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.

Expat News and Info Jan 6, 2014: Libya, Brazil (reposted from original location)

article from January 6, 2014
By Jamie Douglas

Working in Libya

During the attack on Libya that deposed Muammar Gaddafi, I wrote two articles (here and here) for Expat Daily News forecasting that there would be many openings in the oil fields of Libya, which holds the largest oil reserves in Africa, to rebuild the infrastructure that has been neglected for decades and also to build new high-capacity pipelines.

Sure enough, there is now a sizeable population of expat workers under contract to various companies as well as the state-owned Libyan oil company. But one must always be careful when navigating the explosive atmosphere of this country. After 40 years of iron-fisted rule by the despot, there is still a lot of hatred against Westerners present in this oil-rich nation.

Sadly, two expats decided to go on a romantic beachfront picnic in western Libya recently, but instead of having an undisturbed time on a lovely beach, they were later found shot to death, execution style.

Tripoli itself has several enclaves of expats who only move in heavily secured convoys, and life is very difficult for them, as they are unable to move freely. The concept of accompanying family members is impossible to realize, but the excellent salaries are enough incentive for foreigners to go live in this desert wasteland that is suffering from all kinds of security issues.

Brazil, the “B” in BRICS

The only Portuguese-speaking nation in the New World, Brazil is the fifth-largest nation in the world. It is home to over 200 million people, the majority of which live in poverty.

The nation had become the darling of investors, with its ever-growing GDP, and the currency of the nation, after years of wild swings and hyperinflation, became one of the strongest in Latin America. Along with that came a new era in politics that brought socialist Lula da Silva into the office of the presidency. New wealth was created with industries and a middle class was established, but the very poor still existed below what the World Bank considers to be abject poverty, US$1.25 per day per family.

With all the newfound wealth, one would have expected the administration of Lula da Silva to institute stronger social programs to stabilize the destitute and build a sustainable social safety net. But instead, he committed the nation to take on the Soccer World Cup as well as the Olympic Games, squandering billions of dollars in the process.

His successor, Dilma Rousseff inherited a mess of corruption that ate away at the core of the government, with ministers and governors as well as local politicians robbing the nation’s coffers.

The nation initially was spared the impact of the meltdown that was triggered by the real estate bubble in the USA and Europe, but by late 2013, the Brazilian real had lost almost 30% in value, and the nation was downgraded by the major ratings agencies.

The new affluence has brought in many manufacturers and there has been a boom in auto sales, which, in turn, has created a demand for refined petroleum products, a large portion of which has to be imported, adding to the problems of inflation and the nation’s trade deficit.

Meanwhile, the construction projects for the World Cup are way behind schedule and the quality of the construction can only be described as shoddy, leading the FIFA President Sepp Blatter to issue an unusually blunt statement on January 6, 2014.

This is also an election year, which will see Dilma Rousseff try to hang on to the presidency of Brazil. Her current approval rating is 52% among the desperately poor but at an all-time low of 0% among the upper classes. She has looked at the example set in Argentina for years, covering free food, TVs, cash handouts, large child allowances and generally buying the election with the poor on her side a la Evita Peron.

There is no doubt that the disenfranchised Brazilian masses need government assistance, so just imagine what could have been done with the trillion dollars the nation is spending on itself to celebrate its exit from “developing nation” status.

One of the biggest priorities Brazil should have is to create decent jobs to get the millions of young unemployed into mainstream Brazil. There will always be favelas (slums), but the living conditions there should be improved by creating much-needed infrastructure for the poor instead of giving them a little money.

Jamie Douglas

At large in the Americas

[Image of Tripoli Central Business District 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.

The Wonders of Iguazu Falls

article from July 20, 2012

by Julie R Butler

Located at the edge of the farthest reaches of northeastern Argentina, they are called Cataratas do Iguaçu in Portuguese, Cataratas del Iguazú in Spanish, and Iguazu Falls in English. In the indigenous Tupí-Guaraní language, the name Yguasu means “big water.” Whatever you call them, they are magnificent, worthy of being named one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature” as well as being a double UNESCO World Heritage Site, due to the existence of separate national parks on the Brazilian and the Argentinean sides of the river.

The Iguazu River begins far to the east of the falls, near the city of Curitiba on the western slope of the coastal mountains called Serra do Mar. It makes its way over 800 miles through dense, semitropical forest across the basalt plateau that was formed by a lava flow, over the edge of which the falls cascade so dramatically.

Rather than spanning straight across the river, this ledge stretches for 1.4 miles, bending and curving across a river that, helped by the numerous islands just above the drop-off, spreads itself out in a wide bend, providing for many waterfalls and cascades, to spectacular effect.

Devil’s Throat, so-named because it is in the form of a narrow chasm that channels an impressive half of the river’s flow, is the highlight for anyone who comes to experience this wonder of the natural world. Visitors to Argentina’s Iguazu National Park can ride the tourist train to the farthest station and then follow the catwalk that crosses the placid upper waters from island to island to reach the viewing platform at the very edge of the chasm. As one draws near, the sight of spray rising in a beckoning fog quickens the heart with anticipation. Upon arrival, the initial up-close encounter with the power of so much water plummeting at the chokepoint is breathtaking. Not only is the cascading water mesmerizing, but the misty spray, the tenacity of the tufts of green clinging to life on the precipices, and the grandeur of it all cause the visitor to linger, basking in the amazing energy of this inimitable setting.

The other train stop, named the Catarata Station, is the access point for viewing more of the falls via two walking circuits: the Upper Trail and the Lower Trail. If time or ailing knees are a concern, the upper path is the one to go with. It offers many views of the long line of cascades from the tops of waterfalls such as Adam and Eve that reveal its vast scope – complete with stunning rainbows, a veritable Garden of Eden (minus the apples, as it’s too hot here).

For the good-of-knee, the lower of the two trails is well worth the effort, bringing the visitor to the base of several cascades to experience the thrill of the water’s pounding arrival at the termination of its fall. This more extensive circuit also leads to a different part of the river, affording unforgettable panoramic viewpoints of the falls. Those who have scheduled plenty of time at the park can hop on a launch and head over to explore the wonders San Martin Island for a couple of hours.

Hikers who are interested in encountering some of the unique wildlife in the park may prefer to forego the train ride from the Visitors Center to the Catarata Station by taking the 15-minute walk along the Green Trail. For a much more intimate encounter with the natural setting, the off-the-beaten-path Macuco Nature Trail leads through the jungle to an isolated waterfall, requiring at least three hours to come and go.

Also available are excursions with Iguazu Jungle Explorer. The Great Adventure is a thrilling one-hour tour that combines a photo safari on an open 4x4 through the forest with a ride on a double-engine inflatable boat heading upriver through rapids to the mouth of Devil’s Throat, while the Nautical Adventure takes passengers along the shores of San Martin Island right up to the base of several falls. Both of these tours feature bilingual guides.

Spanish speakers will benefit from the intimate knowledge shared by the guides on the Ecological Tour, which navigates gently through the jungle on rowboats down a thread of the Upper Iguazu River. This tour through nature at its purest highlights the fact that the falls are not the only attraction of the park, and the farther away from the commotion of human activities one can get, the more likely they are spot an elusive puma, jaguar, or tapir.

Avid bird-watchers also flock to Iguazu Falls, as the multitude of birds that are known to live in the park represents almost half of the species that exist in Argentina, the eighth-largest country on the planet. The amazing Great Dusky Swift that nests on the sheer cliffs behind the falls is among the most intriguing of the feathered friends to be found at the falls.

  

And let’s not forget the romantics... Full moon tours offer either viewings of the moonrise over Devil’s Throat or full-moon-lit nighttime visits to the falls, each with dinner and a cocktail included, of course.

Additionally, the Yvyrá Retá Interpretive Center provides information about the Interior Atlantic Rainforest setting of the falls (and how fragile it is), as well as about the various cultures that have lived here throughout history. Visitors can even help the impoverished local indigenous community by purchasing unique Guaraní handicrafts in the park.

Photos by Jamie Douglas and Julie R Butler:

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

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

Brazil’s Other Power Woman

article from January 26, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

As most of us know, Brazil, the Southern Hemisphere’s uncontested economic powerhouse, has been very efficiently run by highly a competent technocrat, President Dilma Rousseff, who succeeded the wildly popular Lula da Silva.

Brazil has become a huge player in the energy industry with its homegrown Petrobras, the world’s fifth-largest oil company. It’s fast growing natural gas and power division has been very capably led by a woman named Maria das Gracas Foster, and as such, she has been accountable only to CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli, who announced his resignation to become a politician, abandoning his position at the helm of one of Brazil’s most dynamic companies.

To many in the Latin American energy sector, it came as no surprise that his successor was quickly named, and it turns out to be 58 year old Maria Foster, a 34-year veteran of the Rio-based energy giant’s fastest-growing division. Her task is monumental, as she will be in charge of a US$225 billion expansion plan that aims to poke holes as deep as six kilometers beneath the sea floor to look for black gold and gas. The targets that were set for 2011 were missed because of the double whammy of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico rig disaster and difficulties in obtaining required equipment. I am sure that the recent Chevron oil spill off the coast of Brazil will have some cascading effects, as well. But Ms. Foster is clearly the woman of the moment, as the announcement of her appointment caused the company’s stock to surge to its highest level in more than eight months. The stock gained almost 5% between Friday and Tuesday’s close.

The story of her rise to the top is one of those enviable rags-to-riches tales. Born into a working-class family on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, she collected recyclables as a child to pay for her school supplies, eventually getting a degree in chemical engineering. She subsequently went to work for Petrobras, where she has been employed continuously, with the exception of a three-year break when she worked for Dilma Rousseff, the energy secretary for the state of Rio Grande do Sul at the time.

Foster has worked in every single division of Petrobras, having started her career as an intern in 1978. Her nomination, which is certain to be approved, will be voted upon on Feb 9. Congratulations to her, to Petrobras and to Brazil!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

article from January 7, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Brazil’s fizzle

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

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

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

Argentina military reassignments

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

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

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

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

Just when I thought it was getting interesting around here!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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.

Florianópolis, Brazil’s Own “Punta del Este”

article from November 15, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Just 500 miles north of the Uruguayan border with Brazil lies Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina state, a lovely seaside city of 420,000 inhabitants that is often cited as one of the most livable cities in all of Brazil. Although this very cosmopolitan city is located almost 28 degrees south of the equator and 4.5 degrees below the Tropic of Capricorn, it is still the blessed recipient of a tropical climate.

Florianópolis is split between the mainland and Ilha de Santa Catarina. The island is connected to the mainland by three bridges, one of which is now only a monument. After opening to the public 85 years ago, it took 50 years to repay the bankers for the loans to build that bridge.

The majority of the population lives on the central and northern part of the island and the in continental portion. In 2006, Newsweek listed Florianópolis among the ten most dynamic cities in the world, while an article in The New York Times called it the party destination for 2009. Brazilians agree that it is, indeed, the best place to live in Brazil. With 42 beaches and world-class surf, it is easy to see why so many people from São Paulo and Argentina maintain vacation homes here. And with its attractive beaches, it is little wonder that tourism is the number-one industry, closely followed by several high-tech companies that thrive in the academic environment provided by several institutes of higher learning, including the renowned Federal University.

Florianópolis is not just beaches. It has been around for several hundred years, having originally been settled about 4,000 years ago by the Tupi people. They are believed to be the original inhabitants of Amazonia; but about 5,000 years ago, they migrated south, gradually spreading along what we know of today as the Brazilian Atlantic coast. They were the primary residents of the region, with a population of about one million when the Portuguese arrived. The Portuguese founded a ships’ chandlery at Florianópolis in 1514 that did not merit the title of an official village until 1714, when the Portuguese Crown elevated the island to that status.

The city today is home to many festivals, and this being Brazil, Carnival is one of the largest, along with Easter Week and the Holy Spirit Feast that takes place 40 days after Easter, with religious parades, street festivities and, of course, ethnic foods.

The center of the old city, commonly referred to as Floripa, has many fine old colonial buildings, churches and museums that are well worth a visit. Don’t miss the excellent public market that dates back to 1898, where you will find food and drink as well as assorted handicrafts that clearly show the Azorean roots of the early settlers of the island.

Reputedly, the city is relatively safe to wander about, but caution is always advised when gallivanting about at night, particularly after imbibing some of Brazil’s strong distillates.

Enjoy the nightlife and the beaches. They are second to none.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

[Image of Florianópolis 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.

Two Top Natural Wonders: Iguazu Falls and the Amazon River

article from November 14, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

The voting stopped on 11/11/11 at 11:11:11 and the results are in! The "New 7 Wonders of Nature" have been selected! And the results give South America two well-deserved winners: the Amazon River and Iguazu Falls, a double whammy for Brazil and a partial one for Argentina, as the falls are shared between the two nations.

The Iguazu Falls are a very impressive series of about 275 separate falls, ranging in height from 200 feet to 270 feet along the 1.7-mile fault line that created them. I think anyone with the means to get there should experience this wonderful ecological area, home to thousands of species of plants and animals. It is a chance to explore a natural environment that has ceased to exist in many areas of Brazil.

Getting there is very simple from Brazil, Paraguay or Argentina. There are frequent flights as well as very comfortable buses serving the area, where an abundance of hotels, restaurants and other tourist-related facilities ensure that visitors will be taken care of for the recommended stay of at least a couple of days to really be able to enjoy the majesty of the falls.

The Amazon River, having also been chosen to join in the exclusive company of the other six natural wonders of the world, has recently been determined to be the world’s longest river, after satellite images proved its source to be hundreds of miles further than was previously thought, displacing the Nile as the holder of that honor. Regardless of any claims to length, it is doubtlessly the greatest river in the world, discharging a whopping 20% of the world’s freshwater into the oceans of our planet. Climates from extreme cold in the high Andes, where the Amazon River originates down to the oppressive equatorial heat of the Peruvian and Brazilian jungles are home to over one-third of the world’s flora and fauna so far discovered by scientists.

An amazing storehouse of life in all its forms has been created by the forces of nature. But it is now in danger of being decimated by human activity, such as mining, cattle ranching and soy cultivation. In addition, the energy-hungry nation of Brazil is currently fighting over construction of one of the world’s largest dams in this ecologically sensitive region. It is a battle of progress vs. preservation, a struggle that directly affects thousands of indigenous jungle dwellers in the region as well as the environment of a zone that plays such an enormous role in the planet’s ecology.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

In the Heart of Malbec Land!   

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.

Reopening Old Wounds in Latin America So They Can Heal Properly

article from November 2, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

There are those nations that can confront the horrendous human rights violations of their recent past by aggressively investigating and prosecuting those responsible for the suffering and hardships caused by the despicable crimes committed (Argentina, Peru, Uruguay), and then there are those who give lip service (Brazil, Chile, Ecuador) or completely ignore the past to never learn from it (Colombia, Bolivia).

Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, who herself was held and tortured by the military dictatorship in the early 70s, is getting ready to sign a toothless bill passed by the Brazilian House and Senate establishing a Truth Committee, yet leaving intact the unjust 1979 Amnesty Law, which forgave virtually all crimes committed. Sadly, the Brazilian supreme court just last year upheld this aberration of a law.

This new Truth Committee will be charged with investigation the disappearance and murders as well as unspeakable human rights abuses committed by successive dictatorships between 1946 and 1988. According to the bill’s authors, it is to “guarantee the people’s right to memory and historic truth and promoting national reconciliation.”

In the opinion of this writer, it is a monumental whitewash. The committee will get a whopping two years to investigate 42 years of misdeeds committed. Anyone familiar with Brazil’s overwhelmingly corrupt bureaucracy will look at this as a major farce. In the first two years, half of the members will have to be recused for having been involved directly, while the other half will have close relatives that need to be absolved. The ringer here is that regardless of any findings, the amnesty law will prevail. It is a blind tiger without teeth or stripes.

The Andean nation of Peru, on the other hand, is taking a completely different approach to its shameful past, particularly the many abuses that were committed under the administration of now-imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori. Under his direction, the government of Peru instituted a program of forced sterilization to reduce poverty by applying the Third Rich’s eugenics policies.

Of course, no middle- or higher-class Peruvians were subjected to this incredible violation, nor were any Peruvians of Japanese descent. But an estimated 300,000 mostly indigenous Quechua speaking women were coerced into signing consent forms. Most of the women were poor and illiterate, and the forms were in Spanish, a language not very familiar to them. The coercion lay in the fact that these poorest of the poor were threatened with fines and imprisonment if they did not cooperate with the powers that be. Former officials of Fujimori’s administration have denied all accusations, flatly stating that the women had signed the consent forms of their own free will.

President Ollanta Humala made this issue one of his campaign promises, and he is following up on it. His opponent in the recent elections, Keiko Fujimori, the former president’s daughter, had her father’s vice minister/minister of health, Alejandro Aguinaga, as one of her top lieutenants during her election campaign. When he was challenged by reporters about his role in the forced sterilization campaign, his response was a curt “The case has been closed.”

Aguinaga has just been reelected to the Peruvian Congress for another five-year term, carrying the banner of the Fujimorist Alliance for the Future Party. If justice is to be served, he will be charged and tried in a court of law. Fujimori, who is already serving a 25-year sentence for crimes committed while in office, will likely face more charges as well. However, under Peruvian law, any further sentences will run concurrently to his present convictions, so his incarceration time will likely not be increased.

Of course, it must be stated that the enablers of the grave crimes committed in Latin America, in the name of US capitalism, will never be prosecuted. Henry Kissinger and Operation Condor are the legacy of the CIA and US State Department. The tens of thousands of nameless faceless victims of US meddling will never see justice meted out to those ultimately responsible.

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.

Brazil’s Future

article from September 28, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Brazil in the last few years has shaped itself into an economic powerhouse, becoming South America’s own “Wirtschaftwunder.” But there are troubling signs on the horizon: The nation’s currency, the real, has appreciated to such an extent that Brazilian tourists in Uruguay and Argentina are spending like drunken sailors or Americans in 1950’s and 60’s Europe. With their powerful currency, their buying power is nearly double in those countries than it is at home.

In the real world, the rise in the value of the real has created some very unpleasant side effects, such as the loss of exports, inflation and lately, a minimizing of isolation from the shrinking world economy. Since the beginning of 2011, the Brazilian share market, Bovespa, has lost 22%. In other words, the value of traded entities has fallen by over a fifth, which is a staggering loss of wealth.

Brazil’s former president, Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, AKA Lula, a very popular socialist who reduced abject poverty by about 25 million people, was widely thought to be planning a run for office again when Dilma Rousseff’s first term is up. But he has recently announced that he will stand down and let her run for a second term. He is a sly fox, that Lula. Realizing that, three years down the road, things will be very different that now, he can just play the role of elder statesman without having to take the blame for the possible collapse of the nation’s economy.

Brazil is confronted with several major obstacles in the future, not the least of which are the triple money-guzzling sporting events coming their way. In 2013, Brazil is to host the Confederation Games, then there will be the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Championship and finally, in 2016, the Olympic Games as well as the Para-Olympics. All told, the drain on the nation’s finances will amount to over one trillion US dollars. The improvements to the infrastructure will be permanent, while the influx of foreign currency will be fleeting. On the upside, thousands of jobs will be created in construction and the service industry; on the downside, most of these jobs will vaporize once the festivities are over. Then comes the long hangover of repaying the debt that was accumulated to hold these prestigious events.

Brazil had been a beneficiary of record-high commodities prices in the last few years, from minerals to grains. But in the current downturn, which may last several years, the prices of most of their commodities have slipped, as the consuming nations have cut back on their requirements due to reduced productivity. While some analysts are not worried about Brazil’s economic future, I am not so optimistic. But then again, I am not an analyst; I am just an opinionated observer who is good at math.

Brazil is currently carrying a debt burden of US$1.75 trillion, which may not seem like much compared to the USA’s approaching $15 trillion debt, but Brazil is under the rule of the IMF and is not allowed to recklessly print billions in worthless paper currency like the USA is currently doing.

An additional problem plaguing the Brazilian treasury is that fully half of all collected taxes go toward paying pensions. Economist are advising Dilma to reduce these pensions and reduce interest rates, which currently are at a reduced, but still staggering 12%. The easiest way to create social unrest in Brazil would be to mess with the holiest of sacred cows: the pension system. Should the presidenta decide not to run for that second term, then she may try for that. However, it is very unlikely that she will succeed, as the coalition holding the government together is comprised of 27 parties and a bunch of politicians who do want to get reelected again.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where that Malbec Wine is Always Fine!

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 Sept 12, 2011: Uruguay Energy, Argentina-Brazil Defense Cooperation

article from September 12, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Uruguayan energy

Once again, this small republic, la República Oriental del Uruguay, or en inglés, the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, is marching to its own drummer. Lacking its own energy sources save for a few small hydroelectric projects, this nation, squeezed by its much bigger, energy hungry neighbors, Brazil and Argentina, has to seek its resources from abroad. The Uruguayans have been paying a premium to the Argentineans for power transmitted over that nation’s grid from the Itaipu hydroelectric project located mostly in Paraguay, which is exploited by the neighboring giants at prices that were established in the 1980s and beyond.

Now enter the good guys in white hats: Spain’s Enerfin Sociedad de Energia SA has offered to build wind farms in this notoriously windy country, proposing to sell the harnessed energy for US$62 per mw/h. Compare that to the $10 per mw/h that Argentina is charging Uruguay just for the use of its grid. This is because the Argentinean government of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner wants to buy all the surplus electricity generated by Paraguay for itself at the highly controversial rates established earlier, without taking into account that the market price for energy has risen steeply.

Uruguay has 500 mw of wind power projects in the works, and according to Ramon Mendez, the country’s director of energy at the Ministry of Industry, the plans are to up that to create 25-30 percent of the country’s energy need from biomass and wind power, which is 40% cheaper than the cost of energy generated with fossil fuels. Since the announcement by Mr. Mendez and the awarding of contracts to Spain’s Abenoga SA, several others have made proposals to the Uruguayan authorities to produce the power for as low as $62.35.

Currently the cost of fuel-generated electricity is $73 per mw/h, while within three years, the cost of that, with the inclusion of the wind power generated, is forecast to drop to $45 per mw/h. The Eastern Republic stands to gain significantly from the economic crises that have engulfed Europe and the USA because there is very little demand in the struggling developed nations, but the manufacturing capacity needs to be utilized. Competition is fierce between the different providers of systems, giving way to the happy situation of a buyer’s market.

I hope that Uruguay will hold on to its third-place ranking among low polluters in the region. Viva Uruguay!

Argentina/Brazil defense cooperation

Last week, these two South Atlantic economic powerhouse nations held a high-level meeting while in Buenos Aires for a regular defense and cooperation conference, and to the great benefit of their people, they agreed to declare the region as a peace and cooperation zone, free of nuclear weapons. The groundwork for this historic agreement was laid following the recent meeting between the two presidents, Dilma Rousseff and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. At the same meeting, the two nations signed an agreement for Brazil to refurbish Argentina’s aging inventory of tactical missiles, just in case…

Plans are to hold joint military exercises, with the possible participation of third nations, as well as the coordination of responses to actions by others (I assume the UK) and further cooperation in logistics and support of Antarctic operations.

Both of these nations have very poor track records with the abuses committed by their armed forces against their own citizens, and I am wondering why they would want to keep such highly armed forces on their national territory. The monies that could be saved, along with the benefits in education, housing and medical care, would greatly contribute to the safety of the state and contribute to the well-being of its citizens. Perhaps during the next meeting, a voice in the wilderness will plant the seed of multilateral 80% disarmament, with the rest of the forces being combined into a regional defense force that could be deployed for the region’s many natural disasters. Well, I can dream, can’t I?

Jamie Douglas

San Malbec, 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 Sept 5, 2011: Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Colombia

article from September 5, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

A lot has happened since my last news roundup.

Chile

Tragedy has struck in Chile, where a Chilean Air Force CASA-212 aircraft was lost with 21 people aboard while attempting to land in deteriorating conditions on Juan Fernandez Island, 400 miles off the Chilean coast. On board were several employees of Chile’s TVN, including Felipe Camiroaga, a beloved on-air personality. They were on the way to the island to do a follow-up report on the earthquake and tsunami damage and recovery from the February 2010 disaster that hit Chile. We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the people of Chile.

The last few weeks have brought a great deal of unrest to Chile in connection with President Piñera’s attempt to make education a “consumer good,” further entrenching the status quo by removing the state from any responsibility to educate the masses of poor Chileans and making quality education something only obtainable by the wealthy. Massive street demonstrations by all classes have shown their disapproval of his position, with the labor unions joining in the protests and calling for a two-day national strike. In the midst of all the chaos, a young boy was shot to death by the carabineros while he was pushing his brother in a wheel chair.

Meanwhile, the general director of the Chilean carabineros was forced to resign, after it was disclosed that he personally covered up his son’s culpability in a hit-and-run accident in Providencia. In his resignation letter, he claims to be stepping aside for health reasons while, of course, denying the allegations raised against him by the investigative group CIPER.

Uruguay

In good news from Uruguay, it was reported that consumer inflation has fallen slightly to 0.56%, or an annual rate of 7.57%, down from 8.25%. But one must keep in mind that these are “official figures” compiled by government technocrats. I am sure my correspondent, Guy in Uruguay, would take issue with these figures. While they no doubt represent a slight improvement over the previous month, they are still well below the targeted rate of 4-6%.

Unfortunately, Uruguay’s economy has been affected by the double-dip recession hitting the “developed” countries in the Northern Hemisphere. In July, the nation’s fiscal deficit ballooned to US$40 million, while in July 2010 there was a sizeable $55 million surplus.

The Uruguayan national oil company, ANCAP, announced that it will start exploring for oil in the inland regions of Tacuarembó and Salto, where the discovery of oil-eating bacteria, in higher concentration than in Argentina’s Neuquén Province, has led to speculation that there may be crude oil in them thar hills. Uruguay could certainly use natural resources of this type, as most of its energy sources originate from outside the country, fanning the flames of inflation and national deficit.

Brazil

Brazil’s Presidenta Dilma Rousseff has just been anointed for a second term by her mentor, former President Lula da Silva, when he announced that he will step down from seeking a third term as president of that economic powerhouse, paving the way for her succession. President Rousseff has been challenged by the same entrenched corruption that plagued her predecessor, which ultimately brought her to the political forefront when she became Lula’s chief of staff before resigning that position to run for president, herself. But Brazil being Brazil, there is no telling what will happen there politically or fiscally in the next three years. The country is not isolated anymore from outside economic calamities, and the huge spending programs in progress now for the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup may yet end up draining the treasury. The infrastructure improvements that are necessary to make for a success of the games will have to be analyzed in terms of how much good they will bring to the country’s poor and undereducated. I personally would have liked to see this trillion dollars put into education, housing and sanitation projects in the rural areas that have so long been neglected. In the long run, that would provide security to the nation by allowing more of its citizens to climb the steep socio-economic ladder and eliminating the gap between the lowest class and the middle class.

Peru

In Peru, where the election of Ollanta Humala brought about a collapse of the Lima Stock Exchange because of fears that he would destroy the mining industry and drive investors away, things are going very well indeed. Ollanta Humala has become the darling of Wall Street and big investors. The mining companies that were so worried were happy to go along with his proposals to pay slightly higher royalties for minerals extracted in exchange for long-term commitments. This, in turn, will lead to more equal distribution of the wealth in a country that, like Brazil, suffers from abject poverty and lack of infrastructure in rural areas. We wish him and the good people of Peru much success in this new endeavor.

Colombia

And poor Colombia: Whenever that cocaine-cursed nation seems to be coming out of one crisis, it enters the next. The gold mining industry, an enterprise with the potential to eclipse the drug trade, is being plagued by all the usual suspects with terrorism, extortion, kidnappings and violence. I am rooting for Colombia to be able to leave the legacy of the cocaine cowboys behind. Colombia’s citizens are hard working, aspiring to be more than what they have been limited to by circumstances beyond their control; but through no fault of their own, they have repeatedly been victimized by the crime lords, the paramilitaries and fear of the dark. The current administration came into office on the heels of some great gains, but it seems that for every step forward, they slide back two. Large portions of the country are considered unsafe and unstable, so much so that not even the military is established there. Nobody seems to have a solution to these peculiar problems plaguing Colombia, but the time has come for a renewal.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where the Malbec grape vines are starting to sprout!

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.

Dilma’s Dilemma

article from August 16, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

There is no denying it; Brazil has become an emerged nation. Current President Dilma Vana Rousseff was handed the country on a silver platter by her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who she served as chief of staff. Lula served two terms, the limit the constitution allows, and then, unlike his contemporaries in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras (well, that guy got the boot), he gracefully stepped aside without trying to rewrite the constitution.

Lula truly was the people’s president. He took a country that was fiscally and morally bankrupt and established it as model for other Latin American nations. While there were some corruption scandals under his administration, it appears the fourth-grade-educated president was true to his oath of office.

Dilma, the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant father and a Brazilian mother, rose through the ranks of the military dictatorship’s successors. She, like her contemporary in Uruguay, José Mujica, had been imprisoned and tortured by the military regime ruling her nation. When Lula was elected, he chose her to become his minister of energy, and after a corruption scandal led to the resignation of the president’s chief of staff, she assumed the coveted position, in which she served faithfully until resigning to run for the office of president of Brazil, which she won in a runoff election. She took office January 1, 2011, and has steered the ship of state through relatively calm waters, up until a few week ago, when the red-hot Brazilian economy began to be endangered by the unfolding double-dip US recession that is threatening to go worldwide.

Brazil’s economy is purely export driven, from commodities to high-tech items such as electronics and aircraft. The Brazilian real has come from being a shunned developing-world currency to being the equivalent of South America’s Swiss franc, gaining against the US dollar to a degree that is hurting the nation’s exports. Being the smart woman that she is, President Rousseff immediately declared a tax holiday for corporations that export goods, to keep them competitive. To my thinking, this is a stroke of genius, and she did not have to go to a terminally bickering Senate and House.

But now cometh her own corruption scandals: Several ministers already have resigned, and now, Deputy Minister Frederico Costa has been arrested by the federal police, along with 37 other officials from the tourism ministry, for corruption and graft. Tourism Minister Pedro Novais Lima was called on the carpet by the president to explain the behavior of his underlings. Lima, a member of Congress’ ruling coalition, is no friend of Dilma’s. His party, the PMDB, has been doing everything in their power to block all of her initiatives in the Brazilian Congress.

In anticipation of the 2016 Fútbol World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the Brazilian federal government has begun an ambitious program to educate and train the hordes of service personnel, from waitresses to taxi drivers to the people who will turn down the hundreds of thousands of guests beds every night, to make sure that the festivities will go off without a hitch. But the bureaucrats just couldn’t resist the temptation to dip their hands in the pot.

This is just the opening salvo to what may become far-reaching investigations into corruption allegations reaching deep into the bureaucratic establishment of a country that has earned a well-deserved reputation for corruption, ranging from the cop on the corner to the highest levels of government.

There are also accusations of corruption, nepotism, graft and cronyism having been leveled at the agriculture and other ministries. Several major pieces of legislation dealing with important matters relating to foreign investment in areas such as the mining sector and the oil business are languishing in Congress, with not much sign of urgency to pass them.

The Olympic Committee as well as FIFA is deeply worried about the lack of infrastructure improvements, which were promised when Brazil snared the two top sporting events in the world. Stadium construction is lacking, along with the upgrading of the transportation and hospitality sectors.

No doubt, Dilma is still a very popular president, but the loss of three or possibly four of her cabinet ministers is not helping her prepare for a second term, where she may be challenged by her predecessor, a very popular figure who still enjoys high approval ratings. Were elections held today, Lula would beat her handily.

My wish for Dilma and the people of Brazil is that they stay the course, defeat the ingrained corruption, raise the standard of living for the poor, better their education and infrastructure, and showcase what the energetic spirit of Latin America can really do.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where the weather is warming up!

[Image of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff 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.