Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

By

Colombia: Odebrecht and elections

Luke Taylor reports on how The Odebrecht Corruption Scandal Is Already Shaking Up Colombia’s Presidential Vote

In August, Colombia’s Supreme Court called on President Juan Manuel Santos and several former ministers to testify about Odebrecht bribes to the Colombian government that the attorney general’s office says exceed $27 million. Investigations have already revealed that both of Santos’ election campaigns, in 2010 and 2014, received money from Odebrecht.

In December, the Democratic Center party led by Santos’ predecessor and key opposition figure, Alvaro Uribe, was also implicated when a former vice minister of transportation, Gabriel Garcia Morales, was sentenced to prison for taking $6.5 million in bribes in exchange for awarding Odebrecht a road construction contract in 2010 worth more than $1 billion. Morales has promised to testify against other Colombian officials, according to the attorney general’s office.

These scandals have discredited some of Colombia’s biggest political figures, including both the Santos and Uribe administrations, and could have significant effects on the upcoming presidential election, which will take place in two rounds in March and May.

As a result,

The fallout from Odebrecht has created the space for an unlikely leftist coalition. The image of many mainstream politicians has reached an all-time low, and polls show that corruption is currently the single biggest political issue for Colombian voters.

Taylor examines the coalition in the article.

How the elections turn out remains to be seen, but without a doubt, Odebrecht’s bribery machinery, a.k.a. the smoothly-run Division of Structured Operations, with its own hierarchy, its own accountants, and its own off-the-books communications system, called Drousys, kept a finger on the pulse of Latin American corruption.

In other election news,
FARC’s Political Party to Deploy Network of Militias throughout Colombia.

Timochenko said that the guidelines for FARC policies will be made through the creation of Tactical Units of the People throughout the country that will be responsible for spreading their propaganda in which he will collect men and women from amongst the common people.

What could possibly go wrong?

Share

By

Colombia: Timockenko has a stroke

Luckily for him, he was in Colombia and didn’t have to make-do with “free Cuban healthcare.”

Colombian Rebel Leader Hospitalized After StrokeTimochenko’s illness comes just days after FARC handed over the last of its individual weapons as part of peace deal

The top commander of Colombia’s largest rebel movement was hospitalized Sunday following a stroke and remains in intensive care, just days after his group handed over the last of its individual weapons as part of a historic peace deal.

Rodrigo Londoño, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, checked himself into a hospital emergency room in the city of Villavicencio shortly after 8 a.m. with slurred speech and numbness in his arm, doctors said in a news conference. They said he remains in intensive care as a precautionary measure, but his speech and mobility have already recovered 90% from what they described as a temporary blockage of blood to his brain.

In other news,

Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves were rescued from the FARC nine years ago.

Share

By

Bolivia: Evo goes to Cuba

While the locusts attack Bolivia’s crops, Evo Morales was in Cuba last week, reportedly for treatment of a throat ailment,

Morales, 57, went to Cuba for treatment on Wednesday after a sore throat robbed him of his voice, causing him to cancel public appearances.

The government news agency said it was an emergency trip.

While at the hospital, Raúl Castro dropped by for a visit,

Reportedly, the FARC’s Timochenko also dropped by.

Evo recovered and landed in Caracas to participate in the latest ALBA summit and commemoration of the fourth anniversary Hugo Chávez’s death.

He was still sounding a little raspy.



Share

By

Colombia: Santos presents FARC peace agreement to UN Security Council

LAHT reports,

Santos submitted the document to the Security Council’s president in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who confirmed that he would travel to the northern Colombian city of Cartagena next week for the signing of the peace agreement.

It’ll be interesting to see who actually gets to sign the agreement; the document I read last month (which is titled “final agreement”) did not show President Santos or Timoleón Jiménez a.k.a. Timochenko (who will remain as FARC leader) as signatories.

Share

By

Colombia: Timochenko wants to meet with Uribe

Leader of Colombia’s FARC rebels invites ex-president to meet

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, said he would meet Uribe in Havana, Cuba, where the negotiations are being held, or in another location to discuss “the future of our nation.”

Uribe has not replied yet. I hope he doubles up on bodyguards.

Share

By

Colombia: FARC canvass military, demand congressional seats

As Monica Showalter said in Facebook, “Going bad fast in Colombia.”

FARC Rebels Demand Seats in Colombia’s Congress, or No Deal. Opposition Senator Warns Guerrilla Continues Criminal Operations Despite “Truce”

The Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) intend to avoid extradition and to be given seats in Congress without being elected. The FARC made these demands to the Colombian government on Saturday, November 7, in apress release in which they emphasize that they won’t sign a peace agreement after 50 years of conflict unless the government yields on both points.

The FARC demanded that the government directly appoint guerrilla members to seats in Congress, local Councils, and municipal assemblies during at least two four-year terms. They also called for the state to finance the political movement that will emerge after the peace process with 10 percent more public funds than those available to other parties.

The FARC are not done demanding (emphasis added),

The FARC also revealed that they will launch 10 initiatives for the government to analyze during the final stage of the peace negotiations. The final agreement, the government has announced, is expected to be reached by March 2016.

According to opposition senator Alfredo Rangel,

Rangel deems the peace process as a “false truce.” He believes the FARC, which had agreed to cease attacks on security forces and infrastructure, continues to commit crimes, blackmail the population, and carry out illegal drug activities. “They are the world’s largest cocaine cartel,” Rangel says.

In the middle of this so-called truce, the FARC canvass the military to join them,
“Terrorism’s invitation to the soldiers”

My translation:

BROTHERS SOLDIERS!

Have you been listening to the news?
Consider retiring or deserting with your weapons from that rotting Institution which only offers you vice (marihuana or bazuco [marihuana joint with cocaine/heroin]); learning to carry out “false positives”; abandoning and destroying your home for nothing in return; and a certain death or the loss of one of your legs; while your corrupt generals steal the money meant for your food and pay, receive decorations and congratulate themselves on the backs of their soldiers’ sacrifice, blood and lives.

CONSIDER IT!
DESERT WITH YOUR WEAPON, WHICH WE WILL BUY FROM YOU.
GO TO YOUR NEAREST FARC-EP GUERILLA UNIT.
WE’LL BE WAITING FOR YOU.
FARC-EP

And,This offer to purchase weapons from deserters directly contradicts the item I posted yesterday from the BBC where Timochenko claimed “he ordered the organisation in September to stop buying guns and ammunition.”

Share

By

The Holy Week Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

LatinAmerIt’s Holy Week, and taxes are due tomorrow – not exactly the most cheerful way to start a week.

ARGENTINA
Federal police launch huge raid on Argentina’s ‘drug capital’
More than 3,000 federal agents involved in raids on around 80 ‘bunkers’ in the Argentine city of Rosario, plagued by violence between drug gangs

YPF, Chevron to Invest $1.6 Billion in 2014 in Argentina’s Vaca Muerta
Both companies will share equally in the investment outlay, which will go toward drilling 170 wells and building production facilities in Loma Campana, Neuquen. Good luck with that.

Argentina hit by general strike over high inflation and taxes

Metro, train and bus services around the country have been paralysed, as Ignacio de los Reyes reports
Public transport in Argentina has been severely disrupted by a huge nationwide strike against the economic policies of the government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

So, of course, Cristina’s trying to create a diversion: UK Falklands military exercises ‘provoke’ Argentina

BOLIVIA
Is There A Connection Between Hillary Clinton’s ‘Shoe-icide’ Attacker And Che Guevara?

But while everyone is talking about the shoe, little is talked about what the woman also threw along with it: a copy of a Department of Defense document labeled confidential and dated August 1967; it referred to an operation “Cynthia” in Bolivia. Operation “Cynthia” was a Bolivian army maneuver to capture Argentinean doctor and Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

BRAZIL
Brazil’s economic problems cloud 2014 elections
Brazil’s macroeconomic picture poses problems for the country’s 2014 elections, reports Bloomberg’s David Ingles

Fighting breaks out in Rio de Janeiro as police move to clear 5,000 squatters from buildings

Brazil 2014: less than half of country favour hosting World Cup
Just 48 per cent of Brazilians are in support of the country hosting this year’s tournament, which begins in June

CHILE
Fire destroys 500 homes in Valparaiso
Ambulance crews have treated residents for smoke inhalation but so far there have been no deaths

COLOMBIA
Keep FARC leader Timochenko alive for peace?

Colombia has a loose-tongued president.

Yesterday, Juan Manuel Santos told us he knew where FARC commander alias Timochenko is hiding, but claimed he’d “think twice” before ordering a shoot-to-kill.

COSTA RICA
Costa Rica Installs Coastal Radar to Monitor Drug Smuggling

CUBA
Families of Shootdown Victims: No Spies for Gross Exchange

UPDATED | Cuban political prisoner Lamberto Hernández Plana released after 23 years in Castro gulag

French Foreign Minister Visits Cuba
A French foreign minister visited Cuba for the first time in more than 30 years Saturday, traveling to the communist-run nation at a time when it is seeking to attract more foreign investment and improve ties with the European Union.

ECUADOR
It’s what you call a totalitarian democracy: Does Ecuador’s leader aspire to a perpetual presidency?
Ecuador’s constitution bars Rafael Correa from running for the fourth term. But this won’t stop him from seeking reelection if ‘the people’ want it, he hints.

JAMAICA
Entrepreneurs demand ‘respect’ in Jamaica

LATIN AMERICA
Chinese lending to Latin America
Flexible friends
China lends disproportionately to countries that lack other options and, while on the subject of China, A Pax Sinica in the Middle East? Some Conjectures

Andres Oppenheimer: Latin America’s forecasts may be too rosy

MEXICO
Mexico prepares first illegal drug financing blacklist
Mexico’s cartels launder billions of dollars a year made by shipping illegal drugs to U.S. with a proviso,

[Mexican Finance Minister Luis] Videgaray said individuals identified by OFAC [the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control], or in a similar list put out by the United Nations, could end up being sanctioned in Mexico but that his administration would not necessarily implement all U.S.-identified targets.

NICARAGUA
Nicaragua Sees Series of Arrow Killings of Dogs using crossbows and custom carbon arrows.

PANAMA
Panama Canal expansion draws bigger customers, and criticism
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Panama Canal, one of the busiest waterways in the world. A massive building project is underway there to widen it for larger ships, but the expansion has not been undisputed.

PERU
Peru Arrests 24 for Alleged Ties to Shining Path Rebels

Bello
Peru’s Italian job
Economic success cannot indefinitely co-exist with political weaknessThe “Italian model” holds that the important thing is that the economy was run by responsible technocrats. How’s that working out?

The real lesson from Italy is that if the political system is unable to act in the long-term interest of the majority, it ends up contaminating the economy with its failures. Peru is a democracy without meaningful parties. A regional election in October is likely to repeat the last one, in which 23 of the 25 regional presidents were independents. Thanks to mining and gas royalties, they command a big chunk of public money. One important region, Áncash, has become a mafia mini-state. Ten political opponents of the regional president, César Álvarez, have been murdered after denouncing corruption. His critics accuse Mr Álvarez, who denies all wrongdoing, of having bought off prosecutors. This month Mr Humala froze Áncash’s bank accounts.

It always amazes me that countless “models” – the Danish model, the Swedish model, etc. – are held as examples worth emulating in Latin America, instead of free market capitalism.

PUERTO RICO
Vatican Clears Puerto Rico Bishop Daniel Fernandez in Abuse Case

URUGUAY
Uruguay to make medical marijuana available to prisoners
Any inmates who have been prescribed marijuana to improve their physical or mental health will have access to it according to the country’s drug tsar

VENEZUELA
Venezuela: sector de la oposición rechaza diálogo

Venezuela Update: Violence, protests and … talks?

Massive repression against protestors in Venezuela by security forces of Cuba-backed dictatorship

Venezuela’s Protest Movement Fights The Ghost Of Chavez
The legacy of Hugo Chavez hangs over Venezuela — and the country’s protest leaders are having a hard time bringing his followers into their fold. Especially with the armed motorcycle gangs threatening them.

Venezuela’s old men have a dialogue

Venezuela gives Cuba three aircraft to transport Raúl Castro
The aircrafts –two Dassault Falcon 50 and one Falcon 900– are worth some USD 100-110 million

The week’s posts and podcast:
Venezuela: No food in the shops, but 3 jets for Raul

El libro que hay que leer: En español: Infobae entrevista a Casto Ocando, autor de Chavistas en el Imperio

And now for a Venezuela roundup

Ecuador: Rafael Correa at Yale UPDATED

Brazil: Airports not ready yet

Mexico: en español, Terapia Intensiva 203

Mike Hammer goes to Chile

New book: Chavistas en el Imperio

Cuba: Alan Gross on hunger strike – later Gross ends hunger strike in Cuba

At Da Tech Guy:
Bye-bye, Elementary

Cuba’s American hostage

Podcast:
Dr Gross in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador & US-Latin America stories of the week


Share