I get the feeling that I'm not the only woman who likes this humble honey...and as proof, I present these shots taken at the recent UN meeting:
Michelle Bachelet's body language tells me all I need to know about how she feels about Evo. I guess he charmed the pants off her when he negotiated that sea route with Chile.
Ditto Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, of Argentina. I sure hope Néstor's not jealous!
Shucks, folks, I'm speechless again.
Otto has also added me to his blogroll (muchas gracias!), which is the first time I've been blogrolled by a finance wonk, to my knowledge anyway.
And he really made my day with this hot 'n' juicy shot of El Ecuadorable, too.
PS: I've now been linked at BoRev, Bananama Republic, and VenCentral as well. Somehow, this just makes me feel so...vindicated for all the months my Bayly/Antonini translation has languished sans commentary. Thanks, folks...and you're all now blogrolled!
Revolter at BoRev calls it Valijagate. But we of the jet set just call it bullshit!
Why would Chavecito shake hands with this fat slimebag?
Story from YVKE Mundial:
On August 4, 2007, [Guido] Antonini was taken into custody in Buenos Aires with a briefcase stuffed with $800,000 US. Antonini, according to a campaign directed by opposition media against Cristina Fernández and Hugo Chávez, was trying to finance Fernández's electoral campaign with funds from the Venezuelan state oil firm, PDVSA.President Chávez said that the case has been a script badly performed from the start. "You recall that he (Antonini Wilson) said he had lunched that day with me. I said to check it out...and it turns out that Mr. Antonini did try to enter Miraflores Palace that day. He couldn't, so the plan failed, but it was in the script. The script failed!" said the president during a press conference at Miraflores.
Translation mine.
Readers of this blog may also recall that I translated, in full, an article by Jaime Bayly some months ago, in which the Peruvian writer revealed that Guido Antonini Wilson, the "pudgy goodfella", is in fact a Miami mafioso, not an agent of the Venezuelan government. He may well be an agent of some other government, though--and I'm not talking about Argentina.
Well, Jaime Bayly is in the videos too. Have a look--he once again reveals that Antonini hates Chavecito's guts. Strange, then, that such a man would claim to be an agent of his, eh?
Chavecito's right--this whole business is nothing but a garbage operation. And that's a polite way of putting it!
A toxic, energy- and water-gobbling mine in the Argentine province of Catamarca drew protesters to the streets of the provincial capital on August 28 in a good old-fashioned escrache:
From Aporrea, another example of Evo's cojones in action.
The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, ratified on Saturday that he would not permit the opposition prefects and "civic organizers" to close gas valves for any reason. For this reason, he instructed the Armed Forces to guarantee security to all natural-gas installations and prevent any assaults on the economy of the Bolivian state.The far right, according to President Morales, "are already meeting now in the Bolivian Chaco to try to take over the valves. That's an assault on the Bolivian people." He informed the hundreds of delegates meeting for the second consecutive day in the national assembly of the National Coordinator for Change (Conalcam) that he had spoken with various ministers and vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera, with whom he resolved to guarantee security for gas ducts and valves.
"This intended takeover of the valves is not an action against Evo Morales, nor the government, but against the Bolivain people," he added. He was referring to the decision of the "civil society" directors of the Media Luna region, who had threatened to take over all oil and gas wells and initiate an indefinite blockade of the roads, starting on Monday, August 25.
The gas-producing provinces of Cordillera, Luis Calvo and Gran Chaco, in the departments of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija respectively, announced a blockade of all roads in the Bolivian Chaco region, which borders on Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The three regions contain the largest natural gas reserves in Bolivia, estimated at 1.36 trillion cubic metres.
Translation mine.
As you can see, these fascists are not only keen on cutting Evo's throat (and that of every other indigenous person in Bolivia), they also have no problem shooting themselves in the foot. Because of course, the gas-producing provinces all border on the three countries most likely to be purchasing gas from them. So who's this blockade going to hurt? You guessed it--the very people who are hoping to ultimately cash in on it. (Remember, Brazil and Argentina will not do business with anyone but the federal government of Bolivia when it comes to gas, and neither, I suspect, will the newly leftist, pro-poor government of Paraguay, whose stated mission is to lift its own indigenous out of the same poverty the Bolivian neighbors are now fighting.)
I guess I could further translate Evo's remarks as a "suck this, bitches!" to the opposition.
Of course, what you get when you suck a gas valve is suicide a la Sylvia Plath. Maybe that's what Evo was alluding to when he said the fascists are "agonizing". Hey, if they're in a world of hurt, I say put 'em out of their misery. Bolivia can surely get along without them!
Whoa--is the sky falling, or what? The Economist has finally gotten (partway) off its "rah rah, America" kick and published a (somewhat) honest assessment of what's going on in the States. And a thing of beauty it is, too:
One source of angst is the sorry state of American capitalism (see article). The "Washington consensus" told the world that open markets and deregulation would solve its problems. Yet American house prices are falling faster than during the Depression, petrol is more expensive than in the 1970s, banks are collapsing, the euro is kicking sand in the dollar's face, credit is scarce, recession and inflation both threaten the economy, consumer confidence is an oxymoron and Belgians have just bought Budweiser, "America's beer".
Wow! And that's only the second paragraph. It goes on in that vein pretty much throughout the piece, with occasional excursions into the silly (which I'll get to shortly.)
I think we can safely say this marks an epoch. Just a few short years ago, this self-same Economist was totally behind the Washington consensus. Rather like the woman in the famous picture, cleaning up after the elephant by catching its droppings in a big bag-on-a-stick as they fell, so they wouldn't hit the ground and be seen for the vast load of shit they are.
Unfortunately, this moment of truth shall pass, as does everything else in the transitory world of market capitalism. And in fact, within the same article, we see evidence that the editorial writer doesn't really get what's going on at all:
Continue reading "I could have told them so, but would they listen?" »
As if it weren't enough that popular opinion is going to broom these "autonomist" butts out of office (and a landslide is going to confirm Evo), there's this little bombshell from off the coast of, of all places, Uruguay:
Uruguay says it may have found a large natural gas field that would change it from an importer to an exporter of gas.The announcement of the possible find, which could also contain oil, was made by President Tabare Vazquez in a note on his official website.
Local reports say that the field could contain as much as three trillion cubic feet (85bn cubic metres) of gas but there has not yet been any drilling.
Link added.
The Beeb goes on to note that the gas field could provide for as much as 827 years' worth of domestic needs, based on the amount of gas Uruguay used last year. This means Uruguay will not only become a net exporter; it could become to natural gas what Venezuela is to petroleum. If Tabare Vazquez is as smart as I think and hope he is, he'll copy Chavecito and put the proceeds from that gas to use serving the Uruguayan people, who have been hit hard by the vagaries of the markets over the last 40 years. All in all, it looks very good for Uruguay.
But what, you ask, does this have to do with the Media Luna in Bolivia?
Continue reading "Memo to the Media Luna prefects: You're toast!" »
'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:
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..." »
And he's twice as big as ever:
Che would have turned 80 this year. That's twice as old as he lived to be. So it makes sense that this statue, which will stand in his birthplace of Rosario, Argentina, is twice life-size.
Not, I hasten to add, that he wasn't a towering figure in life, too.
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:
And ooooooooh yeah, Evo's knees!
Who's the perfect 10? Both of them, of course. They faced off at a recent charity game. Who won? The people of flood-ravaged Bolivia. And South American solidarity didn't fare too badly, either.
No matter how tense the official occasion (in this case, Argentine president Cristina Kirchner's recent visit to Venezuela, during the days when Colombia attacked and then menaced Ecuador), Chavecito knows how to lighten things up and make everybody go awwwwwwww.
Oh, and did you know he brokered the peace at the summit that ensued? That's pretty awwwwww-inspiring, too.
Um...not really. But you must admit that the presidents of Ecuador and Argentina, respectively, look absolutely divine together.
And if you want to know what was really going on when this was taken--relax, no one's cheating on their spouse. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was simply showing support for Rafael Correa in a time of crisis during a meeting in Venezuela. She was far from alone in this, by the way.
In honor of Fidel Castro's recent announcement of his intention to retire, today we go retro:
Those were the good old Ches.
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" »
Usually, I tune out all mass-media traveloguery. Having been to j-school (and having had the misfortune to study under a "magazine writing" instructor who preferred throwaway travel and celebrity puff pieces to actual, worth-paying-money-for MAGAZINE JOURNALISM), I guess I'm just plain prejudiced. I certainly had a lot of blinders ripped off my eyes as to what passes for "good" in the Industry--and in a word, it is DRIVEL. It has to be; it's just page-filler. Its sole purpose is to take up the space the advertisers didn't want, and to titillate the casual newsstand browser into buying a fish-wrapper or birdcage-liner she probably didn't want either. If magazines could be all ads and still get bought on the newsstand by paying customers, trust me--they would be. But we fickle consumers, we still insist on some semblance of substance, however vague. And if we wanted to read nothing but ads, there's all that junkmail cluttering up our recycle bins.
It should go without saying that the people who write those expensive, cloth-bound travel guidebooks have actually done a lot more homework than the professional tacky tourists who "do travel writing" for The Media. (Stands to reason; they don't have to fill non-ad space, and they have to be certain that their writing will be of use to someone--and not end up getting pulped for toilet paper.)
And I'm positively certain that well-travelled progressives could revolutionize the travel-book industry if they ever chose to go that way. Happily (or unhappily, depending on where you sit, yearning for progressive adventures), they're not in the Baedeker business. Leftists may profit from their travels, but they don't travel for profit. They're in it for something more than money. They don't give a hang if they've seduced you into shelling out for a package tour of the latest ecotourism hotspot (and if they do, you can be sure that they're NOT real leftists). What they do care about, is making sure that whoever deigns to read gets an accurate, socially-aware picture of what's going on elsewhere--the good and the not-so alike.
I bring this up for a reason.
Continue reading "The difference between "sucks" and "ROCKS!"" »
I've been hungry for some good news, and happily I found it...in Argentina.
Argentina's Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who launched a human rights crusade in the late 70s against a bloody dictatorship, took control of a building at a former naval academy that was the junta's chief torture center.Activists on Thursday painted cheery suns and flowers on the building, which will begin operating April 30 as a cultural complex and also houses classrooms for law students attending a university the Mothers founded in recent years.
"Let's paint the building in the colors of life," cried a leader of the group, Hebe de Bonafini. "We have defeated death!"
The government announced in 2004 that the Navy Mechanics' School would be removed from military control and become a museum and monument honoring the victims of the 1976-83 military regime. The last officers left the campus late last year.
Nearly 13,000 people were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship's crackdown on dissent, according to an official tally. Activists say the toll is closer to 30,000.
Bonafini noted that children of some the Mothers were among the 5,000 dissidents detained at the clandestine torture center, where they were tortured and, in some cases, made to disappear.
Long live the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo!
Hmmm...I like the sound of that: Argentine Briefcase Caper. ABC for short. Gotta know your ABCs, so you can spell out what's really going on, as this Argentine journalist did:
"The operation (in which Guido Antonini Wilson carried a briefcase with $800,000 illegally into Argentina) was a CIA operation," says Argentine journalist Luis Bilbao, director of the magazine America XXI.During an interview on the VTV show En Confianza, Bilbao emphasized that in his investigation of the case, the first hypothesis he pursued about the event was that this operation was planned by the CIA.
"As soon as I began to follow my initial hunch, I knew that the operation was a CIA plan. I don't have the slightest doubt about it."
Another theory, one that also involves the CIA, is that Antonini Wilson might be a CIA agent, and that in the Argentine government there could be functionaries who also belong to the US agency, commented the journalist.
He added that there are many obscure facts that permit us to see the direct intervention of the CIA in the case, such as the way in which the events occurred, as well as the already noted friendship between Wilson and the former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez, whose name appears among those listed by the CIA as a collaborator.
Regarding this point, Bilbao recalled that "everybody knows" that Carlos Andres Perez was a CIA asset in the 1970s, as confirmed by ex-CIA agent Philip Agee in his book, which listed "all the names of politicians and directors in Latin America who were with the CIA--and among them was that of Carlos Andres Perez."
The Argentine journalist denounced the briefcase operation and its consequences as a CIA conspiracy, one which sought deliberately to destroy the stability of the Venezuelan government and, as a secondary consequence, though no less important, that of the Argentine administration.
Regarding the supposed declarations of Moises Maionica in which he pleaded guilty in the case, Bilbao emphasized that these statments were very confused, since Maionica, after declaring himself innocent, "is now 'admitting his guilt' a month later".
Bilbao argued that surely the CIA was behind Maionica's supposed admission of guilt, and that it was very possible that during this past month, they may have tortured him, at least psychologically, in order to make him take back his initial declarations.
He also said that this is a case that must be studied in depth.
Yeah, I know...me neither. But apparently it's a big deal in Miami, where the hatred for all things Chavez knows no bounds, and neither do the plans to sabotage him. And yes, this is one of those. It supposedly casts doubt on the election of Cristina Fernandez, the president of Argentina--supposedly. I've long had a sneaking feeling it was all bullshit. And now, when nobody's looking, suddenly the truth comes out. And lo and behold, the truth is that it WAS all bullshit:
Jaime Bayly, the Peruvian writer who has never hidden his aversion to President Hugo Chavez, admitted in his column "Lost Papers" this 28th of January in the Correo del Peru that he met Guido Antonini Wilson in the beginning of 2002, the year of the coup d'etat.Wilson freely confessed to being friends with ex-president Carlos Andres Perez, and to being opposed to President Chavez, whose time in office, he asserted, would soon come to an end.
"Chavez won't last. He'll fall soon. We're going to topple him...he's going to end up in jail," Antonini told Bayly. A few months later, the April 2002 coup occurred, which removed President Chavez from power for 40 hours.
Antonini Wilson is the Venezuelan-American businessman who was arrested in August 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, carrying a briefcase with some $800,000 US which he did not declare to customs authorities. Later, he escaped to Miami, where he is protected by US authorities.
Bayly's assertions are of interest, given that various sources have accused Antonini of working for the Venezuelan government, with the objective of handing over the money to the then-presidential candidate Cristina Fernandez.
Translation mine.
Of course, there is no way in Hades that Cristina Fernandez would have accepted that cash. A woman who denounces US imperialism in no uncertain terms would be rather reluctant to take any amount of Yanqui dinero, no?
Add to that the fact that this cash came directly from Miami, that the bearer was a friend of another Miamero fugitive, none other than the spectacularly crooked Carlos Andres Perez (who is most noteworthy for saying that Chavecito deserved to "die like a dog"), and bragged of being part of a conspiracy to bring Chavecito down some three months before the fact, and you have some pretty clear indicators that he was also planning to bring down a good friend and ally of said Chavecito, yes?
A translation of the full article by Bayly follows.
Continue reading "Remember that Argentine briefcase incident?" »
From the man who wrote Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which among other things treats of his own experiences in Ecuador, a warning to the current president of that country: Watch your back! The jackals are circling!
Video in Spanish. Story from Aporrea:
Continue reading "John Perkins: Rafael Correa is in danger" »
The operation to bring three hostages out of FARC territory in Colombia is now on. This afternoon, military helicopters left Venezuela for Colombia, bearing the Red Cross logo to signify that this is a humanitarian mission.
And of course, it was a great day for two faithful campaigners who didn't stop working for this moment:
Chavecito and Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba go over a map to see what path the rescue 'copters will take.
Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Operation Emmanuel is a go!" »
Viva Uruguay! First, on the trade front, the Uruguayan congress punched a fat hole through BushCo's plans for the Southern Cone:
The Uruguayan ruling leftist coalition Frente Amplio (FA) reiterated on Sunday its rejection of a free trade agreement with the United States.[...]
Montevideo explored the possibility of a free trade agreement with Washington, but the idea sank amid reluctance on the part of sectors of the governing coalition and the members of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, while Venezuela is on the verge of full membership), which does not permit bilateral negotiations with third countries.
Translation mine.
The Big Fella was a busy boy this past week (when is he ever NOT?)--visiting Argentina to attend the inauguration of a good friend and former Argentine First Lady, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner...
...who got a customary Chavecito friendship gift: a copy of Bolivar's sword.
And while he was there, he toured a low-income housing construction site, where he palled around with some women workers...
Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Chavecito in Argentina" »
Okay, their king is an arrogant pissant. But the country as a whole is not the King, and the parliament has just done something long overdue and very decent:
The Spanish parliament has passed a law of "historical memory" which condemns Franco-fascism and rehabilitates the memory of the victims of the Civil War and the dictatorship.The law, which will come into effect in a few days after its publication in the official gazette, was approved on Monday night by the Senate, which rejected the veto petition of the Popular Party (PP) and the Leftist Republic of Catalonia (ERC).
The PP considers the law to be a "divisive element", while the ERC considers it to be insufficient.
The law will not provide for annulment of the trials of the Francoist tribunals, as requested by the ERC. But the United Left (IU), whose votes made possible the passing of the bill, interpreted it as in effect allowing the reopening of the cases, without impunity.
Well, no...actually, they're more like pathetic, and have been ever since poor, mad old Uncle Miltie kicked the bucket (many years past his due date, if you ask me). So you'll have to pardon me if I smile with a kind of pitying scorn at people who spew drivel like this:
Colombia's diplomatic spat with Hugo Chavez's Venezuela may help President Alvaro Uribe build support in the U.S. Congress for a free-trade accord, Citigroup Inc. economists said.Colombia could help securing passage of the agreement by casting it as a way to limit Chavez's regional influence, economists Franz Hamann and Luisa Charry wrote in an e-mailed report today.
"The sharper dividing line between the two countries can serve as a warning signal of the potential costs of not supporting economic freedom in the region," Bogota-based Hamman and Charry said.
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.
Here he is, guest of honor on Chavecito's show, Alo Presidente. He's adorably awkward and shy. Chavecito calls him "El Che Maradona" and, after a music video celebrating their friendship, the audience honors "El Che" with a round of cheering that I'm sure must bring back the best memories of his soccer victories.
Chavecito has been very busy again lately on the front of Latin American integration. Talk of continent-wide energy integration is topmost on the agenda. He's been in Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador; now he's in Bolivia. Here's some video from his visit to his other amigo--Evo.
He got full military honors, as you can see. And a big hug from Evo, and lots of cheering from the crowd.
Looks like the Bolivarian project is also marching forward at a brisk clip!
Not that you ever could. But now the World Bank can add Paul "Comb Goober" Wolfowitz to its ever-growing list of credibility woes...
Staff at the World Bank have voiced concern that the crisis surrounding its embattled President Paul Wolfowitz is damaging the institution.In a letter, a group of 32 officials warned that the scandal was undermining the bank's credibility.
See if you can count the number of countries and agreements he covers here:
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "grand tour", does it not?
(BTW, at one point he yells the Spanish equivalent of "Live Free or Die". So much for it being property of the US.)
Alas, Argentina has its Hardcore Stupid too. And they're not only stupid, they're fascists who celebrate a criminal regime:
Some 5,000 right-wing demonstrators rallied in the capital, showing support for the former military dictatorship that waged a brutal campaign against suspected leftists.The protesters gathered at a plaza in downtown Buenos Aires, chanting slogans and saying that the bloody tactics used by the dictatorship were justified in the fight against subversive groups.
"No soldier will ask for forgiveness," said Ana Lucioni, a member of the Commission to Honor the Victims of Subversion, one of the groups that organized the rally.
Continue reading "Some people never learn history's lessons..." »
Actually, they're safety glasses. Chavecito's been a very busy boy lately, inaugurating a new Venezuela-Colombia gas pipeline. Here he is watching the first weld going down.
Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Cool shades, dude..." »
This one's in honor of Venezuela's independence day, July 5.
Chavecito's a smash in his new sash. (Note the horse on the coat of arms; it's now racing to the left. Story here.)
Continue reading "Festive Left Friday Blogging: Another salute!" »
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.
...which, if you're smart, you'll read anyway, because one day it could concern YOU. (I'll tell you why shortly...)
Bob Chapman, of the International Forecaster, writes:
Water is contaminated in some suburbs of Buenos Aires and has been since 1993, when the sewer system and water service was privatized and sold to the French company, Suez.Last week, Argentina announced it was rescinding its 30-year contract and reinstating government control of the water supply.
Continue reading "Another unsexy post on de-privatized Argentinian water..." »
Well, this has got to be a foregone conclusion: Bolivia looks about set to kick the IMF to the curb for good.
Here are some of the damning bits:
The track record of the Fund's involvement in Bolivia over the last 20 years raises serious questions about its policy advice. As noted above, the country's income per person remains below its level of 20 years ago. The government's fiscal situation is still seriously weakened from the 1998 privatization of Bolivia's social security system, which was one of the reforms that the country implemented under the advice and promotion of the IMF/World Bank. When switching from a "pay-as-you-go" system, as the United States currently has, to a system of private accounts, there are very large transition costs. Current retirees must be paid for a period of decades, without the revenue that had previously been provided from payroll taxes, while the private accounts accumulate enough savings to pay a retirement income. The government is currently spending 4.1 percent of GDP annually on pensions, more than the entire public sector deficit. Most of this spending is the result of Social Security privatization. Thus, this one structural reform is responsible for most of the government's current budget deficit, as well as a significant amount of debt accumulation since 1998.
More proof that things in Argentina are changing for the better, especially on the human-rights front:
Argentina has decided to make public all secret archives of the armed forces to help uncover human rights violations committed under military rule.The decision was announced by Defence Minister Nilda Garre.
It comes on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the coup, by which the military seized power in 1976.
Remember when Argentina was the IMF's poster child for privatizing everything, including the kitchen sink?
Remember when Argentina's finances abruptly went down the toilet as a result of that?
Well, take a look at Argentina now, baby!
Argentina has terminated its contract with Aguas Argentinas, a company partly owned by French utility group Suez, to supply drinking water to Buenos Aires.The government said Aguas had failed to meet its contractual obligations and had reneged on its pledge to improve the quality of the water it supplied.
A new group called Aysa, which is 90% owned by the state and 10% by workers, will take over the contract.
Giovanni Gentile, Mussolini's ghostwriter, was right--fascism really is the merger of corporation and state. Check out this little gem from the Beeb:
Former workers of an Argentine Ford factory are suing the firm over what they say were serious abuses during the military rule of the 1970s and 80s.They say local managers conspired with the security forces to have union members taken to a detention centre on the premises, where they were tortured.
Continue reading "Fascism: call it corporatism, because that's what it is" »