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American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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The Winter Olympics week Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

While the Sochi accommodations are nowhere near as nice as those in the more modest hotels in our hemisphere, Mexico sent the most interesting skier in the world, Bermudans wore shorts, and the guys from the Caymans wore shorts and flip-flops (which may explain why there only three). Dominica, Tortola of the British Virgin Islands, Jamaica (whose bobsled is now complete), Paraguay, Brazil, Peru and the US Virgin Islands also have athletes in Sochi.

ARGENTINA
Argentina bus crash near Mendoza kills at least 18

COUNTING THE COST
Argentina’s great decline
It has gone from being one of the world’s wealthiest nations to a serial defaulter, but can it get back on track?

Argentina: Repeat Economic Offender

ARGENTINA FREE FALL
Kirchner Government Doubles Down In Its War Against Math

Argentina is doubling down in its war against math. The WSJ reports that political activists loyal to President Kirchner are publicly targeting retailers by putting posters of the executives up all over Buenos Aires. The posters accuse the leaders of Walmart and other companies of fueling the country’s ruinous inflation by raising prices, even as the government continues to devalue the official currency and ignore traditional IMF economic policy.

Argentina to US senators: Show a little respect

BELIZE
A magical world at Francis Ford Coppola’s luxe resorts in Belize
Need isolation? Coppola’s Blancaneaux Lodge is in the middle of the untamed, natural beauty of a Belizean forest preserve. Need local culture? Turtle Inn is on the coast near the fishing village of Placencia

BOLIVIA
Bolivia floods kill 38, more heavy rains forecast

The European Union (EU) Thursday called on Bolivia to respect the ruling of the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in favor of British power generator Rurelec PLC, said an official. US$41 million.

BRAZIL
Brazil may face water shortages during World Cup, group says, but I’ll bet it won’t be like the Sochi water.

Removida delegada que apura ligação de Lula com mensalão

Responsável pelo inquérito que investiga a suposta participação do ex-presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva no esquema do mensalão, a delegada Andrea Pinho foi removida do cargo nesta sexta-feira, 7. O inquérito que tem Lula como alvo será tocado por outro delegado, ainda não designado que pode pedir novas diligências ou o arquivamento do caso.

CHILE
Chile cool: art, music and graffiti in laid-back Valparaíso
The Chilean city of Valparaíso is alive with avant-garde culture and vibrant street art. Think mini Berlin by the seaside

COLOMBIA
Colombia`s media are wrong; election is up for grabs

Photo of Pres. Santos shaking hands with Timochenko, the FARC leader, back in the day, “If you want Timochenko as president and Iván Márquez in the Senate, you know who to vote for in the upcoming elections.”

COSTA RICA
‘Black Heart’ in Brazil heat drives coffee turnaround h/t DP

CUBA
Gorki Aguila, Cuban Rocker Faces Sham Trial

Cuba Regime Supporters Caught Off Guard with Reaction to Fanjul Story

Oh Happy Day! NBC refers to Communism as “pivotal experiment”

The Truth About Che Guevara

ECUADOR
Xavier Bonilla’s cartoon before:

Freedom of speech in Ecuador
Drawn and quartered
The government orders a newspaper to “correct” a critical cartoon

Xavier Bonilla’s cartoon after:

EL SALVADOR
JJ Rendón is suing Salvador’s president Mauricio Funes for $100 on defamation of character and slander from Funes calling him “a fugitive from justice, a rapist.” (link in Spanish) I hope Rendón wins, and gets to collect.

GUATEMALA
Claudia Paz y Paz, A Guatemalan crusader is reined in

Guatemalan court upholds top prosecutor’s ouster

HONDURAS
Democracy

MEXICO
In Apatzingán:Mexican Vigilantes Enter Key City in Michoacán State
Vigilantes Aim to Take Control of City from Organized Crime Group

THE AMERICAN VIGILANTE VERSUS THE MEXICAN CARTEL

Sochi 2014: ‘Mexican prince’ ready to hit slopes in Mariachi suit

Well, he already was successful lobbying against soft drinks: Look who’s giving advice to Mexico City? Señor Bloomberg. I suggest he brush up his Spanish,

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua: Ortega allowed to run for third successive term

PANAMA
Panama Canal work stops in $1.6bn row
The Spanish-led consortium working on a project to widen the Panama Canal confirms work has been suspended amid a row over cost overruns.

PARAGUAY
Julia Marino becomes Paraguay’s first Winter Olympian

PERU
400 Dead Dolphins Washed Up on Peru Beaches in January

PUERTO RICO
Networks Completely Ignore $70 Billion Puerto Rican Debt Crisis

Puerto Rico Downgrade Puts Bond Deal in Spotlight
Investors are looking beyond the junk-rated credit of Puerto Rico to see if it can sell debt needed for short-term finances, lay groundwork for economic recovery.

URUGUAY
Uruguay’s president nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for legalizing marijuana

VENEZUELA
D.C. mayoral candidate’s business to host Venezuelan government’s pro-Chavez event

Toyota Halts Venezuela Production as Car Sales Fall

Venezuelans fume as government signals end to ‘free’ petrol
In a country where petrol is cheaper than water, ministers say prices must increase for the first time since a rise 15 years ago sparked deadly riots

The fascists in charge of Venezuela want to kill the press, while banging students

The Paradox Of Chavista “Planning”: Even Simple Things Are Hard For Them

Antonio Pardo, A Venezuelan in Sochi (Important Update)

According to Alek Boyd and others, Mr. Pardo is not quite the feel-good story we made him out to be. Turns out he allegedly has links to Antonini Wilson and the suitcase scandal. State news media is falsely reporting he won a gold medal.

Venezuelan “skier” in #Sochi2014 has a Swiss bank, is partners with Carlos Kauffmann & Co. His brother’s a partner of L. Oberto in St Barts

The week’s posts and podcast:
“Smart diplomacy”: Ambassador to Argentina may not even speak Spanish

Mexico: The most interesting skier in the world

Brazil: Cuban doctor seeks asylum

Argentina: Burning down the house

Venezuela: Squatting at the Presidential Mansion

Puerto Rico: Junk bond status

Sochi: Airline loses Jamaicans’ bobsled

Mexico: Behind the Peña Nieto-Fidel photo-op

Left turns: El Salvador and Costa Rica

At Da Tech Guy: Ask Fausta: Is now the time to travel to Latin America? The answer is yes.

Podcast: Elections in El Salvador plus other US-Latin America issues


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The carnival week Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

ARGENTINA
Cada cinco días sale un Narcojet del país

Argentina’s Supreme Court demands government balance allocation of state advertising

BOLIVIA
Smuggling Scandal Shakes Bolivia

Bolivia’s Evo Morales
The calle gets restive
Inflation, shortages and scandals have caught up with Latin America’s hitherto most popular leftist leader

BRAZIL
Weary Brazilians seek escape from Carnival crowds

89 million condoms to be given out at Brazil’s Carnival

Already Lofty Interest Rates in Brazil Get Even Higher

30 Billion USD 2011 budget cut

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Leader Looks Beyond the U.S.

Fidel’s Ideal Road Map to Solve the Alan Gross Case

CUBA
The Motorcycle Drones On

Gross trial gets under way in Havana

Cuba and the internet
Wired, at last
The battle of the blogs begins

Bohemia Lagoon

Jaime de Marichalar y su exabrupto anticastrista

ECUADOR
A cure worse than the disease

EL SALVADOR
Obama meets with El Salvador’s president

HAITI
A journey to Jacmel
Little miracles

JAMAICA
Music and crime in the Caribbean
Bad news for Buju Banton

MEXICO
I have been reading about – but not blogging on – the Gunwalker scandal. Via Instapundit, Robert Farago has three explanations on The Real Reason the ATF Smuggled Guns Into Mexico: 1. To catch the “big fish”, 2. Empire building, and 3. ATF Agents enabled smuggled guns to line their own pockets, concluding that,

The amount of money—cash money—flowing in the drug trade is beyond your wildest imagination. Tens of billions of dollars. The Mexican drug lords have corrupted officials on both sides of the border, at the highest possible levels. Why not the ATF? Money talks, guns walk. Makes perfect sense.

No Man’s Land: The Mystery of Mexico’s Drug Wars

Heads of U.S., Mexico to Meet as Tensions Rise
Violence From Drug War to Top Agenda as Calderón Visits Obama in Washington

Calderon and the Mexico Mess

U.S., Mexico Unveil Deal to End Trucking Dispute

Calderon: WikiLeaks caused severe damage to U.S.-Mexico relations

Obama’s Mexico Standoff

The elephant in the room, via Gancho

Murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry Was Armed with … Beanbags?
A political policy that left a Border Patrol agent facing lethally armed men with only a beanbag gun is likely responsible for his death.

NICARAGUA
US to Nicaragua’s opposition: We can dance, but you lead

PERU
The Liberation of Lori Berenson

Minute-by-minute: A recount of the Peru’s electoral debate

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico sweetens film incentives
Looks to lure biz as some states trim offerings

VENEZUELA
Qaddafi Said to Accept Venezuelan Offer for Help

The Chavez Doctrine

Qaddafi’s Pal in Caracas
Hugo Chávez had better hope he doesn’t end up like his dictator friends

That Sirocco breeze from Libya….

IMMIGRATION
Slaughtering the Innocents that Americans Won’t Slaughter: MS-13 Gang Members Wreak Bloody Havoc Thanks to Open Borders Policy

The week’s posts and podcasts,
Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, and Hugo Chavez to the rescue!, also in The Greenroom.
Podcast: President Calderon meets Pres BO
Mexican drug cartels in the USA: The new Mafia
Is Castro Gaddafi’s pimp?
Caracas’s high-rise to nowhere

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Mexico: Anti-American propaganda on Univision

Remember the massacre of 72 illegal migrants in Mexico?
It’s the US’s fault!
Even if the immigrants had never set foot in the US?
Even if the countries of origin drive their people to desperation and despair enough to travel thousands of miles by foot in search of a better future in the US?
Even if the Mexican investigators have been murdered in their own country as the country collapses into a drug war?

If you are to believe the charlatans in charge heads of state of El Salvador and Mexico, the answer would be yes (emphasis added):
Mexico lashes out at US after migrant massacre

President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador said Friday he doesn’t blame Mexico’s government for the massacre of 72 mainly Central American migrants, and called for a joint effort to fight drug cartels.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Funes said after their meeting that the two countries have formed a high-level working group to develop joint strategies for combatting the drug gangs.

“We have come to have a conversation with the president of Mexico, not to condemn him or criticize him,” Funes said. “Rather the opposite, to show him our support and offer our help in this fight.”

Thirteen Salvadorans were among the dead identified so far in the massacre in late August, a killing blamed on one of Mexico’s drug cartels, the Zetas.

In a separate interview Friday, Calderon said the migrant massacre doesn’t undermine Mexico’s moral authority to demand better treatment for its own migrants.

“Of course we have the moral authority, because Mexican officials are not shooting Central American youths at the border, but U.S. agents are shooting Mexican migrants,” Calderon said in an interview with the Spanish-language Univision network.

“If we are talking about responsibility, at the root of this, in the case of immigration, is the lack of immigration legislation in the United States that would recognize this phenomenon,” Calderon said.

Funes, however, said during his joint appearance with Calderon that the home nations of migrants bear some of the responsibility for immigration problems.

“In part, the greatest responsibility lies with our governments, the Salvadoran government, for not having generated the employment conditions, the welfare conditions, that doesn’t leave our migrants any choice but to look for other opportunities in the United States and Canada.”

The fact:

The massacred migrants were attempting to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border when they were kidnapped by a group of Zeta gunmen, according to a man who survived the massacre.

Blaming the USA: the world’s most popular sport – it absolves your country from any responsibility.

h/t Gates of Vienna.

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The Third Monday in March Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in next week’s Carnival please email me, faustaw2 “at” gmail “dot” com.

The big but not surprising news of the week is Mauricio Funes’s electoral victory in El Salvador

Mauricio Funes, a former TV newsman who was recruited to run for president, declared himself the winner of El Salvador’s presidential contest Sunday night, bringing into power a leftist party built by former guerrillas and ending two decades of conservative rule.

Funes, a dynamic speaker and political outsider who compares himself to President Obama and pledged to be an agent of change in the small Central American nation, was leading the polls late Sunday night with 51.2 percent of the vote and more than 90 percent of the ballots counted. Turnout was high and election day was mostly calm.

If the lead holds, Funes and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) will take control of a nation struggling with an economic crisis and a murder rate that is among the highest in the world. The country has also suffered through 12 years of civil war, which left more than 70,000 people dead.

He too promises hope and change (emphasis added):

“This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador’s greatest hope,” he said. “I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change.”

In other news of the week, Lula went to Washington, a Russian Air Force chief raised the possibility that his country would have bombers in Venezuela and Cuba, and Nicolas Sarkozy concluded his trip to Mexico.

LATIN AMERICA
Washington Starts Another Trade War

Islamic terrorism in Latin America

BOLIVIA
TWO DEPUTY MINISTERS OF CULTURE TO “DECOLONIZE COUNTRY”

Bolivia: agresiones a la dignidad y a la propiedad privada

The justice of crowds: An outbreak of government paranoia

BRAZIL
Crazy man warns of eco disaster

Brazil leader takes regional clout to White House

Is Obama snubbing another foreign leader?

Soaps, sex and sociology: Do women who watch telenovelas have fewer babies (but more men)?

CHILE
Let them eat carbon

COLOMBIA
Civil Affairs in Colombia

CUBA
Cuban baseball slavery, now playing in San Diego

The Black Spring, six years later

Fidel, happy at last!

ECUADOR
Meltdown response: Ecuador erects trade barriers

EL SALVADOR
A nation divided: Will a country still haunted by the cold war dare at last to embrace the left?

El Salvador’s Barack Obama

HAITI
Positivity: Austin doctors help Haitian boy with heart defect

MEXICO
Obama Decides to Try Smoot Hawley : It Looks Like Mexico Will Retaliate When Barack Obama Violates NAFTA

Obama: Troop move to Mexican border under consideration

A rather off-the-wall theory Destabilizing Mexico

The financial crisis hits Mexico:

PERU
Don’t look back: Arguing over a museum of memory

VENEZUELA
Sunday’s hypocrites: Magglio and Chavez

Master of debate

From war, to fighting Coca Cola, to Mac Chavez, the autocrat never ceases to amaze

Feeding Frenzy: statism on the run

Chávez Tells His Navy to Take Over Key Seaports

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El Salvador: Hugo on the billboards?

Via Noticias 24, look who’s on the billboards:
elsalvador-election
From left to right: Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, candidate Mauricio Funes, Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, and Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

The ads are being run by the party opposing Mauricio Funes, presidential candidate of the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN).

No suitcases with $800,000 have been found yet.

UPDATE
Funes’s name sound familiar? CNN Correspondent Now the Communist Candidate in El Salvador (h/t The Baron)

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