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noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:45:00 +0000

National Opinion Balloting 2008

Foreign Policy Association

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The Americas in the Financial Times

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:38:00 +0000

The Financial Times contains some good coverage of what is going on around the world. I'm copying the links to their main stories on the Americas for today, May 19, 2008. It looks like their current articles are publicly available on the web.

May 19: A brighter future for the Amazon
Carlos Minc, Brazil’s new environment minister, won’t have his feet under his desk before the government auctions a concession to build and run the second of two controversial hydroelectric power stations in the heart of the Amazon
writeDate - May 18 2008

Mexican pledge to tackle monopoly power
Santiago Creel, president of Mexico’s upper house and a leading member of Felipe Calderón’s ruling party, has promised to tackle Mexico’s powerful business monopolies to make the country more competitive
writeDate( 1211148652000, 'Grey', 'May 18 2008 23:10', 9999999999999);
- May 18 2008 23:10
Mexico claims progress in war on drugs
Smoking ban sucks life out of cantinas

D Republic’s Fernández wins third term
Leonel Fernández, the president of the Dominican Republic, has won a third term in power after steering the economy out of a crisis five years ago
writeDate( 1211147579000, 'Grey', 'May 18 2008 22:52');
- May 18 2008 22:52
US must rethink Latin America relationship

Environmental cloud over Silva’s exit seen to clear
Brazil will get a new environment minister this week amid a storm of controversy over the departure of his predecessor, Marina Silva, whose resignation caused dismay among environmental activists around the globe
writeDate( 1211147579000, 'Grey', 'May 18 2008 22:52');

Argentine farmers plan show of force
Farm strike heads for another week of stalemate after producers extended their action until next Wednesday and the government refused to negotiate
writeDate( 1210975689000, 'Grey', 'May 16 2008 23:08');

Interpol calls Farc documents genuine
Interpol signalled that documents detailing links between Colombia’s Farc guerrillas and Venezuela were genuine, a move that could increase regional tensions and create a dilemma for the US over whether to put Caracas on its terrorist list
writeDate( 1210891423000, 'Grey', 'May 15 2008 23:43');

Mexico claims progress in war on drugs
Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s minister of public security and the country’s top security official, has claimed significant advances in the country’s fight against drugs
writeDate( 1210879290000, 'Grey', 'May 15 2008 20:21');

US must rethink Latin America relationship
A new US administration should embrace a comprehensive immigration reform and promote greater co-operation with Latin American energy producers, according to a report published by a prominent foreign policy think tank
writeDate( 1210776385000, 'Grey', 'May 14 2008 15:46');

Brazil’s environment minister quits
Marina Silva, who rose from poverty in the Amazon state of Acre to become a global figurehead for environmental activists, has resigned after a turbulent five years as Brazil’s environment minister
writeDate - May 14 2008 22:23

Brazil prices bond deals at lower spreads than Buffett
Brazil is pricing bond deals at lower spreads than Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of billionaire financier Warren Buffett, as it establishes itself as one of the best-performing markets in the world this year
writeDate - 14 2008 17:19'

The 4th Fleet & Latin America - Two Views

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Is this a joke? or a Northrop Grumman ad?

4th Fleet returns, gunning for drug smugglers
By Mark D. Faram - Staff writerPosted : Saturday Apr 26, 2008 8:35:08 EDTAll content
© 2008, Army Times Publishing Company

Almost 60 years after closing shop, the Navy’s 4th Fleet, which oversaw the hunt for German subs in the South Atlantic, is coming back. Only this time, the prey is drug runners in the Caribbean.The Navy announced April 24 the re-establishment of 4th Fleet, to be based at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. The command will operate as the naval component of U.S. Southern Command and will have a SEAL at the helm.Rear Adm. Joseph Kernan, head of Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, Calif., has been chosen to command the new fleet. Kernan will take control of 4th Fleet and the current Naval Forces Southern Command.

Effective July 1, the command will oversee maritime operations in Central and South American waters, similar to the command structure of 5th Fleet, which is also dual-hatted as Naval Forces Central Command, the naval component of U.S. Central Command. With the fleet’s creation, sailors can expect to spend more time in that part of the world, not only taking part in counternarcotics operations, but also humanitarian relief and goodwill tours.

“I am thrilled that the secretary of the Navy and [Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead] have chosen to stand up the 4th Fleet, with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Adm. James Stavridis, commander of the Miami-based SouthCom, the organization set to benefit most from the new numbered fleet.

“While I am clearly a joint commander in every sense, as an admiral, I am personally very pleased and proud to see the Navy stand up an organization like 4th Fleet to operate with partner nations in the region.”

The move excited local lawmakers who hailed the move as key to ensuring more ships will be homeported in Mayport.

“I think this announcement shows the importance of Naval Station Mayport [as a] national security asset,” said Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla. “Locating the headquarters there is a key asset for Southern Command as Mayport is two days closer to the Caribbean and Latin America [than Naval Station Norfolk, Va.]. This positioning is key to having an impact on threats that could come from that region.”

Stavridis said the Navy needs 4th Fleet to operate at a higher level than Naval Forces Southern Command does now. That extra layer of support, he said, “would allow a much better and more concerted response to problem sets that range from hurricanes to medical diplomacy to counternarcotics [and] counterterrorism kinds of operations. Speed is very important in all those scenarios.”

The fleet, Stavridis said, will be focused on preventing and responding to mass migration of refugees, as has happened in the past from Haiti and Cuba, as well as stopping the flow of illegal drugs and partnering with countries throughout the region.

“We will also seek to build the ability of the 4th Fleet to work with interagency partners like U.S. Department of State, [U.S. Agency for International Development] and Department of Homeland Security,” he said.

Numbered fleet commanders have an official role in allocating training and resources.

The standup would not bring new sailors or billets with it to Mayport, said Rear Adm. Jim Stevenson, the current commander of Naval Forces Southern Command, set to retire this summer. However, the command is expected to get a plus-up of 30 billets in 2009, the result of a Fleet Forces Command manpower study a couple of years ago.

“That plus-up was already in the works,” Stevenson said. “The reactivation will be done without any additional resources needed.”

Being a numbered fleet commander also increases that command’s stature in SouthCom - a joint command - by adding what Stavridis calls an “appropriate counterpart” to 12th Air Force and 6th Army.

A SEAL was an unusual choice for the command, but Stavridis called it an “important and expeditionary job.”

“He is the right officer for the challenging tasks in the region, and additionally has a strong sense of theater security cooperation and interaction with our partner nations.”

Although he’s a SEAL, Kernan isn’t a stranger to the conventional fleet. As a junior officer, he served aboard the cruiser Horne.

Stavridis said anti-drug operations, humanitarian missions and cooperative training missions are expected to be the new command’s primary engagements.

“One particularly important mission for the 4th Fleet will be medical diplomacy, as exemplified by the voyage last summer of [the hospital ship] Comfort, which conducted nearly 400,000 patient encounters during a four-month cruise to 12 countries in the region,” Stavridis said.

This year, the amphibious assault ships Boxer and Kearsarge will “return on similar missions in the region this summer,” he said, “all under the aegis of 4th Fleet.”

Navy Expeditionary Combat Command also could play more of a role in the region as part of what Stevenson calls “soft power” projection.

“We’ve had Seabees down here the past couple of years, building clinics, digging wells and refurbishing hospitals and schools, and we expect that to continue,” Stevenson said. “We’ve also reworked our training exercises down here to have maritime interdiction operations, diving and small-boat evolutions - things that are more brown-water than our traditionally blue-water operations.”

But it’s the Navy’s riverine warfare commands that could see an even greater role in the coming years in SouthCom.

“There’s tremendous river systems in South America where our partner nations are responsible for security,” Stevenson said. “As you know, our riverine forces are being ramped up, and in the future, I could see them operating down there in cooperative training missions where our sailors may learn as much from their river forces as they do from us.”

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/SATURDAYnavy_4thfleet_042608w/

OR -

US Navy resurrects Fourth Fleet to police Latin America
By Humberto Santana 7 May 2008
Copyright 1998-2008 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.

Washington announced at the end of last month that it is resurrecting the long-ago moth-balled Fourth Fleet to reassert US power in the Caribbean and Latin America. Created at the time of World War II to combat German submarines attacking merchant shipping convoys in the South Atlantic, the Fourth Fleet was seen as no longer necessary after the Second World War and was disbanded in 1950.The Pentagon’s a statement on the revival of the fleet gave a far vaguer indication of its new duties, saying it would “conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narco-terrorism, and theater security cooperation activities.”“Rear Admiral James Stevenson, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, said the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet will send a message to the entire region, not just Venezuela,” AHN news reported.

The “message” began to be transmitted just weeks after Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia came into sharp conflict over a border provocation caused by the Colombian military’s bombardment of an encampment of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory.

The Fourth Fleet will begin operations on the first day of July out of the Mayport US Naval Station, a nuclear facility in the state of Florida. The fleet, which will operate as part of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, will be comprised of various ships, including aircraft carriers and submarines, and will operate from the Caribbean to the southern tip of South America.

While the new naval unit does not yet possess large numbers of arms and personnel, it will be equipped and granted similar importance as the Fifth Fleet, now deployed in the Persian Gulf, and the Sixth, operating in the Mediterranean.

The thrust of this decision is to give the US Navy a far broader role than it currently plays in Latin America. While Washington can point to no imminent military threat in the region, the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet has a powerful symbolic significance, indicating a return to gunboat diplomacy.

It is a demonstration of US intentions to maintain absolute military dominance over the region, and in particular over those countries with large reserves of petroleum and natural gas, including those that are governed by supposed enemies of Washington, like the governments of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia.

The central objective of the Fourth Fleet will be to further the military and political “security and stability” of the region, according to the commander of naval forces for US Southern Command, Vice Admiral James Stevenson. The fleet will “certainly bring a lot more stature to the area and increase our ability to get things done,” Stevenson told reporters.

“This change increases our emphasis in the region on employing naval forces to build confidence and trust among nations through collective maritime security efforts that focus on common threats and mutual interests,” said Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations.

According to the official statement issued by the Pentagon, the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet “demonstrates US commitment to regional partners,” among which Colombia stands out, given the billions of dollars of US aid granted its right-wing government to conduct the so-called “war on drugs” as well as its counterinsurgency campaign against the FARC, an organization that the US classifies as “terrorist,” on the same level as Al-Qaeda.

Significantly, the officer tapped to head the new fleet is Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, the current commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, which includes counterinsurgency units like the Navy SEALS, which are utilized in the so-called war on terror.

The Navy distributed a press release in which it enumerated more specific and immediate objectives for the resurrected fleet, including “acting together with the navies of allied nations on bilateral and multilateral training operations and operations against narco-trafficking originating in the region.”

According to the Pentagon, in recent years the Colombian drug cartels have gone so far as to utilize secretly built submarines to get their product to foreign markets.

But it is not merely the drug cartels that are in the Pentagon’s sights. The Venezuelan navy is also a potential target. In June of last year, President Chavez signed an agreement with Moscow to acquire nine Russian submarines at a price which is estimated at between one and two billion dollars. According to the Pentagon, the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet is also justified by this change in the correlation of forces in the region.

To lend this expansion of military power in the region a veneer of legitimacy in international circles, the Pentagon needs to promote the pretext that the Colombian FARC or the crisis-ridden government of Hugo Chavez represent a similar danger to the world and “democracy” as that which Washington has attributed to Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups in the Middle East.

As far as democracy goes, a far greater danger is posed by Washington’s closest ally, the government of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who is personally implicated in the operations of drug traffickers and right-wing paramilitary death squads which, with CIA and US military training, have specialized in the killing of trade unionists, peasants and university students.

The drive by the Pentagon to expand its military control over Latin America is not new. For a number of years, it has sought to establish new military bases in the region. The presence of drug trafficking - which has continued unabated despite the decades-old “war on drugs” - and Hugo Chávez and his “arms race” represent only most convenient pretexts for promoting this expansion.

The US appears likely to lose its only permanent military base in South America - located in Ecuador’s port city of Manta - when the Pentagon’s lease on the air force facility expires in November of next year. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has vowed not to renew it, while the country’s constituent assembly is drafting a new constitution that is to include a prohibition against any foreign bases on Ecuadorian soil.

In the meantime, the American military is searching for other possible bases, including in Paraguay. “We’re always looking for opportunities for what I call lily pads - places we can go in for a week or two and then get out,” Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, commander of US Air Forces Southern Command told the US military newspaper Stars and Stripe. “It increases our presence, and makes us more unpredictable in operations.”

Reestablishing the Fourth Fleet, with its aircraft carriers as well as US Marine and Navy Seal contingents, provides a floating base for US interventions throughout the continent.

Behind the resurrection of the Fourth Fleet lie the same fundamental tendencies underlying the explosion of American militarism on a world scale. It is the attempt by US imperialism to offset its relative decline as an economic power by reliance on its continuing military supremacy. Europe and increasingly China are playing a growing role in Latin American trade and investment at the expense of US interests.

Trade between Latin America and China topped $100 billion last year, a 46 percent increase over 2006. Meanwhile, the European Union, which is second only to the US in terms of Latin American trade and foreign investment, is increasingly outstripping Washington in the negotiation of free trade agreements on the continent. Today, the US accounts for less than 20 percent of the exports from Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Peru.

The one area where US imperialism can still demonstrate unquestioned superiority against its economic rivals is in the deployment of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines, which is just what it is now preparing to do off the coasts of Latin America.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/navy-m07.shtml

Bush buys land in Paraguay?

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:32:00 +0000

Mariscal Estigarribia Air Base as seen from Google maps

There has not been much in the US press, but this story was in a number of Latin American newspapers in 2005 and 2006. Some are no longer available online. Here are two:
Here’s a version from Brazil.
Here’s one from Argentina.
and
Here is the cached version in English from Cuba's Prensa-Latina

The political gossip blog Wonkette wrote the story up here:
We Hate To Bring Up the Nazis, But They Fled To South America, Too
and they include some research and documentation as background for the story.

The Democratic political blog Daily Kos has a diary that links together even more of the information:
Resurrecting the Bush (Huge) Land-Acquisition-in-Paraguay Story
including links regarding the underground aquifer, natural gas, the Rev. Moon, immunity agreements, a US military base nearby, etc.

The State Department issued and oddly specific denial of these stories in October 2006.
United States Has No Plans for Military Base in Paraguay

This story was one of the top 25 most censored stories of 2007, according to Project Censored:
US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region
and this story was one of the top 25 most censored stories of 2006:
U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region

And in a somewhat related story about Ecuador from the New York Times May 12, 2008:
Ecuador Opposes Outpost in American War on Drugs

MANTA, Ecuador
— The scene at the Manta Ray Cafe, a mess hall here at the most prominent American military outpost in South America, suggests all is normal.
...
But by next year, if President Rafael Correa gets his way, this base will be gone, and, with it, one of the most festering sources of controversy in Washington’s long war on drugs.

Events in Bolivia

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Sat, 10 May 2008 13:38:00 +0000

MAS peasants arrive in La Paz after 190km march in 2005Picture: Indymedia Bolivia

Bolivia at the nexus of current Latin American political trends. The President, Evo Morales (Wikipedia article for background) is considered the country's first fully indigenous head of state in the 470 years since the Spanish conquest.

From Undermining Bolivia by Benjamin Dangl:

Declassified documents and interviews on the ground in Bolivia prove that the Bush Administration is using U.S. taxpayers’ money to undermine the Morales government and coopt the country’s dynamic social movements—just as it has tried to do recently in Venezuela and traditionally throughout Latin America.Much of that money is going through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
...
... “USAID is in Santa Cruz and other departments to help fund and strengthen the infrastructure of the rightwing governors.”

In February 2008 President Morales declared US embassy security officer Vincent Cooper an "undersirable person" for trying to recruit Fulbright scholars and Peace Corps volunteers to spy and report on activities where they were located in Bolivia, partly due to a complaint from one of the scholars.

The US appears to be encouraging the province of Santa Cruz, resource rich and whiter, to break away from the rest of Bolivia. There have been a number of stories about this.

Bolivia's Morales calls for talks on autonomy

Fri May 9, 2008 12:53am
By Carlos Alberto Quiroga
LA PAZ, May 8 (Reuters) - Bolivian President
Evo Morales called on Thursday for urgent talks with regional leaders to ease divisions over mounting demands for autonomy, but some said they were not yet ready for negotiations.
Bolivia's richest region of Santa Cruz voted heavily in favor of autonomy from central government in a referendum on Sunday and the leaders of at least three other regions said they will not meet with Morales until holding similar votes over the next two months.
The eastern lowland regions of Tarija, Beni and Pando plan referendums before the end of June.
The votes could strengthen the autonomy movement and increase conflict with the western highlands where Morales, a leftist and Bolivia's first indigenous president, has his support base ...

One Bolivia, white and wealthy By Jorge Majfud, Ph.D.

...
Military colonialism has given way to political colonialism and the latter has passed the baton to cultural colonialism. This is why a government composed of ethnic groups historically repudiated at home and abroad not only must contend with the practical difficulties of a world dominated by and made to order for the capitalist system, whose only flag is the interest and benefit of financial classes ...

Bolivia takes control of oil and nationalizes telephone company

LA PAZ, May 1.—In the context of events celebrating May Day, President Evo Morales of Bolivia announced that, as of this Thursday, the state is to recover by decree the majority shares of three oil companies de-nationalized 10 years ago, AFP reports.
The companies are Chaco (British Petroleum), Transredes (Ashmore) and the Bolivian Hydrocarbons Logistic (CLHD), with Peruvian and German capital.

Commentary: Bolivia’s Internal Power Struggles
Samuel Logan
07 May 2008

The selfish interests of a small group of upper class Bolivian families could determine the future of their country’s geopolitical position in South America.

These families stand at the center of Bolivia’s secessionist movement in the state of Santa Cruz, where a referendum for the state’s autonomy was held on 4 May. Voters favored autonomy at 84%. It was a political gut shot for President Evo Morales’ administration. But the outcome reaches beyond Morales and could have prolonged consequences for both Brazil and Argentina.

Bolivia supplies Brazil and Argentina with the natural gas that moves industry in Brazil and warms homes in Argentina. Disruption of the flow of gas is not an option for either country. Two years ago, when Morales nationalized his country’s natural resources, he began a long battle to redistribute the wealth of his country from the hands of the few – represented by Santa Cruz – to the hands of the many, mostly his poor constituents. Yet in Santa Cruz stands the most concentrated group of interests that has the most to lose from Morales’ vision ...

And Next for Bolivia, Elections Once More The Democracy Center

...
So, what does all this mean?
...
Why is Evo putting his hard-won historic Presidency on the table? Well, there is the 'let's let the people decide," argument echoed by almost all of the threatened politicians. But no one plays this kind of poker without some confidence in his or her hand. My bet is that Evo and his allies see the situation like this. The opposition has battled his government to a near standstill. The autonomy vote in Santa Cruz has galvanized his political base in way it hasn’t been since his election win – witness the massive march in Cochabamba last Sunday. And he has cornered his opponents into playing at a table tipped distinctly to his mathematic advantage.
...

There are several other scenarios possible.

Latin leftists line up behind politically troubled Bolivia

AFP - Apr 23, 2008CARACAS (AFP) — A chorus of anti-US leftist Latin American leaders issued a strong show of support Wednesday for Bolivia where the government believes it is ...

Bolivia Government Supported at Caracas Summit Periódico 26Leftist Latin American Leaders Sign Deal on Food Security Voice of AmericaChavez warns that "Bolivia is on the verge of exploding" Venezuelanalysis.com

Pope Benedict and Latin America's Liberation Theology

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:11:00 +0000

Pope Benedict’s Holy War Against Liberation Theology in South America: Pontiff and Conservative Church Face a Rollback
From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
by NIKOLAS KOZLOFF, COHA Senior Research Fellow

EXCERPTS:

The recent election of former Bishop Fernando Lugo as President of Paraguay poses a sticky dilemma for the Vatican and underscores the hostile political environment facing incoming Pope Benedict XVI in South America. Lugo, who was known to his constituents as the “Bishop of the Poor” for his support of landless peasants, advocates so-called Liberation Theology, a school of thought which took shape in Latin America in the 1960s.
…
… Since its emergence, Liberation Theology has consistently mixed politics and religion. Its adherents have often been active in labor unions and left-wing political parties. Followers of Liberation Theology take inspiration from fallen martyrs like Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Dorothy Mae Stang, an American-born nun who was murdered by ranching interests in Brazil.
…
Originally a liberal reformer, Ratzinger changed his tune once he became an integrant in the Vatican hierarchy. … Liberation Theology, he once said, was dangerous as it fused “the Bible’s view of history with Marxist dialectics.”Calling Liberation Theology a “singular heresy,” Ratzinger went on the offensive. He blasted the new movement as a “fundamental threat” to the church and prohibited some of its leading proponents from speaking publicly. In an effort to clean house, Ratzinger even summoned outspoken priests to Rome and censured them on grounds that they were abandoning the church’s spiritual role for inappropriate socioeconomic activism.
…
Despite his best efforts however, Benedict has not been able to impede the rise of the Bishop of the Poor in Paraguay. Lugo has had long time differences with the Vatican, which could now create some political friction between Paraguay and the Papal See.
…
In Brazil, the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nation, some 80,000 “base communities,” as the grass-roots building blocks of liberation theology are called, are flourishing. What’s more, nearly one million “Bible circles” meet regularly to read and discuss scripture from the viewpoint of the theology of liberation.Liberation Theology advocates have strong links to the labor movement which helped propel the current regime into power; this history turned President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva into being a long time ally. The movement has been particularly strong in poorer areas of the country such as the Amazon, the hinterlands of northeast Brazil and the outskirts of large urban centers like São Paulo, which has a population of 20 million people.
…
Try as he might, Benedict has been unable to halt the re-emergence of Liberation Theology, and Paraguay and Brazil are just the tip of the iceberg. For years Venezuela has been a religious battleground, with President Chávez pursuing a combative relationship with the Catholic Church. Unlike some other Latin American countries which had a stronger liberation theology movement, the Venezuelan Church never had a leftist tendency except among diocesan priests.
…
In the Andes, the situation is not much more promising for Pope Benedict.Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa is a Catholic Socialist and has called for a “new Catholicism” in the 21st century which would challenge globalized capitalism. The President has said that his real education came from working as a lay Salesian missionary in the mid-1980s in the largely indigenous province of Cotopaxi. During his speeches, Correa invokes the words of Leonidas Proaño, probably Ecuador’s most famous liberation theologian.Bolivia’s Evo Morales has never been a fan of ecclesiastical authority and has said that Catholic bishops “historically damaged the country” by functioning as “an instrument of the oligarchs.” What’s more, Morales tapped Rafael Puente Calvo, an ex-Jesuit and a staunch liberation theologian, to be his Deputy Minister of the Interior.
…

Ex-bishop wins Paraguayan election; 6-decade rulers dumped

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:44:00 +0000

From the AP:

Political newcomer Fernando Lugo, a charismatic 56-year-old who resigned from the church to run for president, put an end to the Colorado Party's 61-year reign in Sunday's election, rallying voters against political corruption and economic disarray.
. . .
The triumph of Lugo's eclectic opposition coalition — the Patriotic Alliance for Change — is the latest in a series of electoral wins by leftist, or center-left, leaders in South America.

Mark Weisbrot, at the Washington think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research, said Lugo's election is a sign of "deep and irreversible ... changes sweeping Latin America."

There are a number of other articles if you search Google News for Paraguay.

Michael Klare interview on the new energy world order

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:20:00 +0000

From AGAINST THE GRAIN
MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY FROM NOON TO ONE ON KPFA (Pacifica) RADIO

Wed 4.16.08 New Energy Order
In his new book Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, Michael Klare argues that a global political realignment of historic proportions is under way, based on ever-more-intense competition for reliable energy supplies. Klare describes emerging Big Power alliances and rivalries in energy-rich sites like the Caspian basin and Africa.
Listen to the program

You can download the interview to an iPod, or other mp3 player and listen at your convenience.

Readings on Latin America from the Foreign Policy Association

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:04:00 +0000

READINGS:

Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul
Drawing on Michael Reid's many years of reporting from inside Latin America's cities, presidential palaces, and shantytowns, this book provides a vivid, immediate, and informed account of a dynamic continent and its struggle to compete in a globalized world. Reid argues that rather than failing the test, Latin America's efforts to build fairer and more prosperous societies make it one of the world's most vigorous laboratories for capitalist democracy.

Hugo!: The Hugo Chavez Story from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution
In Hugo! Bart Jones tells the story of Hugo Chávez's impoverished childhood, his military career and the decade of clandestine political activity that ended in a failed attempt to seize power in 1992. He describes the election campaign against a former Miss Universe that finally won Chávez the Presidency and the dramatic reversals of fortune that have marked it: the struggle to reform the Venezuelan economy, the coup attempt of 2002 in which he was kidnapped and faced summary execution, and the oil industry strike that followed. Hugo! is scrupulously researched and sourced and tells the full stories of many of these episodes for the first time - in English or Spanish.

Hugo Chavez: The Definitive Biography of Venezuela's Controversial President
He is one of the most controversial and important world leaders currently in power. In this international bestseller, at last available in English, Hugo Chávez is captured in a critically acclaimed biography, a riveting account of the Venezuelan president who continues to influence, fascinate, and antagonize America.

Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants
In Ex Mex, former Mexican foreign minister and well-known scholar Jorge G. Castañeda draws on his experience in both capacities to dispel some of the most widely held and mistaken ideas about the United States' largest immigrant population. Through Castañeda, we learn who the newest generation of immigrants from Mexico is, why they've chosen to live in the United States, where they work, and what they ultimately hope to achieve. Castañeda also offers an insider's account of the intricate and secret negotiations that took place between Mexico and the United States in 2001-2—contradicting some of the official versions published here—and the unilateral actions that were taken by his government to improve the conditions of Mexican migrants when talks between the two countries became stalemated.

The Accidental President of Brazil: A Memoir
What is it like to govern one of the world's most notoriously ungovernable, most vibrant countries? Brazil's former president offers a candid, wry, illuminating view.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso received a phone call in the middle of the night asking him to be the new Finance Minister of Brazil. As he put the phone down and stared into the darkness of his hotel room, he feared he'd been handed a political death sentence. The year was 1993, and he would be responsible for an economy that had had seven different currencies in the previous eight years to cope with inflation that had run at 3000 percent a year. Brazil had a habit of chewing up finance ministers with the ferocity of an Amazon piranha.

Online Resources »

Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization
I felt that the discussion provided us in GD book (topic 6) was rather biased especially towards neoliberal economic policies favored by U.S. corporations in particular. Sometimes the phrase "shift to the left" is code to prejudice people who fear Communism or Socialism. Some of Latin America's shift to the left and "populist" politics [which your current article presents negatively] actuall benefit human beings by protecting them and the environment by needed regulations of corporations. I would like to see alternative views presented and I can't think of a better alternative than excerpts from the above book or an article by Noam Chomsky.

Great Decisions 2008: Spring Updates [PDF]
Great Decisions 2008 Spring Updates available online or download as PDF

Great Decisions 2008 Spring Update: Latin America
Read the Spring Update to the Great Decisions 2008 topic "Latin America."view all »

Quizzes
Great Decisions 2008 Spring Quiz Series - Latin America Quiz
Online topic quizzes from the Great Decisions 2008 Spring Quiz Series are an ideal test of readers' knowledge of the Great Decisions 2008 briefing book articles and Great Decisions 2008 Spring Updates.
Great Decisions 2008 Winter Quiz Series - Latin America Quiz
Online topic quizzes are an ideal test of readers' knowledge of the Great Decisions 2008 articles.

Russia stands to benefit from the oil markets

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:19:00 +0000

graphic: yellow = demand, green = supply

Asia Times just published the article The rise of the new energy world order by Michael T Klare. Klare writes:

The combination of rising demand, the emergence of powerful new energy consumers, and the contraction of the global energy supply is demolishing the energy-abundant world we are familiar with and creating in its place a new world order. Think of it as rising powers/shrinking planet.

This new world order will be characterized by fierce international competition for dwindling stocks of oil, natural gas, coal and uranium, as well as by a tidal shift in power and wealth from energy-deficit states like China, Japan and the United States to energy-surplus states like Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. In the process, the lives of everyone will be affected in one way or another - with poor and middle-class consumers in the energy-deficit states experiencing the harshest effects. That's most of us and our children, in case you hadn't quite taken it in.
Here, in a nutshell, are five key forces in this new world order which will change our planet . . .

Read the article for the five key forces, and how Russian stands to benefit.

Russia's Geopolitical Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:05:00 +0000

The Emerging Russian Giant Plays its Cards Strategically
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, October 7, 2006

Russia is gaining in influence through a series of strategic moves revolving
around its geopolitical assets in energy—most notably its oil and natural gas.
It’s doing so by shrewdly taking advantage of the strategic follies and major
political blunders of Washington. The new Russia also realizes that if it does
not act decisively, it soon will be encircled and trumped by a military rival,
USA, for which it has little defenses left. The battle, largely unspoken, is the
highest stakes battle in world politics today. Iran and Syria are seen by
Washington strategists as mere steps to this great Russian End Game.

Click here to read the entire article.

Russia and heroin from Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:15:00 +0000

Russia is accusing:

. . . the U.S. military of involvement in the heroin trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe. The Vesti channel’s report from Afghanistan said that drugs from Afghanistan were hauled by American transport aircraft to the U.S. airbases Ganci in Kyrgyzstan and Incirlik in Turkey.

. . .

Russia today has about six million drug-users – a 20-fold increase since the collapse of the Soviet Union and a huge figure for a country of 142 million people.

Click here to read the article.

Some Russia News from The Economist

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:59:00 +0000

TNK-BP falls foul of the law, again

WHEN Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president-elect, gave a speech extolling the benefits of the rule of law earlier this month, some optimistic souls declared that things were looking up for business in Russia. Pessimists responded that Mr Medvedev would have neither the inclination nor the authority to reverse Vladimir Putin's enthusiasm for meddling in the private sector's affairs. The debate continues, but a series of setbacks for TNK-BP, Russia's fourth-biggest oil producer, has given the pessimists lots of ammunition. . . .

Russia's secret satellite snoopers

IF YOU use Google Earth to follow the A-212 road west out of Pskov, shortly before you reach what was until 1940 the Soviet border with independent Estonia, your eye may be caught by a curious black oval to the north of the road.

Look closely, and it turns out to be the shadow cast by a large satellite dish. At maximum resolution the image (pictured) is striking. The biggest dish is nearly 20m in diameter. A second one is about 10m, and five smaller ones are nearby. A shadow cast by a large wire antenna on two radio masts is also visible, as well as shiny new guard houses and an administration block, surrounded by a high concrete wall.

The installation has been built recently. (Your columnist visited the area in 2002 and nothing was visible then). What is it for? . . .

How a takeover battle provides a test case for Russian capitalism

THE drama surrounding Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, has all the elements of an airport thriller: billionaire oligarchs invading the French resort of Courchevel; models flown in from Moscow; wads of cash flying like confetti; all-night discos, magnums of champagne and buckets of caviar; and the whole thing topped off with a police raid. The scene then shifts to the Arctic city of Norilsk, built by slave labour under Stalin, and the nickel giant that generated all this wealth, now at the centre of a takeover battle. The Norilsk saga is being closely watched because it is a test of how the rules of business in Russia are changing. . . .

As Vladimir Putin stands aside (sort of), how much has he to do with Russia's booming economy—and how long can it last?

. . . The emergence of genuine businessmen like Mr Bulanov, and their acceptance in society generally, may be Russia's biggest achievement—and one reason why the economy is growing at 7% a year. But this has nothing to do with Vladimir Putin, who is standing aside as president this week. Mr Bulanov is no fan of Mr Putin; he prefers freedom to fear and corruption. “The only things that will stop me”, he says, “are a bullet or a prison cell.” The future of Russia will be determined by the contest between men like him and the machinery of the state. . . .

Russia - Online Resources & Recommended Readings from the Foreign Policy Association

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:36:00 +0000

Russia
Online Resources

Great Decisions 2008: Spring Updates [PDF]
Great Decisions 2008 Spring Updates available online or download as PDF

Great Decisions 2008 Spring Update: Russia
Read the Spring Update to the Great Decisions 2008 topic "Russia."

A George Washington Moment, Putin Style
From Foreign Policy Magazine, "Russia's outgoing president may think he can hang on to the reins of power, but his own story is the best reminder that even hand-picked successors can have minds their own."

Across Putin's Russia
A five-part multimedia slideshow by a Financial Times correspondent who traveled through eastern Russia to discover why President Vladimir Putin, increasingly feared and distrusted abroad, enjoys rising popularity at home.

BBC: Putin Project
A BBC World Service special feature on Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration and how he has built widespread support among Russians for his policies and his allies.

GDTV 2008 Transcript - Reexamining Russia
Transcript for the Great Decisions Television Series 2008 show #4, Reexamining Russia.

novayagazeta [English Language]
Leading Russian newspaper English language site.

Pravda [English Version]
Leading Russian newspaper English language site.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Official site of Russia's Foreign Ministry.

Johnson's Russia List
News and analysis from David Johnson.

Russia: Key Facts
Background and Key Facts on Russia from the BBC.

Carnegie Moscow Center
Established in 1993, the Center accommodates foreign and Russian researchers collaborating with Washington staff on a variety of topical areas and policy-relevant projects.

Harriman Institute
A leading center for the advancement of knowledge in the field of Russian and Eurasian studies, the Institute seeks to create a forum for intellectual exchange.

Kennan Institute
The Institute, in conjunction with the Woodrow Wilson Center, is a nonpartisan institution improving American expertise and knowledge about Russia and successor states to the Soviet Union with experience in shaping U.S.-Russian policy.

National Council for Eurasian and East European Research
The organization is the largest provider of resources to U.S. scholars for postdoctoral research in the fields of the economic, political, social and historical development of Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe.

National Opinion Balloting 2008
Download the 2008 Ballot or take the online version!

Recommended Readings »

The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West
In late 1999 when Vladimir Putin was named Prime Minister, Russia was a budding democracy. Multiple parties campaigned for seats in the Duma, the nation's parliament. The media criticized the government freely. Eight years later as Putin completes his second term as president of Russia and announces his bid for prime minister, the country is under a repressive regime. Human rights abuses are widespread. The Kremlin is openly hostile to the West. Yet the United States and Europe have been slow to confront the new reality, in effect, helping Russia win what experts are now calling the New Cold War.

Kremlin Rising : Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution
In the tradition of Hedrick Smith's The Russians, Robert G. Kaiser's Russia: The People and the Power, and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb comes an eloquent and eye-opening chronicle of Vladimir Putin's Russia, from this generation's leading Moscow correspondents.
With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia launched itself on a fitful transition to Western-style democracy. But a decade later, Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, a childhood hooligan turned KGB officer who rose from nowhere determined to restore the order of the Soviet past, resolved to bring an end to the revolution. Kremlin Rising goes behind the scenes of contemporary Russia to reveal the culmination of Project Putin, the secret plot to reconsolidate power in the Kremlin.

Russia in Search of Itself
In the turbulent decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union, conditions have worsened considerably for many Russians, and a wide-ranging debate has raged over the nature and destiny of their country. In Russia in Search of Itself, James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress and a noted expert on Russia, examines the efforts of a proud but troubled nation to find a post-Soviet identity. The agenda has not been controlled from the top-down and center-out as in Russia's past. Nor has it been set by any intellectual giant such as Sakharov or Solzhenitsyn.

Russian Iranian gas pact

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:09:00 +0000

Russia gas pact energizes Iran
By Pepe Escobar
Is online at Asia Times

Here is an excerpt to give you a taste:

As any European Union negotiator in Brussels is forced to admit over a few
bottles of Morte Subite beer, the EU is a virtual hostage of Gazprom. Adding to
European angst, both Russia and Iran want the formation of a gas equivalent of
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sooner rather than
later - a likely scenario at least from the point of view of Russian-Iranian
coordination in investment policy and pricing.

Teymur Huseynov, head of
the Eurasia department at the Exclusive Analysis risk consultancy, confirms
"Gazprom's vulnerability to US sanctions is minimal". Gazprom supplies over 25%
of Western Europe's gas. Much of Iran's future production will also go to
Western Europe anyway. Russia and Iran are competitors in the world gas market -
but up to a point: Europe needs both.
. . .

Iran is also basking in
good news in the oil front. The first phase of early production from the giant
Azadegan oilfield, west of Ahvaz in Iranian Khuzestan, is already on. According
to Iranian estimates, Azadegan holds no less than 33 billion barrels of crude
oil. For the moment it's pumping only 25,000 barrels a day - but the point is
that the whole technology was Iranian.

According to the deputy manager
of technical affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Hamid Deris,
the Iranians had to take over when experts of Japan's largest oil and gas
explorer, INPEX, under no-holds-barred US pressure, balked at investing in the
enormous project. The Japanese share was initially 90%; in the end it fell to
10%
. . .

. . . Iran - already exchanging energy with Azerbaijan, Armenia and
Turkmenistan - will also connect to Russia's national power grid. Fattah said
Iran and Russia would cooperate in the construction of two power plants in
Tajikistan. The results are obvious: the merging of Russian and Iranian
electricity networks will cover virtually all the demand in Central Asia and the
Caucasus. Most of the new investment will be Russian.

You can read the whole article here.

Biden On Russia After Putin

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Joseph Biden has published After Putin in the Wall Street Journal.

Russia is the world's largest energy exporter, and the only state with enough nuclear weapons and delivery capability to wipe us out. It is also facing endemic corruption, a demographic collapse, and a brewing insurgency in the north Caucasus. The Kremlin's use of "managed democracy" has failed to address these and other major challenges. Whether in the form of loose nukes or environmental catastrophe, Russia's domestic failings have consequences beyond its borders. It is legitimate for the West to be concerned about Russia's internal affairs. We should encourage responsible Russians to move toward a political system that is better equipped to address Russia's many problems.

Click here to read the entire article.

Why Vladimir Putin rigged an election he was always going to win

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:53:00 +0000

As our next topic is Russia, here is an article on the recent presidential election:

Why Vladimir Putin rigged an election he was always going to winThe secret policeman's election; Russia.(Why Vladimir Putin rigged an election he was always going to win)
The Economist (US) 385.8558 (Dec 8, 2007): p60US.

Vladimir Putin did not rig the ballot to win control of parliament, but to assert his power over the Kremlin's warring factions

To read the full article click here: Why Vladimir Putin rigged an election he was always going to win

Turkey and the myth of European Union - accession to disillusion

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Click below to read the whole article:

From the myth of European Union accession to disillusion: implications for religious and ethnic politicization in Turkey

At the present time, there are no clear outcomes in Turkey's European Union
(EU) accession process. By the end of the two years following the rise of the
pro-Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the government in 2002,
Turkey's accession process entered into a stalemate. Potent political opposition
to the Turkish candidacy in Europe has escalated, despite a staunch Turkish
political commitment since 1999 to meet the Copenhagen Criteria for admission.
In this article, we argue that Turkey's EU accession process has contributed to
opening political spaces for Islamism and ethno-nationalism in the country,
ironically producing societal and political forces undermining Turkish
membership. We inquire first into the practical reasons obstructing Turkey's
membership to the Union and second into the societal and political implications
of the continuation of the bleak possibility of EU membership for Turkey. As far
as the latter is considered, our focus is limited to an analysis of the
politicization and institutionalization of the ethnic and Islamist conservative
politics in Turkey within the process of "liberal democracy."

Kosovo

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:13:00 +0000

The Kosovo Song (To the tune of "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys, parody).

This is not necessarily relevant, mostly just entertainment. I just like parodies. Kosovo will be an ongoing issue for the US and the EU. In light of that the following article may be interesting.

Kosovo: The US and the EU support a Political Process linked to Organized Crime
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci is part of a criminal syndicate
by Michel Chossudovsky

Mr. Thaci, nicknamed "the Snake" during his KLA days, is a sharp-suited 32-year-old former rebel commander with poor oratory skills, links to organized crime and a determination to preserve relations between his party and the United States (The Scotsman, 20 October 2000)
I know a terrorist when I see one and these men are terrorists," (US Special Envoy and Ambassador Robert Gelbard)
"The KLA [formerly headed by Hashim Thaci] is tied in with every known Middle and Far Eastern drug cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead right to the KLA,..." (Michael Levine former official of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA))
Hashim Thaci founded the "Drenica-Group" an underground organization that is estimated to have controlled between 10% and 15% of all criminal activities in Kosovo (smuggling arms, stolen cars, oil, cigarettes and prostitution). Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

The state of the EURO

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 14:14:00 +0000

From this article in Asia Times:
Euro-trash by Chan Akya

When the US Fed last week made an announcement that it would expand its Term Auction Facility (TAF), the idea was greeted with sardonic smiles across the boardrooms of European banks. After all, the Fed had only made operational in March what the ECB had been doing since last summer.

How it operates is quite simple. Banks gather all the collateral on their books that cannot be sold into the wider market and provide it to the ECB against which, following some minor valuation adjustments, the central bank provides immediate liquidity. This has proven quite useful in the current climate of poor liquidity in various market instruments.

Thus, we have found out that European banks have continued to issue billions of euros-worth of residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) that are never sold to any investor. After securing the rating, the securities, which are simply paper representing actual mortgages in the books of various banks, are pledged as collateral to the ECB and liquidity lines are drawn.

In turn, this borrowing from the ECB is used to support the uneconomic overseas operations of European banks, ie their investments in US subprime collateral, poorly constructed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and the like. By not being forced to sell such assets, European banks continue to pretend that they have taken fewer losses than their US counterparts when the truth is the exact opposite.

You can read the entire article here.

European Union - the complete Country Profile from the Economist Intelligence Unit

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:43:00 +0000

The complete Economist country profile for the European Union is now available

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:04:00 +0000

You can now read the Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 3, the final part.

United Nations data online

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:54:00 +0000

You can find United Nations data online here.

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:29:00 +0000

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union Part 2

is available online. Click on this link to read it.

The European Union - Fit at 50?

noreply@blogger.com (Little Falls Library - NM) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union, published December 2007, is available in the Montgomery County Public Library articles databases, in the database Academic OneFile from Gale. I am linking the European Union Country Profile. Since it is lengthy, I'm dividing it into 3 parts, and will publish the next two over the next two days. You can read part one here:

Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Profile: European Union - Part 1

The Economist published a special report on the European Union almost exactly a year ago, March 15, 2007. It is one of their articles they make available online to the public. You can read it on the Economist website:

The European Union - Fit at 50?

It is several pages long, so at the bottom of each page, click on the Next article » to continue reading the report.