‘, also at BizzyBlog

Como el paternalismo crea dictadores

A radical shift to the radical left in Venezuela

Ollie Loves Hugo & Hugo Loves Ollie

Le Monde criticizes the selling out of Venezuela to Cuba, Chavez gets revenge by taking away a minor farm of Diego Arria and Letter from Diego Arria to Hugo Chavez

VenEconomy: Venezuela Dominated By & Split Up Into Ghettos

Commie Despot Renegs On Debts, Seizes Oil Rigs

Today’s Video: Oligarchs vs. Bolivarians

Maria Conchita Alonso on Oliver Stone’s South of the Border (VIDEO)

HUMOR
My cousin sent this, Por que Cuba No fue a el Mundial Los Pichy Boys

The week’s posts and podcasts:
How about, Sayonara, Citgo?
Venezuela to nationalize U.S. firm’s oil rigs
Venezuela’s fast-track doctors
Jamaica: Dudus Coke in the can
Mexican gangs’ lookouts in Arizona
Rum war?
Obama Secretary of Labor: Illegals Have a Right to Fair Wages VIDEO
In Silvio Canto’s podcast.
In Rick Moran’s podcast.