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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

It Finally Happened: Venezuela Is Admitted to Mercosur

article from August 1, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

On July 31, 2012, the three monkeys, you know, the blind one, the mute one and the one who can’t smell a rat broke the original Mercosur Treaty and, in their greed for energy, allowed Venezuela into the club of dying nations. They are dying because, except for Uruguay, the economies of the other nations are tanking at a pretty good clip. The ride is over for Argentina and Brazil.

Uruguay is getting the better part of the deal, because frightened Argentineans and Brazilians are repatriating their soon-to-be-worthless or, in the case of Argentina, already worthless money into the only safe haven they know of.

The situation in Argentina is so dire that Empress Cristina’s government bought a whole slew of dogs that supposedly can sniff out money being smuggled out of the country. The dogs have never eaten better! Here Fido, have some asada. Sources in Uruguay are stating that there has been no slowdown in Argentinean pesos coming across the border. Perhaps the money would have been better spent to train the dogs to sniff out cocaine and pasta base, which is causing a crime wave in the Southern Cone nation.

So now it is a done deal, illegal as hell of course, but the photo of the four dunces says it all: They should all have oily mustaches (Cristina probably already has one from having her nose up Hugo’s behind).

Meanwhile, Paraguay, where the original document that lays the groundwork for the four-nation treaty lies in repose, was suspended by the other three for having impeached President Fernando Lugo, thereby making the unanimous requirement for the entry of additional nations meaningless.

A little history is in order here: Since the Great Dictator Hugo Chávez took power in Venezuela, human rights, along with freedom of the press and freedom of expression, have gone to hell in a hand basket in Venezuela. Now bring in Paraguay, with the Honorable Field Marshal Strössner also having ruled with dictatorial powers, whose Senate suddenly wants to be the “good guys,” the human rights champions of that landlocked nation, and deny the entry of Venezuela into Mercosur for its violations of the Inter-American Free Press Accord.

A funny thing happened on the way to the impeachment of Bishop Fernando Lugo: The very Senate that had threatened Lugo with impeachment, should he vote for the admission of the Bolivarian nation, found itself without a vote at all after impeaching him. While the Mercosur summit was happening at the Intercontinental Hotel in Mendoza, Argentina, a Paraguayan delegation desperately tried to get into the summit to register their vote but was prevented from doing so by armed Argentinean gendarmes. By impeaching their undesirable socialist president, they had actually facilitated what they were trying to prevent: the admission of Venezuela into the Mercosur.

Oil speaks louder than words and treaties. Until the World Court or the US-run OAS decides that this was an illegal move, Venezuela will enjoy all the benefits of its membership in a useless organization, pouring crude down the throat of the member nations while gaining very little ...except prestige among losers.

Jamie Douglas

At Large in the Southern Cone

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

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

Mexico’s July 2012 Elections

article from July 2, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Mexico just held elections this past Sunday, July 1. There are no surprises in the outcome. The PRI, which ruled the country for about seven decades, is back in power after sitting out two terms, during which the opposition parties managed to throw the country into a civil-war-like chaos that has so far cost the lives of over 55,000 people, turning a formerly happy, laissez faire population into a bunch of paranoiacs, removing the happy face of Mexico to be replaced by daily graphic images of the victims of Reagan’s war on drugs, something that was happily adopted by (soon to be former) President Felipe Cálderon.

Large areas of the country have no security to speak of, as the billions of dollars in illicit drug money have corrupted all the law enforcement agencies. Like other Latin American nations, the experiment with a more democratic administration was short lived. Cálderon’s pig headed approach to the problem, to please his North American overlords, allowed the former dictators from the PRI, which spent three generations robbing the country of its very soul, to return to the helm of the Aztec nation, unfortunately, justifiably so, as the two main opposition parties have failed miserably in their stewardship of the great nation.

Cálderon was so intent on winning the unwinnable war against the narco-terrorists that he failed to prepare his nation for the looming economic downturn. Mexico has become an economic giant, thanks to NAFTA, and the wealth and income distribution was improving. From a few maquiladoras along the US border, it has gained worldwide clout as a manufacturer of quality goods. From Ford to Volkswagen to Chrysler, Nissan and Honda, along with European and Chinese manufacturers, everyone realized that by having factories in Mexico, it would grant them easy access to the US and Canadian markets, as well as opening the door to exports to the rest of Latin America.

The last two years have seen a marked slowdown in the GNP, exports and employment. Instead of focusing on his nation’s growing internal business problems, Cálderon followed the road to self-destruction by continuing his alliance with the DEA, ICE, the FBI and the Obama administration’s guidance in general, practically giving up the sovereignty of his nation in order to continue to receive massive military and law-enforcement aid from his northern neighbors. It is, of course, those very same northern neighbors that make it possible, with their fanatical pro-gun stance, to supply the gangsters with the latest in weaponry.

It is no wonder that the PRI will once again rule the mighty nation south of the border, but one can only hope that common sense will prevail and this race to the bottom against the narcos will cease. The slaughter in the neighbor nation must stop! I am not sure that legalization is the answer, but one thing is certain: The current approach is not working!

The problem was created by the huge demand for cocaine and heroin, and more recently, methamphetamine. The only way to reduce the violence in Mexico is to reduce the demand of the consumer nations. That goal will not be accomplished by the current approach, to criminalize the users and small-time dealers. The US has more people in prison than any other nation in the world, and many are there because of relatively smalltime offenses such as possession and distribution of small amounts of these drugs. The prison industry is being privatized (Ronald Reagan’s dream) and huge profits are being made by the US Prison Corporation, Wackenhut and several others that have direct connections to Congress.

Presently, those in charge of moving the large quantities of drugs to the US, Canada and Europe, as well as Australasia, are sitting on billions of dollars worth of cash, which corrupts virtually all law enforcement efforts. Fifty-five thousand people in Mexico alone have died, along with untold others from Argentina to Guatemala. The result is that today, there are more cheaper and more potent drugs entering the consumer nations, and they are being consumed in ever-larger quantities. What is the answer to that? If you have it, please send it to President Obama and Eric Holder. They could use some new ideas.

Jamie Douglas

Expat in the Land of Tannat

[Image of Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto via Wikipedia]

Mexico v Argentina Trade Relations

article from June 29, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

First off, I would like to give my sincere thanks to the many of you that sent me good wishes after my accident a few weeks ago. I was really overwhelmed by how many of you dear readers sent me their emotional support. Thank you very much; Mahalo nui loa; Merçi beaucoup; Grazie mille; Vielen herzlichen dank; Domo arigato; y Muchas gracias a todo mis lectores!

Now to the lead story: Back in 2002, Mexico and the Mercosur nations signed bilateral trade accords governing the importation and exportation of automobiles and auto parts. As has become the norm with Argentina and to a large degree Brazil, treaties are made to be broken when they are not to their advantage anymore, and such is the case here.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner recently announced that the treaty between the two nations would be suspended. Figures released by Mexico’s economic ministry show that in 2011, exports of automobiles and auto parts reached almost a billion US dollars, while Mexico imported almost US$300 million in automobiles and parts from Argentina.

That is a more-than 3:1 ratio in favor of Mexico. On the surface, it seems very unbalanced. But when you consider what an economic giant Mexico has become, with the help of the North American Free Trade agreement, it is a small wonder that the imbalance is not greater. Manufacturers from the United States and the rest of the world have set up shop in Mexico to take advantage of the lower labor costs and easy access to the North American market.

Mexico’s captains of industry, of course, realized that excess production could be marketed to the rest of Latin America, increasing employment as well as driving up the GNP. They sent trade representatives everywhere, from Guatemala to Argentina, as well as to the European Union, Japan and China, and they came back with very lucrative trade agreements that boosted Mexico’s economy and provided many new, good-paying jobs for the Aztec nation.

At the same time, Argentina and Brazil built up their automotive industries, exporting what they could, building up their own foreign reserves, creating jobs and making the politicians look good.

But that was then, and this is now. A nationalistic imbecile is running Argentina, continuing in the tradition of going from economic disaster to economic disaster, something I refer to as “Argentina’s circular history.” It runs in cycles of about 10 years from complete meltdown to utter chaos, and we are nearing the latter.

Cristina’s meddling with Mexico has awakened the fighting spirit of the Aztecs. They are not taking her lunacy lying down; in fact, they are getting ready (along with many other nations) to take this lunacy to the World Trade Organization.

Now, to add to the chorus of nations reaming Argentina for their protectionist measures, the USA has demanded that Argentina immediately put an end to their illegal import- and export-licensing regulations, which have turned major multinational corporations such as BMW into exporters of rice in order to expatriate their income.

Already, the USA and others have filed complaints with the WTO in Geneva. US attaché Rachel Bae took a much harder stance against Argentina, which already is the subject of several lawsuits filed by the European Union over the completely outrageous steps the administration of Empress Cristina Fernández has taken to freeze imports wherever she can.

Cry for Argentina! Once a nation of such great wealth and promise, it has been subject to incompetent and corrupt leaders. Why is it that a nation that has such an abundance of wealth and natural resources has been exploited by its own leadership for over 201 years? Argentineans, as a whole, are a wonderful and lively people; but they have fallen for the bullshit being dished out by their leadership for all that time. And the beat goes on!

Jamie Douglas

Safely across the Río de la Plata, in the land of the lovely Tannat wine

Paraguayan President Impeached and the Reverberations in Mercosur

article from June 28, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best of luck, during these trying economic times.

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

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

Jamie Douglas

(Not) holding my breath in La Paloma

[Image of disposed Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo via Flickr]

The World as Seen from Cuba

article from April 19, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Having a Havana Club Gold

Summary of the Sixth Summit of the Americas

article from April 17, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where my U.S. Dollar gets stronger every day

Ecuador and Bolivia Relations With the United States

article from April 6, 2012

by Julie R Butler

When US citizens are considering where the perfect Latin American country for them to live might be, there is more to look at beyond cost of living, weather, and culture. While these are all very important, one item that is often ignored or brushed aside as less significant is the relationship the country being looked at has with your home nation.

When it comes to the two nations of Ecuador, a very popular South American expat destination, and Bolivia, a more off-the-beaten-path cultural immersion experience, the question of where relations with the United States stand is not an easy one to answer.

The presidents of both countries have, in recent years, antagonized the United States, bringing about deteriorations in bilateral relations and periods when there were mutual ambassadorial vacancies that lasted for about eight months in Ecuador and for more than three years now in Bolivia. The situation in Ecuador was at least partly rectified, as Natalie Cely, the new ambassador to the United States, stepped into office in December 2011. For its part, the US will send a new ambassador to Ecuador ...as soon as Congress gets around to confirming the nomination. As for Bolivia, happily, the United States and Bolivia officially agreed last February to reinstate their long-missing ambassadors – albeit at some un-designated point in the future.

The dances that each of these nations are dancing with the United States are intricate and confusing. Mixed signals and coyness are the norm. In one arena, smiles and friendship abound, while in another, angry words and shaking fists make for good political theater. The presidents of both Ecuador and Bolivia are strong, left-wing populist personalities, so fiery rhetoric is all part of the dance.

The interrelationships between all the nations of the region are equally intricate and confusing, as their histories include regional warfare following their battles for independence from colonization, with further border disputes springing up and dragging on through the years. Yet for many, there is a deeply held Bolivarian desire for all of Latin America to be joined together into one coherent unit, with the idea that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. And one of the greatest forces joining all together is a rejection of influence by the United States, the nation that, having gained its independence some three decades ahead of any other country in the hemisphere, stepped into the power vacuum created by Spain’s retreat, to become a new kind of economic colonizer.

It is, in many ways, a love/hate relationship. Leaders don’t like to be perceived as dependent and weak, and they play wholeheartedly to the “you’re not the boss of me” sentiment toward the United States within their countries. However, these nations need the resources that the United States showers them with in order to buy their loyalty.

Bolivia’s Evo Morales

In 2006, Bolivian President Evo Morales began accusing the US military of using operatives disguised as students and tourists to infiltrate and try to destabilize his country, and in 2008, he kicked out USAID, Ambassador Philip S. Gordon, and the DEA. Obviously, this did not make for a very safe situation for actual students, tourists, or any other US citizens in Bolivia. But in May 2009, the two countries reengaged in dialogue in order to work together on drug-trade interdiction, a high priority for the United States in the region. Last November, the Bolivian government ratified into law a framework agreement with the expectation that the United States would adapt a “non-intrusive” and “more transparent, respectful and honest attitude” toward the Plurinational State of Bolivia. In return for social and economic development aid, Morales has once again begun to cooperate with the United States in combating the drug gangs that have been utilizing Bolivia as a transshipment point for distributing narcotics from Colombia and elsewhere to eastern destinations such as Europe. Now, he has even agreed to allow the United States to bring in new technology to monitor and eradicate coca plantations using advanced laser systems and satellite imagery.

However, a recent incident in Santa Cruz between the Bolivian security forces and the US Embassy highlights the disconnect between policy and cooperative programs vs. the reality on the ground.

Evo Morales calling the US government discriminatory, undemocratic, and racist because of its veto of Cuban participation the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Colombia doesn’t help the atmosphere in the country for US citizens much, either.

Ecuador’s Rafael Correa

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, in an even bigger huff, has announced that he will boycott the summit over the exclusion of Cuba (the only nation in the Western Hemisphere that is not a de facto member of the Organization of American States), putting the blame squarely on the United States rather than buying into any sort of diplomatic “well, there was a lack consensus on the issue” language that is being bandied about. He was hoping that his leftist friends in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia would join his boycott, but they have not, as of yet, as the summit is a substantive gathering of the hemisphere’s heads of state.

The number of US citizens living in Ecuador, estimated by the US State Department to be 50,000, is one factor that works to counteract the president’s bluster and strengthen ties between the two nations, along with the 250,000 US citizens who visit annually, more than 100 US companies conducting business in the country, and the many Ecuadorians who live in the United States. Other signs that bilateral relations are not completely severed are that USAID and other aid organizations operate in the country. Perhaps most telling is that the United States is Ecuador’s principle trade partner.

The counter-narcotics dance between Ecuador and the United States is as dysfunctional/co-dependent as the economic relationship. In short, the two countries need each other, so they each have to put up with the other’s quirks and personalities. As far as attitudes on the ground, the situation does not appear to be much different from many other places throughout Latin America where cultural and economic disparities are bound to pose security problems, while navigating around historical tensions and gross generalizations is something that each individual must work on for themselves.

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

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

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

article from April 1, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

Going Totally Insane in San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

article from February 18, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

Sitting Pretty in San Rafael, Mendoza

Argentina News Roundup Jan 13, 2012

article from January 13, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Dakar Rally

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

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

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

The government v the poor hippies

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

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

IMF v Argentina, round 13

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

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

article from December 21, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Merco-Mess in Montevideo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

US Hopes for a regional free-trade agreement

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

article from December 15, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Costa Rica: Rains and trade relations

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

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

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

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

Panama: Expat murderers

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

GOP Presidential Candidates Play Up Islamic Terrorism in Latin America

article from November 25, 2011

by Julie R Butler

One of the best ways for candidates to look “presidential” is to tell everyone to be afraid, be very afraid, then assure the audience that they are the person who can keep everyone safe.

This technique was alive and well at the most recent GOP primary debate focusing on foreign relations. Unfortunately, the GOP is as out of touch with Latin America as ever, and most of the candidates put on display the same kind of enervating, arrogant attitude toward their fellow nations in the hemisphere that has long kept relations more chilled than they should be. If the US would treat relations with their neighbors more in the spirit of equal partnerships, as Obama spoke of repeatedly during his trip through the region, trade and real security might be easier to achieve.

But all of the presidential candidates are stuck in a Cold War mentality when it comes to Latin America, where the US must be aggressive in the region, assert its influence, and make sure that The Wall keeps out all the undesirables who would undermine US society. This Cold War “us vs. them” theme has, of course, merged with the other “us vs. them” that comes from the age-old Clash of Civilizations characterizing the post-9/11 world. And it all makes for good political theater.

Rick Perry responded to a question about border security by stating, “We're seeing countries start to come in and infiltrate. We know that Hamas and Hezbollah are working in Mexico, as well as Iran, with their ploy to come into the United States,” adding that he thinks Iran has their largest embassy in the world in Venezuela.

Herman Cain claimed that “we know that terrorists have come into this country by way of Mexico.”

When asked what issue isn’t getting enough attention, Rick Santorum’s reply was that he is “worried about what's going on in Central and South America. I'm very concerned about the militant socialists and there -- and the radical Islamists joining together, bonding together.”

Mitt Romney agreed, pointing out that “we have, right now, Hezbollah, which is working throughout Latin America, in Venezuela, in Mexico, throughout Latin America, which poses a very significant and imminent threat to the United States of America.”

Nicely done, gentlemen. However, none of them have their facts quite straight. Where to begin...

...How about with Rick Perry’s suggestion about the embassy in Venezuela? I can’t verify if the embassy in Caracas is Iran’s largest, but in trying to find out, what I did discover was a Washington Post article from July 13 2009 titled Iran’s Rumored Nicaraguan ‘Mega-Embassy’ Set Off Alarms in the US that states,

“It is not clear where the report of the embassy in Managua began. But in the past two years, it has made its way into congressional testimony, think tank reports, press accounts, and diplomatic events in the United States and elsewhere.”

But there is no mega-embassy in Managua, Nicaragua. So was this mix up in locations of a rumored Iranian mega-embassy in one of those socialist Latin American countries, as part of a concerted whisper campaign, another “oops moment” for Rick Perry?

Speaking of think tank reports, when the folks at PolitiFact.com looked into the statements made by Perry and Romney, both campaigns gave them the same source for their allegations: an Oct 11 paper by the American Enterprise Institution called The Mounting Hezbollah Threat in LatinAmerica by Roger F. Noriega and José R. Cárdenas, who, according to Greg Weeks, Director of Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “routinely make stuff up.”

And here is what PolitiFact.com has to say about the AEI paper:

“But we spent a day digging into the claim and found the support was pretty flimsy. The paper actually provides little evidence that operational cells for Hezbollah are truly active in Mexico and Latin America.”

Their report concludes:

“While there's some evidence of Hezbollah sympathizers and fundraisers working in the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and perhaps even recruiters and trainers in Chavez-led Venezuela, there's little evidence for the group "working" in Mexico. Even less publicly supported is the idea of that presence amounting to a "very significant and imminent threat to the United States of America." The State Department confirms there are no known terror cells of al-Qaida or Hezbollah groups in our hemisphere.”

They rate Romney’s claim “Mostly False.”

As for Cain’s remark, a March 28 Houston Chronicle investigation found no evidence of any terrorism activities having been committed by anyone who crossed into the US via Mexico, while the Department of Homeland Security sites the US-Canada border as the bigger threat – and indeed, a plot coming out of Canada was foiled in 1999 by the FBI.

Ron Paul was the only candidate at the debate who had anything sensible to say about US relations with Latin America, calling for an end to the “war on drugs,” which is in line with the vast majority of Mexican people, particularly those involved in the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, as well as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who recently went as far as encouraging a serious debate about legalizing certain drugs, including cocaine.

I could go on and on about how the supposed plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US does not seem to be the work of the Iranians, and how international criminal gangs should not be conflated with the Al-Qaeda terrorists, who are radical Sunni Muslims rather than Iranian-backed Shiites, and they should not be confused with socialist megalomaniacs in Venezuela and Nicaragua (who should also not be confused with each other), who may not be our friends but do not pose an “imminent threat” to the security of United States... But I will conclude with the wise words of John Walsh, a senior associate at the Washington Office on Latin America, from an article in the Asia Times Online:

Walsh says that the US should exercise care that its rhetoric regarding Latin America's relationships with Iran does not become reductive. "There is a lot of talk in Washington that suggests a new Cold War mentality," wherein Latin American countries can easily be broken down and categorized by their political affiliations, he says, adding, "I think that the issue of Iran's relationship with certain countries is used to persuade people that that is the case. I think it is much more complicated.” He considers such thinking to be not just simplistic, but wrongheaded. "Just consider how Latin American countries view the Iranian regime, and how some [Argentina, for example] feel that Iran has supported terrorism on their own soil. So it is not like people are lining up to align themselves one way or the other."

[Image of Iranian Foreign Ministry - not in Nicaragua or Venezuela - 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

About Expat News and Information

This site was started by the former editors of Expat Daily News Latin America, of which many articles dating from 2010-2012 have been posted on this site, all with updated links. The intent of this blog is to add new content about issues of interest from around the globe while providing past insights and timeless expat topics with the older articles about the most popular expat region. The "Useful Expat Resources" page continues to offer information for anyone looking at the possibility of living overseas.

Thank you for reading Expat News and Information,

Jamie Douglas and Julie R Butler

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Tuesday, January 21, 2014