Blogging the democratic revolution
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…
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…
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…
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,…
The Culebra Cut stretch of the 50-mile Panama Canal Source: AFP Getty, via Houston Chronicle Panama’s great referendum on expanding the mighty Panama Canal, to accomodate two times’ as much ship traffic, is taking place today. 1.7 million Panamanians are registered to vote on the $5.3 billion upgrade, essentially a bond project to be financed with crossing fees. Local muni-bond initiative as is, it will affect billions of people around the world. Some 70% of Panamanians are polled to favor it ahead of the vote. Panamanian babes pass a sign urging passage of the Canal referendum Source: AFP Getty, via…
The mighty Panama Canal route links trade between 2 huge oceans Source: The Financial Times Tiny little Panama, a jungly nation with a population only as big as Singapore’s, is about to do something spectacularly great for the entire world on Sunday. This itty bitty state has a masterplan to shower friendship and prosperity to huge swathes of the world, north and south and east and west, doing more for the cause of peace and unity than just about any other nation on earth. The world is going to be different after Sunday. On Sunday, Panama’s voters among its 4…
Honduras has a GDP per capita of $2800; yet, it is a country of riches. The land is endowed with a natural beauty unsurpassed anywhere else in the western hemisphere. Flying in a 14-seater to Roatan, less than an hour out from San Pedro Sula, I saw dozens of small islands wrapped in thriving forests. Crystal clear water became colored as the coral crept up toward the shore, and even from so many feet in the air, the sand on the beach looked whiter than snow. The sight isn????????t unique to the islands though. The mainland is lush with tropical…
SAN PEDRO SULA, HONDURAS — The shuttle arrived at 5 o????????clock in the morning. Waiting for half an hour outside in Boston????????s extended winter only made me ready to get on the plane faster. Destination: Honduras. The heavy jacket would have to be lost somewhere between Atlanta and the rain forest. There were nine of us in the group, almost all of us from different regions of the world. I was one of three Americans. A Chilean, a Thai, an Englishman, a Lebanese, a Bolivian, and a guy from Dubai were the others. A veritable bonanza of cosmopolitanism. Only a…
Joining its close ally, El Salvador, as well as Nicaragua and Honduras, Guatemala has today fully entered the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Two more countries are yet to ratify their entry, but Guatemala has gotten it together and today is a happy day. Trade, in and of itself, is why the U.S.’ economy has grown so strongly, despite high oil prices and big layoffs and other economic plagues. Trade is simply a much stronger factor. It’s also something that scares the hell out of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. There is nothing he fights the U.S. harder on or bullies…
President Tony Saca of El Salvador Source: Yahoo! Images When we think of leaders named “Tony” – our first glint of thought is maybe of the great Tony Blair of the United Kingdom, who always has the right thing to say, yet whose actions speak louder than any of his eloquent words. He’s a great ally of civilization and some of his greatest work has been to help crush al-Qaida. By coincidence, there’s another leader named Tony and in our own hemisphere, the great Tony Saca of El Salvador, whose leadership has turned tiny, beat-up, war-torn, communist-battered failed-state El Salvador…
Long overlooked on the world scene, China has been a great destabilizer of several regions of the world by its strategy in seeking to lock up supplies of oil. Sudan. Iran. Venezuela. Ecuador. China is a player in all of these areas and more. China’s efforts to lock up oil may not be as barbaric in means as the Japanese, who went on resource conquests just before World War II but it is the same idea. In any number of ways, it could lead to World War III. It’s no good for anyone. Fausta at Fausta’s blog has an illuminating…
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is nothing more than a brutal leftist thug with aspirations of being the next Simon Bolivar, the next Fidel Castro. He seeks to unite all the nations of Latin America under his wing, so that together, they may challenge the United States. He would lure them into his axis with the promise of U.S.-financed cheap oil, yet punish and intimidate any who don’t go along with his direction by cutting off that same oil. He’s telling all nations that it’s either him or the U.S., and the U.S. has nothing to offer them. Every last nation…
Here are the photos showing the Cuban patriot Martha Beatriz Roque after being beaten up by plainclothes paramilitary mobs inside her own house in Havana, Cuba. More below,the thugs put propaganda banners behind her house’s door comparing President Bush and the patriot Luis Posada Carriles to Hitler: Below, Bush appears as saying “Long Live Martha”. Per se this phrase is not at all a scandal, but the Castroite thugs use it as a way to accuse Marha of being a “US agent”. See all the photos here, including the flowers sent to her by the embassies of some European countries.
After suffering an ‘act of repudiation’ by the plainclothes paramilitaries on the Castro’s payroll, Dr. Darsi Ferrer – director of the Center for Health and Human Rights “Juan Bruno Zayas” – was detained immediately after leaving the U.S. Interests Section in Havana,from where he sends us via email his reports. Ferrer called the independent journalist Jayme Leigonier via phone and said that the police are gonna take him to another place, but so far nobody knows where he has been taken. Darsi is currently desaparecido. UPDATE: I’ve just got an email from Darsi , who sent in the report written…
Panama’s president has come forth with the long-awaited plans for the expansion of the Panama Canal. The $5.5 billion expansion would widen the canal so that bigger ships with more cargo and traffic can go through. Right now, a full five percent of all world trade goes through this canal and there can be a four-day waiting period for ships trying to go through (when there are boat-traffic jams). Panama makes about $1.2 billion a year on crossing fees, but to its great credit, its economy does not stop at those boat fees, but multiplies away into vast financial services,…
Tim’s El Salvador Blog has a fascinating update and discussion of the famous “14 families” who supposedly rule and control El Salvador. I remember how big a deal that was during the El Salvador War in the 1980s. Today, they are now the “8 Conglomerates.” The discussion is also important, and I half agree with each of the sides. Number one, I do think there’s such a thing as oligarchs in Latin America and while their billions do not bother me, and I make no advocacy of taking them away, they frequently are where they are due to certain privileges…
I just came through reports, in Spanish, about the likely death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The news, strangely, has been given by several news sites, among which the far-leftist Indymedia in Argentina, which quoted some Latin American media as having reported the news. The Cuban regime has immediately dismissed the claims. I assume that the regime won’t let know about the dictator’s death as soon as he dies. While we shouldn’t yet celebrate, let me say that I prepared a bottle of champaigne, as Castro’s days of life are very, very numbered. UPDATE: Given that this report is now…
Sunburnt and exhausted, I return from the biggest rally for immigrant rights in the history of Los Angeles. Five hundred thousand mostly Latino, mostly young, and mostly protest-babe-caliber people marched in the streets of This Proud Capital Of The Third World to demand a halt to various immigration control measures in Congress – like building a wall and making it a felony to help illegal immigrants – and, more importantly, to plead for opportunities for advancement and citizenship. There has never been anything like it. This is a seismic shift in the political landscape of the U.S.A How very unlike…
Is there anything fouler than Daniel Ortega? The former Nicaraguan strongman, dubbed by the great Ronald Reagan as “the little dictator,” is poised to seize power again in Nicaragua next November. Unlike the last time, when he shot his way into power, this time he’s trying to seize power via what may be a rigged election. The Sandinistas brought war and hordes of Sandalistas to Nicaragua during their decade-long illegitimate rule. They stole everything in sight, and confiscated people’s houses, even shanty-like houses of very poor people, such was their voracity. To this day, Daniel Ortega lives in a stolen…
It’s started. Leftist barbarians in El Salvador are burning tires and hurling explosive devices into the faces of police as their way of resolving their disagreements over the implementation of CAFTA. They are always free to not trade with us if that is their wish but they just can’t leave others alone who choose differently. That’s why they’re creating an atmosphere of terror through their incendiary devices and seeking to ruin the business climate for everyone. That way, they can all sit in the mud together with no free trade and wonder why the hell they are poor. Agencia EFE…
My eyes are practically filled with tears of joy on this news. Something our Salvadoran and Honduran and Nicaraguan friends have been PRAYING for for years has really happened … A-G-A-I-N-S-T … A-L-L … O-D-D-S!!!!! If there is a such thing as miracles, this is it. Thousands of undocumented workers from war-torn El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America have had their temporary protected status in the U.S. extended. President Bush hinted at it in his state of the union message but I was not sure what he would do. News reports continuously said that Bush would let this bill…
Two big developments on the truly revolutionary idea of free trade extending from the North Slope all the way to Tierra del Fuego. Colombia is on the edge of signing a free trade pact with the U.S., according to Rob Portman of the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. The pact, if they can reach the finish line, is Colombia’s ticket to the first world and a stinging blow to the hideous anti-free-trade regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who has destroyed much of his country’s private sector, branding it an enemy instead of a job- and value-creator, and driving it out…
With possibly a 1,000-vote discrepancy between Oscar Arias and Otton Solis in their ultra-close and now contentious presidential election from Sunday, Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey has has found that plans are already under way to recycle the ballots into toilet paper. Somehow, for some at least, it will seem fitting. Her funny item is here. Oh, and be sure to see some of her other stuff on the more serious political state of affairs here and here. Via Global Voices, a site called Costa Rica en el presente, has what it says are unofficial presidential election results, in Spanish, and…
Jacqueline Mackey Paisley Passey in Costa Rica now has a tremendous gallery of photos on Costa Rica’s cliffhanger presidential election that are beautifully taken and beautifully laid out. That election has about 3100 votes’ difference now between Oscar Arias and Otton Solis, 40.5% to 40.3%, and 12% of the votes still to be counted – that’s getting really close! See Jacqueline’s pictures here.
Jacqueline Mackey Paisley Passey has first-rate overview of the election along with lots of photos in this entry here, and a terrific news roundup full of lots of blogs I didn’t know about. Be sure to see all her new stuff here. One of the links she has, on Babalu blog (which I admit I wrote the entry for), has some marvelous discussion in the comments section from the commentors, there are some really knowledgable people who have a lot of colorful detail there. The item is here. Taylor Kirk at The Latin Americanist has some interesting thoughts about the…