Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

October 24, 2017 By Fausta

Brazil: Rio police kill Spanish tourist

A Spanish woman visiting Rio was shot and killed by Rio police. Maria Esperanza Jimenez Ruiz, 67, was visiting a crafts fair at the Rocinha favela with her brother and his wife.

According to reports,

Police said officers opened fire on a vehicle in Rocinha, one of the city’s largest so-called favelas, or slums, hitting a passenger in the neck. The victim, whom police identified as 67-year-old María Esperanza Jiménez Ruiz of Spain, was taken to a nearby hospital but couldn’t be revived. After the shooting, police determined that the vehicle was providing an organized tour of the community.

Two police officers are now under arrest.

Police and other public employees are not getting paid because debt service over last year’s Olympics,

The surge in police violence has come amid severe budget problems in Rio following the Olympics last year. Police officers, like other civil servants, aren’t receiving their salaries on time, let alone sufficient funding for equipment ranging from office supplies to patrol cars. A touted initiative to introduce community policing to troubled neighborhoods like Rocinha has fallen into disarray.

Rio state police have killed over 700 people in the first eight months of 2017.

In other news, Odebrecht subsidiary Braskem deposited US$1,5million in a bank account belonging to Emilio Lozoya, advisor to Mexico’s president Enrique Peña Nieto and former Pemex director.

The 2012 transaction was discovered as part of the ongoing Odebrecht corruption investigation.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Fausta's blog Tagged With: #Rio2016, Emilio Lozoya, Enrique Peña Nieto, Odebrecht, Rio Olympics

August 10, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Stray bullets at the #RioOlympics?

Officials Examine Press Bus in Rio That May Have Been Hit by Stray Bullets. Stray bullets may have hit a press bus on one of Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic transportation lines, injuring at least one journalist who was struck by shattering glass, one of the passengers said

If caused by gunfire, the incident would mark the second time since Saturday that stray bullets have struck near journalists visiting Rio for the Olympics, highlighting the city’s ongoing crime problems despite a major effort to improve security.

On Saturday, a bullet pierced the roof of a media tent at Deodoro’s equestrian facility and landed on the floor near journalists, where it was photographed. Security officials believe that bullet came from a nearby slum and had been intended for a police blimp, the Associated Press reported, citing a spokesman for the Rio 2016 organizing committee.

Brazil has some of the strictest fun control laws in the world.

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Filed Under: Brazil, crime Tagged With: Fausta's blog, guns, Rio Olympics

August 8, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Why Olympics can be destructive

You know things are bad when the guy in charge of security got mugged at knifepoint outside the opening ceremony.

Two articles shed some light on Brazil’s problems:
The Olympic ‘movement’ has become a destructive force for Brazilians outside the arenas, as people were displaced from the favelas at huge expense (emphasis added)

At one point Da Penha was offered about $600,000 for the three-story house where she lived with her husband, mother and daughter for more than 20 years. She turned it down — and became a leading local activist who took her fight to the IOC and the United Nations. Municipal guards — a city security force — broke her nose during one fight, when the residents tried to form a cordon preventing demolition. Her home was finally knocked down in March, and she and her family now reside in one of the stark white utilitarian cottages with no vestige of the past, boxes of belongings still stacked in a small front room.

Behind the push and the enormous expense was Lula:

The 2016 Olympics were supposed to showcase the socialist paradise he had cultivated: an urban utopia mixing affordable housing, national industrial champions and orderly public-transportation networks to provide a tranquil—and environmentally approved—living experience.

Mary O’Grady is right to say that Lula conned the world:

Brazil’s politicians aspire to first-world grandeur but insist on preserving third-world institutions. It’s not because they don’t understand the effectiveness of independent institutions and checks and balances. It’s because they do understand it.
. . .
Under Lula and later Ms. Rousseff—who won elections in 2010 and 2014—the commitment to fiscal discipline gradually eroded. The government-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal and the national development bank (BNDES) rapidly expanded credit. This was inflationary and risky, but the central bank ignored the problem.

While Lula and later Dilma were hawking Brazil as a world-class player, they did little to reduce the burden of government on entrepreneurs. The 2016 World Bank “Doing Business” survey, which studies the relative ease of entrepreneurship in 189 economies, ranks Brazil 174th in “starting a business,” 169th in “dealing with construction permits,” 130th in “registering property,” 178th in “paying taxes” and 145th in “trading across borders.” That doesn’t sound like the stuff of an economic superpower.

Neither does Brazil’s deeply entrenched corruption.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Lula Tagged With: #Rio2016, Fausta's blog, Rio Olympics

August 8, 2016 By Fausta

The Rio Olympics Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

With a lame Marxist opening ceremony, complete with video that included the flooding of South Florida and other areas, the Olympics officially started on Friday.

I would have rather watched this year’s Carnival winning samba school perform their show as prelude to the athletes’ parade, and do without the GW preaching. Not that anyone asked.

Here’s a reporter from India:

And, no matter what, it was a great moment for the great Michael Phelps, the winningest Olympian of all time,

A few links:

The Rio Olympics Is Brazil’s Reward for Trusting in Socialism

Rio 2016: Controlled explosion carried out near Olympic road race finish line by anti-bomb squad. Anti-bomb squad detonate controlled explosion during the Olympic men’s road race

Reports claim Olympic kayaker capsized after hitting underwater sofa

Australian swimming team raises infection fears over Olympic pool. The Australian coach described the Olympic warm-up pool as ‘soupy’ and ‘cloudy’
How perfect: Teen shooter Ginny Thrasher wins USA’s first gold medal of Rio Olympics.

At Drudge:

RIO OLYMPICS ROCKED BY NEW DOPING SCANDAL…

U.S. men's basketball team 'accidentally' visits brothel: 'We thought it was spa'...
Huge lines and angry fans mar start...
Opening Ceremony: Cash Crunch on Display...
NBC RATINGS WIPEOUT: Viewership Hits 12-Yr Low...
Gymnast breaks leg on vault...
Lebanese Olympians 'refuse to ride in bus with Israelis'...
PHELPS EAGER TO GET STARTED...
ARGENTINA

Hebe De Bonafini Refuses To Be Taken To Court To Testify, Insults Everyone. Hebe de Bonafini, the head of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Association, today refused to testify regarding her involvement in the so-called Sueños Compartidos Case.

The de #Bonafini affair tweets storified here https://t.co/GLG0pj1DcO

— Éamann Mac Donnchada (@EamonnMacDonagh) August 5, 2016

BRAZIL
When it comes to politics, No Olympic Truce in Brazil

COLOMBIA
Colombia has finally ended a 52-year war, but the price of peace will be high

CUBA
Coco Fariñas: Cuban dissident briefly hospitalized, hunger strike in third week

MEXICO
Where Will a New Leader Take Mexico’s PRI?

PANAMA
Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz withdraws from Panama inquiry over intransparency

VENEZUELA
A Socialist Les Miserables in Venezuela



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Filed Under: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Fausta's blog, Mexico, Olympics, Panama, Venezuela Tagged With: Guillermo Fariñas, Hebe de Bonafini, Joseph Stiglitz, Michael Phelps, Rio Olympics, Sueños Compartidos

August 5, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: #Rio2016, riots, lost keys, attempted rape, opener tonight

Riots:
Rio 2016: Olympic torch skirts riots and drug gang clashes in host city. Relay involving mayor is forced to divert with police using pepper spray and rubber bullets to clear a path through protests
In pictures: Violent scenes as riot police clash with protestors in Rio de Janeiro

Lost keys:

Rio officials lose keys to the Olympic Stadium https://t.co/S5vYiWZxCb

— HP LatinoVoices (@LatinoVoices) August 4, 2016

Attempted rape:
Olympic boxer Hassan Saada arrested on suspicion of sexual assault against two women at Rio 2016. Boxer due to fight on 6 August will be held in jail for 15 days as police conduct attempted rape investigation.

A Moroccan boxer who was due to compete at the Rio 2016 Olympics has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting two women at the Olympic village . . .
According to Brazilian media, Saada is accused of pushing one of the women against a wall and squeezing her thighs while attempting to kiss her. He is also accused of grabbing the breast of the second woman while making obscene gestures with his hands. Both the women are reported to be cleaners working in the Olympic village.

Security:
More Than 1,000 U.S. Spies Protecting Rio Olympics

Hundreds of analysts, law enforcement and special operations personnel are already on the ground in Rio de Janeiro, according to an exclusive NBC News review of a highly classified report on U.S. intelligence efforts.

In addition, more than a dozen highly trained Navy and Marine Corps commandos from the U.S. Special Operations Command are in Brazil, working with the Brazilian Federal Police and the Brazilian Navy, according to senior military officials.

The U.S. military, as expected, has placed larger military units on call should a rescue or counterterrorism operation be needed, the officials said.

Doping:
Russia will do what it wants in Rio.If Moscow can invade Crimea and get away with it, then it can cheat to win Olympic medals.

Rio 2016 will be a Brazilian carnival of greed, doping and tear gas – but I’ll still be watching the Olympics. Next week a press conference will be called because a Russian swimmer has been found to have blood that makes him 40 per cent human and 60 per cent jet-ski

And last, but not least, go to the New Yorker,

DAILY CARTOON: THURSDAY, AUGUST 4TH
BY KIM WARP

Lighting the Olympic torch in Rio de Janeiro.

Daily Cartoon: Thursday, August 4th https://t.co/EvhDgsm19i via @newyorker

— Fausta (@Fausta) August 5, 2016

The opening ceremony airs at 7:30pm Eastern on NBC.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Olympics Tagged With: #Rio2016, Fausta's blog, Rio Olympics

August 4, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Olympics opener tomorrow

Simon Romero reports at the NYT: Brazil’s Other Olympic Spirits: Anger, Anxiety and Indifference
With a president facing impeachment and a recession stunting the national economy, nearly two-thirds of Brazilians believe that hosting the Summer Games will have a negative effect on the country.

But, today, the Olympics are competing with both a harrowing recession and Brazil’s other public spectacle: bare-knuckled political dysfunction.

The country has not one, but two presidents: Dilma Rousseff, who wassuspended to face impeachment proceedings that will continue to unfold during the Games, and Michel Temer, her interim replacement. Both Ms. Rousseff, a leftist, and Mr. Temer, who is shifting to the right, are deeply unpopular around the country. In fact, voters are fuming about the entire political establishment.
The leaders who envisioned the Olympics as an opportunity for Brazil to swagger in the international spotlight, including Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president who has been one of Brazil’s most influential political figures, are mired in scandals.
And that is just for starters,
Rio de Janeiro, which just a few years ago boasted an economy turbocharged by offshore oil discoveries, is now the epicenter of Brazil’s worst economic crisis in decades. Struggling to pay civil servants and pensioners after squandering a bonanza of oil royalties, the leaders of the state of Rio de Janeiro recently declared a “state of calamity” because of its collapsing public finances.
Read the full article.

Over at Hot Air, Jazz Shaw says It’s time for a permanent (non-US) home for the Olympic Games,

The best case for this argument can be made simply by observing the comings and goings in Rio, where this year’s Summer Olympic Games seem poised to be considered a success if a large number of people don’t actually die from the effects of pollution, disease, corruption, economic collapse, civil unrest or terrorism. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) keeps selecting host cities in a process which is clearly equal parts corruption and political correctness. The result is a mishmash of host cities which have been producing spectacular failures in the execution of the games, huge embarrassment and massive sports facilities which lie empty and fall into decay once the games leave town.

Unfortunately Jazz proposes Greece, a country at least as broke (while not quite as corrupt) as Brazil, as the permanent home.

The Rio Olympics opener is on NBC at 7:30pm Eastern tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Olympics Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Rio Olympics

August 2, 2016 By Fausta

Brazil: Olympic media building nearly swept off by waves

The housing is a disaster, and now this, three days from opening day,

The cursed Olympics? Freak 15-foot waves flood TV broadcasting building on Rio’s Copacabana Beach sparking fears it could collapse into the sea

– Freak 15-foot waves lashed Copacabana beach in Rio over the weekend
– Sunbathers were forced to run for cover as the waves battered the shore
– The Olympic broadcasting studio perched on the beach became flooded
– Now there are fears the temporary structure could collapse into the sea

Cursed? Only by corruption and incompetence:

It comes after leading scientists in Rio described the location of the studios as ‘one of the worst places along the shore.’

The inaugural ceremony is scheduled for next Friday, August 5.

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Filed Under: Brazil, Olympics Tagged With: Fausta's blog, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Olympics

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