Cronyism in Venezuela and Costa Rica

…And in Really Bizarre News

By Jamie Douglas

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

The Chávez Family in Caracas

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Chinchilla Family in Costa Rica

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

At Large in South America

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

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.

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]

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

Paraguayan President Impeached and the Reverberations in Mercosur

article from June 28, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best of luck, during these trying economic times.

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

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

Jamie Douglas

(Not) holding my breath in La Paloma

[Image of disposed Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo via Flickr]

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

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

article from May 11, 2012

by Julie R Butler

Argentina: Dignified death law

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

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

The Andes: Quinoa exports soar

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

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

Paraguay: Widespread flooding

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

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

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

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

Chile: Piñera, polls, and police

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

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

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

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

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

Elections in Mexico: A Primer

article from May 9, 2012

by Julie R Butler

A brief political history of Mexico

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

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

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

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

The 2012 elections

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

article from April 1, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

Going Totally Insane in San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

Crumbling Infrastructures: Buenos Aires, Caracas

article from February 25, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Buenos Aires, Argentina

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

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

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

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

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

Caracas, Venezuela

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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.

Trouble in Paradise: Nicaragua and Costa Rica

article from January 12, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Nicaragua

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

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

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

Costa Rica

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

article from January 7, 2012

By Jamie Douglas

Brazil’s fizzle

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

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

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

Argentina military reassignments

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

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

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

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

Just when I thought it was getting interesting around here!

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

Argentina’s Freedom of the Press Assassination Tango

article from December 26, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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

article from December 21, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Merco-Mess in Montevideo

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

US Hopes for a regional free-trade agreement

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

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

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

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

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

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