Presidential edition of Whats Wrong With This Picture?

UPDATE BELOW

Last Wednesday the Washington Post style section ran a story on the front page about Oliver Stone's new movie "South of the Border". The story included a picture of the six current South American presidents that Stone interviewed. But, wait, there was one tiny little problem...take a look at the picture below:


(Top, Chavez, Correa and de Kirchner. Bottom, Lugo, Morales and da Silva)

You may have noticed, something is amiss.....got it yet??? Answer and more after the jump.

Some Surpringly Rational Thoughts on Bolivia

The sky must be falling...it is really the only explanation for what follows, from the BBC:

A senior European Union official has said Bolivia has the right to nationalise companies as long as they are offered "fair compensation".

Kenneth Bell, the head of the EU delegation to Bolivia, said nationalisation was a sovereign right of the Bolivian government.

Whadda ya think? Bell gets canned within a week? Month? In all seriousness though, this is a pretty surprising statement from Bell, not often do you get rational comments like this on Bolivia. While Bolivia has been criticized for years about the nationalization policy, the fact is the country had the best growth in South American this past year, and has been able to use their natural resource wealth to try and better the lives of the many Bolivians who have long been excluded. So props to Kenneth Bell, who also noticed a key fact that those who have been critical of Bolivia often don't mention:

He also said that despite the recent nationalisations, European firms such as Repsol, Total, and British Gas remained active in Bolivia.

That's right, Evo is not scaring off foreign investment, his policies are sound and rational, and the macroeconomic management of the country has been truly remarkable (even the IMF thinks so)....and oh yeah...he thinks the US is a terrorist state and that capitalism is the " worst enemy of humanity". Suck it haters.



(image from eabolivia.com)

The Count

38,700,000...

...is the dollar price tag on Evo's new presidential jet. That's right, Bolivia's prez is out shopping for a new Dassault Falcon 900.

But before you start jumping to the conclusion that the famously humble and austere prez is living it up, consider that the current presidential jet was bought back in 1975. Indeed, the decree authorizing the purchase cited "incidents that put in danger the lives of the head of state and those who accompany him, due to different technical malfunctions as well as a plane's normal wear and tear."

Also, $38.7 million isn't much when compared to high rollers like Brazil and Venezuela, with their big Airbus A319s (with average price tags of $70.3 million).

Now all that remains to be seen is what he'll name it. Any guesses?

Bolivia, Argentina, Natural Gas and Doomsayers

Remember when the sky was going to fall down in Bolivia because Evo nationalized the natural gas industry? Well, it hasn't happened yet, and with a recent spate of investments and a nice lil contract with CFK, it looks like the doomsayers are going to have some 'splainin to do (or more likely they'll just keep lying through their teeth, but whatever). Reuters, with a pretty nice article really:

Bolivia will quadruple natural gas exports to Argentina by 2021 under a deal signed on Friday that extends the deadline by nearly a decade for the Andean nation to boost fuel exports to its wealthier neighbor.

But Evo's scaring off foreign investment you say? There's no way he will be able to do this with them, well Reuters continues:

But a consortium led by Repsol unveiled plans in late 2009 to invest $1.5 billion to boost natural gas output, and last month Total launched a gas exploration project, saying it may invest up to $500 million in the impoverished nation.

Heritage Makes Me Angry....

The Heritage Foundation blog has a post from some young 'un on how the Bolivian army will now use the slogan "Patria o Muerte, venceremos". Apparently they don't get the irony like we do. But in any case the post begins with "The Cold War is supposed to be over, and the murderous ideology of Marxist-Leninist revolution either tempered by capitalism and consumerism in China or Vietnam, or confined behind the grim ramparts of communist throwbacks like Cuba and North Korea." But really the only ones still fighting the cold war are the Heritage Foundation and their ilk. Get past a slogan, and you'll see that Bolivia is one of the most successful countries in the hemisphere, regardless of ideology or rhetoric.

Best economic growth in the region in 2009, yup, that belongs to Bolivia. So good that even the IMF, yeah, THAT IMF, is praising Bolivia for their economic policies. Unless Heritage thinks the IMF has all of a sudden gone the way of Marxism, they should seriously take a reality check and stop letting "young leaders" who don't know shit post on their blog.

The people in Bolivia who are still fighting the cold war, its not Evo, its the fascist assholes who are trying to overthrow the government because their president cares about people who aren't rich and white.

This "young leader" from Heritage writes that "Bringing back the ghost of Guevara is a great way to shore up support for Morales not only in Latin America but throughout the world." You know what else is a great way to "shore up support", implement policies that the majority of your country approves of. Oh and taking the lead role in pushing for better climate policy on the world stage might make just a few people happy "throughout the world".

Personally, I think it is slightly amusing that the military slogan was changed, but why I think Evo is legit, is because his policies are legit. Maybe the folks at Heritage are the ones who should stop fighting the cold war.

Rant over.