Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

September 14, 2016 By Fausta

Salvadoran Maras in Spain

El País reports, Police arrest Mara 18 leader tasked with starting gang activity in Spain. Man known as ‘The Mexican’ detained while setting up extortion, kidnapping and trafficking ring

Spain’s National Police force has arrested a man known as ‘The Mexican’ on suspicion of being one of the leaders of the international criminal organization known as Mara 18. He is thought to have been tasked with starting a new chapter of the violent gang in Spain.

I was rather confused over the headline, since I remembered reading that Mara 13 were rivals of Barrio 18.

Th always valuable InSight Crime clarifies,

Barrio 18 and MS13 are concentrated in the Northern Triangle region ofHonduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and they also have a presence throughout much of the rest of Central America, as well as Mexico and the United States. Nonetheless, the extent of the gangs’ transnational ties remains an open question, as the links between the different branches areoften highly tenuous.

The presence of Central American-based gangs in Europe is not a new phenomenon; both the MS13 and Barrio 18 have had a presence in Italy since the mid-2000s. There is increasing evidence, however, that the gang members in Europe are taking orders from Central American bosses. In addition to the recent case involving Mexicano, the gang members arrested in 2014 in Spain were reportedly Salvadorans sent overseas to build up MS13 operations in the country.

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Filed Under: crime, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Spain Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Mara, Mara 18, Mara Salvatrucha

May 14, 2012 By Fausta

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerARGENTINA
Argentina as No Claims-Nation Revealed in Repsol Losses: Energy

Repsol YPF SA (REP), the Spanish oil explorer seeking $10.5 billion from Argentina for seizing its assets, will line up behind companies from Exxon Mobil Corp. to Unisys Corp. yet to be repaid by the most-sued nation on earth.

There are 26 cases pending against Argentina, more than any other country, at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, the principal arbitration court for claims against sovereign countries. So far, it has refused to pay any of the tribunal’s judgments, according to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists’ report.

Argentina’s state-owned firms
So far, not so good
Can YPF avoid the grim fate of other nationalised companies?

BOLIVIA
Bases militares venezolanas: Entrevista a la Diputada Norma Pierola

CHILE
Chile charges suspect with Japanese astronomer murder
A Chilean man has been charged with the murder of Japanese astronomer Koichiro Morita in Santiago earlier this week.

CUBA
Smile, You’re on Candid Camera.

Getting Ready for Life after Castro
Managing the transition to a democratic Cuba: A user’s guide.

More Red Than Cross

ECUADOR
Ecuador seeks answer to riddle of Inca emperor’s tomb

Chevron’s Ecuador Morass
The U.S. oil company charges that the $18 billion judgment against it was secured by fraud.

UPDATE:
MUST-WATCH VIDEO,


EL SALVADOR
Central America’s gangs
A meeting of the maras
Precarious truces between gangs have lowered the murder rate in two of the world’s most violent countries—but for how long?

GUATEMALA
End of times not quite here yet: Mayan art and calendar at Xultun stun archaeologists

“The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this,” he said.

MEXICO
Maps Show 330 Illegal Aliens Crossing Ariz. Border in One Night in March, Including Ultralight Incursion

Forty-nine headless corpses found in Mexico

Mexico’s presidential election
Political lucha libre

Mexico’s leading presidential candidate is handsome, popular and still a mystery

PERU
‘Mutated’ Shining Path Resurfaces in Peru

Peru ministers resign over Shining Path rebel clashes
Peru’s interior and defence ministers have resigned in the face of a public outcry over a failed security operation against Shining Path rebels.

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Plans to Stop Deficit Borrowing by Fiscal 2014

Puerto Rico plans to offer free Web connections at dozens of centers and public plazas

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s narcostate

Venezuelan politics
A modest concession to reality
, but the weird news continue: Venezuela crossword Chavez assassination plot denied
A Venezuelan crossword compiler has been questioned by intelligence agents after being accused of hiding a coded assassination message in a puzzle.

Venezuela analysts cast doubt on presidential election
Venezuelan analysts in Miami said the Hugo Chávez administration is casting doubts about this year’s presidential election.

Watching Some “Strategic” Companies In Bolivarian Venezuela

The week’s posts:
Saturday tango: CNN version

Cuban slave labor used to build Ikea furniture in the 1980s

The History of Ernesto Che Guevara – A Short Story

Argentina’s Olympic gaffe

Mexico: The boob tube UPDATED with VIDEO

In Defense of Marco Rubio’s Story of His Family’s Exile


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Filed Under: Argentina, Bolivia, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Communism, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hugo Chavez, illegal immigration, immigration, Mexico, MS-13, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Tagged With: Chevron, Fausta's blog, Mara, Repsol YPF, YPF

November 14, 2011 By Fausta

The Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

This week’s big news: the helicopter crash that killed to Cabinet Secretary Francisco Blake Mora; he was Mexico’s second-in-command.

ARGENTINA
Argentina Can’t Slow Drain on Dollar Reserves

Currency control efforts worry Argentines

BRAZIL
Will Brazil become like Venezuela?

How Brazil can benefit from helping Europe
Brazil’s growing economy and 200 million people make it a major market
A financial contribution by Brazil to help the EU combat its debt crisis would be small, but provide an opportunity to improve ties with Europe and play a bigger international role.
(h/t Gates of Vienna)

COLOMBIA
Se derrumba otro mito: El Caso Mapiripán

CUBA
Che’s Secret Diary
The guerrilla hero as a dispirited racist.

Michael Moore Salutes Our ‘Hispanic’ Veterans

EL SALVADOR
NYTimes book review: In the New Gangland of El Salvador

HAITI
The UN in Haiti
Damned if you do

MEXICO

Mexico Under Siege

Border: The helicopter crash Friday that killed Mexico’s top Cabinet official, Jose Francisco Blake, couldn’t have come at a worse time. Cartels are acquiring heavy arms to challenge the state and to move their war to the U.S.

In Mexico, Blake, the Interior Secretary, was the best hope of winning the war against the vicious cartels, who’ve killed as many as 86,000 people.

Blake, 45, had managed to crush the cartels and cut crime in his native Tijuana before he was asked to do the same for the country in the top Cabinet job in 2010.

He had some success — five of the top seven cartel capos were knocked off by the end of his watch.

But he’s the second interior secretary killed in a helicopter crash since 2008, and that leaves a great sense of uneasiness. Mexico’s currency fell on news of his death, the cause of which is still undetermined.

A fatal crash

Grassley: Holder refusing to provide 11 witnesses for Fast and Furious interviews

PERU
Leaders of China, Peru seek new cooperation

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico matches last year’s record for second-highest number of killings

URUGUAY
Quiet Success in South America
The underappreciated economic achievements of Uruguay and Paraguay

VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Perez would revise Cuba oil deal

27884
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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Carnival of Latin America, Che Guevara, China, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, oil, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Fast and Furious, Fausta's blog, Francisco Blake Mora, Mara

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