Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

May 23, 2016 By Fausta

The radical tourists Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Nick Cohen takes to task “lefty westerners who trawl the world for revolutions to praise:” Radical tourists have been deluded pimps for Venezuela, in The Guardian, no less.

ARGENTINA
Viviana Fein still trying to justify herself: Alberto Nisman may have been forced to kill himself, says Argentine prosecutor. Shot in the back of the head, no less.

BOLIVIA
Bolivia police, workers clash at protest over plant shutdown

Dynamite Used at Bolivian Protest, 3 Injured, 76 Arrested

BRAZIL

In order for #Brazil to come out of its most recent economic #downturn, it must look externally & open its #economy. https://t.co/LfvFUYq8VR

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) May 22, 2016

Brazil’s Revised 2016 Budget Projects Worse-Than-Expected Fiscal Picture. Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles says forecasts are ‘transparent and realistic’

Brazil Partners with WHO to Track Tobacco, Alcohol Industries. Country Also Plans to Monitor Use of Alcohol and Sugar Intake. I don’t drink or smoke, but this gives me a craving for a Derby and caprinhas.

CHILE
Violent protests erupt during Chile president’s speech

Chileans are angry because of an economic downturn and a corruption scandal involving Ms Bachelet’s family.

COLOMBIA
Colombia and FARC Rebels Reach a Deal to Free Child Soldiers

FARC has said in the past that it no longer recruits child soldiers. But during a visit this year by a New York Times reporter to a rebel camp,minors said guerrilla fighters had taken them into custody in recent months.

COSTA RICA
At Drudge:  Hell opens? Costa Rica volcano erupts…

Hundreds hospitalized…

CUBA
Cuban and North Korean Special Forces in Venezuela

Furthermore, how this arrangement stems from a confidential military cooperation and intelligence-sharing agreement that North Korea’s Kim Jong-un with Cuba’s Castro regime in March.

ECUADOR
Ecuador Bank Hacked — $12 Million Stolen in 3rd Attack on SWIFT System

Ecuador deporta a cinco de los cubanos detenidos en el Hotel Carrión

JAMAICA
Venezuela’s Maduro stopped by: Venezuelan president in Jamaica for working visit

MEXICO
Mexican Marines Denounce Superiors’ Unwillingness to Fight Cartels

‘El Chapo’ Extradition to the U.S. Approved. The Mexican Foreign Ministry said Friday that the government has authorized the extradition of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán to the U.S. where he faces drug trafficking and other charges.

Mysterious Roar And Light In The Sky Wake Mexican City

Police, soldiers swarm Acapulco, killings continue…

Lord Rolls Royce (en español),

PANAMA
Panama ends sale of Mexico air tickets to stranded Cuban migrants

PARAGUAY
Paraguay battles over land rights in the courts and across the airwavesAs soya companies appropriate land in Paraguay, many small-scale campesino farmers are forced out to cities. For those who stay to fight for their land, the conflict can turn bloody

PERU
Peru’s Fujimori faces money laundering investigation ahead of election. Prosecutors have opened an investigation against Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori and her husband. The probe comes shortly before nationwide polls and will look into suspicious campaign contributions.

PUERTO RICO
Creditors of Puerto Rico Government Bank Revive Lawsuit Over Debt Moratorium

URUGUAY
Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro is ‘Crazy as a Goat’, says former Uruguayan president. The colloquial equivalent in American English is “batshit crazy.”

VENEZUELA
Good luck with that, Oil-for-Drugs Swap: India’s Answer to Venezuela’s Unpaid Bills

Chains of the Foolish

Sugar shortage forces Coca-Cola to stop production in Venezuela

Venezuela, where hamburger is officially $170…

Socialist paradise turned living hell…

‘We are like a bomb’…

Fidel Castro, Evo Morales discuss ‘imperialist efforts’ in Latin America…



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, Jose Mujica, Keiko Fujimori, Lord Rolls Royce, Nicolas Maduro, Viviana Fein

October 26, 2015 By Fausta

The Argentinian election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Argentinians voted yesterday. There will be a runoff, Scioli vs Macri (more on that later today).

New Scrutiny on Vote Buying as Argentine Elections Near. The practice, which is not illegal, was called a scourge last month in local voting, but raises questions about the frailty of the nation’s democracy.

Is it the end of Kirchnerismo and the start of saner economic policies? There are No Easy Economic Options for Argentina’s Next President.Winner of Sunday’s election will be forced to make unpopular moves to keep inflation-ridden economy ticking

Argentina Election Won’t Make Investors Rush In. International community won’t be wooed easily amid recent retreat from emerging market debt

ARGENTINA
In time for the election, Nisman is being accused of being a spy:
Alberto Nisman: Was prosecutor killed while investigating 1994 bombing of Jewish centre in Buenos Aires moonlighting for the FBI?Exclusive: A new book claims US security services abandoned Mr Nisman as he was about to reveal President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s alleged attempts to cover up Iran’s involvement in the atrocity

Alberto Nisman ‘was working for the FBI’Argentina gripped by a new book which claims that Alberto Nisman, the terrorism prosecutor found dead in January, was working for the Americans

America ‘refused to hand over emails sent by Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman’ before his death. A new book claims the prosecutor, who was found dead earlier this year, was secretly a contact for the FBI. Money quote:

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the president, has laughed at suggestions that she orchestrated his death and instead argues that he was murdered by rogue spies who used him to discredit her, and then killed him.

As they said forty-one years ago, Silence is health.

BOLIVIA
Bolivian Court OKs Vote on Allowing Presidents to Serve 3 Terms

El exembajador chavista que se convirtió en alto ejecutivo ferroviario en Bolivia. No era una imagen que sorprendía a nadie. Sentado junto a Evo Morales en un sinfín de actos públicos aparecía Julio Montes, el delegado de Hugo Chávez en Bolivia. Chavista former ambassador became high-placed railroad executive in Bolivia.

BRAZIL
Brazil Begins Major Security Operation on Northwestern Border

Operation Agata 10 is targeting environmental crimes, illegal trafficking of timber, drug smuggling and illegal fishing along the 10,000 kilometers (6,215 miles) of Brazil’s border with Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname and Guyana, the ministry said in a statement.

CHILE
Damage control in Chile. Michelle Bachelet’s reluctant retreat towards the centre

Chile grants same-sex couples civil partnership licenses. New law took effect on Thursday following more than a decade of congressional debate over gay marriage

COLOMBIA
Colombia Forces Kill 9 ELN Guerrillas

“Peace without justice benefits only the terrorist leaders, otherwise it’s unstable and engenders more violence. Let’s support the Centro Democrático.”

Paz sin justicia solo beneficia a cabecillas terroristas, de resto es inestable y genera más violencia. Apoyemos al Centro Democrático

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) October 24, 2015

COSTA RICA
New ferry to connect Costa Rica-El Salvador starting in January

CUBA
Castro Pocketed WHO Funds Destined for Ebola Health Workers

This also violates international labor and human trafficking covenants.

And yet, some still advocate for “dictator-down-economics.”

Apartheid-loving tourists have their fun spoiled by an unruly drunk

Cuba frees ‘prisoner of conscience’. Graffiti artist “El Sexto” was jailed for 10 months after he painted “Fidel” and “Raúl” on pigs to satirize Cuba’s leaders.

CUBAN TROOPS IN SYRIA: ANOTHER FOREIGN POLICY CRISIS

It's not in vain that Ricardo Cabrisas came to Moscow today. Russia's coming back to Cuba with its industry (cont) https://t.co/QjrwYTyulK

— Dmitry Rogozin (@DRogozin) October 22, 2015

ECUADOR
Ecuador’s president literally wants to fight a politician who criticized him, but it came to naught.

FALKLAND ISLANDS
Promises, promises: Argentina’s presidential hopeful promises better relations with Britain over the Falklands. Exclusive: Mauricio Macri will not appoint a ‘Falklands Minister’ if elected and will work to defrost Argentina’s relations with Britain, his foreign policy chief tells The Telegraph

GUATEMALA
Guatemala’s Presidential Hopefuls Exit the Final Debate as They Went In.Lack of Confrontation, New Plans Leaves Sandra Torres in Catch-Up Mode

MEXICO
Mexico Outdoes the United States for Deporting Central Americans. Southern Border Plan Ushers in 25% More Arrests, 200% More Checks

Patricia, Strongest Landfalling Pacific Hurricane on Record, Downgraded to Tropical Depression

Mexican police uncover secret drug tunnel used by ‘El Chapo’s’ cartel. The 800-meter-long passageway runs under the US-Mexican border from Tijuana

PANAMA
Panama reaffirms open date for widening. All signs point to April startup for expansion of the Panama Canal, agency says. (subscription)

PARAGUAY
Investigation into Paraguay Ex-President Reflects Regional Trend

PERU
Prosecutor: Peru army officer got $10K per cocaine planeload

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico: The Progressive Utopia is Here Now | Scott Ott Thought

URUGUAY
Uruguay’s Mujica to Step Away from Senate, but Not from Public Life

VENEZUELA
Franklin Nieves, the prosecutor in Leopoldo Lopez’s trial, has fled the country, and, a day late and a dollar short (emphasis added),

In a video sent Friday to the Venezuelan news website La Patilla, Nieves said he fled Venezuela with his family to escape pressure from the executive branch and his superiors to stand by while “false evidence” is used to keep an innocent Lopez in jail during the appeals process. He said he would soon present evidence to demonstrate that Lopez’s trial was a premediated “farce.”

Speaking of dollars, Venezuela Central Bank sues US-based DolarToday website

It accuses the website of cyberterrorism and says its managers are sowing economic chaos in Venezuela.

The central bank requested both an injunction and damages, accusing the site’s managers of fanning inflation in the country.

It’s always somebody else’s fault, Organized crime:At least half of the homicides that occur in Venezuela are tied to the organized crime but individuals fail to perceive that, a study found



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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Latin America, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Rafael Correa, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Alberto Nisman, Andrés Páez, El Sexto, Falkland Islands, Fausta's blog, Jose Mujica, Julio Montes, Leopoldo López, Pepe Mujica

September 14, 2015 By Fausta

Syrians in Uruguay: A developing story of domestic violence?

Syrian refugees are in the news as they now invade Europe, but they made the news in Latin America earlier this year due to allegations of wife and child abuse.

The video below, which I posted in this morning’s Carnival after translating (below the fold since it starts right away), describes that, after Jose Mujica brought to the country forty-five* members of five families who arrived in October 2014, one of the priests at the Marist location housing them claimed to have witnessed one of the Syrian men repeatedly beat up his wife and children.

[*The number is not clear: While most reports refer to five families, the actual number of people varies from 42 to 45.]

The ensuing investigation was later tabled by the authorities, who decided that the matter was a misunderstanding that cleared up after the families left the Marist shelter for permanent housing (“pero que se solucionaron una vez abandonaron la casa de retiros de los Hermanos Maristas para ir a sus hogares definitivos”), while the local police did not contact directly any of the Syrians.

Ponder that for a moment.

The Syrians were promised before their arrival that no one would interfere with their customs. When the priest interrupted the beating and warned the man that domestic violence is against the law, the man demanded that he and his family be relocated to Europe.

In another instance, a Syrian boy was treated at the Pereira Rossell Hospital for an arm fracture caused by his father’s beating.

At the time Frances Martel reported

Uruguayan President Tabaré Vásquez halted the program, started by predecessor José Mujica, until the government could reassess the costs and benefits to the nation. In February, Uruguay announced that it would no longer take in male Syrian refugees due to a surge in domestic violence in the community, before halting the influx of refugees altogether in March.

Discussing the challenges facing Uruguayan society in assimilating Syrians, Human Rights Secretary Javier Miranda told the Uruguayan legislature how he had encountered child abuse among Syrians.

After the case was dismissed, Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa announced that Uruguay will welcome an additional seven Syrian families with 72 members (Mujica implies it would be an additional 80 people in the video below).

The refugees are receiving housing, health care, education and financial support from the government, but that aid is scheduled to end next year.

Now the five families are camping in protest and demand to be relocated to other countries who may take them, naming lack of economic opportunities in Uruguay,

“I am not afraid to go back to Lebanon,” said 36-year-old Aldees Maher, whose family had initially sought safety in a refugee camp across the border from Syria. “I want a place that guarantees me, my family a life.”

Interestingly (emphasis added),

Maher Aldees’s family, the one that got stranded in Istanbul, had been living in the coastal city of Piriápolis, where local officials accused the parents of not sending their daughters to school. Authorities later said the issue was resolved.

Aldees and his family tried to leave for Serbia, but after 23 days at the Istanbul airport, Turkish authorities sent them back to Uruguay. Another Syrian family, the Ashlebis, joined in the protest.

Mujica, no longer president, claims that the fiasco is due to the protesting Syrians not being used to used to heavy labor since they are of middle-class, white-collar background, and that Mujica had envisioned the program for farm laborers. However, the Ashlebis come from a rural background.

Video below the fold:

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: immigration, Islam, Syria, Uruguay Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Jose Mujica, Maher Aldees, Tabare Vazquez

February 9, 2015 By Fausta

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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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, illegal immigration, immigration, Latin America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: #Ayotzinapa, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Día a Día, Farmatodo, Fausta's blog, Irwin Cotler, Jose Mujica, Leopoldo López, Martina Navratilova, Mia Farrow, Misery index, Nicaragua canal, Ollanta Humala, Pepe Mujica, Pope Francis I

December 15, 2014 By Fausta

Uruguay: Send more Gitmo alumni!

While the world looks at the terrorist holding people hostage in Sydney,

Uruguay Tries to SetPattern on Guantanamo Detainees
President José Mujica’s Government Expressed Hope That His Nation’s Gesture Would Lead Other Countries to Resettle Prisoners From at the U.S.-Run Facility
.

Mujica didn’t say “send Uruguay more Giltmo alumni,” though.

Last week I was asking under what country’s passports would the six terrorists travel. It looks like there’s an answer (emphasis added):

Approved for release from a military hospital and given Uruguayan identity documents, the men moved into a small-three bedroom house in Montevideo provided by a labor confederation. “These men have gone through an extremely difficult situation,” said Fernando Pereira, a union official, “so we’re going to give them psychological support and care.”

Empathy, indeed.

Mr. Mujica’s government has signaled that it wants to help the Obama administration in its goal of closing the detention center, which cannot take place until countries take in prisoners the U.S. have cleared for transfers.
…
So far in Latin America and the Caribbean, 12 former inmates have been resettled, including two in El Salvador in 2012 and four in Bermuda in 2009. The six who came to Montevideo—four Syrians, a Palestinian and a Tunisian—are the first detainees to be resettled in South America.

What could possibly go wrong?

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Filed Under: al-Qaeda, terrorism, terrorism. Latin America, Uruguay Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Jose Mujica

December 9, 2014 By Fausta

Uruguay: Gitmo alumni go free

They can travel out of the country, too,
Guantanamo Inmates Get Rights in Uruguay
Six former prisoners in the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba were set to begin their lives as free men in Uruguay on Monday, as President José Mujica said they could travel in and out of the country.

Six former prisoners in the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba were set to begin their lives as free men in Uruguay on Monday, as President José Mujica said they could travel in and out of the country.

Under what country’s passports?, you would ask. Once they get (Uruguayan?) passports, where will they go?

Most of the men—a Palestinian, four Syrians and a Tunisian—were likely to leave the hospital on Tuesday once they cleared extensive physical and mental tests and move into temporary housing, officials said.

“They will be able to bring their families here if they want,” Uruguay’s defense minister, Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, told a local news station. “They will be accompanied by people to help them adjust to the language and other things. They will have to find jobs.”

Ah-hum.

It’s all about the empathy,

In a televised interview on Friday, Mr. Mujica—a former guerrilla who was imprisoned for 14 years—said that while he had long criticized the U.S. for its “interventions and abuses,” he couldn’t decline a request by Mr. Obama to accept the men.

in other empathy news,

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Filed Under: news, terrorism, terrorism. Latin America, UK, Uruguay Tagged With: Fausta' blog, Gitmo, Guantánamo, Jose Mujica

November 7, 2014 By Fausta

He can have my Volvo for US$500,000

Soon-to-be-former Uruguayan president Pepe Mujica claims that an unnamed Arab sheik (who must have been smoking the Uruguayan government’s most famous crop) has offered to buy Mujica’s VW Beetle for US$1million:
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica receives $1m offer for his blue Beetle
The leader says that an Arab sheikh wanted to buy the car which has become a symbol of his humble style

he joked that he did not sell it because of his dog Manuela, famous for only having three legs.

Yeah, right.


The Love Bug

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Filed Under: cars, Uruguay Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Jose Mujica, Pepe Mujica

October 27, 2014 By Fausta

Elections: No change in Brazil, Uruguay

First Uruguay: Same old, same old, in age and in politics,
Since Pepe Mujica could not run for a second term according to the Uruguayan Constitution, an election took place yesterday, which now goes to a runoff

Leftist ruling coalition candidate Tabare Vazquez led Uruguay’s presidential election on Sunday but he fell short of a first-round victory and will go to a runoff vote next month with the country’s pioneering marijuana bill hanging in the balance.

Vazquez of the Broad Front coalition said as results trickled in that the race would go to a second round and he is likely to face a nerve-jangling contest against young center-right opposition candidate, Luis Lacalle Pou.

Exit polls showed Vazquez winning 44-46 percent of the vote compared with 31-33 percent for Lacalle Pou of the National Party.

The 74 year old Vazquez first was president in 2005, and it looks like he’s going for a rerun. Lacalle Pou is 41.

Also going for a rerun, Brazilians choose to remain “the country of the future”:
Brazil Sticks With Statism
Odds are that the country’s reputation for economic mediocrity is safe for another four years.

Neither Lula nor Ms. Rousseff seem to care about development. According to Goldman Sachs , from 2004-13 government spending grew at almost 8% a year, in real terms, which was more than twice the rate of GDP growth. Inflation is now 7% year-over-year on prices for goods and services not regulated by price controls and 8.6% for services alone. Inflationary expectations are rising.
…
More worrying is the damage the PT might do to institutions and the rule of law over another 48 months. Civil society here jealously guards civil liberties and pluralism. But as one astute businessman told me, “We are noticing, bit by bit, a trend toward copying Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador. The tendency is to reduce democracy.” One example is Ms. Rousseff’s May decree empowering “popular councils,” which would move the country away from representative democracy à la Venezuela. Congress has so far refused to approve the measure but if the usual vote-buying goes on, that may change.

To celebrate, Dilma wore a suit that matched the drapes and her politics,

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Filed Under: Brazil, elections, Uruguay Tagged With: Aécio Neves, Dilma Rousseff, Fausta's blog, Jose Mujica, Luis Lacalle Pou, Pepe Mujica, Tabare Vazquez

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