Blogging the democratic revolution
Can you imagine what it’s like to collect a bill from Castro? The guy defaults all the time, he owes about $6 billion in defaulted loans to banks all over the world, if I recall correctly. For some reason, though, Swiss banks have continued to do business with the Cuban government, perhaps because that’s where the Castro fortune is stashed. Well, they aren’t anymore. Val at Babalu, citing Child Of The Revolution (an excellent blog) has the scoop on the reason why: “it costs too much to ensure that Cuba respects and conforms to legal and financial regulations” Hear that?…
Alan Garcia, out to break Hugo Chavez Source: Libardo Buitrago Meet Hugo Chavez’s worst nightmare: President Alan Garcia of Peru, who blasted Hugo Chavez as a thug, meddler, briber and intimidator yet again, in an interview with a big Venezuelan newspaper, El Universal. The nightmare Hugo Chavez didn’t foresee: Alan Garcia of Peru Source: AP, via Yahoo! News Garcia, as we all know, is no poodle of George Bush. In fact, he’s a leftist in his own right, a nationalist – as in wanting Peru to be sovereign from all foreign interference – and once gave Ronald Reagan all kinds…
Andres Oppenheimer of The Miami Herald, in a public service, has done us all a favor by identifying the Dirty Dozen of the new congress, the creeps who would keep free trade from enriching and helping the nations of the Americas. These are the poverty-enforcers, the anti-Latin Americans, the rust-belt oppressors, hobbled by their own wilfull ignorance of economics (I can’t even excuse that ignorance, there is no excuse for that kind of unwillingness to know about the benefits of trade in this day and age). These are the dogs who would keep Latin America down, keep it out of…
As Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez prepares to “win” a new election with Jimmy Carter’s renewed collaboration, suspect “polls” executed with Chavista funding, are preemptively declaring Chavez the runaway winner. That’s funny because Chavez sure isn’t acting like a winner. He’s acting like a dictator who’s running scared. Like Robespierre staring down Danton, fearful of losing power, lashing out and ultimately unleashing terror. Check out what Gustavo Coronel, writing in Venezuela Today, has to say about this. He says what’s going on is a slow coup d’etat to consolidate total power and it’s happening right now under the Organization of American…
You are a very poor farmer in Sichuan and out in the countryside live far away from everything else, schools, medical care, government, roads, running water, everything. You are only poor because the communist government has taken away everything in the name of “the people.” Your two-year-old toddler swallows farm chemicals and is sickened. With everything you’ve got, you get into the rickety jalopy and drive as hard and fast as you can to make the long trek to the hospital to get the child to treatment. Your child is unconscious and struggling to breathe and the Chinese hospital, true…
U.S.-Mexico border walk, near San Diego and Tijuana Source: Alex Jones, via Dan Watman Even if you support the U.S. border fence with Mexico, you cannot help but feel deeply saddened by the very idea of a wall going up between two close nations whose citizens’ lives and cultures overlap eternally. A high Stalag-style fence to keep “intruders” out is a disturbing specter between friends Mexico and the U.S. It’s an ugly intrusion and an artificial marker of otherness. Sure it may be in the name of sovereignty, but it comes at the cost of unity. The concept of a…
It seems that the results of the 2006 congressional elections in the U.S. bode well for America????????s ability to influence Russia????????s political direction toward democracy, though they may come to late to be of much real utility. Not that the newly empowered Democrats will necessarily be vigorous in that regard (although they may prove to be) but because the election will free those Republicans who are inclined to do so, such as senators John McCain and Charles Grassley, to be much more active in opposing the Bush administration????????s policy of accommodation towards the regime of Vladimir Putin. President Bush, either…
Red Chinese national ballet performance in Guangxi, Nov. 9 Source: AP, via Yahoo! News Here’s a stunning development: Activists in China are starting to say out loud what the government is trying to muffle over without discussion: Communism is the problem in China. What is communism even doing in China in this modern age amid the glittering success of capitalism? What is it DOING here? And they are standing up to say it, taking to the streets, handing out leaflets, exercising their God-given human right to free speech, and property rights, and risking major consequences from the regime: Like this:…
I have had long running arguments with naivos even close to the oil industry that Hugo Chavez of Venezuela intended to turn not just Venezuela’s state oil company into a worker-ant collective but Western oil majors’ Venezuelan operations into them as well. Today, I stand vindicated. Today, workers from Chevron, Repsol, Shell, Exxon, Total and others must put on red t-shirts and stand at attention, worker-ant-style, wave their fists and shout pro-Chavez slogans for their new Chavista masters, who’ve taken over their firms in broken contracts. No wonder Venezuelan oil production is a mess. They have to have Chavista indoctrination…
The U.S. has a new congress and boy is it hostile to the concept of free trade. Sadly, the Republicans in power were just barely there on this issue and the Democrats to a lesser extent, but not exactly absent. Now, with a Democrat-dominated House and Senate, it’s going to be very tough to get trade treaties already signed ratified. At stake are the ratification of trade pacts with the remaining CAFTA states that haven’t got all their papers and regulations in order, with Colombia, and with Peru. Peru’s a really important one. This nation elected Alan Garcia on an…
Christmas season in Venezuela and nothing upsets Santa Chavez more than a little competition. That’s why the Venezuelan strongman, who’s famous for doling out pork-barrel goodies has made it abundantly clear that there won’t be any Santa Claus, any lighted Christmas trees, and certainly not Frosty the Snowman in his Castroite fiefdom. After all, HE’S the Santa around Venezuela, not some North Pole-dwelling invader! Isn’t he the man who wears red in the family? Can’t have any graybeards from faraway lands taking from his trademark regalia in the name of some holiday. I was in Caracas last year around Christmas…
Urrrrghhhhh! Wonder why. UPDATE: Chavez is just beaming at Rumsfeld’s resignation. Rumsfeld, you may recall, compared Chavez to Hitler. Alex Beech sent me some additional thoughts here: What Hugo Chavez Could Learn from Bush 08.11.06 ö There is no one celebrating the Republicans’ defeat today more than President Chavez, who said on Wednesday that the defeat was a “whipping that they’ve given the US president???????which means that US citizens do have a mind and a conscience.” Rather than celebrate, Mr. Chavez could learn a lesson about why many Americans switched their votes to the Democratic party on Tuesday throughout the…
U.S. voters go to the polls in Tempe, Arizona Source: AP, via The Guardian Today’s a big election day in the U.S. for the seats in Congress. At stake is whether the war in Iraq will continue to victory or a cut-an-run strategy, similar to that employed to end the Vietnam War, is implemented. Both houses of Congress are up for grabs. The Republicans are in power right now but the Democrats have good chances of winning both. For that reason, I’m on my way to the polling station which is about to close in one hour and twenty minutes.…
I just got this note in from Alex Beech: Censorship in Venezuela official Begins; Live Broadcasts are Forbidden On Tuesday afternoon, a National Guard major notified the country’s private television networks in Venezuela that requests for live broadcasts would have to be submitted to the National Guard twenty four hours prior to transmission. According to Globovision News Channel Director Federico Ravell, National Guard Major Rafael Medina prevented private networks from performing technical alignments necessary for live transmission. Ravell said that the communications regulatory agency (CONATEL) denied any knowledge of the measure. Globovision, which broadcasts opposition campaigning events, will be prevented…
Police scene after the bomb attack on Mexico’s electoral authority Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News Today, violent thugs launched a new attack directed explicitly at Mexico’s democracy. Someone doesn’t like the results of Mexico’s elections and is trying to destroy Mexico’s democracy, not through the power of reasoned ideas, but by blowing things up. That’s his solution. Two new bombs went off in Ixtapa, hours before the arrival of President-elect Felipe Calderon who had been planning to take a few days off. Clearly, some leftwing terrorist barbarians know Calderon’s schedule and are willing to make terror attacks based on it.…
America is the strongest single country in the world, and in this position it has made many enemies of those who oppose such things as democracy and the free market. Kim Jong-il, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hugo Chavez, just to name a few. But these three especially are bent on the destruction or obsolescence America itself as well as what it stands for. It stands to reason then that such people would do anything possible to make this happen; from building nuclear weapons to clearly subverting American elections. Hugo Chavez is exactly the kind of man that would do such a…
As Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez continues to crash in the polls, we are seeing a growing campaign of what can be summed up in short as lies and intimidation, explicitly centered around the Venezuelan oil company, Chavez’s own cash-cow. Over the weekend, Chavez’s energy minister, Rafael Ramirez, explicitly threatened oil workers at the state oil company with firing if they didn’t vote for Hugo Chavez. That’s illegal. But it’s also a sign of desperation. That’s a sign of trouble brewing. But It didn’t stop him. “We are here supporting Chavez, who is our leader, who is the top leader of…
Opposition protests in Kyrgyzstan (that I wrote about last week) against President Bakiev’s proposed constitution — which favors a strong president, go figure — has culminated in near-total parliamentary opposition to his choice. In fact, as RFE/RL reports, the protests have culminated in a tent town and 40,000 people on the streets around the presidential palace, with 2/3 of lawmakers breaking from Bakiev to set up a constituent assembly for the express purpose of writing a new constitution. PRAGUE, November 6, 2006 (RFE/RL) — In the latest development in Kyrgyzstan’s political crisis, two-thirds of the Kyrgyz parliament has established a…
Nicaraguans line up to cast their ballots in Managua this Sunday morning Source: AP, via Yahoo! News Today is the big decision day in Nicaragua, the presidential election. Three major candidates are vying for the presidency, along with two minors. The outcome in the hotly contested race in this nation of 5.4 million could be very fateful indeed. Will a hardcore Marxist aligned to Hugo Chavez win? Or will a free trader? If no one manages to get 35% of the vote and five points ahead of his nearest rival, there will be a runoff. That setup is where the…
As Nicaragua goes to the polls Sunday, and Venezuela watches the fast rise of Hugo-Chavez challenger Manuel Rosales, it helps to have a good grip on opinion polls. Boz has the latest on those critical two, as well as updates from Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia and elsewhere. It’s well worth reading here.
Half a million people marched against Hugo Chavez in a campaign rally for rapidly rising challenger Manuel Rosales in Caracas on Saturday Alek Boyd of VCrisis, who was obviously at the gigantic 15-mile rally, has taken some spectacular photos of the gargantuan march against Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who vows to Cubanize the country and force anyone with brain in Venezuela to flee to Miami. His 28 or so photos are bigger and more vivid than the TV screen-grabs I posted yesterday. Go see them all here. Daniel Duquenal at Venezuela News & Views has a fascinating discussion of which…
Marxist Nicaraguan ex-dictator, Daniel Ortega, now running for president Source: Voltairenet Nicaraguans go to the polls tomorrow to choose their next president. It’s a three-way race, with a center-right guy, Eduardo Montealegre, a hard-right guy, Jose Rizo, and the very leftwing Daniel Ortega, who once aligned with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and made war on Ronald Reagan’s America. Ortega, you may recall, taunted America as he went shopping for mirrored designer sunglasses on Park Avenue. Ronald Reagan called him “the skunk at the garden party” and “the little dictator.” That was one long ten-year war. In the end, in 1990,…
One heck of a campaign rally! 500,000 marched for Manuel Rosales, who’s challenging Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez for the presidency in Caracas Saturday Source, all photos: Globovision, which has more here UPDATE: OK, it’s not millions. It’s half a million. (My original headline said ‘millions’) But it’s more than expected and it’s still huge, at least as big as the Los Angeles illegal immigrant rally last March. Caracas only has 6 million people, so this crowd represents about one out of every twelve caraquenos. This story might speak for itself through its photos – what looks like millions of people…
American military personnel fighting in Iraq Source: Free Republic We don’t see too many American babes, but these girls, busy crushing terrorists and tyrants and bringing democracy to Iraq, will definitely do. Who said liberation had to be ugly? This photo montage came about when people at Free Republic started examining the faces of U.S. female soldiers who were among a Minnesota troop contingent that came up with a hilarious smackdown gag photo, directed at a certain French-looking swell of a politician named John Kerry who thought all U.S. soldiers were dumb. The photo they took (below), with their grinning…
Dropping off the map (figuratively) for awhile is Kyrgyzstan, the site of March 2005’s Tulip Revolution in which a few thousand people chased former President Akaev from office. The protestors are now back to the streets, in ever greater numbers than before, and they are demanding the reforms that were promised and since stalled by the newly elected President Bakiev. The center of the reform debate is the approval of a new constitution; either one which favors a strong executive or another which favors a strong parliament. Judging from all that I’ve read of the situation, it appears that Bakiev…