Must-See Video About Venezuelan Student Protests

This speaks for itself.

Here's more on the video and protests:

The Guardian: ShortCutsBlog, February 17, 2014

How a first-time film-maker alerted the world to Venezuela's student protests

Andreina Nash, a 21-year-old student, has brought the plight of student protesters in Venezuela to global attention – with a short film she made in a day

Australia – For Expats and Visitors

By Jamie Douglas

Australia for expats

Australia has been the dream destination for people all over the world, representing something that the United States once was: the land of freedom, wide-open spaces and unlimited opportunity.

Well, things have changed a bit since the 1950s and 60s, when Australia had still adhered strictly to a “White Australia” policy. That racist policy was officially established when Australia became a federation in 1901 and pretty much favored Anglo-Saxons, making migration to the continent very difficult even for Italian, Greek and Slavic people. Apparently, they failed to take into account the tragic fact that the British stole the entire continent from the Aborigines who had made it their home for at least 60,000 years.

After the federation was formed, one of the first acts was to pass the “Immigration Restriction Act.” It was not until 1975 that the laws were changed to allow for a multicultural nation to prosper.

Little did the Aussies realize that this multiculturalism would bring in masses of people from the Orient, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam and more. The new arrivals, for the most part, did not want to assimilate, with the immigrants from Pakistan, in particular, keeping to the tradition of oppressing their women. Not very may new arrivals adopted the Anglican Church as their house of worship, instead, building mosques and living in Islamic enclaves,  rejecting the cherished Australian way of life, which includes mass consumption of beer (not Fosters, which is scorned), a healthy amount of hard liquor and all assorted hard drugs.

Gaining residency on the isolated continent has become a process of insanely bureaucratic hoops you have to jump through. And you better have a job waiting for you and register with the police, telling them where you live, who lives with you, all of your personal data (numbers) where you work, etc...

And as part of their social program, they have an inordinate amount of police, who can come to your house anytime they want. All major areas are completely under live video surveillance – sort of like in the USA, but not as intrusive as in the UK.

If you are a retiree, they definitely don’t want you because you may become a burden as you age, even if you have a decent stash of retirement funds.

What they are looking for are young and strong bodies – male and female – to work in and around the remote mines in the outback (lesbians and gays gladly accepted): miners, mechanics, heavy machinery operators, truck drivers, cooks, etc. McDonald’s pays $35 per hour, and regular miners and truck drivers make $85 per hour, with generous raises, if they sign up for a second year. They have regular breaks about every two weeks, when they are flown to Perth or Melbourne, where they just drink and drink and drink and, of course, chase every skirt. The best way to get one of those jobs is to go to the mine of your choice and apply. If you have a pulse, you are hired. Then, the mining company will use their inside track to get you legal residency almost immediately.

Australia for visitors

Australia is a drinking nation with a work problem. Almost the entire population lives within 50 miles of an ocean – the Pacific, Indian and Great Southern – or the Coral Sea in the north.

The southeastern part of the continent is home to Sydney and its suburbs, but not far away are the Blue Mountains and the quaint, small city of Katoomba, where those expensive cockatoos fly freely and take pleasure in waking you at dawn. And not far from there are the Jenolan Caves . You can drive there. Or better yet, take a train from Sydney’s Central Station.

Australia is blessed with two transcontinental railroads: The Indian Pacific connects Sydney with Perth, with a few-hour layover in Adelaide. The entire trip takes four days and three nights. Then there is the Ghan, which goes from Adelaide to Darwin – the southern coast to the Northern Territory. Leaving Adelaide either way, heading north on the Ghan or west to Perth, you will get to experience the desolation of the outback, also referred to in places as the Nullarbor, or “no trees.” The nearest town from Cook to the mining town of Kalgoorlie is 775 km. The train stops in Cook for a couple of hours – but beware. They have recorded temperatures of 140 degrees Fahrenheit regularly. But this humongous woman who is famous all across Australia for her obesity sells candy, snacks and cold drinks to the passengers on the train, which stops by four times a week. She apparently makes enough to sustain herself.

If you go to Australia, even as a tourist, go to the Sydney Hostel by the central train station and get yourself a Hostelling International Card, and your train ride will be half-price. My recommendation is to leave Sydney and get off in Adelaide, spend a few days in this splendid city, and then take the Ghan round-trip to Darwin. Now, I know it’s costly, but remember: You are just spending your kids’ inheritance. After returning to Adelaide, be sure to visit the Central Market, and after perusing the wonders there, exit out the back of the building, where you will find the best Italian restaurant I have found so far – sidewalk seating, weather permitting.

Perhaps the most touristy place in all of Oz is the Gold Coast, which stretches north of Sydney. It’s overbuilt and overcrowded – much worse than Miami Beach or Uruguay’s famous Punta del Este. But if you want to go to the amazing Great Barrier Reef, you have to go there.

Farther north, you start running into the dreaded man-eating crocs. They are very aggressive, and they love pets and children.

So yeah, Australia is a lovely place, kind of over-policed but no more than England, Switzerland or Singapore. It is very expensive to visit and you should be prepared to spend many thousands of US dollars to really explore the place – much of which will be spent on transportation between widespread locations. But it is a great country, with huge areas to discover.

Just beware of navigating the outback – it has taken many an adventurer! Hire a guide, but ask around first if he has ever lost anyone.

Jamie Douglas

At large in the universe

[Photo by Jamie Douglas]

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.

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.

The New Allure of Uruguay: Legalization of Marijuana (reposted from original location)

article from December 28, 2013
By Jamie Douglas

The month of December has seen this little country, lodged between the butt cheeks of its giant neighbors Brazil and Argentina, take a leap of faith by legalizing the cultivation and purchase of cannabis legal (consumption was already legal).

Deliberations have been ongoing since President José “Pepe” Mujica asked for legalization of marijuana in 2012, and this in spite of neither him nor his wife, Senator Lucía Topolansky, being smokers of the weed.

And so it was that on December 10, 2013, the Senate voted 16 to 13 to create a legal marketplace for marijuana. On December 23, 2013, the president signed the bill, also declaring that from that moment, Uruguayan citizens were free to cultivate up to six plants per household.

Within 120 days, the nation’s drug control agency will have to write and implement regulations governing the cultivation, sale, and all aspects thereof. It is already understood that all participants will have to be licensed residents or citizens of the nation, with 40 grams allotted per legal person per month.

The opposition parties of course immediately decried the new law, using age-old clichés regarding  the easy access children will now have to this “dangerous gateway drug” – the same tired argument that has been used in the US´s failed War on Drugs which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, ruined millions of others and created an organized crime monster that operates their own fleet of jet aircraft, ships and submarines, reaping billions in profits and, in the US´s own neighbor, Mexico, killing any opposing gangs by the thousands in the most gruesome manner imaginable.

Marijuana is nothing new to Uruguay. Paraguay, one of the member states of the faltering MERCOSUR alliance, has been one of the world´s largest cultivators of cannabis for quite a while now, and what it lacks in quality (everything) it makes up in quantity. Unfortunately, it is compressed with massive hydraulic machines and impregnated with everything from cow urine to odor-masking chemicals, which end up in consumers´ lungs.

It is the adulteration of the weed that causes harm, not the product itself. So one might deduce that the legalization of the sale and consumption of cannabis in South America will result in a healthier experience for the user.

Amsterdam-like narco-tourism

In my opinion, the pseudo-legalization of cannabis in Amsterdam was a total failure because the social experiment was never properly codified, drawing losers from around the planet like a magnet. Looking the other way not only meant that cannabis was tolerated, but along with it, every other conceivable form of drug, from heroin to methamphetamine. Having cafés dispense hashish and marijuana also provided adequate fodder for drug syndicates to establish a foothold, something the Dutch citizens were not prepared for. But in the 40 plus years since the social experiment began, it has virtually become the genie that got out of the bottle.

The suggested laws governing the sale and consumption to foreigners will limit their participation in the Uruguayan cannabis subculture to what tourist already do now: buy from strangers on the street, in all likelihood ending up with the dark brown cow-piss-stained garbage they have been getting by way of Paraguay. The lush, green local nuggets will be reserved for legitimate license holders, some of whom, no doubt, will try to cash in on selling it at premium prices on the black market.

If you are considering a trip to get high, I recommend states like Colorado, where you not only have legal weed, but also incredible scenery to enjoy while you have your smoke and fall into a dream. With the high airfare to get to Montevideo from North America, you can get to Colorado and buy a bunch of really good weed for that “Rocky Mountain High!”

Cannabis legalization in Uruguay did not become a reality to boost tourism. That sector is doing quite well, in spite of the fact that there is rather little to see and do, other than bathing in freezing waters and enjoying the sand dunes along the Atlantic coast from the Miami Beach of South America, Punta del Este, to the Brazilian Border in Chuy.

Jamie Douglas

[Image 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.

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

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

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.

Easy Credit in Argentina

article from March 21, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

We live outside a relatively small town southwest of San Rafael in Mendoza province. To say that the area is very poor would be a good description. Out in the country where we live, a few kilometers away from the small dusty town of Salto de las Rosas, many of our neighbors are illegal Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants who make a living from the dirt that they inhabit. Literally! I don’t know if they own the land they live on, as it looks more like they are squatters to me. Almost all the homes are made of mud bricks. It is not much, but to them it is a lot more than they could ever accomplish in Bolivia or Peru. Not much wealth is displayed externally, except for the TV antennas on every shack, and more and more are sporting the US$50 satellite systems being sold in small and large stores alike.

The main sources of income in these latitudes are seasonal fruit picking and year-round brick making. They build these intricate structures out of raw mud bricks, with vent holes and a very unique way of stacking them, and then they stuff it with a special kind of wood and let is smolder for weeks. The end result is that giant trucks from all over the country come to pick up huge loads of bricks. There is some heavy equipment involved, such as forklifts, but it all appears to be communally owned.

I give you all the above information to show just how poor this particular area is. We are just a few kilometers south of the wine belt, so there really is a lot of poverty here for most of the year. You should know that in this region there are also a lot of really poor Argentineans as well as a number of legal Bolivians, Peruvians and Paraguayans. They have documentos to show that they are legal residents.

Now to the point of this message: We have been trying to distribute our meager income to as many locals as we can. We buy fruits and vegetables from La Familia, a sweet, hard-working family of Bolivianos selling great quality fruits and veggies out of their home; Carlito and his family provide us with meat and chicken; and we get our staple foods from the little Atomo minimarket, a branch of a larger chain.

So last Saturday I went to the Atomo to make some purchases, and in the tiny parking lot out front was a car dealer with a brand new Peugeot 207, a very small car he was trying to sell by draping two turbo-vixens over it, bending in the aluminum foil-thin skin (the turbo vixens are optional). I could not help it – I had to go find out how he was going to convince the local populace to get one of them.

“Oh, es muy simple,” he stated. “All I need is for you to come to my office with your documentos and two utility bills in your name, and you can own one with no money down, no payments until six months from now and then you have five years – interest free – and best of all, the loan is in Argentinean pesos.”

Talk about money in the bank! The Argentinean peso is constantly devaluing and nobody can predict what calamities will befall the Southern Cone nation over the next five and a half years, but it will be quite a few. So buying a few cars on these terms, taking them to a barn and shrink-wrapping them for the future should be a very good investment.

This is the economic reality today in Argentina. The banknotes are so old and worn out that you are compelled to wash your hands after handling them. Giving the cars away on these kinds of terms shows how the economic engine, which stalled a couple of years ago, is being fueled. Lies about inflation, poverty, unemployment and anything else a government could lie about led to this situation. It has gotten so bad that the International Monetary Fund is closing their regional office, the nation’s economy has tanked and all Empress Cristina can talk about is “Las Malvinas,” the old nationalistic standby for diverting attention from domestic problems.

But just like in the upcoming elections in France, Greece, USA, Germany, etc, the people will continue to be baffled by all the bullshit and make all the wrong choices, as always.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

[Photo from San Rafael Department, Mendoza, Argentina by Jamie Douglas]

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.

Rousseff Revolutions

article from January 28, 2012

by Julie R Butler

How is it, you may wonder, that Latin America is so progressive when it comes to having female heads of state – thirteen, so far, including several countries in the Caribbean – yet the machismo culture persists?

A recent article in Der Spiegel addressed this conundrum with a profile of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, labeling what she has been doing with her presidential power as nothing less than “Gender Revolution.”

Ms. Rousseff is no stranger to revolutionary activities, nor is she a stranger to the way women are treated in Brazil, as she used her formidable strengths and skills to navigate up through the patriarchal political system. And now that she has been the president of the world’s sixth-largest economy for over a year, she has not only successfully removed herself from the long shadow of her predecessor, Lula da Silva, but has achieved an approval rating that is higher than any previous president had ever managed one year into their terms.

President Rousseff has surrounded herself with women, with only one man in her inner circle of advisors, having wisely held on to the head of the presidential office who served Lula for eight years previously. Rousseff filled the positions of many undersecretaries, ministers, and experts with women, when given the choice between a man and a woman with the same qualifications. And she did not have to go fishing for them. According to Der Spiegel,

“Skilled women aren’t hard to find. Brazilian women stay in education longer and attend university in greater numbers than their male counterparts. Although the country has its fair share of machismo, the society itself has distinctly matriarchal characteristics. Men may call the shots out on the street, but women rule everywhere else.”

Women in Brazilian society are in charge where it really counts. They are the heads of the households, a fact recognized by the child benefit program Bolsa Família that rewards poor families for keeping their children in school, which preferentially gives the money to the woman of the house.

Meanwhile, women earn, on average, one-third less than their male counterparts in the working world. Political quotas that have stipulated that 30% of mayoral, gubernatorial, and parliamentary candidates in an election must be women have been ignored, with the politicians claiming that there are not enough qualified women. However, that excuse will probably no longer hold up, thanks to the example set by President Rousseff.

Ms. Rousseff has shown her dedication to her convictions by declining to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad on his recent Latin America tour. While Lula had welcomed the Iranian regime with open arms, Rousseff has been a critic of their treatment of women and shows less eagerness to engage with the Iranians at this delicate moment in history.

And another thing is changing in Brasília, the capital of the nation. With the women taking charge, the long-standing tradition of political corruption is no longer being tolerated. Rousseff has replaced six ministers who were involved in corruption scandals, which has helped her popularity in the polls.

Another help, I believe, was the release of this photograph of 22-year-old Dilma Rousseff being interrogated by the military regime that arrested, tortured, prosecuted, and sentenced her to 28 months in prison for her membership in the Marxist 8th of October Revolutionary Movement that resisted the dictatorship. It is a stunning image that shows the iron will of a young idealist in contrast to the cowardly men who are hiding their faces from the photographer in the background. One act that the group was famous for was the robbery of US$2.5 million from the safe of the notoriously corrupt ex-Governor of São Paulo Ademar de Barros, whose supporters were fond of the motto, “He steals, but he gets things done.”

President Rousseff seems to know how to get things done without stealing, and that is another Rousseff Revolution for Brazil.

[Image of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff via Wikipedia]

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

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.

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.

South America News Roundup Dec 2, 2011: Chilean Justice, Brazilian Interest Rates, Argentinean Inflation

article from December 2, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Chilean justice

Chile has been involved in a long-running trial, going back to the years of the shameful overthrow of President Salvador Allende. Judge Jorge Zepeda has just issued an indictment request for US Captain Raymond E. Davis for his alleged involvement in the extrajudicial execution of two US citizens, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi. Horman was a 31-year-old filmmaker while Teruggi was a 23-year-old student.

Captain Davis was commander of the US Military Group in Chile, answerable directly to the CIA, which, at the time, had their dirty hands in most countries in Latin America under the guise of “preserving democracy,” an effort that ultimately ended up costing tens of thousands of lives in the region and, in fact, helping to pave the way for brutal dictatorships to take the place of democracy.

Captain Davis at last stands accused today, 38 years later, of bearing responsibility for ratting the two US citizens out to the Chilean Secret Police while collaborating with the now-imprisoned Chilean Army Brigadier General Pedro Espinoza Bravo. He was a leader of DINA, the feared secret police, who, in 1976, planned the execution by car bomb in Washington DC of Chilean Diplomat Orlando Letelier, a former member of Salavador Allende’s cabinet.

The bullet-riddled bodies of both of the US citizens were found on a street in Santiago de Chile after they had been executed along with many others in the capital’s National Stadium. The United States did nothing for their citizens, except help to cover up their murder.

Documents declassified in 1999 clearly showed the involvement and contribution of intelligence by Captain Davis that led to the death of the two US citizens. The whereabouts of Captain Davis are currently unknown, and it is very unlikely that the FBI or any other US law-enforcement agency will assist in the detention and deportation of this highly decorated war criminal.

Brazilian interest rates

Brazil has led the world with the highest interest rates for the last 23 months and still does so, in spite of dropping the base rate by 0.5% to 11% recently. Financing any purchase in Brazil is a costly affair, and, like in Argentina, many merchants selling consumer goods are offering interest-free installment credit to anyone with a national ID card. It must be noted that not making payments is a criminal offense, where you get locked up without a trial until the debt is satisfied.

Brazil leads the world with the highest rates, followed by Hungary, Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, China, Russia, Australia, Colombia and Taiwan.

Argentinean inflation

Argentina has been less than forthcoming with their official inflation rate, since former President Néstor Kirchner† replaced all the INDEC technocrats with his handpicked political cronies. The figures that have been released to the public since that time have been rather disingenuous, rarely approaching even one-half of what is taken for reality.

For a while, private consulting firms have issued their own highly academic figures. They arrived at their data with good old scientific methods: Sending hordes of people to all kinds of commercial establishments to ascertain the cost of consumer goods across a wide spectrum of items. Their figures, unlike those of the government-appointed cronies, do not lie.

So to combat the contrariness of those darn truth-sayers, the government of President Christina Fernández de Kirchner had her secretariat of domestic trade file a lawsuit against the private consulting firms. These same firms had already paid heavy fines for the audacity of speaking the truth against the official fiction created by the government lackeys.

Judge Alejandro Catania, a friend of the Kirchners’ who was assigned this case, tried to get the International Monetary Fund involved in this, to show that the wayward Melconian & Santangelo private consulting agency were indeed at fault. The government of Presidenta Cristina is on a collision course with the IMF over the false information disseminated by INDEC, and an agreement signed with the IMF will have to be fulfilled by January 10, 2012. The Argentinean government apparently prefers to be a financial rogue state.

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 America News Roundup Nov 30, 2011: Argentina, Colombia, Cuba

article from November 30, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Argentinean Holidays

Being a worker in Argentina in 2012 certainly has its benefits. Out of the 366 days next year, 122 will be official holidays and weekends, precisely one third of the whole year, assuming that the end of the world will not surprise us all. There will be a total of 10 fin de semanas largas, or 3-day weekends, with the possibility of an eleventh one to celebrate the bicentennial of the Argentinean flag on Monday, Feb 17. That last one is pending approval of a bill in the lower house, after the Senate approved it already.

Add to that the vacation days that are written into the law, and the average worker productivity will be down, forcing manufacturers to hire more workers, something that is great for the economy, driving down unemployment and raising income tax receipts. Oh, sorry, I almost forgot! It doesn’t work that way. Few people actually pay taxes, and employers will probably just force their workers to be more productive. Have another mate, mate, and then get back to work.

Venezuela-Colombian cooperation on drug kingpin capture

The short and violent criminal career of Colombian bad boy Maximiliano Bonilla-Orozco has come to its inevitable conclusion. No, he is not dead, but he has just been apprehended in Venezuela’s third-largest city, Valencia. Bonilla-Orozco has been on the US’ list of most wanted drug kingpins for a while. It is alleged that he was the mastermind behind sending several hundred tons of cocaine from Colombia to the US and sending millions of dollars back through Mexico.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, the capture was made on Sunday while Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was on a state visit to that very country. Santos thanked his Venezuelan counterpart, President Hugo Chávez, for his country’s invaluable assistance in the capture of the very high-value drug trafficker who has wrought so much damage in many parts of the Americas.

The captured narco received his drugs from the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) and has had extensive dealings with the Zetas, the ultraviolent Mexican gang of former military commandos. The US had a $5 million reward out for his capture, but Venezuelan officials announced that they will not claim the reward, stating that he will be extradited to the US as soon as the yanquis are ready for him. Bonilla–Orozco was indicted in New York in 2008. This comes as somewhat of a surprise to US officials, as Venezuela discontinued its anti-drug cooperation with the US in 2009.

Cuba’s privatization moves

Raúl Castro keeps surprising not just seasoned Cuba watchers, but also his long-oppressed compatriots. It is looking like the Pearl of the Caribbean will slowly get back to private ownership of businesses, automobiles and property. With the latest announcements coming from Castro, the road ahead for private enterprise looks promising. After over 50 years of the island’s Soviet-style central planning and execution, the president of the island nation has come to the logical conclusion that even at the very low salaries paid to state workers, having millions of underperforming but unfireable workers on the state payroll is a drain on the already-strained economy. President Raúl is encouraging the formation of small businesses, hoping they will hire as many as one million workers away from government payrolls.

While his ultimate goal is to strengthen Cuba’s communism with these changes, it appears more like the grassroots of a new socio-capitalistic society that, once it takes hold, will become the base for future economic development. Enterprising minds in the country are already planning and hoping for more relaxed rules that will allow the human spirit to soar once again on that incomparably beautiful island.

One of the major drawbacks has been the lack of capital available to potential entrepreneurs, but that is all about to change. As an early Christmas present, new banking and credit regulations will take effect on December 20, 2011, presenting for the first time the opportunity for farmers, small businesses and individuals with good ideas to obtain financing and to be able to open commercial bank accounts, a prerequisite for doing business with the government.

Cuba’s potential is vast. The islands citizens are very industrious people, having learned to make do with very little for more than 50 years. Being so close to Florida and having such a large underutilized labor pool, the possibilities of industrialization are very high. All it takes is for some of the US right-wing politicians to realize that the potential for their patrons, the large corporations that got them elected, is immense, and that the children of Cuban robber barons who fled to Florida should get used to the fact that they, too, live in a changing world. You can never go back, baby! Cuba of the 1950s is gone forever.

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.

South America News Roundup Nov 3, 2011: Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela

article from November 3, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Colombia: Adios, domestic intelligence service

In what was an expected move, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has dismantled his nation’s feared domestic intelligence service, known as DAS. This rogue agency had run its course long before a former chief of the DAS was sentenced to 25 years in prison for having given lists of union leaders, students, and left-wing organizers to the right-wing paramilitaries so they could be liquidated.

This assassin-by-proxy was chosen to head the organization by former President Alvaro Uribe, who himself should be tried in The Hague for his many crimes against humanity. Several former high-ranking members of the agency have also been imprisoned for their part in wiretapping judges, opposition politicians, journalists and dissenting members of the ruling party. Uribe himself has been repeatedly accused of masterminding the wiretapping, but he steadfastly denies that he ever ordered any of that, blaming it instead on “rogue agents.”

The new president signed a decree dissolving the agency, announcing; “Today the DAS turns 58 years old, and at 58, we are going to liquidate it.” This is a huge step forward for Colombia.

Bolivia: Morales vs. indigenous land rights

President Evo Morales had to acknowledge defeat at the hands of the several hundred Amazonian marchers protesting his arrogant encroachment onto a constitutionally guaranteed native territory, the Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure. Brazil, which is pushing the project as well as financing it, is waiting for a decision by the Bolivian government to discuss an alternate route. The road project was to provide Brazil with a direct superhighway to the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, Morales’ coca-growing brethren have held their own vigil against the jungle-dwelling protesters. They were looking forward to occupying the land the land that would be opened up by the project and using for growing coca crops. They support the road, claiming that the local area will benefit tremendously from the improved access that would have been given to them to transport their wares to market. Who knew there was such a huge market for coca leaves!

Morales recently also purchased for himself a US$30 million Falcon 900 EX executive jet, pretty much top of the line in private jets. It seems that exposure to all of the state’s wealth is turning the formerly socialist coca growing “people’s president” into a connoisseur of finer things as he abandons the promises made to the indigenous tribes who elected him. In addition, he has ordered the construction of a $1.5 million presidential terminal. Power corrupts!

Venezuela: Foreign holdings nationalization campaign

In his ongoing campaign to nationalize foreign holdings, El Maximum Líder in denial has announced that the Bolivarian nation will seize an additional 700,000 acres of land from Agropecuaria Flora, owned by the UK’s Vestey Group. This is the second huge parcel owned by the Vestey Group to be nationalized, and the reason given was that the group would not accept the Venezuelan government’s offer of payment in Bolivars, which then would be almost impossible for them to repatriate.

Meanwhile the tin-pot dictator, a great admirer of Muamar Ghadaffi’s many clownish uniforms, has decided that he will buy off the armed forces for the coming elections by giving them a 50% pay raise, the second major increase given to them in the last 18 months. Maybe, just maybe, he is trying to buy the loyalty of the troops.

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.