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June 11, 2008

Justin Delacour kicks the Dissociated Press's ass

'Bout time someone did! And who better than a Latin America scholar, who knows how important it is to work with all the facts, the accurate facts, and not just whatever bullshit is convenient to the State Dept., Big Bidness, Big Oil, etc.?

Unfortunately, the AP's bad reporting isn't limited to its Caracas bureau; I've seen it hit Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador with the Stoopid Stick, too. Surely that's not a coincidence, since all three of them are friendly with Chavecito's Venezuela. Why they haven't also beaten up on Chile, Brazil and Argentina, I don't know; all three of their leaders have lent support to Chavecito, too, though they're a bit shy about signing on to the ALBA. (Hmmm, maybe that last is why--it gives the Usual Suspects the false impression that they might still be amenable to neoliberalism, like Colombia and Peru, but have only been playing coy so far.)

I'd write a letter too, and maybe someday I will, but right now I'll just stick to grousing on this blog. And to the AP, I'll let Johnny Cash's finger do the talking:

Johnny Cash lets us know how he really feels

June 09, 2008

And another one's gone, and another one's gone...

Another one bites the dust! Damn, how many more myths does Chavecito plan on busting this week?

The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, directed a message to the new chief of the FARC, Alfonso Cano, on Sunday, in which he called for the unconditional liberation of all the group's hostages. Then he assured that in Latin America, "the age of guerrilla wars is history."

"It's time for the FARC to release everyone they're holding in the mountains," Chavez demanded of Cano, adding at the same time that "it would be a great gesture, a change from nothing."

According to the president, the situation in which Latin America and the United States now find themselves "appears to be creating favorable conditions for a peace process in Colombia", for which the release of all hostages "would be the first step" toward success.

Continue reading "And another one's gone, and another one's gone..." »

May 04, 2008

Santa Cruzin' for a bruisin'

Tweety tawt he taw a coup d'etat. He did! He DID tee a coup d'etat!

You did, Tweety...you DID tee a coup d'etat!

Roto-Reuters UK and the Washington Whore Post are both cheerleading quite blatantly for Evo's opponents, undoubtedly to soften up us gullible anglophones for the "inevitable", undemocratic outcome of a deeply antidemocratic, unilateral (not to mention illegal) "referendum". Gee, where have we seen this before?

Too bad for this cutesy little media offensive that some of us can read Spanish, and one of us has seen fit to translate...this:

Continue reading "Santa Cruzin' for a bruisin'" »

April 04, 2008

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito in Brazil

Okay, I'm a bit behind on this because Chavecito has been busier than a one-legged man in a soccer tourney. But I still thought I'd share this photo of Chavecito on his recent trip to Brazil (from which he's been back for a few days now).

The Chavecito-Lula Grip'n'Grin!

It's just a photo-op grip'n'grin shot with Lula, but it's a cute one because they both look like they're actually having a good time.

February 21, 2008

Taking the wind out of an overblown pop star

Heh, heh, heh. Didn't see this coming, did anyone now?

Hugo Chavez says Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz is welcome to perform at his presidential palace and denied Thursday that his government retaliated against the Latin Grammy winner because of critical comments he made.

More than 80 performers and other celebrities signed a statement supporting Sanz after his concerts were cancelled in Venezuela. Signers including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Penelope Cruz and even soccer star David Beckham said they "believe in a Latin America where we are all free to express our views."

Venezuelan organizers said Sanz's sold-out Feb. 14 concert in Caracas was cancelled because it lacked "the appropriate conditions." The announcement came after government officials said Sanz would not be allowed to hold the concert at the state-controlled stadium because of his past criticism of Chavez.

Chavez denied any attempt to censor or retaliate against Sanz. "Come here and sing in Miraflores," he said, referring to Venezuela's presidential palace.

Aporrea has more:

Continue reading "Taking the wind out of an overblown pop star" »

January 29, 2008

Joao Goulart, murder victim

Courtesy of Aporrea, another skeevy spy story comes to light:

The Uruguayan ex-spy, Mario Neira Barreiro, asserted that the former Brazilian president, Joao Goulart, was assassinated in 1976 at the request of then-dictator Ernesto Geisel, who ordered "Operation Scorpion".

In an interview with the daily Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, Neira Barreiro said that the Brazilian political police ordered the assassination of Goulart by the Uruguayan Antisubversive Military Action Group (GAMMA), on the orders of dictator Geisel, who was in power from 1974 to 1979.

The ex-president, Goulart, died in Argentina in 1976, where he had been living since his ouster in 1964 by a military coup. The coup led to a dictatorship that lasted until 1985.

The ex-spy said that the so-called "Operation Scorpion" followed operations "Jakarta" and "Bandeirantes", which persecuted Brazilian opponents of the dictatorships in the region before 1975.

Goulart headed a group of Brazilian politicians in favor of a negotiated exit of the military dictatorship.

The declarations of Neira Barreiro confirmed the existence of a repressive international network prior to Plan Condor.

Continue reading "Joao Goulart, murder victim" »

January 04, 2008

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Random Evo and senseless cuteness

You know you're a hottie when you can even make a miner's helmet look good...

Evo in a miner's helmet

...especially when combined with something as unlikely as floral garlands.

And of course, we already know what Evo does for soccer shorts:

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Random Evo and senseless cuteness" »

December 07, 2007

One more blow for the Empire

And this one comes from Brazil.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Lula da Silva, affirmed that South America has put the era of neoliberalism behind it, and said he agrees with the nationalization of natural gas by his colleague in Bolivia, Evo Morales.

According to the ANSA news agency, Lula, in a meeting with other South American leaders, said that in recent years the region has experienced a "political phenomenon" in which governments were elected that were "advanced in socio-political matters."

The Brazilian president opined that his Bolivian counterpart "did the right thing in nationalizing gas. The gas is an instrument, a raw material, it is the only thing Bolivia has", according to the Folha de Sao Paolo newspaper.

After the nationalization of Bolivian hydrocarbons on May 1, 2006, Brazil suspended its investments in the country, in what it considered a defense of the interests of its oil company, Petrobras.

However, Lula da Silva reiterated his decision that the company would re-invest in Bolivia, which he will visit on the 17th of December.

Translation mine.

There goes a major pin from under the Bolivian fascist opposition, which has undoubtedly been after Evo's blood. For what? What else--preventing them from profiting by Brazilian investment. They claimed he was ruining the country. How it's possible to ruin a country by raising its share of the profits of its natural resources, such that Bolivia no longer has to borrow money to pay its civil servants' Christmas bonuses, is beyond me.

But such is the logic of the fiscal fascist. If they're not making all the money, no one else deserves a cut either.

Good on Evo, though, and good on Lula. Let's hope Lula does the same with Brazil's burgeoning oil reserves as Evo is doing with Bolivia's gas.

Next front in the oil wars--Brazil?

Watch out, Lula. With every one of these finds you make, you end up endangering yourself and your country...

Further oil and gas supplies have been discovered off the south-eastern coast of Brazil, boosting the shares of state energy firm Petrobras.

The emergence of a new reserve in the Espirito Santo field comes a month after a reserve of up to eight billion barrels was found nearby.

No figures have been put on the size of the latest discovery although Petrobras said it offered "high potential".

It believes Brazil could become one of the world's top 10 oil producers.

Brazil currently has proven oil reserves of 14 billion barrels, more than half of which have been discovered in the past five years.

Ministers believe a succession of recent finds could enable Brazil to eventually match the oil output of powerhouses such as Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

This would be a good time for Brazilian voters to turf out every last right-wing free-trader in their parliaments, and elect someone who will put that oil money to good use developing the country from within. You know, somebody like Chavecito. Only speaking Portuguese rather than Spanish.

Of course, as soon as they do that, Washington will want a piece of their ass, too.

November 20, 2007

We all live in a Brazilian submarine

Everybody sing! "Brazilian submarine, Brazilian submarine..."

And our friends are all on board; many more of them live next door. And the band begins to play...

This month's discovery of a monster offshore oil reserve justifies Brazil's plan to build a nuclear submarine because it would be used to protect the find, the defense minister said.

"When you have a large natural source of wealth discovered in the Atlantic, it's obvious you need the means to protect it," Nelson Jobim said Thursday at a defense conference in Rio de Janeiro.

Jobim said Brazil must safeguard the Tupi field and its 5 billion to 8 billion barrels of oil reserves from other nations and from "actions that could come from the area of terror," the government's Agencia Brasil news service reported.

Continue reading "We all live in a Brazilian submarine" »

November 08, 2007

Headline Howler: Who you callin' ugly?

Well, I guess if he calls himself ugly, it must be okay for Reuters to do it too. (The "quotation marks" make it all right, you know.)

Hugo Chavez calls himself ugly and his looks earned him the nickname "Goofy" in the military, but the president's image is changing -- he is now considered one of Venezuela's sexiest men.

A poll said on Thursday the fifth-most desired man is Chavez, whose large nose, protruding lips, forehead mole and gap in his front teeth are easy fodder for caricature artists in a South American nation obsessed with beauty.

Continue reading "Headline Howler: Who you callin' ugly?" »

July 04, 2007

So nice to know so little has changed!

Oh Brazil. I thought this sort of thing was supposed to have ended...in 1888!

More than 1,000 labourers have been freed in Brazil by the government's anti-slavery team.

They were said to be working in inhumane conditions on a sugar cane plantation in the Amazon.

An ethanol-producing company which owns the plantation has denied allegations of abusing the workers.

Continue reading "So nice to know so little has changed!" »

April 03, 2007

Brazilian women say "Nao" to Bush's ethanol scheme

Are you listening, Lula?

(Video originally seen on Aporrea, courtesy of TVColetiva Brazil. Portuguese only, but it's easy to tell what's going on.)

There were about 900 women at this demo, according to Aporrea. This was a serious one. But entirely peaceful, in spite of guards trying to confiscate their banners.

March 13, 2007

Scared shitless of success

Big, bad, brave Dubya--whatta man. He's so not afraid of Chavecito that when asked about him by a reporter, he does what any red-blooded gringo cowboy would do...

...he dodges the question in the hope that no one will notice how he's quaking in his too-big boots.

"Hugo Chavez suggested that you are afraid to mention his name," asked a U.S. journalist yesterday, "so are you? and how much of a threat is he to United States interests in the hemisphere?"

Rather than respond or decline to answer, Bush changed the subject.

"To South America and Central America to advance a positive constructive diplomacy that's being conducted by my government on behalf of the American people," Bush began, "My message to the people in our neighborhood is that we care about the human condition and that we believe the human condition can be improved in a variety of ways. One, investment and so the question is how can we have constructive dialogue with our neighbors as to how to spread the benefits of investment."

Continue reading "Scared shitless of success" »

March 09, 2007

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Bushie Beware!

All over Latin America, they're standing up to BushCo on its current round of smarm offensives...

...or against them, as the case may be.

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Bushie Beware!" »

February 23, 2007

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Representing at Carnival!

A couple of weeks ago, I featured Caetano Veloso, performing his great "Tropicalia". This week, it's his old friend (and sometime brother-in-law)'s turn:

Gilberto Gil, Son of Gandhi

Gilberto Gil, Brazilian rocker turned minister of culture, rockin' out here in the garb of the "Sons of Gandhi", his longtime favorite samba school in his hometown of Salvador, the capital of Bahia.

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Representing at Carnival!" »

February 16, 2007

O doomsayers, what say you to this?

Evo and Lula have just inked an agreement over natural gas. And not a shot was fired, as some were fearing when the Bolivian army went ahead with nationalization plans!

Bolivia has reached agreement on a price increase over its natural gas exports to Brazil.

The deal, signed by Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales, ends months of dispute over the issue.

Continue reading "O doomsayers, what say you to this?" »

February 02, 2007

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Viva a banda-da-da!

The original Festive Leftist, Brazil's Caetano Veloso, still kicks ass. This is "Tropicalia", a surreal collage of images that dates back to 1968 and sounds every bit as relevant today.


January 19, 2007

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Thumbs up!

Chavecito gives samba school the thumbs-up

Chavecito's in Brazil right now for the Mercosur summit, reaping the praises of his friends there as he urges a break away from the Washington consensus. Looks like he, Evo and Lula had some fun with the samba, too.

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Thumbs up!" »

January 05, 2007

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito rings in a new year

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito rings in a new year" »

October 31, 2006

Another opportunity for Lula to learn from Chavecito

From the Beeb, some interesting words on the newly re-elected Lula and what his mandate could mean:

Brazil's newly re-elected President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has set out priorities for his second term.

In television interviews, he said the emphasis would be economic development, the redistribution of wealth from rich to poor, and education.

Continue reading "Another opportunity for Lula to learn from Chavecito" »

October 29, 2006

Be-bop-a-Lula!

He's Brazil's baby!

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been re-elected in a clear victory, polling more than 60% of the vote against rival Geraldo Alckmin.

In a victory speech, Lula said he would govern for all Brazilians and intensify efforts to alleviate poverty during his second four-year term.

"We will give attention to the most needy. The poor will have preference in our government," he said.

Lula narrowly failed to win in the first round, forcing Sunday's run-off.

Continue reading "Be-bop-a-Lula!" »

May 07, 2006

Yes, it's time to bomb Brazil!

After all, they've gone "nucular"!

Brazil has joined the select group of countries with the capability of enriching uranium as a means of generating energy.

A new centrifuge facility was formally opened on Friday at the Resende nuclear plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Continue reading "Yes, it's time to bomb Brazil!" »

May 05, 2006

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Just in time for Cinco de Mayo

And while this didn't happen in Mexico, there were plenty of amigos:

Left to right: Presidents Nestor Kirchner (Argentina), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva (Brazil), and Hugo Chavez (Venezuela).

Chavecito just did himself proud yet again, by brokering a meeting between Bolivia and Brazil and Argentina to renegotiate the latter two countries' contracts for extracting natural gas in Bolivia, which recently nationalized its natural gas deposits.

March 05, 2006

Soy loco por ti, Simon Bolivar?

At last, my suspicions can be laid to rest--the provenance of the tune for Vila Isabel's winning samba (in the Rio carnival) is revealed:

According to percussionist and composer, Jose Carlos Capinan, the chorus, title and even the samba beat was composed by himself and current Brazilian Culture Minister Gilberto Gil in 1967.

Capinan says he has sent a letter, complaining of copyright infringement to the Samba school and the Venezuelan government.

Continue reading "Soy loco por ti, Simon Bolivar?" »

March 03, 2006

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Simon Bolivar goes to Rio

Woo-hoo! Congratulations are in order to Hugo Chavez and PDVSA for scoring a major, MAJOR victory:

The annual parade competition at Brazil's famous Rio de Janeiro carnival has been won by a samba group largely funded by the Venezuelan government.

The Vila Isabel group, which was declared the winner after a dance-off, had Latin American unity as its theme.

Vila Isabel's president, Wilson Moises Alves, thanked Venezuela's national oil company, PDVSA, for its funding.

PDVSA will not say how much money was involved, but reports estimate its donation at more than $500,000.

Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Simon Bolivar goes to Rio" »

February 17, 2006

Festive Left Friday Blogging, Too: Tropicalia comes to "London, London"--again

Anyone know where I can get really, REALLY cheap airfare from Toronto to London so I can catch this?

Chacrinha poster from Tropicalia exhibit

Wacky TV variety-show host Chacrinha (José Abelardo Barbosa de Medeiros, 1916-1988), an inspiration to the Festive Left artistic movement, adorns a poster from the "Tropicalia" exhibit, coming to the Barbican in London, UK. The exhibit runs from February 13 to May 22, 2006.

(This'll teach me to jump the gun when it comes to FLFB! --Your Humble(d) Author.)

Festive Left Friday Blogging: The art of Marti

Passing a painting of Jose Marti

Raul Martinez's painting "Marti y la Estrella" during the first day open to public of the "Art of Cuba" exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil. (Photo credit: AFP/Mauricio Lima)