Cronyism in Venezuela and Costa Rica

…And in Really Bizarre News

By Jamie Douglas

Friends and fiends, some of the following may leave you wondering about reality, but I swear on the latest edition of Granma, that it is all true.

The Chávez Family in Caracas

According to the official news out of Venezuela, the Maximum Lider of that sad Bolivarian nation, Hugo Chávez died on March 3, 2013. But according to the people who were to embalm him for posterity, he had expired some time before that, as his organs had been rendered unsuitable for display-quality embalming due to decomposition.

Meanwhile, of course, the nation had to continue to be governed. Enter the infamous and (deliberately) incompetent bus driver Nicolas Maduro, who was handpicked by Chávez while he still had some marbles.

One would think that two of the Chávez family’s daughters would have vacated the premises in a dignified manner to relocate to one of the Chávez’s many country estates. After all, while the nation was suffering through one of its worst crises – shortages of food, inflation and the crumbling of its infrastructure – Hugo Chávez managed to steal at least a billion dollars, according to the Criminal Justice International Associates, while diverting another 100 billion dollars to cronies and criminal enterprises.

Perhaps the biggest blow to the Carcass in Caracas was that he was transported to his final resting place in an imperialist yanqui Cadillac. (A pretty old one I must say)

OK, so we know that Hugo has been dead for about a year. Now, we can report that two of his daughters have refused to surrender the presidential palace and are throwing wild and crazy parties there on a continuous basis, denying the new puppet president access to his (birth) right. Rosa Virginia and María Gabriela Chávez continue to occupy "La Casona" in Caracas, throwing big parties for their inner circle, costing tens of thousands of dollars, and continuing to live the corrupt lifestyle they were endowed with by their father.

Maybe it is time to remind them what happened to the Ceausescu family in Romania. Eventually, the people who have been screwed out of their heritage for so long will rise – and that could turn out very badly for Rosa and María.

The Chinchilla Family in Costa Rica

Meanwhile, Costa Rica’s lame duck president, Laura Chinchilla, must be getting ready to follow many of her predecessors into the corrupt nation’s penal system, probably along with a good number of her family members. This time, it involves the disastrous highway that was built along the Rio San Juan, along the border with Nicaragua. Not only was this highway built along the banks of the river, where the soft soil has already caused millions of dollars in erosion and cost overruns, but the whole project was built without any competitive bidding by a Chinchilla-family-owned outfit that had never before done anything of such magnitude.

It will eventually also be revealed what her secret trips to Colombia and Peru were about, when she just commandeered a corporate jet. (Cocaine maybe?)

But in Costa Rica, it is almost established custom for out-of-office politicians to meet in prison, where they have very comfortable accommodations. And when they are released, they still have all the loot, possibly moving to Panama where the administration of President Martinelli has held on to their ill-gotten gains for a small fee.

Jamie Douglas

At Large in South America

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Paraguayan President Impeached and the Reverberations in Mercosur

article from June 28, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Paraguay, a country that was long ruled by the iron fist of its dictators, the Alfredo Stroessner family, managed to slip into an uneasy kind of democracy a few years back subsequently electing the horny bishop who has fathered at least four illegitimate children, His Eminence Fernando Lugo.

But all that came to a screeching halt last week when he was “impeached” by Congress over a bloody shootout between landless peasants and the authorities that left 19 dead in total. His impeachment trial was a farce, with his side not being allowed to mount a defense. It basically was just a vote in the opposition Congress to get rid of him because, as a socialist, he had always taken the side of the poor, which rubbed the very wealthy elite of Asuncion the wrong way.

Paraguay, a founding member of Mercosur, suddenly found itself being chastised by its fellow members, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. They were also uninvited from the Mercosurial Presidential shindig to be held in Mendoza, Argentina, June 28-29. Lugo had initially announced that he would attend, but changed his mind because the new president would likely not let him go or not allow him back into the country.

While the leaders of South America, including Venezuela, expressed their outrage at the actions of the Paraguayan Congress, the United States of America is doing and saying nothing, probably wondering what country Paraguay belongs to. The State Department’s reaction is very similar to their initial reaction to the military coup in Honduras: nothing! The latest comments from Washington merely defer to future OAS actions and sanctions.

Meanwhile, with Paraguay’s suspension from Mercosur, business leaders in that landlocked nation are cheering for their leaving the flawed trade block altogether, going way back in history to the War of the Triple Alliance, where Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay banded together to carry out the extermination of almost 60% of Paraguay’s population. Old wounds to the national pride are still festering!

The fact of the matter is that, in spite of all the good intentions when Mercosur was formed in 1991, Brazil and Argentina have always treated the “junior members” of the alliance as their prostitutes, using their labor forces and resources for their own benefit, while at the same time (today) halting all imports from the small nations of Uruguay and Paraguay. To quote Paraguay’s head of the Industrial Union, Eduardo Felippo: 

 “Outside of Mercosur we will have greater options. We are going to develop our muscle to export to other countries, we are going to ensure that our trade partners in the future will be other countries, other continents and not our neighbors which whether we like it or not, were part of the Triple Alliance”

Best of luck, during these trying economic times.

Perhaps this would be a great time for Paraguay to renegotiate the agreements reached for selling electricity dirt cheap from the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant, which supplies almost all of São Paulo’s energy, as well as a substantial amount of Argentinean electrical needs at a very unfair, low cost. Bringing the price of that energy up to market values would do a lot to bring much-needed foreign currency into the coffers of the impoverished nation, but it would also take on the risk of being invaded by the bully nations. As I have mentioned in previous articles, Argentina is charging Uruguay three times the cost of the electricity transmitted from Paraguay through its grid just for the use of it, in addition to Uruguay having to pay for the original cost of the energy it is buying. That is particularly harsh when there is a draught in Uruguay, as presently exists, limiting the tiny nation’s electricity generation from its own hydroelectric sources.

It is my opinion that for all practical purposes, Mercosur is useless. It might as well be just a customs union between Argentina and Brazil. But currently even those two nations are bickering over imports and exports with each other. The current summit in Mendoza may clarify things a bit, but I may just as easily be confusing many of the issues with multiple meaningless political grandstanding by Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff.

Jamie Douglas

(Not) holding my breath in La Paloma

[Image of disposed Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo via Flickr]

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

South America News Roundup May 11, 2012: Dignified Death in Argentina, Quinoa in the Andes, Floods in Paraguay, Water Cannons in Chile

article from May 11, 2012

by Julie R Butler

Argentina: Dignified death law

The Argentine Senate has approved a “dignified death” law by a vote of 55-0, with 17 abstentions. The law was already passed in the Lower House last year. It eliminates the need for family members to find a judge who would sign a court order to refuse treatment or put an end to life-support.

Medical ethicists assure that removing feeding tubes is more humane than force-feeding the dying because the human body naturally shuts down its systems and can even induce feelings of euphoria that make the passing more calm and comfortable. Euthanasia is expressly prohibited by the new law, and the patient or representative must have signed document stating their wishes before a notary and two witnesses.

The Andes: Quinoa exports soar

Quinoa, a grain-like member of the spinach family, has been grown for food in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia for thousands of years. It is high in protein and has an excellent amino acid profile and good amounts of calcium, iron, and phosphorous. Like many indigenous foods, it was once looked down upon as “Indian food,” fit only for the poorest of the poor. But now, it has become a profitable cash crop for Peru and Bolivia, with a growing market in industrialized nations.

While this is good news for the farmers of these countries, it also raises several concerns. Suitable land is scarce in regions of Bolivia, causing violence over land claims. Another issue is that all of this nutritious food will be exported, leaving none left for the poorest of the poor.

Paraguay: Widespread flooding

Devastating floods began to hit the Chaco region of western Paraguay in mid-April. Some areas could not even accommodate emergency helicopters because of a lack of dry land.

The Paraguayan Chaco is nicknamed “Infierno Verde” (Green Hell), due to its extreme weather. The heat in the summer is intense, and the agriculture in the region has been plagued by extended droughts in recent years.

Heavy rains there continued through the end of the month, causing the affected area to spread to the capital city of Asunción, the latest region to have been declared a “state of emergency” due to flooding along the banks of the Río Paraguay.

As of April 29, 1,000 people had to be evacuated in Asunción and about 500 in Concepción, 570 km from the capital, while some 70,000 have been displaced in the Chaco.

Chile: Piñera, polls, and police

Recent news out of Chile serves as the perfect follow-up to the point I made recently in my article about the "Red Diaper Baby."

First, there is the recent polling that has Piñera’s approval rating dipping lower than it has ever been since he became president of Chile in 2010. This, despite the healthy economy, as food and fuel prices have fallen over the past few weeks. Political scientist Jose Viacava says that Chileans want more than good economic indicators; they are pushing for deeper reform in the country’s political and economic model. At least the president can take solace in the fact that the Concertación, the center-left opposition party, fares even worse in the polls. Perhaps part of the reason for so much discontent is that the carabineros spent US$6.7 million on 10 new riot control vehicles equipped with water cannons, feeding directly into the point that education reform activist, Camila Vallejo, was making in her response, as reported by The New York Times, to Piñera’s comment that “nothing in life is free. Someone has to pay”:

“Obviously someone has to pay, but there’s no reason why it must be families financing between 80 and 100 percent of it.” Why not the state — through taxes on large corporations, the nationalization of resources, a reduction in financing for the military? When yet another march ended in violence, Vallejo and her fellow students collected hundreds of tear-gas shells and brought them to La Moneda. “Here are more than 50 million pesos worth of tear-gas bombs,” announced Vallejo, money, she said, that could have been spent on education. Students formed the shells into a peace sign on the plaza, and Vallejo crouched in the center. The resulting image was published all over the world.

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

Elections in Mexico: A Primer

article from May 9, 2012

by Julie R Butler

A brief political history of Mexico

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, by its Spanish initials) came into power in Mexico in 1929. It began as a leftist revolutionary organization, but by institutionalizing itself, became conservative of its own power through corruption and election fraud. The PRI dominated Mexican government at every level for 71 years, with large majorities in the Federal Congress as well holding all of the state governorships.

The National Action Party (PAN) was founded in 1939 by Roman Catholics and other conservatives hoping bring an end to continued post-revolutionary violence and chaos through political representation of the opposition to the PRI. But in order to do this, an agreement was made with the PRI that left them with little real political power until 1979, when President López Portillo allowed official registry of opposition parties and created positions in the lower chamber of Congress for them to be able to participate in governance of the country. Vicente Fox was the PAN member who finally broke the long presidential reign of the PRI in 2000. He was succeeded by the current president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, also of the PAN, in 2006.

The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), founded in 1989, was begun by former PRI members and other left-wing and center-left politicians as a coalition that included communists, socialists, and workers. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas was a former PRI member who had dared to challenge the party’s habit of allowing the president to handpick his successor; and upon being expelled from the party, he ran as an opposition candidate in the 1988 elections. He is believed by many to have won the presidential election, but after the electronic election system mysteriously shut down, PRI candidate Carlos Salinas was declared the winner. In 2000, Cárdenas came in third place.

Newer Mexican political parties are the Labor Party (PT), the Green Ecological Party (PVEM), the New Alliance Party (PNA), representing the National Union of Educational Workers, and the social democratic Convergence for Democracy, which was re-formed as the Citizens’ Movement in 2011.

The 2012 elections

Currently, Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI is the frontrunner, with the ruling party’s candidate, Josefina Vázquez Mota (PAN) coming in second and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, representing a coalition of leftist parties led by the PRD, in third place. In the last presidential elections in 2006, López Obrador lost to Calderón by the slimmest of margins – just over half a percentage point – resulting in large protests that occupied Mexico City’s Zócalo from July until the Federal Election Tribunal declared the matter settled in September.

Unlike in many other Latin American nations, there is no runoff election if no one wins more than 50% of the votes. Rather, it is like in the United States, where whoever (supposedly) gets the most votes wins.

So the idea that the PRI, which Mario Vargas Llosa called “the perfect dictatorship” in 1990 (yes, this is the same Mario Vargas Llosa who so famously compared the 2011 Peruvian presidential candidates to the choice between cancer and AIDS), is a welcome change from the current government is rather surprising. But even former President Vicente Fox has acknowledged the major changes in the politics of Mexico that Peña Nieto represents:

“Today, we have a different Mexico,” Fox said. “We have a legislative branch and a judiciary that each day give us examples of independent postures and rulings. So against that (old) PRI is this new democratic reality of Mexico. It gives me confidence. It gives me peace of mind.”

One of the main motivations for change is, of course, Calderón’s War on Drugs and the extraordinary level of violence that is fatiguing the nation, leaving many Mexicans longing for the days when the government was more in bed with the narcotraficantes than at war with them.

Despite the distrust that many Mexicans hold for the PRI, their new candidate seems to be succeeding at projecting a new image of the old, corrupt, institutionalized party. New blood is bringing in new ideas, including the possibility of opening Pemex, the state-owned oil company that was the golden cow for the PRI for much of its reign over the country, to private investment.

The general elections will be held on Sunday, July 1.

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

Camila, the Red-Diaper Baby

article from May 4, 2012

by Julie R Butler

The fact that The Wall Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady called Chilean student activist Camila Vallejo “bebe de pañal rojo” or “red-diaper baby,” has made headlines throughout the Latin American media, to which the young communist responded via Twitter, “How it hurts them that Chile is becoming conscious! This is a sign of us advancing.”

The full title of the WSJ article is “Chile’s Cautionary Lesson for Americans: A free economy is at risk when a demand for equality is not answered by a defense of liberty,” and it begins like so:

“Communists are not taking over Chile. But you wouldn't know it from watching the media frenzy surrounding 23-year-old student leader and avowed communist Camila Vallejo in Santiago.”

O’Grady goes on to express amazement that this charismatic young woman, who was raised by communist supporters of Salvador Allende, could be so effective at putting the center-right government of Sebastian Piñera on the defensive. Whereas the material benefits of the market economy have been piling up for decades, she laments, the leftist ideas that have “intellectually swamped” the country seem to be blind to “the morality of the market and the sanctity of individual rights.”

“Chileans aren’t interested in communism,” she states, citing a dip in Camila’s popularity upon her return from Cuba recently. Chile is on the right track, she points out, having raised its ranking from 53rd to 39th in the World Bank’s Doing Business survey in the past two years. But President Piñeras is not a very good defender of freedom and liberty, and this has O’Grady worried.

The “freedom” she is talking about is that of a corporation to build a coal-fired power plant in an environmentally-sensitive location. And the tax cuts that have been proposed to offset the rise in what was supposed to be a temporary corporate tax increase, instigated to ensure funding after the massive earthquake in 2010, which will probably not pass because Piñera’s coalition is not the majority party in Congress, are, no doubt, the “tyranny” that the leftist ideas are inviting with their insistence on making the education system equally accessible to all Chileans.

Now, I am not arguing that Ms. O’Grady is wrong to state that communists are not taking over Chile. However, I would just like to point out the inconsistencies in her argument, beginning with the observation that there are, indeed, many Chileans who are interested in communism (other than red-diaper girl and her parents). These are not large percentages, but according to Wikipedia, in the 1999/2000 presidential elections, the president of the Communist Party of Chile (PCCh), Gladys Marín, won 3.2% of the vote in the first round; in the December 11, 2005, legislative elections, the PCCh won 5.1% of the popular vote; and the support of the PCCh aided in the electoral victories of the two socialist presidents who preceded Piñera, Ricardo Lagos in 2000 and Michelle Bachelet in 2006.

Since she brings up the topic of popularity ratings... Well, she shouldn’t, really, because the activist known throughout the world simply as “Camila” is far and away more popular than the president, despite any dip she might have encountered. In the Chilean democracy, his party is the minority, so that doesn’t exactly point to most Chileans being on the political right. And after having promised that, under his watch, Chile would be governed in a whole new way, the Aysén Dam project and the attempts to further privatize Chile’s educational system have shined the light on the backroom business as usual. As of March 2012, Piñera’s approval ratings had dropped back down to 29% from 33% in February – and that was up from 22% in September 2011, during the thick of the educational reform movement, which, at that same time, had a nation approval rating of 72%.

Camila’s pretty face began appearing as the leader of the movement in major international media such as Die Zeit and The Guardian during the “Chilean Winter,” and since then, she has become a media darling, designated by Time Magazine as the 2011 “Time Person of the Year.” Just recently, The New York Times ran a lengthy profile on her, and now even WSJ is acknowledging her.

Camila defended her trip to Cuba by pointing out that Neither is Cuba perfect nor does Chile have to follow in its path [Spanish]. She also noted that she did not observe there any of the water cannons or tear gas guns that have been used to disperse crowds in her own country.

So, O’Grady can downplay the popularity of this young woman and the movement that she represents all she wants, but Francisco Goldman, the author of above mentioned article in The New York Times, who actually spent time in Chile and interviewed people involved in the education reform movement, has a very different take. He states,

“I was struck, on my return in March, by the widespread admiration and affection for her among so many Chileans, men and women alike. Her political capital and power, at the national level, seems only to have only grown.”

[Image of Camila Vallejo via Flickr]

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler

The World as Seen from Cuba

article from April 19, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Cuba is going to be a very wealthy nation, once the economic blockade is lifted. In 2010 alone, over a half a billion US dollars have been confiscated (stolen?) by Washington and its Caribbean lackeys.

This amount is certified by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, which still refers to the island nation as a “state sponsor of terrorism.” But when it comes to state sponsored terrorism, it is the United States that has repeatedly supported terrorist organizations that have served its goals. Surely, we all remember the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion, carried out by incompetent minions of the CIA, who are still hanging around the cafés of Miami’s Calle Ocho, reliving their massive failure. It’s very similar to the Argentineans celebrating their ass-kicking at the hands of the British in the Falkland Islands. They are all such heroes!

The biggest heroes of them all are two mass murderers who have been given sanctuary in the United States: Luis Posada Carriles and the now deceased Orlando Bosch. And of course, the CIA has equally dirty hands in the matter that brought down Cubana Airlines Flight 455, a DC-8 that exploded midair by means of a bomb that was disguised as a shipment of Colgate toothpaste but was in reality plastic explosives. The CIA was aware of the impending terrorist action, but never informed the Cuban government via the Swiss Embassy. Some of the perpetrators were tried in Venezuela but were allowed to escape in 1985. The entire operation was so badly bungled that it had the hand prints of the CIA and the veterans of the Bay of Pigs all over it. They did succeed in blowing up the airplane, which carried the entire Cuban fencing team that had just won all the medals in the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Last week (April 13, 2012) also had Raúl Castro hosting the presidents and ministers of state of several Latin American nations, including President Felipe Calderón of Mexico. During their meeting, the future prospects of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, an alternative to the US-dominated Organization of American States, were discussed. The United States’ objection to Cuba’s presence at any OAS function, despite its membership in the organization, was a key issue at the recent Summit of the Americas. So, slowly but surely the nations of the hemisphere, minus Canada and the United States, are building their own organization, with China reaping the most benefits.

I had much greater hopes for President Barack Obama reaching out to our neighbors in the hemisphere. But this being an election year and Florida being an important swing state (who could forget the 2000 fiasco), he must pander to the vociferous Cuban exile community there.

As for the population of Cuba, they are doing OK. They would love to do better. But on February 3, 1962, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, with Proclamation 3447, turned Cuba into the USA’s redheaded stepchild. A year and a half later he was dead – shot by unknown assassins. Fifty years later the Castro brothers are still in power, and the USA still has not learned anything about their yanqui arrogance. China has become the dominant trading power in the hemisphere, and they own trillions of dollars worth of the USA. Will the lights ever come on, or will the United States keep blundering through the dark swamp for another 50 years?

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Having a Havana Club Gold

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Summary of the Sixth Summit of the Americas

article from April 17, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Cartagena, Colombia, the "Pearl of the Caribbean,"  had, in spite of minor rumblings about the Falkland Islands and the highly visible absence of Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua, the promise to bring together all the he heads of state of the hemisphere.

Lacking were Hugo Chávez who, it must be assumed, is spending his last days as a guest of another no-show, this one a no-show by denial, Raúl Castro, the younger (almost 81-year-old) brother of Comandante Fidel, as well the voluntarily missing Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, and the newly re-reelected president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.

With Correa, it is a double-edged sword. On one hand, he was grandstanding for the inclusion of Cuba, while on the other, he was fearful of leaving the country and losing power.

While the motto of the summit held great promise: “Connecting the Americas: Partners for Prosperity,” the outcome was rather embarrassing to the USA, what with the prostitute scandal (What do you mean I have to pay you? You should pay me, I am American!), which overshadowed everything else. It was this very attitude that was to be avoided. US President Barack Obama did his best to make good on some of his early promises to get closer with his southern neighbors, listening to hours of diatribes and well-meaning speeches from the leaders of the Americas.

The exclusion of Cuba – sorry, that should be the Marxist Communist Republic of Cuber, once the promising 49th state to the US of A – took up such a huge amount of time that it reminded me of the annual square dance that used to take place at the United Nations, where the whole world wanted a nation of a billion Chinese souls to become members of the world body while the US vetoed it, insisting that the shoe and bicycle factory named Taiwan represented the whole of China. And so it goes today with US-Cuba relations.

The summit unfortunately lasted for only two days, and most of that time was taken up with bickering about Cuba. Is the United States so nearsighted that it does not see what a potential giant lies dormant at their doorstep? And I don’t mean a doormat! I can see why Canada supports the embargo. Their citizens have had the island to share only with European and South American citizens. It is so nice not to have that whale of a human on the beach hollering at the waitress, ¡Otro!

As it stands now, the delegates could have stayed home and bought some prostitutes wholesale for their details. That would have saved a whole lot of money and frustration for the many non-Canadian or US delegates.

For such a huge hemispherical organization to come together only every three years is a bit embarrassing, as well. I would suspect that yearly meetings might be more in order. However, the ALBA nations – Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and many of the smaller Caribbean nations, have already stated firmly that they would not attend another summit without Cuba’s presence. And of course, the nearsightedness about Cuba is also causing the United States to miss out on the fact that China is taking over as the major trading partner throughout Latin America. Ouch.

So the other big drama, besides the sex scandal, was Argentina’s President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who singlehandedly is trying to turn back the clock of progress in her country, storming out of the summit before it was over, calling it a waste of her time. She went to Cartagena all full of expectations that she would be able to bring her favorite non-issue to the table, the Falkland Islands. But no such thing happened. All the nations, big and small, failed to even mention her menstrual problem, so she came home, called for an emergency meeting with the press and her cabinet, and proudly announced that the federal government would steal 51% of the Spanish oil exploration firm YPF-Repsol, giving the remaining 49% to the provinces. Way to go Cristina! It shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, as state larceny has been institutionalized in Argentina for over 200 years, now. The faces change, but the tactic and practices remain the same.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where my U.S. Dollar gets stronger every day

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Continuing the War on Drugs (Because the USA Started It – Sort of like Vietnam)

article from April 10, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is a real war. Well over 50,000 human beings have lost their lives in this war, many of them good and a whole lot of them bad guys, just in Mexico alone.

While Guatemala’s new President Otto Pérez Molina, on the surface, is speaking against the war on drugs and is saying he is for legalization, as more and more Latin American leaders are, he nevertheless has to defend his country from being taken over by the Zetas.

The northern region of Guatemala bordering Mexico has long been plagued by violent drug gangs taking over entire regions in the Petén, where they enslave the locals to build clandestine airstrips for the planes from Colombia and Costa Rica that arrive in broad daylight. The Petén department is the northernmost as well as the largest, encompassing 13,843 square miles of mostly sparsely inhabited jungle and ranchland.

A month after his swearing in, the new president stated that he and other Latin American leaders would consider decriminalizing illicit drugs to fight trafficking in the region. That is very noble of him. But does he really want Guatemala to become another Costa Rica or Panama, which are semi-legal trans-shipment points for Peruvian Marching Powder? Guatemala already has one of the highest murder rates in the world, at 16 murders per day in country with 38 out of 100,000 citizens murdered every year.

Way back in the 1990s when my wife and I traveled through Guatemala twice a year, cocaine was easily obtainable and dirt cheap. The market was controlled by Italian hoods, many of them, at this point, long deceased at the hands of the Mexicans and Colombians who realized that the country could serve their needs as a trans-shipment point. From an airstrip in the Petén jungle, the air distance to the Gulf Coast shores of the United States is less than 1,000 miles. While the preferred point of departure is the Yucatan Peninsula, as it lies much closer to the US mainland, it is also occupied by the Mexican military, as well as having a large number of less corruptible DEA agents operating sophisticated radars and satellites.

It must also be understood that legalizing illicit drugs will not be a cure-all for the affected nations. The trafficking will stay and probably increase, with more and more of the product being left behind, fueling more and more misery created by addiction mixed with already deep social problems.

Another concern: When legalized, who will handle the trade – Pfizer, Hoffman or any of the hundreds of international parasitic drug companies that are already in the pharmaceutical business? And when it comes to the USA, there is no way that the so-mentioned honorable drug companies are willing to let this, the most lucrative trade ever, be handled by anyone other than themselves. Why, this could potentially be bigger than online porn. Imagine that!

The United States has already denounced the potential for legalization strongly.

Recently officials of the Latin American nations and US officials met in Costa Rica to discuss the problem of spreading drug gang violence. The problem is actually twofold: There are the consumer nations, which encompass virtually the entire Western World, and the producer nations, which, through corruption, have allowed the industry to get control of entire countries. (Head South from Mexico to Bolivia and you will see every single nation entangled in the trade.)

To my thinking, legalization will not work. Imagine the logistical nightmare of transporting and warehousing a substance that sells typically for US$30,000 to $50,000 per kilo, and with adulteration and an insatiable consumer market, it will easily bring in a minimum of $100,000. To put this in perspective, gold, on Monday, April 9, traded at $53,600 per kilo, and it is not a consumable item, nor does it does grow fresh crops on a continuing basis.

Those who advocate legalizing drugs, and I are not talking about marijuana, had better come up with a damn good plan that starts at the point of cultivation and goes right up to the nostrils of the end user.

But in the end, it is just all about money – the hundreds of billions of dollars in cash floating around now are very corrupting. Take a relatively high-ranking cop in Honduras: Is he going to pass up a suitcase full of money every month to help out the narco-terrorist, or take a bullet?

Legalization of hard drugs will not come about when the Zetas and the CIA have decided to cooperate with each other. The logistics of reining in that web of deception are way too overwhelming.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

The Real April Fool: Argentina's Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

article from April 1, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Many have attempted the colossal feat of making the Southern Cone nation the laughing stock of the world, and finally, the widow of the former president, being La Presidenta in her own right, has succeeded!

The buildup has been anticipated and therefore comes as no surprise. Since her reelection last October, it has been a steady drumbeat to fascism coming from the Casa Rosada, with new financial regulations, import restrictions and less personal freedom to do with your money as you want. Add to that the constant treaty violations with Mercosur’s junior members, Uruguay and Paraguay, her flaky excuse to not attend the Mercosur meeting in Asuncion (had a headache and could not fly) and now, the demands made on Mexico, also breaking an important trade treaty there, whereby Argentina exported  about a million automobiles to Mexico and vice versa. But now it just does not suit Argentina anymore. They still want to export to Mexico but don’t want to allow Mexican cars to enter Argentina anymore.

For a long time now, there have been severe import restrictions on any merchandise entering Argentina. There are huge stockpiles of books and publications sitting in warehouses at border crossings between Uruguay and Argentina. Last week, the government of Argentina issued a formal statement that was heartily laughed at around the world: The printing ink has lead in it, and the public could be injured when they lick their fingers to turn the pages. The most embarrassing part of that folly is that both ink and paper are shipped over to Uruguay from Argentina in the first place!

Argentinean customs is also holding up many life-saving medications, as well as car parts, food items and just about anything you can think off. Even items from the Mercosur trade zone are being held back. The one thing that apparently sneaks its way past those eagle-eyed inspectors is makeup; tons of it, from the looks of it, all required in the name of national security, so that La Cristina can maintain that “condor” look.

And in keeping the populace baffled with all her bullshit, her government has spent 1.25 billion pesos on promoting itself in 2010, 25 times as much as was spent under the administration of her husband, Néstor Kirchner. Since she took control, however, she has used the very large funds to declare war on her enemies by diverting government pesos into massive advertising campaigns. Argentina has a national decree that stipulates that the money be spent in a balanced way, but La Cristina has gone out of her way to ignore that.

Just like the blatant vote-buying that was happening leading up to the last presidential election, where she promised everybody a chicken or some pork and flat-screen TVs for the jubilados (retirees).The federal government’s share of advertising in the nation comes to over 9% of all advertising in the country, about the same as the second-  and third-largest advertisers in the country – Unilever and Proctor and Gamble – combined. To put it in perspective, that is 6.5 times as much as Canada spends! But then again, Canada does not have that much to lie about to its citizens, probably precisely 6.5 times less.

Some of the latest effluent to emerge lately is a new decree that Argentineans traveling abroad are not able to use their debit cards, as of today, to buy things or withdraw funds from their bank accounts at home, unless they are US dollar accounts. All of these rules and regulations are regurgitated on a daily base from the government’s Official Bulletin. Those of you fluent in Spanish are forewarned!

Being as this is akin to the period when Argentina’s General Galtieri started the unfortunate war against the UK over the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, I do have a serious question for my Argentinean brothers and sisters. Since when does a nation celebrate getting their asses kicked as severely, as they did 30 years ago? We were in Mendoza a month ago for the Vendimia Wine Harvest Festival, and a sad-looking bunch of Malvinas veterans hobbled by in the parade. I had to control myself from committing suicide by lynching by shouting out: “THEY LIED TO YOU!”

I have no recollection of the USA ever celebrating the end of their misfortunate incursion into Vietnam. Yippee, it’s April 30! Let’s celebrate our humiliating defeat at the hands of a peasant army that kicked our asses, B-52s and all.

Now for the hate mail, I thank you in advance.

Jamie Douglas

Going Totally Insane in San Rafael, Mendoza

[Image of President Kirchner with children, Maximo and Florencia Kirchner at second inauguration via Wikipedia]

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Lucky Mexico: 7.9 Earthquake

article from March 22, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

As one who was in Mexico City 48 hours after the disastrous quake in 1985, I was extremely concerned when I heard the first reports of a 7.9 earthquake hitting the home of the Distrito Federal. As sometimes happens, first reports do not convey the full extent of a catastrophe like the one in 1985. It was through a network of HAM radio operators that I first received word and, together with a friend, set out from Brownsville in a station wagon loaded to the hilt with bandages, sutures, plaster cast materials, antibiotics and whatever else the good people from the region donated when we urged them to bring supplies to the international bridge, where we were waiting to depart.

Nothing could have prepared us for what we encountered when we got to Mexico City. The destruction was amazing and a layer of dust still hung over the city. Individual citizens were still digging by hand in the ruins looking for loved ones. Just like the earthquake that shook the nation a couple of days ago, it was centered off the coast of Guerrero state, and Mexico City, being built over an old lake bed, suffered the most, as soil liquefaction caused many of the tall buildings to lean and collapse.

There were scenes of absolute horror everywhere, most hospitals were destroyed and there was no water or electricity, so when nightfall came, there was just an eerie collection of fires burning in the street and one could still hear the cries of some of the buried victims.

When I first heard about the current seismic event, it was from friends in Michoacán who related the severity of the shaking, while at the same time assuring me that there was little damage. As the reports started coming in from the D.F., it became clear that, at least for the moment, the megalopolis was intact. Obviously, strict new building codes put in place when 1985’s rebuilding began saved the day.

The Mexican newspaper El Universal stated today that the damages were hovering at about Mex$45 million, and likely to go up some, but Marcelo Ebrard, the head of government of the D.F. announced that most of the damages were covered by insurance. As of last night, March 21, 99% of electricity has been restored, 300,000 households were still without water and a force of workers were repairing the A Line of the subway, where approximately 120 meters (400 feet) of track has been displaced by the massive seismic event.

Overall, for an event of this magnitude, things are returning to normal quite rapidly, the streets have been cleared of most debris and fortunately, aside from a few isolated but sometime serious injuries from falling bricks and mortar, there has not been one single fatality reported.

The countryside nearer to the epicenter is mostly made up of small towns, many of the buildings being mud bricks. But since the 1985 quake, much more steel-reinforced concrete is in use, which was able to resist the force of the tremor. The epicenter was about 100 km straight east of Acapulco. The governor of Guerrero state announced that about 800 dwellings were destroyed, but there were no casualties there or in neighboring Oaxaca state, where US President Barack Obama’s daughter Malia was on a class trip.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Crumbling Infrastructures: Buenos Aires, Caracas

article from February 25, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Ash Wednesday in Buenos Aires turned out to be a very tragic day. A fully loaded commuter train with over 2,000 porteños on board suffered a suspected mechanical failure in its brake system, slamming into the end-of-the-line barrier at the Once station in the capital city, with devastating results. Fifty dead and 650 injured – ¡que horror! – a very inappropriate end to the Carnival festivities, although not altogether unexpected.

The infrastructure of the city of Buenos Aires has been crumbling since the 1980s, but the bottom really fell out during the last financial crisis when Argentina defaulted on its sovereign debt. Looking at the photos and videos of this catastrophe, I was astonished to discover that the rolling stock looked to be from about 1950s or 60s and in very bad shape, even just look at. Buenos Aires has become somewhat of a dangerous eyesore, where you are not safe in the best of neighborhoods anymore.

Those of us who always admired the city as “the Paris of South America” now look at it as a crumbling city, a city where you can still look up at the beautiful facades of those magnificent edifices built in the 1920s; but while looking up and admiring that, be careful, because the sidewalks are hazards to your health. There are not just cracks, but holes and missing manhole covers – and you really have to be very careful where your next step will take you, as there are so many dogs that use the sidewalks as their toilet.

Then there are all the homeless sleeping and living in the entryways to abandoned businesses. And whatever you do, exercise extreme caution when using an ATM. It’s not that robbers in Buenos Aires are very sophisticated; in fact, they are quite clumsy, spilling a drink on you or dropping mud from a balcony to cause a major distraction, or dropping something in front of you, trying to take advantage of the Good Samaritan in you so they can grab your wallet, purse or bags. The current economic downturn has led to a lack of public safety, with the federal police abandoning their patrol duties on the subway and trains, leaving that to the local police, who are either part of the criminal gangs or not present at all.

So for those of you contemplating moving to Buenos Aires, be aware. Crime is surging, inflation is over 25%, and public confidence has reached new lows. It was only a couple of weeks ago that a well-known French photographer was stabbed to death at 8:30 in the morning, in a very populated and “safe” section of town, the park dedicated to the Falklands War Veterans in Retiro. ...it makes the photographer in me want to leave that part of my life behind. Whenever I stepped out while in Buenos Aires with my Nikon camera, the people at the front desk of my hotel would warn me, shopkeepers would warn me and waiters in restaurants would have me hide my equipment. Fortunately, we were always very aware of our surroundings. And when the guy came by with a huge key ring and dropped it at my feet, it was me who kept a local from running after him. It was such an obvious attempt to separate us from our luggage in front of the hotel that it was almost laughable. Jajaja!

Caracas, Venezuela

In Caracas (how similar that sounds to carcass!), Venezuela’s Clown Prince is now following his destiny, which looks to be an appointment with Mr. D. After denying rumors about having The Big “C,” he just announced that a new lesion of about 2 centimeters had been discovered in an undisclosed location “near his pelvis,” where surgeons in Cuba last June had removed a baseball-sized malignant tumor, and after a few rounds of chemotherapy he had declared himself to be cancer free. Hallelujah!

Except that he is not. For the first time since his medical misadventures began, he openly stated that it was probably a malignant growth. Various experts in the field of his unknown cancer have previously stated that he in all likelihood suffers from Steve Jobism, which is denial of his terminal condition and the putting off of the immediate treatment of his disease. After all, a bull can only be a bull if he has his cajones; and now that a young, virile opposition leader has emerged, Henrique Capriles, the 39-year-old governor of Miranda State, the chances of Venezuela’s return to the civilized world are getting better with every moment that Chávez waits to have radical surgery. I do wish him well in his battle for life, but more importantly, I wish Venezuela only the best in its recovery from the years of darkness. Let there be light!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Is Argentina Really Schizophrenic or Are They a Nation of Great Actors?

article from February 18, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

The answer is neither. They are just a nation in incredible denial of everything from the government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner being so untruthful about the nation’s inflationary figures to the incredible energy shortage facing the nation.

Every day, up and down this nation, you can see thousands of trucks and automobiles waiting at the few gas stations scattered around the country, sitting there sometimes for a mere few hours, or as was the case earlier this week, two to three days, with the consequence of lost productivity in untold tons of cargo not being moved from farm to market, and this at the peak of harvest time.

The Argentine Confederation of Transport Workers on Wednesday, Feb 15, ratified a chicane against British ships. They will randomly block any vessel flying any type of British ensign from being allowed to dock in Argentina, as well as slowing down the docking and departure procedures to six hours each on those vessels that are allowed. The head of the maritime workers union, Omar Suárez, stated that this will be selectively carried out without notice and that it could spread all over Latin America.

Apparently, word did not get to Mr. Suárez in time to avoid the embarrassing revelation that currently, the British Rugby, belonging to BP and flying the flag of the Isle of Man, is berthed in Puerto Ingeniero White, where the lovely 84,000 ton LNGC carrier, the third of five awarded to British Petroleum last December, is unloading its cargo.

The main problem for continued delivery is not the empty barking of a neutered dog – in this instance, a trade union that has lost all its power with the Peronista justicialista administration – but rather, that energy-hungry Argentina must pay for all of its purchases on the spot market with US cash dollars, something that is not exactly in abundance in this bankrupt and self-delusional nation. It would be amusing if it were not such a Greek tragedy playing itself out in the Southern Cone.

So the average Argentinean spends a good portion of their vacation waiting for the YPF tanker trucks to come into the gas station to unload their cargoes of precious refined fluids, only to get to the head of the line and find that they are out again. The consumers are wise to the fact that they need to get their fuel when they can. They buy several drums worth and any other containers they can fill.

Meanwhile Argentina’s Energy Institute, known by its Spanish initials as IAE, has issued a strong warning that the country faces an “unprecedented energy crisis” after squandering its existing resources by exporting huge amounts to Chile for several years to earn foreign exchange reserves, thereby selling to Peter what they stole from Paul and owed to Néstor. A better-worded statement released by the IAE, which is made up of former energy ministers of the nation (go figure; they suddenly got to be the “wise elders”), put it this way: “…the current energy situation in Argentina is no surprise: it was expected since there are not now, nor have there been for a long time, comprehensive long term policies for the industry. In fact there has been a total lack of an adequate implementation of serious policies.”

Under Néstor Kirchner’s administration, and continuing under the puppetry of his stand-in, his now-widowed wife, Cristina, the country’s reserves of crude dropped 6% while the formerly overabundant natural gas reserves fell by 41% as the nation’s artificial affluence has put hundreds of thousands of new vehicles on the road – all on easy credit, of course. Meanwhile, the actual production of refined products fell by almost one-fifth, which has led to the current shortages affecting agricultural production.

Cristina’s answer is to renationalize the oil companies. Good luck with that, Argentina. We already experienced what happened when Aerolineas Argentinas was re-nationalized: forty pilots per aircraft and a payroll of over 10,000 people.

Good luck Argentina, particularly those of you in line trying to buy fuel.

Jamie Douglas

Sitting Pretty in San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Sean Penn Comes to Argentina

article from February 15, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Actor and political activist Sean Penn has now made it to Argentina to throw the weight of his support behind the Argentine’s claims of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. He arrived in Buenos Aires, hat in hand, to beg for more aid for the people of Haiti, which is still suffering from the horrendous earthquake that devastated that poor, hyper-corrupt country on that disastrous afternoon of January 12, 2010.

Aid poured in, evangelical missionaries came to steal children, and former President George W. Bush made a rare appearance since the end of his disgraceful two terms in office, wiping his hands on Bill Clinton’s shirt after shaking a victim’s hand. (At least this time, nobody stole his watch.)

What has been stolen are hundreds of millions of US dollars, outright stolen or misappropriated since the aid money started flowing in while millions are still living in tents under the most inhumane conditions. I am sorry to say it, but that is business as usual in Haiti.

The ultimate insult is for a second-rate actor such as Sean Penn to come to Argentina, calling for an end to this ridiculous colonialism, a situation that the world cannot tolerate in these enlightened days. So he wants the Falklands, instead, to become an Argentinean colony?

What about US colonialism in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam and Samoa, just to mention the biggies? From living in the US Virgin Islands, I know all-too well what the economic and crime situation is there and how the US government forced its purchase of the islands then neglected and ignored them. And let us not overlook the former Kingdom of Hawaii, where, as in Alaska, thousands of military-service personnel voted for statehood, completely nullifying the will of the actual inhabitants.

So the best Cristina can come up with for a suggestion to fix Haiti is to begin preparing and training the Haitians to have their own armed forces. Poor dumb Cristina, she was obviously on a different planet when Haiti last had a military, which was used for no other purpose than to subjugate, terrorize and murder its own citizens.

Granted, since gaining independence from France on January 1, 1804, the country has been one of chaos and instability. Under French rule, there was in place the dehumanizing system of a wealthy minority exploiting the illiterate poor majority, which was continued after the bloody revolution, with the mulatto children of the rich plantation owners taking over control. Many of these mulattos took advantage of their newly elevated social status to gain financial control, as well as control over most of the land, perpetuating the previous economic system of master and slave. One major difference was that the new rulers had to make massive reparations to their former masters, the French slave owners, in order to get recognition from the nation of France.

Despite democratic government, it was sugar that was king, and both Haiti and Hawaii produced an abundance of it. By 1789, Saint-Domingue, as Haiti was then known, produced 60% of the world’s coffee as well as 40% of the sugar consumed in England and France.

It would have served both Sean Penn and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to take a brief history lesson about Western colonialism before having that lovely photo opportunity in the Casa Rosada. Sean Penn, of course, is trying to keep his name in the headlines while doing good for the people of Haiti and for the NGO that helps street children in the north of Argentina and Haiti; but I must confess, I am a little uneasy with the fact that a Catholic priest, Father Carlos Molina, seems to be in charge of that project – for obvious reasons. Letting Catholic priests be in charge of NGOs dealing with young boys is somewhat like letting an elephant guard your vegetable patch.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Argentina News Roundup Jan 13, 2012

article from January 13, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Dakar Rally

This year’s Dakar Rally Raid is taking its toll on competitors and spectators both. Day one alone saw three fatalities, one being the Argentinean motorcycle rider Jorge Martinez Boero, who passed away while being transported by helicopter to a hospital after a severe crash. That same day, a father and his 12-year-old son were killed when the ultra-light plane they were using to observe the race crashed onto the highway in Orense.

There have also been several other spectacular accidents with serious injuries. The Czech crew of Aleš Loprais, driving a specially modified Tatra Jamal truck, had great luck, though suffering a very serious multi-rollover accident after the mechanic who was driving, Petr Almáši, fell asleep at the wheel, ran off the tarmac and lost control of the machine, totaling the Total-sponsored vehicle. Two of the three occupants suffered moderate-to-severe but not life-threatening injuries. As Michal Ernst, the team’s navigator explained to the media, “It happened very fast. We were all very tired and probably did not pay enough attention to driving. The truck suddenly went off the road. As we were driving quite fast at the time, at around 100 km/h, the truck plunged headlong into the sand and rolled over twice. The impact was severe, it was nothing pleasant!”

Thursday’s stage ended in Arequipa, Peru, the first time that nation has been visited by the Dakar Rally, which will end in Lima on Sunday, Jan 15, after completing well-over 5,000 miles in each of the four vehicle divisions: bikes, quads, cars and trucks.

The government v the poor hippies

Those who know the Buenos Aires Microcenter’s Florida pedestrian mall are no doubt aware of a number of street peddlers setting up there to sell their merchandise from mid-afternoon until late night. Lately, probably because the pie is getting smaller, this conflagration of “unsightliness” has become a source of friction between the rent-paying merchants and the mate-sucking anarchists of the street. Enter the megalopolis’ Public Space Minister Diego Santilli, and you have an instant confrontation between the federal riot police and undesirables.

After several dozen un-deodorized Peruvians, Ecuadoreans, Brazilians and Bolivians held a protest at the Corrientes crossing, blocking traffic in the time-honored porteño fashion, the public space minister asked for the support of the federales in making sure that these vagrants would not reestablish their clearly illegal selling of goods in public.

IMF v Argentina, round 13

It appears that the Kirchnerist approach to the International Monetary Fund’s silly demands that Argentina make arrangements to repay their loans and stop the disingenuousness with which the nation manufactures its statistics on inflation and unemployment are bearing fruit.

At a press conference on Thursday, Jan 12, in Washington DC, the IMF’s Acting Director of External Relations Gerry Rice reiterated that the organization’s board of directors will meet within a few weeks time to determine what progress, if any, Argentina has made in respect to the Fund’s request of a little bit more transparency and less shuffling of the figures submitted by the Southern Cone nation’s government. He pretty much conceded that whatever decisions the board would come up with, sanctions against Argentina would not be included. I guess that concludes that series of discussions before they start.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Trouble in Paradise: Nicaragua and Costa Rica

article from January 12, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Nicaragua

These are interesting days for Nicaragua. President-re-re-elect Daniel Ortega was re-re sworn in in Managua, in spite of the constitutional prohibition against such an act. But like his colleague in Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, he now has established a legislative super-majority, which, for the good of that impoverished nation, will probably allow him to be president for life.

Silly me, I thought the reason that they got rid of the Somoza family regime was to avoid that from happening again. Next thing you know, the Ortega family will refurbish the former Somoza seaside palace in San Juan del Sur. At least he got rid of the rumpled army fatigues, a trademark he copied from Fidel Castro. Looking at his wife wearing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry for the inauguration, you would never guess that this is a socialist state.

Judging by the attendees present, which included Venezuelan Clown Prince Hugo Chávez and Iran’s flailing leader Mahmoud Ahmedinejad along with most regional heads of state, it was quite a love fest, with the expected anti-American rhetoric. Chávez  called the United States “the lackeys of imperialism.” What an insult! The US is the imperialist, and most other nations are its lackeys!

Costa Rica

Notably absent from the festivities was the president of neighboring Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla. (Her name alone must give the heebie jeebies to members of PETA.) In referring to a useless sandbar in the middle of the San Juan River, Roberto Gallardo, the spokesman for the presidential ministry, clearly stated that “we have said that there cannot be normalization of relations with Nicaragua while the aggression and occupation of our national territory persists. Relations will return to normal, when the violation of Costa Rican sovereignty ceases in the area of Isla Calero.”

If “normal” means that supposedly neutral Costa Rica will repeat history by allowing a buildup of CIA and US military forces on its sacred soil to attack the neighboring country, which was the case with Honduras helping to bring about the deaths of 60,000 Nicaraguans along with another 75,000 in El Salvador, I, for one, am not looking forward to the normalization of relations between the two. Costa Rica has already given permission to the US armed forces to create a naval facility, as well as to use the CIA-built Liberia International Airport and “temporarily” house some of the US troops on their soil. But what the hell, they are the 53rd state already.

While Chinchilla is off attending to other foreign presidential inaugurations, (Guatemala) and vacationing in Mexico with her family, perhaps she should pay a little closer attention to the crime wave that is washing over her nation. Just over the last few days, several US and Canadian retirees and travelers were brutally murdered, while 360 kilos of cocaine were found on a truck heading to Nicaragua (Foreign Aid) and one ton of the Peruvian Marching Powder was dug up on a beach between the two popular tourist resorts of Quepos and Domincal. The stash of drugs on the beaches of Parrita was discovered through a tip; but instead of waiting to see who came to get it, the ministry of security turned it into a major press event.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the town of Quepos was just released on bail following his arrest for being one of the country’s major producers of child pornography. Mayor Lutgardo Bolaños was released a mere 12 hours after his arrest. Of course, no officials were available to comment on this.

Then there was the riot in La Reforma Prison that left two prisoners dead after 800 were given recreational outdoor time with the supervision of a mere seven guards. But it could be that they rioted because two separate woman were arrested trying to smuggle a cell phone with charger and hands-free device inside one, and a half pound of marijuana in another woman’s insides.

Then there was the story of the British man with warrants out from Interpol who was able to enter Costa Rica undetected, where he promptly raped and killed a 22-year-old Czech girl doing volunteer work on a farm.

Unfortunately, this is the current reality in Costa Rica, long a drug warehouse, but lately, things have only been deteriorating in this tropical paradise.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Feliz Nuevo Año: News from Brazil, Argentina for Jan 7, 2012

article from January 7, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Brazil’s fizzle

As the New Year begins, Brazil is bursting at the seams. The world’s financial wizards deposited a record US$65.2 billion in the fizzling economy during the past year, an increase of 168% over 2010. Why fizzling? Just like when you open a bottle of sparkling wine, it has a lot of little bubbles, which fizzle out after a while. The champagne bottle named Brazil has now been open for several years, benefitting mostly from China’s oversupply of US dollars and that country’s need to plan ahead for the future by assuring abundant raw material and food supplies for its ever-growing population. But China’s overheated economy is starting to feel the pinch of the global slowdown and returning cycle of recession, and after stockpiling hundreds of millions of tons of raw minerals and signing very long-term contracts with developing nations, it is possible that a saturation point is approaching.

Meanwhile, Brazil will need to increase its availability of electricity by 56%, according to a study released January 4, 2012, by the state-run EPE, the energy research corporation. It forecasts a consumption increase from the current 472,000 gigawatt-hours (gwh) to 736,000 gwh. That is a helluva jump, equal to three times the capacity generated by Itaipú, the world’s second-largest hydroelectric facility after China’s Three Gorges Dam. Itaipú generated 92,245 gwh of electrical current last year, putting it in the number-one slot worldwide for electrical generation.

Brazil is counting very strongly on three major manmade ecological disasters to avoid the coming brownout: the Belo Monte, San Antonio and Jirau hydroelectric projects, the first one being very strongly opposed by humanitarians and ecologist worldwide, as well as the native aboriginal tribes having lived off that land for eternities. There are court battles going on, lives have been lost and more will be lost; but in the end, the “greater good” will be the evil winning the day.

Argentina military reassignments

Most of you probably know that La Cristina, current figurehead of the Kirchneristas in Argentina, underwent a full thyroidectomy on Wednesday, Jan 4. According to her doctors, it was a full success, or as the official release stated, with “no inconvenience or complications.” Early detection is the best way to beat cancer, and in the case of cancer of the thyroid, the survival rate is over 90%. I am very happy for her as well as me, as her continued incompetent flailing is giving me fodder for writing on a daily basis.

What many of you have probably not heard about is that one of her last acts in exercising her executive powers before going under the knife was the abrupt cashiering of 36 military generals and admirals. An official announcement in The Gazette on Monday declared that Chief of Staff Operations Commander Jorge Telado will be retiring effective immediately and that he has been replaced by Kirchner loyalist Brigadier General Humberto Claudio Trisano.

The next day, The Gazette announced the forced retirement of twelve army generals, ten air force generals and thirteen navy admirals. Obviously Madame Fernández de Kirchner is somewhat aware of her nation’s circular history, and she most likely preempted what may have been the whispers of Argentina’s next military coup d’état.

Wisely, she confirmed in their positions the armed forces chief of staff, the army commander and the air force chief, all three avowed loyal Kirchneristas.

Just when I thought it was getting interesting around here!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Argentina’s Freedom of the Press Assassination Tango

article from December 26, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Welcome back to the real world of South American banana republic politics – and Argentina is not even a banana exporter!

During the final 48 hours that the 2011 Argentinean Congress was in session, they managed to ram through several Kirchner administration bills, one in particular aimed to strengthen the president’s arsenal in the epic battle of Cristina v Clarín. Her attempts to muffle if not silence the opposition press are taking an ever-more crude approach. This time, her thinly veiled attempts are made in the supposed name of “national interest,” very similar to what Hugo Chávez did in Venezuela and Rafael Correa has done to the press in Ecuador, which is to put a muzzle on it!

The newsprint law was passed by both the Senate and Congress following along the lines of her reelection margin. So it is certain in my mind that the people of this Southern Cone nation will get what they ordered: a repressive totalitarian state, where the supply of newsprint is controlled by the government. As Liliana Fellner of the Upper House’s Victory Front and head of the Freedom of Speech Committee stated, “[the] initiative is aimed to end the quotas imposed on provincial newspapers,” while the minority opposition labeled the bill “a restriction on the freedom of expression as well as of the importation of newsprint.”

Presidenta Cristina has made numerous appeals to Congress to pass this law quickly, in order to give her more control and power over Clarín and La Prensa.

One organization speaking out against this law is the Inter American Press Association (IAPA). But the chairman of that august body, Gustavo Mohme, seems to suffer from delusions, or he has just completely lost focus of what has been going on in Argentina, not just recently but also throughout its whole history. The IAPA described as “malicious” the “attempts by the Argentinean government to control press freedom through the adaptation of the new laws, regarding importation, production and distribution of newsprint,” proclaiming the new law to be clearly unconstitutional because of its suppression of the freedom of the press.

Mohme hopes that the affected parties will resort to the courts, where, he is sure (!) that an eventual ruling (in 10 years or so) will declare the law unconstitutional, as it directly contravenes Article 32 of the nation’s constitution and all precedents in inter-American case law that prohibit the free distribution of ideas.

Only two problems with that: 1) Cristina Fernández de Kirchner owns the Supreme Court. And 2) Newsprint is not an idea; it is a commodity that may be used by subversives to undermine the authority of a corrupt and disingenuous government.

Maybe it is just a coincidence that on Wednesday, Dec 21, about 50 heavily armed federal police officers stormed the offices of Cablevisión, owned by Clarín, and ordered the building cleared while a government appointed auditor from Mendoza Province, accompanied by an order from a judge from Mendoza Province as well, entered the building in search of incontrovertible evidence of malfeasance.

It may be worth noting that La Cristina has just visited Mendoza and that Mendoza is 1,000 km from Buenos Aires, where the raid took place. Interior Minister Florencio Randazo proclaimed it was nonsense to suggest that the raid was carried out on the orders of the government! Very interesting; so who carried out the raid? Privateers?

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

Merco-Mess in Montevideo and President Obama’s Jinxed Hopes For a Regional FTA

article from December 21, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Merco-Mess in Montevideo

The Mercosur meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, showed promise of having all the ingredients of the classical Latin American telenovela (a soap opera with high drama) even before the delegates sat down. The high drama outpaced even the most lurid expectations. I am stunned myself at how this event unfolded.

A little history lesson here for those who have not been able to keep up with the fast-paced developments in the region:

Mercosur, short for Mercado del Sur, or Market of the South, was formed in 1991 by the Treaty of Asunción to promote the free trade and the movement of goods, people and currency. Its member nations are (in order of economic power) Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. There are five nations with associate member status: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, while the Bolivarian dictatorship of Hugo Chávez signed a membership agreement in 2006. It was to become a South American version of the European Union with a common currency, the fictitious gaucho.

Now, more than 20 years later, the merry-go-round keeps going around. The most recent Mercosur Summit took place in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo, where the host, President José Mujica, who is Presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s new lapdog, has been pushing for the incorporation of Venezuela as a new member state, in spite of the legislature of Paraguay’s refusal to ratify its entry. Paraguay’s president, the virile Priest Father (really – three illegitimate kids) Fernando Lugo, was trying to strike a side deal with Argentina’s Kirchner, Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and Uruguay’s Mujica, which would have bypassed the unanimous requirement from the agreement.

 

Hugo Chávez already announced the he will (and did) travel to Montevideo to announce Venezuela’s full membership, but something did not go according to plan. The president of Paraguay’s Congress, Senator Jorge Oviedo Matto, made three points very clear:

1. The Paraguayan constitution requires the approval of every international agreement and must be voted on and approved by Congress before becoming law.

2. If the membership of Venezuela will be approved against the objection of the opposition congress, President Lugo will be impeached.

3. The Paraguayan position is not against the nation of Venezuela, but against its dictatorial despot, Hugo Chávez, under whose leadership the Venezuelan government has ceased to respect the freedom of the press or the political freedom of opponents.

In Montevideo, meanwhile, Uruguay’s foreign minister announced that there is a formula on the table, the objective of which is to find a mechanism to assure a prompt entry for Venezuela into the crumbling union, while at the same time Paraguay’s threat to leave the Mercosur was described by Senator Oviedo Matto as being an event by which his country will not be losing much, “…and what have the advantages been so far? There will be no parting tears!”

Chávez’s arrival in Montevideo to announce his country’s entry has been toned down a little bit by his public admission that Venezuela’s incorporation doesn’t have to be decided today (Tuesday, Dec 20).

To add to the high drama, it was revealed during lunch that one high-ranking member of the Argentine delegation, an ultra-Kirchnerite wunderkind, was found hanging from his shower in his luxury hotel suite at the Radisson Hotel. Iván Heyn, Argentina’s under-secretary of commerce, was one of the most promising Young Turks, best friends with former minister of the economy and current Vice President of Argentina Amado Boudou. He was one of the most prominent leaders of the young Kirchnerist organization La Campora, and his future as a political and economic leader was as assured as you can get in Argentina.

His death brought shock and disbelief to the summit, which was temporarily suspended. The headline of the Mercosur press release reads, “On hearing the news, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez suffered a decompensation and had to be taken for medical attention.”

This, of course, will open his tragic death to all kinds of conspiracy theories; but regardless of the circumstances, the loss of such a promising young man is a tragedy.

By 23:30 on Tuesday night, the delegates announced the formation of a working group to help smooth the entry of Venezuela and Ecuador into Mercosur. The member nations also signed a free trade agreement with Palestine and expressed their solidarity with Argentina’s effort to gain control over the disputed (by Argentina) Falkland Islands, referred to around here as las Islas Malvinas.

US Hopes for a regional free-trade agreement

Now that the US finds itself playing second fiddle to China in Latin America, the Obama administration just suddenly rediscovered its old and exploited southern neighbors, with US Trade Representative Ron Kirk wanting to kick-start a trade agreement with South America and calling for a greater opening of the Brazilian economy to the United States. Since 2009, Brazil’s largest trading partner has been China, whose influence is spreading rapidly across the entire Southern Hemisphere.

The Clown Prince of Venezuela, of course, could not resists the opportunity to go on state TV in Caracas on Monday, Dec 19, telling Obama to “leave us alone” and calling him a clown and an embarrassment as well as suggesting that he should focus on governing the US, which, says Chávez, he turned into a disaster.

Very interesting he should say that. He must have been practicing his speech in front of a mirror.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

[Image of Mercosur Headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay, via Wikipedia]

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.