Blogging the democratic revolution
Costa Rica’s election, like Honduras’ election earlier, is turning into a cliffhanger. Frontrunner Oscar Arias is ahead, but only by about 0.4 percentage point. It could turn. This referendum on free trade – for his opponent, Otton Solis, is opposed to it – is suddenly a matter for speculation. Will Arias win? Keep fingers crossed….
Oscar Arias, a powerful, luminous, fearless advocate for free trade is winning in Costa Rica’s exit polls in what looks like a decisive victory. Reportedly taking in 45% of the vote in a three-way field, it means his victory so strong he will avoid a runoff, if these numbers hold, putting this election on a…
I watched the President’s State of the Union address with a French diplomat friend and my friend remarked that about 2/3 of Bush’s speech was on foreign policy, with a significant amount of it on democracy movements. “As it should be,” he added. I thought there was a nuance to it, though, and it was…
Rather unexpectedly, Schafik Handal, 75, El Salvador’s top communist guerrilla, and the leader of the FMLN has died of a heart attack, just as he got back from Evo Morales’ presidential inauguration in Bolivia. A Palestinian-Salvadoran, same as Conservative President Tony Saca, Handal brought years of war to El Salvador in the 1980s. However, he…
And now for a truly satisfactory little tidbit, The Hill Rag reports that the 15 brave pro-CAFTA Democratic Congressmen who bucked their party leadership in the name of free trade for Central America, and who were politically threatened by vengeful union thugs for doing it – are now reaping big rewards from campaign contributors grateful…
Right in the middle of fermenting Panamanian unrest over pension reform, coupled with pot-stirring by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, our Daniel of Yaracuy, Venezuela, found himself in the middle of Panama on a work visit. From shopkeepers, he learned of corrupt Chavista officials blowing in to Panama for shopping trips and money-laundering ventures, sure in…
The weakest link in the CAFTA system has, bigtime, ratified CAFTA! This is a body blow to Daniel Ortega and all his Marxist thugs! They fought with all their strength and dirty tricks to oppose this. This ratification is tremendous news. Democracy has won big in battered Nicaragua against all odds. Daniel Ortega has been…
So much for George Bush being intimidated by the bitter union- and leftist-bankrolled struggle this past summer to ratify CAFTA. In less than four weeks, negotiators say a free trade pact with Panama could be signed. Negotiators are rushing to polish up the accord in the last weeks before President George Bush visits the wonderful…
El Salvador’s soldiers have served the effort to spread democracy through the world with great distinction. Not only are Salvadorans always there when a tyrant is in need of dislodging – side by side and doing heavy lifting with the U.S., they are well-known for their courage and heroism. Salvadorans do what they do not…
Back in the 1980s, Nicaragua’s Sandinistas engaged in a communist campaign of mass murder against the innocent Miskito Indians on Nicaragua’s north Atlantic coast. The Miskito were peaceful people who lived in a strategic spot coveted by Cuban troops who were making inroads into Nicaragua as the region slid into civil war. Cuban troops wanted…
…against humanity. The vicious Marxist dictator slave-marched thousands of Miskito Indians on a death march to ‘re-education camps’ that killed hundreds in the sweltering Atlantic jungle. He did it to force communism on them and to prevent them from joining the resistance. Now, with the glorious CAFTA passed, Nicaragua’s government has grown stronger and the…
Developing countries almost never have civil society organizations, making them vulnerable to tyrants who are always happy to fill the void with … tyranny. Rare indeed are the PTAs, the Elks, the Kiwanis, the Ladies’ Auxilliaries, the Neighborhood Watches, the Surfriders’ Foundations, the Explorers’ Club, the Roadrunners – and all the much-maligned but critically necessary…
CAFTA is often compared to NAFTA, but the roots of the trade pact are very different. They began in 1983 when the great Ronald Reagan launched his Caribbean Basin Initiative. As he fought the march of communism with all his strength, the far-thinking President Reagan also knew that U.S. might is based not only on…
in the House. Victory for our hemisphere. The full list of how they voted. Our friend Will has analysis and a good roundup of what other bloggers are saying here. IBD has an editorial saying this trade treaty will benefit businesses across the board, citing the word of Central Americans who are in the middle…
Tick tick tick – CAFTA’s victory is expected in three hours, according to my sources, and to the Washington Post, but cross your fingers, it’s not over until it’s over… This trade treaty is the most important measure of support we can give to the entire hemisphere. Central Americans don’t want our troops. They don’t…
Earlier today A.M. Mora y Leon posted an entry on the necessity of passing CAFTA, and I wanted to add to that. Today the Wall Street Journal published an article which described the kind of negotiating going on in the House of Representatives over this trade pact, and in doing so illustrated the short-sightedness which…
All stops must be pulled out to pass CAFTA. Not doing it will destroy our country. And we can kiss the hemisphere goodbye. The showdown is this week. We cannot fail. I repeat, cannot. Andres Oppenheimer, in the most powerful argument yet, explains why here. Update: The Washington Post, in its bluntest argument yet, warns…
Nicaragua’s Contras, the original freedom fighters in our lifetime, who during the Reagan Era, took on the name and tradition of the original Hungarian freedom fighters who resisted Soviet tanks in 1956, have turned their swords into plowshares and begun the extraordinary task of growing some of the world’s best coffee. Freedom-fighting Contra Cafe! Being…
Hugo Chavez and the communist thugs and barefoot Neanderthals one step removed from white sheets who oppose CAFTA are all about to be dealt a stinging defeat. The House leader reports that CAFTA is likely to be approved before the end of July. This is the scent of victory, because defeat is unthinkable. This is…
Hillary Clinton would have you think she is a moderate Democrat, serious about free trade, reasonable on all issues. A look at her voting record, particularly her despicable ‘no’ vote on CAFTA, shutting Central America out of U.S. markets and U.S. prosperity, will tell a different story. Here is an item from American Thinker about…
The Central American Free Trade Agreement, the treaty to bring our good and faithful friends from Central America into free trade with the U.S. has won – won! – a bruising battle in the Senate. We were terrified all was lost and it was not! This is the greatest victory of the year! Victory! The…
There is no issue, none, more critical today than whether the U.S. Congress passes CAFTA. So much is at stake in the treaty that will show whether the U.S. includes Latin America in to its hopes and opportunity or coldly shuts it out. And don’t think Osama Bin Laden, Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe aren’t…
Nicaraguans in their thousands marched to defend democracy! They don’t want the slimey, evil, communist Sandinistas to take over on legal technicalities. Right now, the Marxist Sandinistas have got President Enrique Bolanos backed into a corner trying to force him to resign. It’s Bolivian stuff. Nicaraguans do not want to lose their president and then…
Nicaragua’s slimey unelected Sandinista bureaucrats may have finally cornered President Enrique Bolanos who busted them and their nasty rightwing allies for bonafide corruption. Now, they are demanding that he step down for ‘violating the constitution.’ Don’t tell me this isn’t political. And ominous. Read it here.
Our dear friends in Central America are fighting for their survival. Carlos Alberto Montaner has an important essay out about what he saw in the eyes of Central America’s presidents as they came to Miami to plead for the DR-CAFTA trade bill. He warns that is this bill does not pass, it will be to…