Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

October 5, 2016 By Fausta

Today’s podcast: Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

I was Silvio Canto’s podcast guest, and had the distinct pleasure of talking to writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, whose work I have greatly admired,

Wednesday Oct 5: A chat with Orlando Luis Pardo-Lazo about Cuba today….click to listen…..https://t.co/c3MQ4yJZnR

— Silvio Canto, Jr. (@SCantojr) October 5, 2016

As an introduction to Pardo Lazo’s work, I very highly recommend La Habana abandonada, available in English as Abandoned Havana (both in Kindle or paperback).

Abandoned Havana is a gem of a book, each chapter illustrated with the author’s photography followed by a prose snapshot that introduces recurrent themes you will find in his other works (Boring Home, Del clarín escuchad el silencio: 59 poemas de amor y una canción contrarrevolucionaria, Cuba in Splinters). An accessible work, with clear, spare yet incisive prose that lays bare the corrosion that totalitarianism inflicts on the human soul, Abandoned Havana is a must-read.

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Filed Under: books, Communism, Cuba, Fausta's blog Tagged With: Fausta's blog, OLPL, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Silvio Canto

October 3, 2016 By Fausta

Colombia says No the FARC

Yesterday the people of Colombia rejected the so-called peace accord that would have placed 10 unelected members of the Marxist narco-terrorist organization in Congress, after granting amnesty for their war crimes.

Here’s a roundup:
WSJ Colombian Voters Reject Peace Deal With FARC Rebels. Narrow dismissal of accord with FARC is a blow to President Santos, thrusting nation into uncertainty. Like in Brexit,

The results mark another instance of voters rejecting counsel from their government and the establishment, after the U.K. vote to leave the European Union in June.
. . .
With 99.9% of votes counted in Sunday’s plebiscite, “No” votes—totaling more than 6.4 million—outnumbered “Yes” votes by fewer than 54,000.

Instapundit’s Austin Bay:

COLOMBIANS REJECT PEACE DEAL: Polls projected a narrow victory for the peace agreement. The result was a narrow defeat. Former president Alvaro Uribe was against it. He argued rebel leaders would be treated too leniently.

Business Insider:

The geographical breakdown of the voting posted online by Colombian electoral authorities indicated that much of the country’s western, southeastern, eastern, and northern regions — areas where the FARC has been more active — voted in support of the peace plan. That contrasted with the country’s center, which leaned toward “No.”

The BBC has a map of the vote.

Capitol Hill Cubans: Lesson of the Day: For Colombians (and Cubans), Justice Prevails Over Impunity

NYT: Colombia Peace Deal Is Defeated, Leaving a Nation in Shock

Jazz Shaw: Failure of FARC peace deal vote leaves Colombia in flux

Javier Lafuente for El País (Spain): Shock as voters in Colombia reject FARC peace dealDeep distrust of the guerrilla group and a high abstention rate were key in the surprise result

Polls had predicted solid backing for the ‘yes’ camp in a country exhausted by decades of war, but an abstention rate of more than 60% in the plebiscite made a mockery of those predictions. Massive levels of distrust in the guerrilla group also played a major factor in the outcome.

While talking about distrust on one hand on the other hand, Lafuente opines (emphasis added),

The failure of the ‘yes’ camp to carry the day also shines a light on the lack of leadership in the Colombian political landscape where there is a desperate need to tackle chronic cronyism. Uribe’s Democratic Center was the big winner of Sunday while President Santos was the big loser after calling a plebiscite that he never needed to hold.

Lafuente ignores the fact that one of the reasons for distrust was Santos’s backtracking on the referendum.

The polls may have predicted it, but, like in Brexit, there appears to have been some of the Bradley effect,

The Bradley effect (less commonly the Wilder effect)[1][2] is a theory concerning observed discrepancies between voter opinion polls and election outcomes in some United States government elections where a white candidate and a non-white candidate run against each other.[3][4][5] The theory proposes that some voters who intend to vote for the white candidate would nonetheless tell pollsters that they are undecided or likely to vote for the non-white candidate. It was named after Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African-American who lost the 1982 California governor’s race despite being ahead in voter polls going into the elections.[6]

El Nuevo Herald: Colombia no olvida: Se impone el rechazo al acuerdo de paz con las FARC

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo:

“It’s a very simple formula: Vote against anything that the Castros support, vote against anything the Castros believe in.”

Es muy sencilla la fórmula: votar en contra de todo lo que apoyen los Castros, votar en contra de todo en lo que crean los Castros.

— OrlandoLuisPardoLazo (@OLPL) October 3, 2016

Carlos Alberto Montaner:

“Defeated by the Colombian NO: FARC, Santos, Raúl Castro, Maduro, Bachelet, John Kerry, pope Francis, Ban Ki-moon, King Juan Carlos.”

Los derrotados x el NO colombiano: FARC, Santos, Raúl Castro, Maduro, Bachelet, John Kerry, papa Francisco, Ban Ki-moon, rey Juan Carlos.

— Carlos A. Montaner (@CarlosAMontaner) October 3, 2016

Last, but not least, Uribe’s speech following the results,

Frente al resultado del Plebiscito pic.twitter.com/KWf5ZuyqFa

— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) October 3, 2016



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Filed Under: Alvaro Uribe, Colombia, FARC Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Juan Manuel Santos, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

October 14, 2015 By Fausta

@OLPL: Cubans Freer than Puerto Ricans? Castro Must Think We’re Idiots

Last week at the UN, dictator Raul Castro repeated the regime’s usual meme that we Puerto Ricans are slaves to the U.S.’s “colonial rule.”

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo writes, Cubans Freer than Puerto Ricans? Castro Must Think We’re Idiots. UN Sycophants Show Their True Colors, Lap Up “General” Raúl’s Lies. OLPL asks,

Does the Cuban general have his own plans for a Puerto Rico separated from US democracy? How can he speak so arrogantly about a nation capable of removing Yankee military outposts from its territory, while in Cuba, the people have never come together to protest the legal limbo of Guantanamo?

Does Raúl Castro allow Cubans who are residents or citizens of the United States, or any other country, to reside permanently in their home country of Cuba? Of course not. On the other hand, Puerto Ricans have always been able to live in Puerto Rico.

Does Raúl Castro allow Cubans residing on the island to invest in the national economy? Once again, the answer is “no.” Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans have always been able to invest in their own country or wherever else they please.

How many political parties enjoy legal status in Cuba? How many media outlets are not state owned? How many Cuban schools teach something other than communism, the ideology of hate towards difference and dissent? Are Cubans able to use the internet freely, from their mobile devices or their homes?

OLPL is barely getting started, so you must read his article in full, but I must emphasize a few rights Puerto Ricans can exercise which Cubans in the island-prison can not:
1. First and foremost, all Puerto Ricans can own assets anywhere in the free world in their own names individually or as part of a private enterprise, and can freely buy/lease/mortgage/dispose of those assets at they best see fit.

2. Puerto Ricans choose where they want to live, without the government’s permission. Members of my extended family live in Puerto Rico, the continental United States, and in foreign countries in Europe and South America. They may (and do) own properties in those locations, and in Puerto Rico (see 1 above).

3. Puerto Ricans are free to travel. Some even vacation in Cuba.

4. Puerto Ricans can freely access worldwide media, from electronic devices they can buy with their own money, anytime, anywhere.

And add these three,

5. Puerto Ricans deal directly with their employers, and get paid directly without the government handling/impounding the funds as part of the transaction.

6. Puerto Rican routinely mock the politicians and ruling class mercilessly and don’t get dragged off to a dungeon.

7. Puerto Ricans, such as myself, are bored of propagandist tyrants of failed states mouthing off at the UN on Puerto Rico’s “status” for their own mercenary purposes.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Raul Castro Tagged With: Fausta's blog, OLPL, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

July 30, 2015 By Fausta

En español: @OLPL visita Bayly

El escritor Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, anoche, en el show de Jaime Bayly,

Interesantísima entrevista.

OLPL va a presentar su libro Boring Home este domingo a las 2PM en George Gallery, 815 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables. La nota editorial del libro en Amazon dice,

Este libro resultó ganador del Premio “Novela de Gaveta Franz Kafka” en Praga, en 2009, y suscitó no pocas desazones al autor en su patria, Cuba, donde fue prohibido y su circulación clandestina fue perseguida. Un libro que le valió la expulsión de los sellos estatales y su condena por pertenecer al movimiento blogger cubano. Boring Home no solo es un libro de cuentos. Posee una cara aspiración: la de convertirse en un artefacto al que le damos cuerda con nuestras lecturas activando sucesivos repertorios mentales. El bioquímico que persiste en el alma libertaria de Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo transmutó sus disquisiciones alquímicas en este libro-sustancia devenido base reactiva de nuestros imaginarios. Pardo Lazo abreva en las fuentes clásicas de la tradición isleña con un don experimental, propio de su carácter autodidacta. Los cuentos Boring Home parten desde el diálogo formal a la farsa, pasan por la distopía y se encierran, en algunas piezas, en la más provocadora ciencia ficción que no deja respiro.

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Filed Under: Communism, Cuba, YouTube Tagged With: Fausta's blog, OLPL, Orlando Luis Pardo, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo

April 15, 2013 By Fausta

The rigged Venezuelan election Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

In Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, at least according to the chavista-controlled board of election, won last night. Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount, asserting that electoral fraud had taken place. Here’s his speech last night (in Spanish),

Watch live streaming video from venezuelasomostodos at livestream.com

In his speech, Capriles said he wants the Cuban military out of Venezuela’s government and institutions. As Mary O’Grady said, The Castro regime wasn’t going to allow an easy victory for the opposition candidate who has pledged to stop sending oil to Havana.

By now, ballot boxes are turning up,

(PHOTO) Found in dumpster boxes of votes that Chavistas stole from the centers RT #Venezuela2013 #VenezuelaSomosTodos twitter.com/IvonneKinser/s…

— Ivonne Kinser (@IvonneKinser) April 15, 2013

@douglirodil RT @cynthia823: Por favor RT! Estan botando las cajas! Terminamos d recoger 1 en avenida en Puerto Ordaz twitter.com/Cynthia823/sta…

— ricardo colon (@Riccolon) April 15, 2013

Maduro’s acceptance speech was a double dose of crazy.

ARGENTINA
Argentina’s economy
Gaucho blues
A dollar shortage bites

Via The Argentine Post, a link I missed when it was first posted,
Argentina’s Plan for Iran

BRAZIL
Brazilian state of Acre in illegal immigration alert
The Brazilian state of Acre has declared a state of emergency after a surge of illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bolivia and Peru.

CHILE
Chile poet Pablo Neruda’s remains to be tested in US
The family of the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda has agreed to send his remains to a laboratory in the United States for toxicology tests.

COLOMBIA
FARC links with Al-Qaeda?

Evidence has emerged of a link between the FARC and Islamist terrorist groups in the North African Maghreb after two Colombian nationals were arrested in Algeria last month by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Spanish intelligence services.

Colombian authorities row over Farc jail terms
Colombia’s attorney-general has said members of the rebel group Farc could escape jail terms should a peace deal be struck.

Colombia’s emerald king
Death of a tsar

COSTA RICA
Via DP, National holiday turns violent as families blocked from president’s speech
Costa Ricans outraged that they weren’t allowed to attend the annual Juan Santamaría Day festivities in an Alajuela park.

CUBA
In Spanish: Jaime Bayly entrevista al bloguero cubano Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo,

Time to Occupy Beyonce and Jay-Z

US Treasury OFAC: Send Beyoncé and Jay-Z an Anniversary Present

Rosa Maria Payá denounces death threats against her and her family.
Rosa Maria Payá holds the Cuban government responsible for whatever may happen to her and her family.

ECUADOR
Quito’s new airport
A tight fit

HONDURAS
Smoke from nearby forest fires forces 4-hour closure of airport for Honduras’ capital

JAMAICA
Puerto Rican jury rejects death sentence in police killing

MEXICO

Mexico Is Picking Up the Peso
Reforms, Search for Risk Are Boosting the Currency; ‘a Cultish Characteristic’

Mexican Proposal to Allow Foreigners to Own Coastal Property

PERU
Rural development in Peru
The Andean connection
Diminishing distance, falling poverty

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico protects top US turtle nesting site long eyed by developers

Puerto Rico Agrees To Pay More Than $35 Million In Back Wages To Thousands Of Workers

SURINAME
Politics in Suriname
Guerrilla, rapper, gold miner…president?

URUGUAY
Uruguay president ‘sorry’ for Fernandez ‘old hag’ quip
The President of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, has apologised for apparently referring to Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner as an “old hag”.

Luis Alberto Lacalle, abogado y presidente de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay de 1990 a 1995 envia un afectuoso saludo a la Fundacion HACER de Washington DC desde el 25 Aniversario de la Fundacion Libertad de Rosario

VENEZUELA
Maduro and Capriles: tale of two Venezuelan presidential candidates

Venezuela’s presidential election
Voting in St Hugo’s shadow
In his search for a popular mandate, Nicolás Maduro ascribes divine powers to his predecessor but offers few earthly policies

Venezuelan blogs for their complete coverage:
Caracas chronicles
Devil’s excrement
Venezuela Nr=ews and Views

The week’s posts and podcast,
Venezuela: Maduro wins

Venezuela: two election day live feeds

A word on elected Latin American dictators

Venezuela: How important is tomorrow’s election? UPDATED

If you are in Hialeah tonight: Rosa María Payá event

OLPL en el show de Bayly

G-r-o-s-s: Bolivarian “sanitary” towels

Venezuela: Capriles Campaign Chief killed

Venezuela: The meaning of April 14 UPDATED

Cuba this morning

Venezuela: Violent deaths per 100,000

Podcast:
Talking with Silvio Canto.

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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Caribbean, Carnival of Latin America, Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile, Colombia, Communism, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, elections, FARC, Honduras, Iran, Jamaica, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, terrorism, terrorism. Latin America, Uruguay, Venezuela Tagged With: Beyonce, Fausta's blog, Jay-Z, Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Suriname

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