Mohammad Javad Zarif - Fausta's Blog

The big all-over-the-world stupid story of the week: Ryan Lochte and three other swimmers got drunk and gave Brazilians an excuse to feign outrage over their country being embarrassed; I’m still waiting for the Brazilians to be embarrassed over the body parts washing on shore during the Olympics or over the six Brazilians a day who die at the hands of state security forces.

Meanwhile, a new word enters the lexicon, Iranophobia (emphasis added),

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will tour six Latin American countries next week to “foil the Iranophobia plots promoted by Israel,” the Islamic Republic’s semi-official state news agency Fars reported on Wednesday.
. . .
Zarif will be accompanied on his visit to Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia and Venezuela by a 60-member economic delegation.

Unlike Ali Baba, whose entourage was only forty-strong.

ARGENTINA
This may explain a number of things: Freudian psychoanalysis is so popular in Argentina, even prisoners go once a week

BOLIVIA
Bolivia opens ‘anti-imperialist’ military school to counter US foreign policies

The Santa Cruz academy was initially inaugurated in 2011 as the “ALBA School” after the now-weakened regional alliance that includes Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba.

Morales’s invitation to that event of then-Iranian defense minister Ahmad Vahidi provoked an uproar in neighboring Argentina, where judicial authorities have accused Vahidi of a role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people.

BRAZIL

Rio Residents See Success of Police in Ryan Lochte Case as an Exception. Few real victims experience an efficient response from law enforcement as crime rises in the city

less than 3% of robberies in Rio, and less than 8% of murders, led to criminal sentences from 2003 to 2006.

Mercosur malaise 1: Brazil Summons Uruguay Ambassador as Mercosur Tensions Rise

Brazil summoned Uruguay’s ambassador on Tuesday after the neighboring country’s foreign minister accused Brazil of trying to “buy” its vote to block Venezuela from taking the rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc.

In comments to lawmakers last week that were made public on Tuesday, Uruguayan Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa said his government was “angry” with Brazil’s attempt to prevent Caracas from leading the regional group that also includes Argentina and Paraguay.
. . .
Since Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff was suspended in May, her replacement Michel Temer has moved the country away from leftist allies such as Venezuela and toward traditional allies the United States and Europe.

Argentina and Paraguay, once close allies to Caracas, have also moved to undermine Venezuela as the OPEC nation’s socialist government struggles with economic and political crises.

CHILE
Freight train falls into river after bridge collapses in Chile