tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983Fri, 01 Nov 2024 08:17:02 +0000farcvenezuelaFernando LugoParaguayBoliviaHugo ChavezcolombiaArgentinaEvo MoralesSanta CruzcorruptionAbimael GuzmanChileFujimoriMontesinosPeruShining Pathcastrochavez venezuela referendumcristinacubacuba castro transitiondictatorshipecuadorhuman rightsreferendumtransitionNews and views on and from Latin America.http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (PIT)Blogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-4663175425769376225Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:14:00 +00002008-12-28T10:21:47.901-02:00Ecuador’s voluntary default sees the wily gambler loseIf public opinion is anything to go by, Rafael Correa is either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Ecuador’s president recently announced his country would default on interest payments on its foreign debt. Not because Ecuador couldn’t afford the 30,6 million dollars due to holders of the Global 2012 bonds.The reason Correa isn’t coughing http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/correa-cries-wolf-once-too-often.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-3592080491674186483Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:08:00 +00002008-12-28T10:13:31.488-02:00After a decade, Chávez is anything but a liberatorPublished December 9, Buenos Aires Herald.Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez would like us to think that over the past decade he has been playing a pivotal role in uniting Latin America. Who knows, perhaps late at night, as he watches reruns of his speeches on any of a range of state-run TV-channels, Chávez may well be wondering if he isn't already http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/12/man-who-would-free-us-all.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-1237137062139228057Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +00002008-11-17T22:39:46.385-02:00In Colombia, soldiers kill the innocent to up the body countLat-Am Watch for the Buenos Aires HeraldThe success of Alvaro Uribe’s government at fighting left-wing insurgency groups in Colombia has boosted the president’s popularity to dizzying heights, at home and abroad. Where so many had failed in the past, Uribe’s policy of ‘Democratic Security’ brought blow after blow to the rebel groups, http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/11/am-i-my-brothers-keeper.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-8067580125037801941Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:26:00 +00002008-11-11T12:10:27.185-02:00Peru threatens to sue Yale over Machu Picchu artifactsOn July 24, 1911, an eight-year-old boy led a 35-year-old Yale University lecturer named Hiram Bingham up a steep path through the Peruvian jungle. Bingham was looking for the city of Vitcos, one of the last Inca strongholds to be sacked by Spanish invaders in 1572.Instead what he saw were cascading terraces and a clearing bound on two sides http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/11/lawyers-on-inca-trail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-3804582648331551646Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:33:00 +00002008-10-29T11:44:05.071-02:00Serra trumps Lula in local election battleBrazilians in 30 major cities went to the polls on Sunday to elect mayors in run-off elections, after the nationwide municipal vote on October 5. The outcome was a clear victory for one man – and he didn’t even have to take part to win.Sao Paulo governor José Serra waves to supporters. Photo ReutersJosé Serra, the governor of Sao Paulo, emerged as the http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/10/lat-am-watch-poll-by-proxy-in-brazil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-5528175306240089242Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:10:00 +00002008-10-23T15:30:08.964-02:00Paying for rainforest services is a logical stepThe Yasuní rain forest reserve in Ecuador is one million hectares of the most biodiversity territory on the planet. There are less than three months left to keep it that way.That’s because underneath the Yasuní reserve lie nearly a billion barrels worth of oil.Photo: www.amazoniaporlavida.orgLast year, in a revolutionary approach to preserving http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/10/ecuador-utilities-provider.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-7333201271939626772Tue, 14 Oct 2008 12:56:00 +00002008-10-14T10:44:11.803-03:00García assailed by familiar troubles from the pastPeru’s image of recent years was one of relative stability and soaring economic growth. The painstaking reforms put in place by president Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) placed the export economy in a slipstream culminating in some of the best macroeconomic figures for Latin America last year. Meanwhile, the government claimed that the serious socialhttp://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/10/lat-am-watch-ghosts-return-to-haunt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-2624622133280889112Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:33:00 +00002008-09-30T16:37:04.890-03:00Ecuador's magna carta: Leftist not LeninistEcuador's president Rafael Correa received the backing of nearly two-thirds of the electorate on Sunday as voters approved a new constitution meant to bring more equality to the small Andean nation. Yesterday evening, with most of the vote counted, Yes was beating No by 64 percent versus 28 far exceeding the prediction of pollsters who put Yes at around http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/lat-am-watch-correa-pipes-different.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-963604443163692551Tue, 23 Sep 2008 13:23:00 +00002008-09-30T12:56:54.462-03:00Or how Chávez brings Colombia's FTA ever closerLat-Am Watch for the Buenos Aires HeraldIt's not what you'd call a timely visit. Colombian president Álvaro Uribe showed up in Washington last Friday to pitch the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the US and Colombia, which is still pending congressional approval.Just over a month shy of presidential elections and smack-bang in the middle of Wall http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/unintentional-champion-of-free-trade.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-7391247634569685497Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:02:00 +00002008-09-17T10:30:38.753-03:00Just posted the audio of my chat with New Zealand's Kiwi FM on the crisis in Bolivia in the bar over on the right. You can click on play to hear it.http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-audio.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-5551625914260188977Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:50:00 +00002008-09-16T11:16:24.264-03:00Lula assumes control in Bolivian crisisAll eyes yesterday were focused on the gathering of UNASUR, the nascent organization of South American states that is still trying to find a definitive arena for its branch of sport. For now, the presidents of Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia were focused on the crisis in that last country, where violence has broken http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/lat-am-watch-brazil-stepping-up-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-8666929272154772319Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:12:00 +00002008-09-09T03:54:55.033-03:00Inflation and low remittances spell wintry days ahead.If you found yourself in the unenviable situation of having to spend time in one of those random sprawling shopping malls in Guayaquil, Caracas or Mexico City during the weekend, you'd be forgiven for thinking that in Latin America we are on another planet.For, while in the US and Europe consumers clutch nervously at their purse strings, in http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/lat-am-watch-grasshoppers-not-ants.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-3663479595312885368Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:56:00 +00002008-09-03T13:21:05.602-03:00Oviedo said to be up to his old tricks in ParaguayWhen Fernando Lugo took over the presidency of Paraguay last month after 61 years of rule by the Colorado party, we knew he was in for a rough ride. The Colorados, still entrenched in every corner of bureaucracy and well represented in parliament, were unlikely to make the former bishop's incursion into politics an easy run.But if Lugo is to be http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/09/lat-am-watch-coup-cries-lugo.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-7758555671281616098Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:09:00 +00002008-08-19T20:03:46.167-03:00Brazil and Argentina look on as Venezuela ropes in Lat-Am´s latest leftie.SAN PEDRO DEL YCAMANDIYÚ — Shaded by trees and sipping icy teréré the peasant farmers of San Pedro crammed the square in front their church on Saturday, for what promised to be a day of rhetorical fire works. Queries as to the direction the new government of Fernando Lugo would take were about to be answered as Lugo shared http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/08/lat-am-watch-chvez-moves-first-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-3476356995506870264Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:06:00 +00002008-07-22T00:02:15.544-03:00Russia smiles on regional arms raceLatam Watch for the Buenos Aires Herald. Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez kicks off a weapons shopping spree today in the Russian capital Moscow, his third in the space of three years. The visit will be the first encounter between the Venezuelan president and his counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, although naturally he'll look in on prime minister Vladimir Putin as http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/lat-am-watch-from-russia-with-love.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-8979764782500955195Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:29:00 +00002008-07-19T10:02:05.112-03:00Nazi hunters are in town. Yesterday Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre gave a press conference at the Jewish AMIA headquarters in central Buenos Aires. They are on the trail of Aribert Heim, better know as the concentration camp physician "Dr. Death."I could tell you what they said, but Jeannette already did a much better job.http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/on-trail-of-dr-death.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-7506854016549126282Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:11:00 +00002008-07-18T15:19:46.554-03:00You probably heard about the dramatic finale to yesterday's senate vote. I was unable to post before, but here's the story I collaborated on with the Indy's New York correspondent David Usborne. Also check out some of Cobos' emotional speech below. var articleheadline = "A woman president scorned – by her most trusted ally"; A woman president scorned – by her most trusted allyhttp://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/tears-and-betrayal-liven-up-argentine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-1030533255277874972Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:00:00 +00002008-07-16T15:35:28.758-03:00Just hours after General Naranjo insisted that the idea was preposterous, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe admitted that one of the rescuers of Ingrid Betancourt and the fourteen other hostages had worn the emblem of the International Red Cross.CNN broke the story earlier in the day, based on photos and video their reporter Karl Penhaul was shown.The BBC has this. Colombia's president says a Red http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/uribe-admits-red-cross-symbol-was-used.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-2771536001067928417Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +00002008-07-16T13:07:52.527-03:00Things are getting pretty tense here today as the senate convenes for the crucial vote on the sliding-scale export duties which have so enraged the farmers and pitted the nation in two halves.As it stands now, the vote is more or less even, with five, check, three senators still undecided. The question is not only whether or not the draft bill will be approved, but if it is, whether or not it's http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/crucial-senate-vote-has-argentina-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-124761278942504990Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:12:00 +00002008-07-11T14:47:50.178-03:00Ingrid Betancourt and the 14 other hostages weren't rescued by the Colombian army, but instead escaped from captivity thanks to the treachery of their guards. That, at least, is the FARC version of what happened last week, when Betancourt & Co. appeared from nowhere in helicopters manned by Colombian troops and with their guards bound and handcuffed.In a statement dated July 5 and published http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/farc-it-was-escape-not-rescue.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-6476420006513517011Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:51:00 +00002008-07-03T13:58:01.940-03:00Here's general Montoya, head of the Colombian army, explaining how the daring rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and the 14 other hostages was planned and carried out. He's a great one for fire-side stories, you can tell. Also, notice the way Uribe encourages him to explain in greater detail, like a teacher edging on a bright pupil in front of an audience of parents. http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/top-marks-for-montoya.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-2290457056150941328Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:06:00 +00002008-07-03T00:13:56.375-03:00I just spoke to Olly Barrat at FSN News, the global radio news network based in New York. We discussed the release of Ingrid Betancourt.As for the timing of the McCain visit, there may be something to it...http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/betancourt-for-fsn-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-6875678760842293461Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:15:00 +00002008-07-03T14:01:08.118-03:00Just hours after being rescued from six years of being held hostage by the FARC, Ingrid Betancourt answered questions by the press. One of the most surprising things she said was that she supported President Uribe and his controversial reelection in 2002, which is the subject of hot debate at the moment in Colombia.Ingrid said the she felt the re-election of Uribe had served to deny the FARC the http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/betancourt-uribe-is-very-good-president.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-8450414386390383578Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:49:00 +00002008-07-02T18:40:09.188-03:00No prizes for guessing today's Lat-Am news. Ingrid Betancourt is free. The Franco-Colombian politician and presidential candidate held hostage by the FARC guerrilla for six years has been rescued! Along with her three US contractors were freed and 11 Colombian citizens.The FARC have taken more than a few blows in the past months, the worst was probably the bombing the led to the death of second http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/ingrid-betancourt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2878174813191120983.post-4036833456734571114Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:25:00 +00002008-07-02T00:04:06.014-03:00Montesinos’ defence of Fujimori is typical of the two villainsLat-Am Watch for the Buenos Aires HeraldPeru’s former president Alberto Fujimori and his one-time spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos never fail to protect each other. Attempts to cover each other’s back have earned them the nickname the Evil Twins.Yesterday it was the turn of Montesinos to testify during the trial of Fujimori, accused of http://latinamericawatch.blogspot.com/2008/07/lat-am-watch-evil-twins-remain-tight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (PIT)0