News from Around the Hemisphere, Jan 15, 2014 (reposted from original location)

article from January 15, 2014
By Jamie Douglas

First off, an apology to my readers: I have not been writing as often as I would like, as I am not well... but not ill enough to refrain from occasionally spouting my opinions and pointing out interesting facts.

Mexico’s continuing problems

Poor Mexico! After the recent elections, there was hope that the violence would subside somewhat, but it is only getting worse in the states that have been flashpoints in the unfortunate war on drugs, which has cost over 100,000 lives over the past few years – one of which is the state of Michoacán, where I used to reside until I went to buy the newspaper for my morning coffee at Pátzcuaro restaurant where expats, artists and criminals alike would mingle.

Since that morning eight years ago, when I was shocked to see photos of 22 mutilated corpses on the back pages of La Voz de Michoacán, things have gotten progressively worse. In a recent article in Proceso [spanish], it is revealed that the Knights Templar, successors to the Zeta crime syndicate, have now entered politics on behalf of the PRI, the hyper-corrupt Mexican political party that bled the country dry for generations. After a brief respite, the PRI is back in power, with a little help from their usual election fraud along with the Knights Templar, who have become an economic force to contend with, as they have made hundreds of millions of dollars running the port of Lázaro Cárdenas and illegally mining iron ore.

As a result of long-standing collusion between the local, state and federal government and the cartels, Michoacán has come close to being an ungovernable failed state, and the neighboring states up and down the Pacific coast may follow.

When will the powers that be realize that the unfortunate war on drugs had the same results as the prohibition in the United States did? It enabled criminal elements to take over the country with diluted and dangerous unregulated alcohol, corrupting most major police forces by flooding them with money.

Panama and Nicaragua race for a wider canal across the isthmus

In 2006, Panama’s then-president Martin Torrijos announced a plan to expand the Panama Canal so it could accommodate today’s VLCCs. He boldly stated that this project would turn Panama into a first-world country. Perhaps he did not anticipate all of the corruption that would inevitably follow this proposal. Perhaps he underestimated the larceny of the Martinelli administration. But one thing is glaringly obvious: The conglomerate that bid on the work grossly underestimated the cost and time for building this ambitious project – and therein lies the current problem. The Panama Canal Authority is refusing to pay for the cost overruns and has threatened to take over the project by force mejeure.

Regardless of what will happen in this chapter of Panama Canal history, Panama will not be a first-world nation until it rids itself of all the scams that are at home there, including the banking and real estate sectors, much of which is run by American and Canadian expats, con men and women and convicted criminals trying to sell anything they can think of.

Meanwhile, a Chinese investor has put together a consortium of wealthy business people from China to build a canal clear across the isthmus in Nicaragua. This project is slated to begin in December of this year; and if successfully completed, it will be quite a thorn in the side of the Panama Canal Authority. But with the enormous nature of the project, one should not hold their breath. China may be riding high at the moment, but nothing lasts forever. The Chinese economy is already feeling the pain of the costs of their armed forces and high-speed rail networks.

I wonder why Mexico has not pursued the logical choice of building a trans-isthmus canal from Tehuantepec to the Caribbean. Perhaps the cost and logistics are too prohibitive, along with the opposition of the indigenous people.

Venezuela and crime

Venezuela’s sweetheart, actress and former Miss Universe Monica Spear, and her husband, Thomas Berry, were brutally murdered a few days ago when their car broke down. Their little 5-year-old daughter was also shot but survived.

Venezuela is a spectacular nation, blessed with abundant natural resources and stunning beauty. From Angel Falls to the Caribbean islands, nature has blessed this nation with abundant and fertile lands, not to mention the crude oil reserves in Lake Maracaibo and the gold in the ground.

Unfortunately, the riches of the nation have been distributed unequally to the point of forcing many into a life of serious crime. The homicide rate is near the top of world statistics, and the prisons are overflowing. The staggering amount and wide distribution of serious crimes is affecting everyone from the very poor to the very rich. Ironically, Monica Spear and her family moved to Miami out of fear for their safety. Nearing the end of a holiday vacation, fate caught up with them.

If there is one good thing that can be said about it, it is the fact that thousands of people came to her funeral and thousands more protested the senseless violence the Bolivarian nation is confronting.

And now the weather

After an early spring followed by another cold front, the Southern Cone countries of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina have been hit with several waves of severe weather, which included some of the most intense lightning and thunder this observer has ever witnessed.

Torrential rains in Brazil took their toll in human lives, and Uruguay also had several casualties, including a police officer who was killed in downtown Montevideo when hit by a swinging door he was trying to secure during one of the storms, which packed winds of up to 100 km/h.

Argentina also suffered one of the worst heat waves in their recorded history that was compounded by the failure of the electric grid in Buenos Aires, causing brownouts, blackouts and several heat-related casualties. The worst incident happened in the small beach town of Villa Gesell, where four youngsters were killed on the beach by lightning and another 22 injured. The tragedy happened so quickly that the victims never had a chance to escape.

I will not opine on the cause of all this severe weather, from the polar vortex to the unseasonably severe cold in Antarctica that caused an Australian tour boat to get stuck in the pack ice, forcing other important scientific programs to be interrupted when several additional ships had to be sent to their rescue. The Australian organizer of the trip defended his expedition as having valid scientific value by explaining that the lay observers on the ship were qualified to make observations of the current conditions in the region.

Antarctica, being the last frontier on this planet, has been exploited for high-end tourism for several years, and this latest problem is no different from any other for-profit organized tour.

Jamie Douglas

At large in Uruguay

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.

Central America News Roundup Dec 15, 2011: Costa Rica Rains and Trade Relations, Panama Expat Murderers

article from December 15, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Costa Rica: Rains and trade relations

Good news for our Tico friends: While you may get the impression that it’s raining all over the world, it is not raining here in Argentina; and regardless of your present dilemma, the rains will stop soon. But it is true that this last rainy season has eaten well into your current verano. If things go as they have in the rest of the world, you can expect a very dry, dry season. Keep your rubber boots and umbrellas handy for the time being, especially if you live over on the Caribbean side.

Even in regard Costa Rica, the United States is losing its hold on trade. With the US having treated the region like a giant backyard banana plantation for years without giving any respect to the area’s inhabitants, China has entered the Latin American market with gusto. After establishing itself successfully in the developing nations of Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil and Argentina, China is now courting smaller countries like Costa Rica with massive loans on favorable terms to improve their infrastructure. The Asian Giant has just concluded negotiations to assist the small Central American nation with an upgrade of the Recope refinery in the Caribbean Port of Moín, offering US$900 million to finance the upgrade from a capacity of 20,000-25,000 barrels per day to 60,000 barrels. And as an additional insult to the gringos who built the original facility, the construction work is to be carried out by an Australian company. Total expenditures are estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.25 billion.

If it were not so tragic for American workers, it would be ironic. The Chinese are going all over the world, spending all the US dollars they acquired in trade with the US, looking like the benefactors of the developing world, when in fact they are just the latest reincarnation of economic assassins as they get these nations into incredible debt, for which China will receive valuable licenses to extract minerals as well as creating huge plots of monoculture soy plantations, all for export to feed their hungry masses.

Maybe these countries should look instead at the USA to grant some of their generous aid, perhaps transferring some of their transfer-acquired technology north to the land of the unemployed and starving masses. You know, the richest nation in the world, where one in seven residents is receiving what used to be food stamps. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the politicians who are responsible for this mess, and I mean all of them.

Panama: Expat murderers

Some of you living in Panama may have heard about that nice steroid-pumped neighbor in Bocas del Toro, a certain William Holbert, aka “Wild Bill,” and his gangster moll, Laura Reese. The couple admitted to murdering five expats in that small community without anyone there getting particularly curious about what happened to their neighbors. They were apprehended while migrating north to Nicaragua, where they planned on settling in San Juan del Sur.

Now, it turns out that there is another victim to their reign of terror, a US business owner by the name of Jeffrey Klein who, according to the prosecutor general in Chiriquí Province in Panama, was also murdered by the infamous criminals.

I have written about the dangers new expats face from established crooks who prey on newcomers, but this is a reverse situation where it was the established nice expats who were murdered by a professional criminal. Watch out for each other.

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.

Latin American Fallout from the G-20 Summit, Elections in Nicaragua and Guatemala

article from November 8, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

War on tax havens

In a classic example of “he said/she said” Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli rejected French President Nicolas Sarkosy’s suggestion that Panama was a tax haven. The Panamanian president has courteously offered President Sarkozy a few days to “immediately correct himself.”

Pipes up the Foreign Minister of Panama, Roberto Henriquez, “[we] categorically reject that our country is a tax haven [it’s just one of the most corrupt countries in the hemisphere!]. The G-20 nations are merely looking for scapegoats to cover their financial mismanagement on the periphery of this crisis.” Perhaps that is why a country such as Panama has close to 100 banks chartered in the nation, most of which only do business with foreign clients.

In fairness, it must be stated that Sarkozy may, indeed, be looking for any sort of diversion from the utter failure of the meeting held last week by threatening that the nations identified to be tax havens would be shunned by the international community. He announced plans at the close of the G-20 Summit to publish a list of uncooperative tax havens at each of the future summits. At least he made it seem like they accomplished something while wasting millions of euros in tax dollars on the event. For the future meetings, I am sure that the list of those offending nations will be a bestseller to all corrupt government and corporate officials.

The leader of France also urged member states to isolate Uruguay, as it is allegedly also a major offender, according to information given to him. This information was based on the Argentine delegation’s statements at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting, where they accused their neighbor country of being a facilitator of tax evasion. But this accusation really carried little weight when it was made, as Argentina’s Presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, as did her late husband and presidential predecessor, has foreign bank accounts worth millions of dollars. They, like most Argentineans, have no confidence in their homegrown banking system.

Uruguay’s reluctance to cooperate with Argentina and Brazil is rooted in the fact that both of its behemoth neighbors have abysmal record-keeping systems in their tax establishments compared to the Eastern Republic’s sophisticated and accurate record keeping. The more the Argentinians and Brazilians pick on their little neighbor, the more Uruguay questions the wisdom of membership in Mercosur.

Presidential elections in Guatemala and Nicaragua

Turning to election news, Guatemalans went to the polls this past weekend (November 6, 2011) to elect a new president. To no one’s surprise, Generalissimo Otto Perez, a retired right-wing military man, won by a margin of 54.85% vs. 45.14% for his opponent, centrist Manuel Baldizon. This northernmost of Central American Republics has become the new battleground for narcos fighting turf wars over control of the lucrative trade in Colombia’s main export commodity, cocaine. Perez, a former military commander, had better credibility as a person with experience, promising a mano dura in fighting the cartels that have invaded the nation by providing heavily armed military patrols at night, when the regular police are too frightened, undermanned and outgunned to face them.

Baldizon had made his campaign about helping the elderly and poor, a noble gesture, to be sure. But the best way to help them, for starters, would be to make their towns secure again, particularly after dark. Guatemala is a culturally diverse nation where, for the last 500 years, the majority indigenous population has wallowed in the poverty and misery that makes the youth susceptible to gang recruitment. It is very important for the new president to address the needs of these disenfranchised citizens and to include them in future decisions involving their communities. The nation’s national security demands that the nation work more on the integration of the indigenous majority.

On the same date in Nicaragua, voters went to the polls and gave former Marxist strongman Daniel Ortega a resounding majority of the ballots. Counting and tabulating are slow, but as of Monday evening, November 7, 2011, with just under 40% of the votes tabulated, he seems to have a comfortable 64% of the vote. He, of course, had his Sandinista-dominated supreme court void that part of the constitution that limited the holder of the office to only one term.

Ortega’s wife, Rosario Murillo touted the win to be “a victory for Christianity, socialism and solidarity!” Mr. Ortega’s ruling party also gained a majority of the country’s deputy seats, which will allow him and his supporters to change the constitution in any way that they see fit, with perhaps another round of nationalizing foreigner’s landholdings. It looks like we may have him and his handpicked cronies in power for years to come.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where that Fine Malbec Wine just voted me the Best Sampler!

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.

Central America News Roundup Sept 22, 2011: Costa Rica, Panama

article from September 22, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Costa Rica

The misnamed “Switzerland of Central America” (there is no such thing) is contemplating building an international jetport on the Osa Peninsula in the southwest part of the country. This is an ecologically sensitive area and one of the last regions to fall victim to tourism development. After having seen what the CIA-sponsored airport (I am not making this up) did to the overdevelopment of the Nicoya Peninsula and the mainland of the northwestern part of Costa Rica, one must question the sanity of those greedy government officials who operate out of the pockets of foreign land developers. Corruption is and has been one of this country’s overwhelming problems.

Meanwhile over on the Caribbean side of the nation, a shocking development for developers and agribusinesses: Judges in Goicecoechea ruled last week that the government will seize several hundred thousand hectares of land and return it to the Bribri people, who are part of the indigenous Keköldi nation of people of the Talamanca. What really makes this bite sting is that a lot of this land is near the very popular Puerto Viejo tourist area. The ruling is to compel the Agricultural Development Institute to expropriate the land and relocate any and all non-indigenous residents. This epic decision is based largely on the Indigenous Law of 1977, along with the presidential decree that established the Keköldi Reserve that same year. This established law states very clearly, “Land and property may only be traded between the indigenous residents of the reserve.” Judge Cynthia Abarca, president of the court, stated in an interview with La Nacion of San José that “the obligation to recover said land is sanctioned by international agreements, protecting the indigenous people’s rights. The lands have very special meaning for them, being places they consider sacred.” The government plans to appeal the decision.

A fiery Tica beauty, Johanna Solano from Heredia, made the country proud once again for its famously lovely ladies by placing in the top 10 at the Miss Universe pageant in São Paulo, Brazil. She is the current Miss Costa Rica, and will remain so until March 2012. Felicidades Johanna!

Costa Rica is also celebrating its independence from Spain 190 years ago. All the Central American nations except Belize tore themselves loose from the crumbling and broke Spanish Empire, and of course, that freedom did not come easily. The region has since been plagued with various dictators, despots and megalomaniacs, as well as an endless procession of civil wars. Costa Rica’s last civil war was fought for 44 days from March 12 until April 24, 1948. It is estimated that over 2,000 people lost their lives in that uprising caused by the country’s legislature voting to void the election results from February of that year. A rebel army, under the command of José (Pepe) Figueres, rose up and defeated the government of President Teodoro Picado in the bloodiest chapter of this tiny nation’s 20th-century history. After winning the revolt, Figueres ruled the country for a year and a half, wisely abolishing the army to keep history from repeating itself.

Meanwhile, on the narco front, Costa Rica managed to maintain its spot on the US State Department’s cherished blacklist of countries contributing to the illicit drug trade. Belize and El Salvador were just added this year.

Panama

Panama will have to exercise a little more patience until they get their hands on former strongman Manuel Noriega, the object of the United States’ affection in the 1970s and 80s. Noriega, a rogue CIA asset, was captured in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City in 1989 by George Bush’s invading army. Once again, like in Granada, the US went into a non-aggressor country and, according to UN estimates, slaughtered 2,500 civilians as well a number of members of the military, raking up an oft-mentioned figure of 4,000 dead, while the US forces numbered 23 dead and 325 wounded. Some surgical strike that was!

Manuel Noriega was to be returned to Panama from France, where he is currently incarcerated for money laundering. But French judges have held up the extradition because they needed more time to study the issue. Noriega has now been imprisoned for over 20 years, and I feel it is unlikely he will ever be released, as it could prove to be very embarrassing for the CIA-head-turned-US-president, George H. Bush, who is ultimately responsible for the crimes committed by Noriega. It sure would make for some very interesting reading if Noriega were ever able to publish his memoirs.

Ebrahim Asvat, a lawyer and activist for the voiceless masses of poor people in the country, is trying to get himself killed by attempting to have the law of Anati (National Land Authority) overturned. Laws and regulations have been no match for corruption in Panama ever since private land developers found out what a lovely country Panama is and how easy it is to get prime land for development by lining the pockets of everyone from the president down. Knowing how Panamanian “justice” works, I have no hope at all that he will prevail.

While on the subject of presidential corruption, it should be mentioned that President Ricardo Martinelli has declared that the Italian citizen wanted by the prosecutor of Naples for the extortion of a million dollars from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is welcome to stay in Panama. Berlusconi did not mind paying the money to protect himself from exposure in his underage prostitution “Bunga Bunga” scandal. Martinelli considers Valter Lavitola to be a very useful asset for Panama since, by giving him shelter, Berlusconi has become a major Panamanian benefactor, donating six patrol boats to the nation that are valued at close to US$300 million. Martinelli and Berlusconi also signed a no-bid sweetheart deal valued at $335 million for helicopters, radars and other assorted items.

Good news for film buffs: Panama will finally have its own world-class film festival in 2012, when it will host the International Film Festival April 11-17. The festival will be in the capable and experienced hands of the cofounder of the highly successful Toronto Film Festival, as well as those of Panama’s own Pituka Ortega Heilbron, a well know producer/director whose work includes a documentary about the life of famous pugilist Roberto Duran. Quiet on the set! And … ACTION!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where that Fine Malbec wine is ever-present! Salud!

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 Panama Canal Expansion Project

article from June 15, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

It will be 97 years ago this coming August 14 from when the Panama Canal formally opened to the world’s shipping traffic, with the passage of the first ship, the SS Ancon, changing forever the way freight and passengers would travel from the Unites States’ east coast and gulf ports to reach the far east and the US west  coast. No more would fragile vessels have to travel the length of the Americas twice, passing through Cape Horn, one of the most dangerous ocean passages in the world, the graveyard of many ships and final resting place of thousands of brave sailors. Instead, the Panama Canal cuts 8,000 miles of hazardous travel off the voyage that can now be made in a matter of hours.

Shortly after the opening of the Canal, the first Great War broke out in Europe, emphasizing the strategic importance the Canal had for the US fleet on both coasts. The transit time from San Diego, CA, to Norfolk, VA, was reduced to a third of what it had been, with a concurrent reduction of risk. Between the two World Wars, traffic through the canal was not what it could have been, due to the worldwide economic depression. But after 1945, things really picked up until a few years ago, when the Canal reached a saturation point where transiting ships lay at anchor on both sides of the passage for days waiting their turn to cross the isthmus at a cost of about $40,000 per day per vessel. So the canal was effectively maxed out, mostly by Panamax (maximum size for the Panama Canal) vessels while, due to the rapid expansion of trade between all the developed nations, traffic between Europe, North America and the Orient grew at a rate that soon saw construction of vessels exceeding the Panamax limitations.

Panamanian President Martín Torrijos announced an ambitious project in 2006, realizing that some of the larger vessels were now transiting the Suez Canal because of size limitations for the Canal and no waiting time there. The project would involve the building of a third but larger set of locks and water conservation measures that would recycle great amounts of fresh water from Gatun Lake. The new locks will be 1,400 feet long and 180 feet wide, accommodating today’s largest vessels, and also providing passage for US aircraft carriers. The entire project, which is well under way now and is slated to be completed in 2014 (to be seen!), has a projected price tag of US$15-25 billion (before the 20% devaluation of the US dollar). The construction project has already brought great benefits to the population of Panama in the form of fairly well-paying jobs as well as infrastructure improvements that benefit a large segment of Panamanians. After the opening of the third lane, which will double the capacity of the canal, revenues are supposed to allow the government to spend more money on anti-poverty programs and the general improvement of the welfare of Panamanian citizens, more than one-third of which live below the poverty line.

The project has its opponents, as any project of this dimension would. There are environmental concerns that have been raised as well as organizations that are flatly stating that the employment figures of 35,000 jobs created is grossly exaggerated because most jobs will be filled by foreigners, as there are not enough qualified Panamanians. In my opinion, that is a very shortsighted outlook. The infusion of an additional several billion dollars into the coffers of the nation is sure to have a positive effect on the nation as a whole.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where the Malbec Wine is Always Fine!

[Image: of SS Ancon passing through the Panama Canal in 1914]

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.