Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

May 18, 2017 By Fausta

Venezuela: Where’s Francis?

Sam Gregg writes, As Venezuela burns, many Latin Americans ask: “Where is Pope Francis?”

With Venezuela imploding, many wonder why Pope Francis seems slow to condemn a left-wing populist Latin American dictatorship that’s brutalizing the population of an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Gregg points out,

A second factor worth considering is that Venezuela’s crisis doesn’t fit into Pope Francis’s standard way of explaining contemporary political and economic problems. It’s very hard for the pope to blame Venezuela’s problems on the tyranny of Mammon, financial speculation, free trade agreements, arms-dealers, nefarious “neoliberals,” or any of his usual list of suspects.

Venezuela’s problems are clearly the result of socialist policies being imposed by a left-populist regime upon its own people. The Venezuelan bishops haven’t hesitated to describe this as the “fundamental cause” of Venezuela’s woes. The Chavez-Maduro regime has certainly created, to use Francis’s words, “an economy that kills.” But it’s not a market economy. It’s a socialist economy freely chosen and created by Venezuelan leftist-populists. There are no mysterious forces “out there” which forced Venezuela down this path (though functionaries imported from Communist Cuba have been doing their best to keep Maduro in power since 2014). While Maduro regularly blames “Yankee imperialism,” Venezuela’s disastrous situation is squarely the fault of left-wing populist Venezuelans who, like all socialists, refuse to acknowledge that such policies always lead to long-term economic ruin and can only be maintained in place by governments prepared to use “extra-constitutional” methods.

The Venezuelan Catholic leadership formally meets today and is expected to issue a formal statement defending religious freedoms.

UPDATE
Linked to by Doug Ross. Thank you!

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Filed Under: Catholic Church, Communism, Pope Francis I, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta' blog

June 8, 2016 By Fausta

Cuba: Russia, North Korea, tax havens in Panama

All in the week’s news,

First, the tax havens:
The Miami Herald reports,
Panama Papers show Cuba used offshore firms to thwart embargo

Highlights:
At least 25 companies in tax havens had Cuban links

A brother of Raul Castro’s son-in-law appears in the leaked documents

Cuba was at the heart of a deal to export Russian oil that involves a Lebanese company

But wait, there’s more! Russia-Lebanon-Havana connection

One of the more intriguing schemes mentioned in the documents puts Cuba at the heart of a deal to sell Russian oil to Latin America through a company registered in Panama by the Bassatne family. The family controls BB Energy, a conglomerate founded in Lebanon in 1937 that buys and sells 16 million metric tons of crude and derivatives each year. One Bloomberg report showed BB Energy had $10 billion in revenues in 2012.

Read the whole thing.

—————————————

Rep. Joe Pitts writes about Russian ports and NATO:

. . . Russia’s best option was, and has been, to borrow from other countries and use their warm water ports to extend its global reach.

Cuba is one of the most obvious examples. Even though it’s not on the Mediterranean, it demonstrates how enlarged Russia’s scope is with the gain of Cuba’s friendly warm water ports. Russian vessels have utilized Cuba’s installations, along with Nicaragua and Venezuela’s, to reach west across the North Atlantic. As a result, Russia announced in 2014 that it would be reopening an “eavesdropping base” 150 miles away from U.S. soil: In Cuba. Through the access to these strategic ports, Russia’s reach handily extended across the Atlantic.

I had posted about the port.

—————————————

Via Capitol Hill Cubans, The North Korea-Cuba Connection. Havana’s continued cooperation with Pyongyang is an alarming blow to the normalization process.

How Illegal Trade Persists Between Cuba and North Korea

Despite the immense international controversy resulting from Cuba’s 2013 arms sales to North Korea, sporadic trade linkages between the two countries have continued largely unhindered. In January 2016, Cuba and North Korea developed a barter trade system, which officially involved transactions of sugar and railway equipment.

According to Curtis Melvin, an expert at the Washington D.C.-based U.S. Korea Institute, barter trade is an effective way for Cuba and North Korea to evade international sanctions without depleting their hard currency reserves. Cuba’s use of sugar as a medium of bilateral trade has close parallels with Myanmar’s historical use of rice in exchange for North Korean military technology assistance. This form of trade has been vital for the North Korean regime’s survival in wake of the Soviet collapse and more inconsistent patronage from China.

Bottom line:

While the Obama administration has removed Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list and taken a big stride toward lifting the Kennedy-era embargo on Cuba, Havana’s continued cooperation with Pyongyang is an alarming blow to the normalization process.

Smart diplomacy!

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Filed Under: Cuba, North Korea, Russia Tagged With: BB Naft, Fausta' blog, Panama Papers, smart diplomacy

June 1, 2016 By Fausta

David Frum and the seven guardrails

Read my post, David Frum and the seven guardrails

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Filed Under: Fausta's blog, politics Tagged With: Da Tech Guy Blog, Donald Trump, Fausta' blog

April 20, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: States to default next?

Taking a moment away from Dilma’s impeachment, this:
Rio Warns of Fiscal Collapse as Brazil States Seek Debt Relief

  • States ask to pay simple rather than compound interest on debt
  • Supreme Court will rule on repayment method next week
Rio de Janeiro said it’s running out of money to pay for basic services months before the Olympic Games while other Brazilian states warned of similar financial crises if the federal government doesn’t provide debt relief.

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Filed Under: Brazil Tagged With: Fausta' blog

April 19, 2016 By Fausta

Forum: China And Russia – Enemies or Potential Partners?

At the Watcher’s Council,

Every week on Monday, the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher’s Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week’s question: China And Russia – Enemies or Potential Partners?

The Razor : Neither of these nations are America’s natural enemies, but it doesn’t matter what we think. What matters is what they think, and they both perceive us as their enemies so we would be foolish not to respond accordingly. And that’s what we’ve been for the past dozen years or so, responding foolishly.
[Read more…]

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Filed Under: bloggers, politics Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Watchers Council

April 18, 2016 By Fausta

The Carnival Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Well, well, Carnival Cruise Lines expected Cuba’s communist regime to lift its restriction on Cuban-born Americans who arrive by sea, but nooooo . . . and now a group of Cuban Americans have a discrimination lawsuit against Carnival in federal court.

Babalu posts that

the MV Adonia, that is scheduled to sail to Cuba was found to be deficient in meeting safety standards set by the U.S. Coast Guard and that it’s first voyage to the Dominican Republic under Fathom’s flag was canceled.

Additionally, last Tuesday protestors demonstrated in front of Carnival Corp.’s Doral headquarters. Among them was Ramon Saul Sanchez, president of the Democracy Movement, which organized the protest. Now, after living in the U.S.A. for forty-nine years, Ramon Saul Sanchez Has U.S. Residency Application Denied.

Sanchez, who obtained legal entry into the U.S. in what is known as a “parole,” applied for permanent residency in 2002 so he could legally travel aboard the many flotillas he has organized over the years and return easily to the United States.

That permanent residency request was denied and his parole has now also expired, according to the letter issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“You are not authorized to remain in the United States and should make arrangements to depart as soon as possible,” stated the letter, dated April 7 and received by Sanchez Thursday. “Failure to depart may result in your being found ineligible for immigration benefits and inadmissible to the United States in the future.”

The letter also states that the decision cannot be appealed. However, a motion to reopen the case could be filed. Sanchez said he has lawyers working on the next step.

Maybe he ought to have tried calling himself a “Dreamer,” or claim to be Syrian.

ARGENTINA
Time Warp: Five dead in Argentina after taking drugs at electronic music festival that ‘got out of control’. Doctors said they were trying to determine what drugs the victims had taken

Argentina ex-president Fernandez de Kirchner defies court

The former Argentine President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has refused to testify at a court hearing into fraud allegations.
. . .
Emerging from the courthouse, Ms Fernandez gave a stirring hour-long speech to the crowds. She suggested she and other leftist leaders in the region had been unfairly accused of corruption by a “media, political and judicial matrix”.

The crowd trashed the location.

BOLIVIA
Evo feels the Bern at the Vatican,

#BromanceBern: Dem presidential candidate Bernie Sanders shakes hand w Bolivian Pres Evo M… https://t.co/IjNImiQBfP via @bpolitics

— Fausta (@Fausta) April 15, 2016

BRAZIL
Re: the impeachment vote, go here.

Two days ago, Brazil’s Rousseff Works to Sway Lawmakers on Eve of Impeachment Vote. President meets with officials at her residence while other lawmakers continue congressional session

WHY BRAZIL IS WORRIED ABOUT ISIS. The Olympics are scheduled to open on August 5th.

CHILE
Storms leave three million without water in Chile capital

“Unfortunately the weather system over the metropolitan region brought rain that caused increased sediment in the Maipo River, which means a water cut for the population affecting about three million people,” Santiago Mayor Claudio Orrego told a news conference.

COLOMBIA
Colombia struggles with peace fatigue.

Santos published an op-ed in The Guardian, As Colombia’s leader, I know we must rethink the drugs war.The president of Colombia argues that his country’s narco-related violent history illustrates exactly why a global rethink on prohibition should be the key discussion at this week’s UN general assembly special session on drugs

CUBA
Panama Intercepts Major Drug Shipment From Cuba

Today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment: Raúl Castro hardens rhetoric, warns Cubans to be alert to U.S. intentions

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
993 kilos of cocaine seized off Dominican Republic

ECUADOR
Leaked Documents Confirm Ecuador’s Internet Censorship Machine

Cubans in Ecuador want to fly directly from Quito to reach the U.S.

Earthquake headlines:

RING OF FIRE: 7.8 MAG ROCKS ECUADOR…
JAPAN EXODUS AS MORE QUAKES SHAKE…
Region ‘swaying every hour’…
Rescuers race against landslides…
TOYOTA stops operations due to supply shortage…
Mysterious foam fills streets…
Top scientist: Could foreshadow ‘mega quake’…
LIST: STRONGEST SINCE 1900…

Bernie Sanders’s new friends, ¿Una nueva alianza de izquierdas?: Bernie Sanders, Evo Morales y Rafael Correa juntos en Roma

MEXICO
U.S. Goes After New Cartel, Mexican Government Defends the Criminal Group

Authorities have just identified and moved to seize some assets tied to a new cartel in Mexico that had been quietly working under the radar for year supplying large quantities of heroin into Philadelphia. Soon after the announcement, a Mexican governor rushed to their defense claiming they were not a security threat.

Known as the Laredo Cartel, the group had been supplying the streets of Philadelphia with a steady supply of heroin from Mexico.

‘New’ Vigilante Groups Keep a Violent Tradition Alive in Michoacán

PANAMA
IMF chief: regulators long ‘alarmed’ over Panama’s handling of taxation.Christine Lagarde responds to Panama Papers revelations, noting that authorities were concerned but did not take ‘expected’ action

PUERTO RICO
Dethroned Puerto Rico Miss Universe contestant files £2.1 million lawsuit. That’s $3million in America.

Ms Caride was stripped of her title after she was criticised for being dismissive and saying she did not love cameras in an interview with a local newspaper.

Say “NO” to the bailout: Puerto Rico rescue falters under attack by conservatives, investors.

VENEZUELA
Shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic, Venezuela travels forward in time half an hour to help ease energy crisis.Nicolás Maduro rolls back measure enacted by Hugo Chávez to provide more daylight during hours of peak energy consumption amid drought conditions

This week’s podcast,

Now live in @SCantojr‘s podcast: Cuban baseball players plus US-Latin America stories of the week https://t.co/iXnYoFdhAZ

— Fausta (@Fausta) April 15, 2016



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Caribbean, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Latin America, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: Capt. Louis Renault, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Fausta' blog, Laredo Cartel, Time Warp

April 17, 2016 By Fausta

Sunday palate cleanser: Suor Angelica

This is probably the only opera where the only guy in the cast is a little kid.

by Giacomo Puccini, 1918.

Staged in 2007
Francis van Broekhuizen – Suor Angelica.
Yvonne Schiffelers – Zia Principessa.
Helen Lepalaan – Moeder Overste.
LSO onderleiding van Ed Spanjaard

Libretto in Italian and English. Synopsis here.

Special thanks to the readers/listeners who recently purchased through my Amazon links.



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Filed Under: entertainment, music, opera Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Sunday palate cleansers

April 15, 2016 By Fausta

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results

Over at the Watcher’s Council,

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards.” – Mark Twain

Stately McDaniel Manor

This week’s winning essay,Stately McDaniel Manor’s Racism In The Public Schools: Dead Or Alive? Is a professional educator’s look at rampant racism in the public schools..to wit, the racism and bigotry of low expectations. Here’s a slice:

Lyndon Baines Johnson was an old school, bare knuckles politician, hard-edged and bluntly obscene. He was very much reflective of his Democrat party, a party dedicated to segregation and the superiority of the white race. He is widely reported, in speaking about his “Great Society” plan,to have said:

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: bloggers, politics Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Watchers Council

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