Blogging the democratic revolution
OK, it was a ratbag of a bill. It lumped in everything that possibly could be lumped in, good with bad. Excellent, friendly deserving nations, like Vietnam, Colombia and Peru, (in short, our equals), got much of what they needed. Nations ruled by disgusting, undeserving, ungrateful governments, like Ecuador and Bolivia got plenty too. Messes like Haiti got the golden goose handed to them. Offshore drilling passed. Everyone got something, in what was kind of the last congressional pinata before the Roundheads (Democrats) take over. But boy it was sloppy. All told, I am happier with things this way than…
Congress has just wrapped up a huge free trade package! They actually are allowing it to go to the floor for a vote around 4 p.m. Eastern! They darn well better pass it! Not only will Peru, Colombia and Vietnam get some kind of trade relief for the next year (it’s temporary for the first two, but this is better than nothing), pretty much everyone else who wants free trade – The Caribbean, the African states, Ecuador & Bolivia, and Haiti – will get it too! This is fine! Better everyone in than nobody in. If that is what it…
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…
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…
Terrific news! Peru’s Congress passed the Free Trade pact with the U.S., after months of contentious debate. They took one look (well, probably several) at the $11 trillion economy they have the opportunity to freely trade with and decided it was worth it. They passed the measure, despite fears that they wouldn’t. They ignored the protests. They considered their nation’s interests. They’re right! Now we can buy Made In Peru products as easily as Made In China ones. Better yet, they probably will not cost as much. Better still, we can sell our own fancy capital equipment or whatever to…
Remember Dubai Ports International? The first-rate Emirates-based firm that, fair and square, tried to buy the operations of several U.S. ports? They were reviled as terrorists, a public outcry followed and then U.S. Congress stuck its nose into the whole business, baselessly condemning the company for no good reason until they were ignominously forced to withdraw from those plans. It was totally unfair to them, they didn’t deserve that kind of treatment, and it sent an incredibly bad message to the rest of the world that the U.S. was flamingly hypocritical. That whole debacle made me ill. Anyway, this setback…
If the job of the government is to create development and prosperity, the only way to do it is to create businesses. Businesses are not rich because they have governments, governments are rich because they have businesses – lots of businesses, Carlos Alberto Montaner offers these, and other thoughts on the aim of government and the task ahead for Peru, in an entertaining style that almost resembles Mark Steyn’s creative tone in this strikingly original, kickass must-read essay here.
As if making the political comeback of the century wasn’t the ultimate in good fortune, Peruvian president-elect Alan Garcia has gotten lucky once again: Peru’s leftwing Chavista presidential candidate, Ollanta Humala, is watching his political party, one that was so eagerly expecting victory, splinter into disintegration. In the mire of their defeat to Garcia, they’ve cracked up. What does that mean for anti-Chavista president-elect, Alan Garcia? A more powerful political party, one that now holds the highest number of seats in Congress. Prior to the crackup, it was Humala’s far-left party which was set to control the Congress. Not any…
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, who is Peruvian, found himself unexpectedly pulled by the fate of the heavens back to Lima which he’d generally so wanted to be away from. By a further mysterious sleight of hand, it was election weekend. Vargas Llosa wrote – echoing something of what I had believed earlier – of the courage of Peruvians and the courage he felt coming to himself, as he joined the majority, in voting for the otherwise-dreaded Alan Garcia. It takes incredible courage to vote for a person like him, someone you hate, someone who’s done terrible things to you – to…
Here’s something exciting: In the days since his spectacular comeback election as president in Peru, Alan Garcia has made some softie statements about wanting to get along with Hugo Chavez and having no intention of leading a regional antichavez movement. However, Garcia’s first actions upon his election this weekend are telling quite a different story. He’s going after Chavez right at the source of his power: energy resources. Garcia says he wants to triple Peru’s natural gas investment, something that’s already on the upswing, based on ongoing capital flight from Bolivia. He pointedly says he wants to sell natgas to…
The unqualified success that Hugo Chavez has had at picking apart Venezuela’s democracy, buying political support with oil, getting his men into office in other countries, supporting terrorist groups, and pressuring political opponents has led many to think that a tidal wave of totalitarian leftism is sweeping the southern continent — and that it’s unstoppable. Until now he has been. The Bolivarian Revolution has marched on and on without impediment. It’s quickening pace has led people to believe in his self-fulfilling prophecy. What is never taken into account is that his actions must inevitably provoke a reaction. The same has…
Alan Garcia, probable winner, Peru presidency, and second-time lucky Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! … and his far-left Hugo-Chavez-style opponent, Ollanta Humala is trailing by about five percentage points. Assuming there are no surprises, this represents one of the greatest political comebacks of all time – the greatest comeback since …. Nixon. And it’s nothing to cry about either, we can be as happy as the people in the pictures, because although wilder things have happened in politics, it’s everyone’s victory this time. GOOD!!!!!!!!!!! Garcia savoring victory, happy he beat both Hugo Chavez & his own record Source: Reuters, via Yahoo!…
Communism or capitalism? It sounds a little stark, but it might come down to that. Today’s the second and final round of Peru’s election for president and Peruvians today are heading to the polls. Peru’s presidential ballotSource: UPI, via El Comercio Peruvians voting in the Inca city of Cuzco Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! They will decide whether to choose Alan Garcia, a former president, or Ollanta Humala, a cashiered ex-army officer, as their next president. Alan Garcia after casting his ballot Source: AFP, via Yahoo! The former, Alan Garcia, is a failed leftist ex-president from the 1980s who says he’s…
Today’s the Big One, Peru goes to the polls today. I’ll have something up on that in a minute but here is an important background topic I post as a sidebar: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s political meddling in Peru during its election. At times, it’s been the central issue of the entire Peruvian campaign in the second round. Meddling is such a vague term. If a foreign leader expresses preference for a certain candidate in another country’s election, I don’t exactly consider it major meddling – I consider it really just dumb. After all, voters do not have to heed…
Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! I never thought I would utter such words. A long time ago, Alan Garcia was Peru’s pain-in-the-ass leftwing president, from 1980-1985. He was only 35 then, and apparently not the same person he is now. He’s grown up. And he’s turned his spectacular talent to be a pain-in-the-ass to the guy it belongs on: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. Garcia’s reading Hugo Chavez precisely in bullseye language that resonates with Peruvians … and with me. He’s telling Hugo Chavez to his face exactly what a creepy tinpot dictator he is, which is something Chavez needs to hear.…
Peru held important presidential debates this weekend, which seemed to show lightly socialist Alan Garcia holding his ground against Chavista favorite Ollanta Humala. Garcia currently has about a 13 percentage point lead. Alvicho at Off Topic has an excellent roundup of all the blog and other news sources on this landmark debate, to give you a feel for how it all went and what it means here.
The Peruvians, in the midst of their heated presidential campaign, are having a grand old time lampooning Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who has continuously meddled in their election – promising $3 billion in sewer upgrades for instance if Peruvians elect his promised candidate, Ollanta Humala. As you might imagine, it’s sunk Humala’s candidacy beyond repair. Nobody likes that kind of open voter bribery. It’s patronizing, for one thing. And it’s boosting the campaign of Humala’s opponent, Alan Garcia. It all comes down to Hugo Chavez fundamentally not understanding anything at all about Peru. Peruvians are people who have authentic pride…
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…
…reality to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez. “If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income, there is nothing to invest more in nutrition, health and education, which are the most powerful weapons for reducing poverty,” the Peruvian president said. What a beautiful grasp on how the world works! Why don’t honorable, intelligent, and yes, indigenous, Latin American leaders get more…
A fearless Peruvian democracy revolutionary, Maria Elena Moyano, may finally see her killer brought to justice. An arrest was made of the Shining Path Marxist terrorist who most likely did it 14 unpunished years ago this afternoon in Peru. I wrote about her case about a year ago here. Source: Peru Hilfe Moyano was a Peruvian community leader in a poor slum who organized to get the poor included into the system too. Instead of out in guerrillaville. The Shining Path hated her intensely for it, threatened her, tried to kill her, and eventually killed her. There’s a big difference…
But not exactly in the way you might think. The Venezuelan dictator vowed to recall Venezuela’s ambassador to Peru if Peru’s voters DARED cast their ballot for Alan Garcia instead of his favored Ollanta Humala in next month’s second-round presidential debate. It’s so insane, so guaranteed to backfire, so likely to rally the Garcia vote, so likely to hurt Humala that it makes me think Chavez is on cocaine. Peruvians don’t particularly care one way or another about diplomatic relations with Venezuela. What they do care about is some foreign dictator trying to dictate how they will vote through various…
Peru’s detested spy chief, Vladimir Montesinos, who committed numerous human rights violations in the 1990s, is a man who belongs in jail. He’s there all right, but his networks of operatives are not. Instead, the unemployed spies and torturers have found a new sponsorship in the candidacy of Ollanta Humala. That tells us a lot about the kind of regime Humala is likely to institute, given that he intends to rewrite the constitution to consolidate power. Alek Boyd has the ominous report here.
There’s less than 3% of the votes to be counted and unless something really unusual happens, Alan Garcia will be the second candidate in the runoff for president of Peru, by a narrow margin. Lourdes Flores is in third place, trailing Garcia by 84,832 votes. I hate Garcia’s guts. But not nearly as much as Ollanta Humala’s. The prime difference between the two men is that Garcia, leftist and irresponsible as he is, is nevertheless a democrat. When his term was up in 1990, and he’d made his big mess of the economy, he nevertheless left office. He didn’t entertain…
Another day, another 20,000-vote narrowing in the gap between Lulu Flores and Alan Garcia, the two candidates vying for second place in Peru’s electoral race, which will go into a second round next month. Yesterday, Flores was trailing Garcia by 93,000 votes. Today, it’s 71,000 votes. There’s still about 8% of the votes to be counted. If you ask me, I think the odds are starting to go into her favor, if these expat trends continue. She’s behind but she’s also got the momentum from voters. Can it last for eight percentage points? I am starting to cross my fingers.…