Weekend Update

Shall we begin:

• Our journey through the intertubes begins with the 10 year commemoration of beloved Plan Colombia, which was last Tuesday. WOLA has the good word.  Despite the popular belief that it has been a "success", WOLA writes:
  
  

  Looked at more closely, though, Colombia’s security gains are partial, possibly reversible, and weighed down by “collateral damage.” They have carried a great cost in lives and resources. Progress on security has been stagnating, and even reversing. Scandals show that the government carrying out these security policies has harmed human rights and democratic institutions. Progress against illegal drug supplies has been disappointing. And wealth is being concentrated in ever fewer hands.

  
  Check out the link to read the whole report, complete with all the statistics (complete with pretty charts) to back it up.
  
• In the polling department, Otto's got the breakdown in Peru. Puts it better than I could, so in his own words: "Lord help the world, Keiko "I'm not the continuation of Fujimori policies" Fujimori (make that Fuji-Freakin-Mori) is ahead with 22% of voter intention. Second is Luis "Interesting" Castañeda and third....still creeping up...is ex-Pres Alejandro Toledo, who still has my five bucks as most likely winner right now (and I'm no real fan of his, before you say anything)."
  
• Sue Myrick (R-NC) takes home the "wild-eyed theory of the week", from Peter Krupa at Lat/Am Daily. Ladies and gentleman, your U.S Congress.
  
• Great post at the Mex Files on a Spanish vocab website that is "entertaining and instructing in equal measure". Check out some hilarious examples. Or check out the site itself, "Effective Swearing in the D.F."
  
• Colombia made a totally unsurprising announcement, saying there are guerilla camps on the Venezuelan side of the border. They even gave the coordinates, 23 kilometers from the border. C'mon Colombia, that's a pretty big, remote border. I'm not impressed. I also would disagree with Boz that Uribe is doing Santos a favor by taking the hit right before he leaves office. If Santos denounces the whole thing and calls for dialogue with Chavez directly then maybe he makes out okay, but it is pretty unreasonable to think that Chavez wouldn't hold Santos, who was responsible for the raid into Ecuador, as equally responsible for this.  There was just no need to make a big public display over this except to do exactly that; make a big public display.  Now Colombia says they will take it to the OAS on Thursday. If you want to listen to the whole thing, you can do it at the OAS website, might prove entertaining.
  
• Benjamin Dangl at Upside Down World, shares his Foreward to Raul Zibechi's book, "Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces", recently translated into English.  To read some recent article's of Zibechi's, check them out at Foreign Policy in Focus.
  
• Good and bad news out of the case that pitted "Crude" director Joe Berlinger against Chevron, another subplot of the $28 billion lawsuit against Chevron brought by communities in Ecuador's Amazon. Lisa Derrick, at La Figa (FDL) has the dirty details.  Berlinger still has to hand over footage to Chevron, but conversations "with defendants, lawyers and their families are protected."
  
• The New York Times has a long article on "cattle-ranching drug barons" who are destroying parts of the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest swatch of protected land in Central America. 
  
• Great article (in Spanish) in La Jornada, on the reasons why both the National party and Liberal party are pushing for Zelaya's return to Honduras. The National party wants to gain recognition from countries other than Peru and Colombia, the Liberal party needs him to avoid marginalization, and it's the first priority of the Resistance, who just appointed him coordinator. For more on Zelaya's relations with the Liberal party and the Resistance, and for all your Honduran needs, be sure to keep apace with Honduras Culture and Politics.
  
• In the latest example of the US' intervention in Central America coming back to haunt them...and others, the Washington Post has a long report on how Mexican drug cartels are stepping up their use of grenades. And where did they find all these grenades? From the WaPo: "The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush sent 300,000 hand grenades to friendly regimes in Central America to fight leftist insurgents in the civil wars of the 1980s and early 1990s, according to declassified military data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Federation of American Scientists." And according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, some 90% of the grenades in Mexico are at least 20 years old. Check out the article for more.
  
• A real interesting article in the Economist on Brazil becoming "one of the world's biggest aid donors." Like China, Brazilian aid does not come with "Western-style conditions". The head of Brazil's development agency explains, "Marco Farani, the head of ABC, argues there is a specifically Brazilian way of doing aid, based on the social programmes that have accompanied its recent economic success. Brazil has a comparative advantage, he says, in providing HIV/AIDS treatment to the poor and in conditional cash-transfer schemes like Bolsa Família. Its tropical-agriculture research is among the world’s best. But Brazil also still receives aid so, for good or ill, its aid programme is eroding the distinction between donors and recipients, thus undermining the old system of donor-dictated, top-down aid." Sounds like a positive development, although problems clearly remain as the Economist article notes.
  
• The generally odious Andres Oppenheimer writes something worth a damn for a change. Comparing the US' denial of a visa for Hollman Morris to "a page right out of the Cuba-North Korea-Iran playbook." Most interesting fact from the piece though comes from the PEN Club, a free press group, who estimate that "about 250 academics, journalists and writers had their visa denied between 2001 and the end of the Bush administration," for ideological reasons. 
  
• Finally, mad props to Argentina, who passed a law recognizing same-sex marriages last week. Glenn Greenwald has a nice take and relates it to the treatment of the issue in the U.S. Greenwald writes, "That's what is most striking here:  this is not happening in some small Northern European country renown for its ahead-of-the-curve social progressivism (though gay marriage or civil unions are now the norm in Western Europe).   Just as is true for Brazil, which I've written about before with regard to my personal situation, Argentina is a country with a fairly recent history of dictatorships, an overwhelmingly Catholic population (at least in name), and pervasive social conservatism, with extreme restrictions on abortion rights similar to those found on much of the continent.  The Catholic Church in Argentina vehemently opposed the enactment of this law.  But no matter.  Ending discrimination against same-sex couples is understood as a matter of basic equality, not social progressivism, and it thus commands widespread support." For the contrast with the U.S., check out the link.

Weekend Update

Lets keep it brief today:

• The mainstream media finally noticed that Colombia journalist Hollman Morris was denied a visa by the US. A week or so later, not too bad. With more coverage comes more details, and this looks pretty bad. From the WaPo, "He was ineligible, U.S. officials told him, under the "terrorist activities" section of the USA Patriot Act." Really, the Patriot Act? Mother fuckers.  I mean the only evidence of any "terrorist activities" is Uribe calling him "an accomplice to terrorism" last year. Amazing what a US ally can get though, right?
  
  
• On the same subject, Forero, the author of the WaPo story linked above, makes the same point both maladjusted and others made when the story first broke, "According to documents prosecutors have made public, the DAS had begun a campaign to discredit Morris by tying him to the FARC. Among the strategies were plans to "press for the suspension of the visa." I thought the US cut ties with the DAS though? Hmmm. At least the "DAS's possible role in providing the United States with information on Morris has raised concerns among some Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill."
  
  
• To Panama, where the latest seems to be an agreement being reached between dem gov'ment and striking workers. Official numbers have two killed with plenty more injured over the last few days. Reports indicate that the strikers have secured a temporary suspension of at least part of the law that caused all this. Check out Bananama Republic for some background and commentary, as this isn't getting the attention it deserves in the eng. lang world.
  
  
• Honduran Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati announced that Honduras will be opening a new military base in Guanaja, one of the Bay Islands. The US supported it, presumably with cash flow. But hey, the possibility of Zelaya closing down the Soto Cano air base definitely had nothing to do with the coup, no way.
  
  
• Also on Honduras, a new documentary that looks worth a watch. head over to Quotha, where you'll find the appropriate links.
  
  
• Finally, big ups to Spain. Also to Uruguay's Diego Forlan, who was my favorite player to watch during this years Cup, and took home the Golden Ball as the tourney's best player. So we'll end this with a video breakdown of each of Forlan's five goals. The best one's are 3-5, but watch them all:

Weekend Update

 

South America continues rolling through the World Cup, Uruguay and Argentina advance, Chile and Brazil meet tomorrow...

• This is some serious structural maladjustment shit right here: While calling for austerity in Greece and elsewhere, the IMF and World Bank approve "have pushed ahead with pay raises above the rate of inflation for thousands of workers". WaPo has the story.
  
  
• More Jessica Jordan is a good thing. The Telegraph takes a look at their native beauty's new role as "Director for Development of Frontier Zones and Macroregions" in Bolivia. For background, check out El Duderino's profile of Jordan from awhile back. 
  
  
• With the one year anniversary of the Honduran coup tomorrow, 27 US lawmakers sent a letter to Hillary Clinton concerning ongoing rights violations. The number of slain journos so far this year is 9, for those at home counting.
  
  
• Earlier in the week, various places got nose deep in some stats on cocaine production in South America. Bottom line, the UN and US have very different numbers, Colombia is doing better, Peru much worse...down in one place, up in another...how long are the suits really going to keep up this nonsense "war on drugs", seems like they "learn" the same lessons every few years or so.
  
  
• The vultures are circling again after the latest round of debt swaps in Argentina.  Finance Minister Bodou says that that "a total of 92.4 per cent of the nearly $100bn on which the country defaulted in 2001 has been restructured after including the results of an earlier swap in 2005." But fear not, billionaire hedge fund managers and all around douchey-douche vulture funds are still bitching and moaning about evil Argentina.
  
  
• The Huff Post is a wonderful place, but they need some better oversight. On Friday they let Nancy Soderberg use their space for pure propaganda without even identifying who she represents. Soderberg is the former US ambassador to the UN under Clinton (which the Huff Post says), but she also represents the American Task Force Argentina, a group led by vulture funds that has continually railed on and brought litigation against Argentina for the better part of the last decade. On Friday, she wrote:
  
  
  

  Last month, Argentina put forward its Global 2017 bond offering but the markets are not buying, forcing the government to extend its offer until June 22, a stunning vote of no confidence in the policies of President Kirchner. The international message to Argentina was loud and clear: No deeds, no prize. Investors don't trust you, or your policies. Looking over Argentina's record on financial responsibility, it's no wonder why.

  
  Nevermind that Argentina has reached an agreement with 92.4% of bondholders; these assholes bought in late for cheap and intend to reap massive profits no matter how they get 'em, and Nancy Soderberg has been enlisted to do their bidding. It's a shame the Huff Post allowed this without having her disclose her troubling ties.
  
  
• Juan Forero in the WaPo takes a look at the daunting back log of human rights cases facing Colombia, and the implications for both Santos and the US. I know Maladjusted has ragged on Forero before, but he does a nice job of showing how the US support for Colombia despite the serious rights abuses has prevented improving relations with other countries in the hemisphere. Money quote:
  
  
  

  But Washington's closest ally in the region, Colombia, has been the source of the most serious cases of abuse before the commission, investigators familiar with the cases said. In all, the commission is evaluating 1,055 cases. Dozens of the cases of serious violations took place during Uribe's administration. 

• Finally, as a follow up to this post from last night, and for a good laugh, a picture of the best mis-pic in recent memory...maybe even better than the old dusty farts at WaPo not knowing who Evo is, courtesy of The New York Times, via Howard Kurtz:
  
  

Weekend Update

In the woods and out of touch, but never too far away for a 'lil weekend update. This weeks theme, must read blogs.

• But before we get to that, in case anybody missed it, Santos will be Colombia's next president. According to the LA Times, "With 99% of votes counted, Santos had garnered 69% of the votes in the runoff election to his challenger's 27%." So maybe the polling companies aren't quite as bad as we had thought....
  
  
• But wait, thanks to a diligent Huff Post investigation, it seems Colombia's new president isn't any stranger to controversy....I guess he should fit in fine in the Casa Narino. The whole article is a must read, but here is the intro to give you a taste: "The man most likely to become Colombia's next president this Sunday has played a previously undisclosed role as a corporate officer of the company hired to run the nation's elections over the last decade, while he was a political leader, business records obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund show."
  
  
• Now to our week's theme. We start with a blog I've been meaning to introduce for a long time, Gerardo Esquivel's El Placer de Disentir. He's a Mexican economist who knows his shit. Yeah, it's in Spanish, but if that's in the cards then definitely go check it out. His latest post is a rundown on the electoral scene in the DF, but make sure to check out some of his previous posts as well, especially the ones on inequality.
  
  
• Keeping with Spanish language blogs, check out Politica y Economia, economics and politics from a heterodox perspective. The most recent post takes a detailed look at Ecuador.
  
  
• Next, on to Triple Crisis, not exactly Latin America oriented, but well worth your time. Its run by a host of well known and distinguished academic types, including my personal favorite Kevin Gallagher, whose breakdowns of everything NAFTA are simply the best. This week, one of the contributors of Triple Crisis, Martin Kohr, has a nice article via the South Center on the Bolivia climate summit.
  
  
• Finally, another link to FiveThirtyEight, they simply do numbers better than anyone and we should all be encouraging them to do more and more about Latin America. This week they look at the World Cup as South America continues to rip through the field. I can't say I agree with everything in their analysis, but this is pretty interesting, "The five teams this year are from the continent's five southernmost countries, which, incidentally, are among its richest and (excluding Paraguay) rank highest on the human development index."
  
  
• Onto some actual news; Brazil has suspended their WTO retaliation against the US. FT got the story, "The deal will extend until 2012 a holding arrangement in which the US pays Brazilian farmers $147.3m a year and promises to cut subsidies in future. In return, Brazil will hold off imposing blocks on imports or ignoring patents and copyrights, which it is entitled to do after a World Trade Organisation panel declared the US cotton support programme illegal."
  
  
• Staying with the WTO, and keeping with this weeks theme of plugging blogs, Timothy Wise at Triple Crisis has a real great breakdown of the hypocrisy of developed countries in trade negotiations...and surprise, the criticism isn't just directed at the US: "But what about middle-income hypocrisy? Isn’t Brazil one of the world’s largest agro-export powers with a well-cultivated reputation for defending the interests of other countries’ small-scale farmers? Isn’t Brazil also guilty of hypocrisy? Absolutely. In fact, as part of its side agreement on cotton with the United States, Brazil got a multi-million dollar fund for investment in its cotton sector. Talk about hypocrisy: Africa’s Cotton 4 will now have to compete in global markets not only with subsidized U.S. cotton but with Brazilian cotton subsidized by the United States!"
  
  
• Via Just the Facts blog, a new paper released last week takes a look at the ongoing DAS scandal in Colombia. Check out the linky to read more, but the title says it all...."Far Worse than Watergate"...How Uribe has managed to stay in the presidency with such a high approval rating is beyond me...Tricky Dick must be mad jealous.
  
  
• Ricky Singh in the Jamaica Observer, writes on the hypocrisy of the US' extradition policies. Singh compares the US' requests for Christopher "Dudus" Coke from Jamaica, to their systematic denial of Venezuela's requests for Luis Posada Carriles. "Posada and Bosch have long been identified as the chief plotters of the bombing of the Cubana aircraft on October 6, 1976 when all 73 people on board -- 57 Cubans; 11 Guyanese and 5 North Koreans -- died. Instead of facilitating their extradition as fugitive terrorists from justice, then President Bush, in response to urgings from the anti-Fidel Castro lobby in Miami and Washington as well as from his son Jebb Bush, then governor of Florida, granted a Presidential Pardon to Bosch." Hopey and Changey hasn't sung a different tune either, for the record. Singh makes the case for CARICOM taking a leading role in all this...very compelling.
  
  
• Finally, for some entertainment, check out these two videos from the Larry King Show. Oliver Stone is joined by Jessie "The Body" Ventura and Florida Republican and all around douche-bag Connie Mack. The real purpose was to discuss Stone's new movie South of the Border, but it quickly becomes a hilarious shouting match between Ventura and Mack. I mean, it takes a hell of a panel to make Stone look like the level-headed guy in the room. So go check it out.

Be back in a few days, until then enjoy Maladjusted's better half.

Weekend Update

It's not the weekend anymore, but shouldn't everyone just get the next month off for World Cup anyway? I mean, just read this, why bother pretending to work?

• Thanks to Adriaan Alsema of Colombia Reports for responding to Maladjusted's post on the Colombian government misquoting Hillary Clinton. CR had linked to the Colombian government statement that used the misquote.
  
  
• A Wall Street Journal editorial praises Hillary Clinton's "diplomacy" as it relates to Honduras. Congrats Hillary you and the down right deranged WSJ editorial board are in agreement...at least if Hillary were the president she wouldn't be secretary of state.
  
  
• Meanwhile, the sun rose in Honduras and just as unsurprisingly there was another attack against someone opposed to the coup. Porifirio Ponce, the VP of STIBYS (large, influential union), was attacked when traveling with some family members, one of them was killed. Must be the "strong and consistent commitment to democratic governance and constitutional order," that Hillary was talking about.
  
  
• Also on Honduras, Daniel Altschuler expands on a point Maladjusted brought up a little while back on the similarities between the US' policy towards Israel following the flotilla attack and the US' policy after the coup in Honduras. Altschuler writes, "In fact, the United States predictably shielded Israel from harsher United Nations Security Council condemnation and has expressed preliminary support for Israel's internal inquiry. The United States ultimately played a similarly unhelpful role in Honduras, removing pressure at a critical moment for Zelaya's reinstatement as a condition for recognizing the November elections."
  
  
• An interesting article in the New York Times about coca cultivation in Peru. Pretty simple point, when production decreases in one place, it increases in another...might demand be the issue here? Article includes this nice graph though...and wait, which one of these countries is considered to be "failing demonstrably" in the war on drugs? Nah, it couldn't be political!
  
  
  
  
• We linked to Justin Delacour's take down of Phil Gunson awhile back, well, it seems like Gunson responded, which prompted a response, which prompted a continued debate in the comment section. Delacour gives the predominantly incoherent Gunson a thorough take down. Read the original, then read this...and make sure to check out the comments.
  
  
• Hillary Clinton, while pledging her undying love, er, "support" for Colombia, also promised a "very intensive effort to try to obtain the votes to get the free trade agreement with Colombia finally ratified”. From vowing to re-open NAFTA to an intensive effort to pass something that much of the democratic party has blocked for years because of human rights abuses....hopey and changey for real.
  
  
• I wholeheartedly support Fernando Lugo giving all public workers the afternoon off today to watch the match against Italy....I mean c'mon, nobody was going to work anyway.
  
  
• Bloomberg cites a recent Datanalisis poll on Chavez's approval rating. Maybe Democrats in the US could learn something from him, he went after the speculators and financiers and saw a 6 percent increase in his approval rating last month, up to 48 percent. [Read: go after the damn bankers dems] This means we are probably within a few days of the next Jackson Peep rant, and surely there will be plenty of commentary about his popularity crumbling because it's below 50 percent, which, ya know, means he has the exact same approval rating as Obama. Also worth pointing out that Datanalisis is about as reliable as the Colombian press secretary, and it's no secret they're not the biggest Chavez fans, and I mean even the head of the organization doesn't think their polls are accurate!
  
  
• Bloomberg also has the recent Gallup numbers from Colombia, where the all of a sudden uneventful presidential run-off election will go down next weekend. Santos is favored 66.5 to 24.7. But hey, given how far off the first round was, that's still practically in the margin of error!
  
  
• In ongoing news concerning Maladjusted's new favorite movie, The Cove, haters are censoring it in Japan. Also, an investigation by the UK's The Sunday Times, apparently shows that Japan offers up prostitutes (among other things) to get countries to vote their way at the IWC. Among the countries who had been offered such sexy treats were two Caribbean countries referenced in the documentary, St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada.
  
  
• More importantly than anything else though, its the fuckin' World Cup! Go get something with your team's colors, make a friendly wager, drink too many beers during the day, and celebrate The World.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Weekend Update

(Update below)

Enough about military spending, what else is going on??

• Okay, so maybe not totally off the military spending subject since I just saw this....Greg at Two Weeks Notice picks up a statement from Arturo Valenzuela arguing that there IS NOT an arms race in the region. He even says that "in fact, if you look at the statistics, the data, that there has actually been a significant decline in expenditures on armaments". Well, take a look at Otto's post, and Maladjusted's post from earlier in the day, where we do exactly that....look at the data. While Greg disagrees with Valenzuela's analysis, and sure total spending has increased, if you look at spending as a percent of GDP, most countries HAVE decreased spending over the last decade. Only Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay have increased spending as a portion of GDP since 2000. Maybe Valenzuela knew that...or maybe he just realized the US looked like a bunch of jack-asses since they spend more than the entire world on military shit and their fav client state is increasing spending more than anybody else in the region.
  

• Next, a movie recommendation, The Cove. A really disturbing, astonishing, moving, impressive, (insert laudatory adjective here), documentary about the slaughtering of dolphins in Japan. Led by the guy behind the TV show Flipper, a group of activists go all Mission Impossible on the slaughterers, hide secret cameras in the rocks and catch the seriously disturbing shit on video. Highly recommended.
  
  
• Although the movie is about Japan, there are some regional implications. The International Whaling Commission (dolphins are whales), is where Japan goes to defend itself and convince others to end the ban on whaling. In any case, the area where Japan has found its most support seems to be the Caribbean. The documentary shows how Japan uses their foreign aid programs to influence Caribbean countries (sound familiar...think USAID). Well, I did a little googling, and it seems to be true. Check out this commentary in the Jamaica Observer today on issue. The author writes:
  
  

  When people around the world think of whale-hunting nations, the Caribbean is the last place that crosses their minds. Yet, the governments of Suriname and the six independent members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are in a pivotal position to end or continue a moratorium on commercial whaling that has been in place for 24 years
  
  ....

  Several authoritative reports suggest that Japan pays the membership fees of Suriname and OECS governments to the IWC and also pays the costs of their delegates' attendance at IWC meetings, directing how they vote. In return, these countries get fisheries complexes from Japan.

• The other reference to the region was that while Dominica has supposedly withdrawn their support, Japan has some new allies, including Ecuador. I know Correa has come under some heat from enviros in the country, but after watching the documentary, this shit is seriously disturbing. I was glad to see then, that ahead of the upcoming IWC meeting, Latin American countries (including Ecuador), have made a strong statement against the loophole that allows the killing of whales for scientific research. Hopefully the stand will extend to blocking all commercial whaling.
  
  
• Boz reports on the Brazilian presidential election and how it may relate to foreign policy. Read the post, very interesting. We'll just post Lula's FA adviser's statement in response to presidential candidate Serra's comments: "Serra is intent on being the exterminator of Brazil's foreign policy. He destroyed Mercosur, wants to destroy relations with Bolivia and treats Ahmadinejad like a Hitler. That is not prudent conduct for someone who wants to be president."
  
  
• Delacour is back at Latin America News Review and provides a nice 'lil round-up. An invaluable source, so hopefully the dissertation is done, and he's back at it.
  
  
• AP reports on a Chavez foe who has been barred from competing in upcoming elections....and I mean why would someone who was just sentenced to two years in jail for fraud NOT be able to run, right? You know where else opposition candidates are getting barred from running? Mexico...
  
  
• From a recent Jeremy Scahill piece on US Special Operations forces being deployed all over the world, we learn that Obama (Mr. Hopey-Changey) has actually increased the deployment of these special forces. Regional take: countries where they have been sent include Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay.
  
  
• The New York Times remembers that just because Zelaya isn't in an embassy, the political conflict continues...and continues to divide the region.
  
  
• Just in case you also forgot, check out this statement from Friday from Reports Without Borders, "300 soldiers and police storm community radio in continuing coup against media". Reconciliation Lobo is really coming through eh?
  
  
• For more on Honduras, check out RAJ and RNS at Honduras Culture and Politics. A series of interesting posts over the weekend are well worth your time.
  
  
• Finally, by the time of the next Weekend Update the World Cup will have started, so happy World Cup everybody! Productivity the world over is sure to see a strong decline over the next few weeks. Personally, I'm expecting (hoping) for an African team to make a deep run this year, and for Messi to break every scoring record possible. Enjoy the games!
  
  
• UPDATE: Check out Abiding in Bolivia, who picked up on the Scahill article, and has a nice comment on that. Also a link to the Peruanista with a video montage for the one year anniversary of the Bagua massacre. We are all thankful that Abiding is back...
  
  

Weekend Update

Lets jump right in:

• Presidential elections in Colombia are headed for a run-off, no surprise there. The margin of victory for Santos in the first round is a shocker though; with 96% of the votes counted, Santos has 46% to Mockus' 21%. Santos is even carrying Bogota. Of course, anything can still happen in the second round. You want coverage on Colombia though, there are better places, check out Colombia Reports or La Silla Vacia. For a nice comment on what the markets are thinking, check out Marcelo Ballve.
  
  
• Also on Colombia, Reports Without Borders released a detailed 9 page report on the DAS. Shit ain't pretty, but it is well worth a read. Most amazing part to me are that targeted journalists are provided with DAS security guards to "keep them safe", but they're really just keeping tabs on them and giving info to the DAS. Lovely organization really.
  
  
• Otto flags the perfect Memorial weekend video. Nestor Kirchner tells Oliver Stone that George Bush told him that "the best way to revitalize the economy is war. And that the United States has grown stronger with war." Again, check out the whole video. The excerpt is from Oliver Stone's new documentary "South of the Border". Check out the website to read all about it.
  
  
• Robert Baird stumbles on some recently declassified documents showing direct US support in the run up to the 1971 coup in Bolivia that brought Hugo Banzer to power: "Min­utes from a July 8, 1971 meet­ing of the 40 Com­mit­tee (an executive- branch group chaired by Henry Kissinger and tasked with over­sight of covert oper­a­tions) included dis­cus­sion of a CIA pro­posal to give $410,000 to a group of oppo­si­tion politi­cians and mil­i­tary lead­ers, money that they knew would be used to over­throw Torres." Read the whole thing, which includes a priceless conversation between Kissinger and Nixon.
  
  
• Money question from above story...will it take 40 years to find out about US support for the recent coup in Honduras? (h/t HV)
  
  
• Speaking of which, another week, more repression in Honduras. The Quixote Center translates a recent alert from Honduran human rights organization COFADEH. The alert reads, in part: "armed men dressed in white shirts, with black pants and caps violently entered STIBYS, and immediately fired on Douglas Gomez who is now in surgery at the Social Security Hospital in San Pedro Sula." STIBYS is one the main unions opposed to the coup. Read the whole alert, this shit isn't stopping.
  
  
• And speaking of recently declassified documents. You may remember the news about the arrest of Gilberto Jordan in the US earlier this month. He was a former Guatemala special forces member who took part in the 1982 Dos Erres massacre. The Guatemala government took resonsibility in 2000, but the irreplaceable National Security Archives has released documents which clearly show the US was aware of the Guatemalan army's role in the massacre right from the get-go.
  
  
• Continuing with this weeks theme of declassified documents, but on a much lighter note, the New York Times reports on a world-renowned British ballerina who was involved in a coup plot against the Panamanian government in the 1950s. British officials, while working to contain the incident, described it as a "slapdash comedy.''
  
  
• Structural Maladjustment alert, via The Monkey Cage: New report finds correlation between IMF agreements and Civil War. From abstract: "Analyzing all data available for the period between 1970 and 1999, we identify an association between the adoption of IMF programs and the onset of civil war. This finding suggests that IMF programs to promote economic openness unintentionally may be creating an environment conducive to domestic conflict."
  
  
• DSK of the IMF is in Latin America, and there have been plenty of articles on his praise of Peru, but a buddy points out that its not just Peru, but Bolivia that is getting praised by the IMF. Best part, Bolivian finance minister Arce, after being told how well the country is being run, says that IMF policies severely fucked things up in the 90s, and it was only when Evo changed things that they got better.
  
  
• Chavez continues to "fail demonstrably" in the war on drugs....by detaining a top drug trafficker wanted by the US.

Is there more going on? Probably, but it's a holiday. Happy memorial weekend. Hope it's as beautiful wherever you are as it is where I am. And remember, there's nothing like war to revitalize an economy...so expect some more wars.

Weekend Update

Because ya'll don't want to spend your Sunday on the google....

• The US is looking more and more ridiculous on the Iran sanctions front. After the deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey was announced last week, the US seemed visibly shaken. Ray McGovern, with the quote of the week, "Tellingly, U.S. officials and their acolytes in the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) could not bring themselves to believe that Brazil and Turkey would dare pursue an agreement with Iran after Clinton and President Barack Obama said not to." Perfect example being the "announcement" of a sanctions package with support from China and Russia (unsurprisingly written by cold warrior David Sanger at the Times), which turned out to be mostly bullshit. Then yesterday we get the news from Brazil that the deal "contains “to a great extent” details outlined in a letter Obama sent to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva two weeks ago, a Lula spokesman said, declining to provide any further description," this according to the AFP. This was front page news in Brazil, but barely registered in the English language media, surprise, surprise. Get used to it US, this ain't your daddy's global order.
  
  
• From Colombia, polling is now done, and Otto has the rundown on what the final polls have to tell us. Nice pretty charts, so go check it out. Also, Adriaan Alsema from Colombia Reports has a terrific piece on how the momentum has shifted back to Santos with just one week before the election. Alsema brings up some of the points we did last week, including the over the top criticism of the left from Mockus. Fearless forecast: Santos gets 39% to Mockus' 34%. It all comes down to the run-off, where Mockus and Petro make nice and take Santos down.
  
  
• Abiding in Bolivia seems like they're back for real, giving a nice news round-up on what else, Bolivia. I'd add that earlier in the week Evo reached some agreements with Norway, including a pledge from Norway "to share its expertise in the managing its oil and gas resources, including reducing the environmental impact of hydrocarbon production," according to EFE. Refreshing to see LatAm turn to the Nordic countries for development advice rather than the US.
  
  
• Plan Colombia and Beyond is no more, but Adam Isaacson is over at the Just the Facts blog, and has his own weekend update. Unfortunately he links to the Juan Forero Washington Post article, which maladjusted covered here.
  
  
• Upside Down World has an article from Alex Main on the rise of UNASUR. Key take away: "Though the group remains unknown to most of the US public - and is rarely referred to by US policy makers - it has, in the space of a few years, emerged as one of the Western Hemisphere’s leading multilateral bodies and, in the process, is rapidly undermining the regional clout of the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS)." Truth.
  
  
• In Venezuela, Chavez is saying that the power-rationing that has been necessary for the last few months is coming to an end...but where is Setty to tell us what is really going on??
  
  
• Joe Berlinger at the very least bought himself some time after a judge ruled there would be a hearing on June 8 on turning over the 600 hours of footage that Chevron is asking for. I'm no legal expert, but it seems like a documentary should be as protected as any other journalistic work. Thoughts?
  
  
• Its bicentennial time in Argentina, for those in the DC area the Smithsonian Latino Center has an exhibit on Argentina (pdf) that I haven't checked out, but hope to.
  
  
• Venezuela made some moves in the parallel currency market, media analysis of the Venezuelan economy is generally shit, but this quote from an economist in an AFP article might be right on: "The government is attacking the consequences and not the causes of the problem." Its time to get rid of the fixed exchange rate, period. But as an example of the idiocy of Venezuela "analysts", a few days before the gov announced that the trading band for the Bolivar would not exceed 4.3, Dow Jones wrote "Analysts say the trading band in the unregulated market might stretch between VEF5 and VEF7 for $1 whenever the band is created." So close, yet SO FAR.
  
  
• Two Andean bears at the National Zoo (check out the picture, damn they're cute) were named this week. Venezuela and Peru submitted names that then went to a vote. The female is Chaska, the male is Bernardo....also the name of the Venezuelan ambassador to the US...jus' saying...
  
  
• Justin Delacour is back....sort of...and his recent post on Phil Gunson and the Venezuela coup is good and worth a read. Money line: "Never does it seem to occur to Gunson that to speak of Carmona "as a conciliator, as a man of consensus" immediately after explaining that he had just dissolved the Congress and the Supreme Court is grossly contradictory." Also, if this is what he came across working on his dissertation, then sign me up as someone interested in reading it.
  
  
• I agree with Boz (somewhat surprisingly) that it is a positive that Calderon directly involved himself in US policy while speaking before Congress this week. Boz writes, "The hemisphere needs to get over the "stop interfering in my politics" mentality as a way to dodge criticisms. Many of these "domestic" issues actually have transnational effects and even ones that don't are worth discussing." Certainly immigration, drug reform, and gun laws have DIRECT consequences for Mexico, but when the US threatens TPS status for immigrants to influence elections or cancels climate aid for governments they don't agree with, it most certainly deserves criticism. To be fair, although it is just rhetoric, Chavez's comments on the Colombian election should be criticized as well. Although similar to how US comments during Evo's election only strengthened Evo, Chavez comments probably only helped Santos. On the other hand, given Santos' role in invading a foreign territory he very well might be a threat to the region. Boz may completely agree with all that, but there is a clear difference between the two types of "involvement" that he doesn't address.
  
  
• A bunch on Honduras from the two best sources, Honduras Culture and Politics and Quotha. Something positive from Pepe "reconciliation" lobo, as he acknowledges what happened last June was a coup, and also urged the Supreme Court NOT to fire judges who opposed the coup. Meanwhile, Quotha has the latest on Eduardo Stein's whitewash trip to Washington, and an action alert from Quixote Center on recent death threats to independent presidential candidate and anti-coup bad ass Carlos H. Reyes. If your
  interested in Honduras and your language of choice is English, these blogs are your must reads.
  
  
• Nothing to link to here, but a few weeks back a good friend who is in El Salvador ran into some private military contractors while out on the town in the capital. They are apparently training some elite anti-gang units. They wouldn't say what contractor they worked for. Anybody have more info on this? Want to help find out what is really going on? Let me know in comments or over e-mail.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Weekend Update

A day late, hopefully not a dollar short…on with it!

• Big news out of Tehran as Lula seems to have come out on top in his push for dialogue over sanctions. Judging by the reaction in the West though, this was never about a deal, they want blood. Best coverage, unsurprisingly goes to Al-Jazeera, who also has the actual text of the agreement. For some good commentary check out Robert Naiman at Huffington Post. Special award goes to Hillary Clinton who was surpremely pessimistic about the whole thing last Friday…maybe she’s upset that all that sucking up she did hasn’t paid off.
  
  
• From the blogosphere, Otto gives the rundown on what’s been kicking…giving due props to maladjusted’s better half. I’ll second the call for checking out Abiding in Bolivia’s music recommendation…in fact I’m listening to it while I write this. Otto also highlights the recent polling for Brazilian elections….Rousseff now in the lead.
  
  
• In Haiti, Monsatan is establishing a presence in the country by giving some $4 million in seeds to Haitian farmers. They aren’t GMO supposedly, so that’s a positive, but as the AP writes, “The company said the seeds produce larger yields than non-hybrid seeds, but that with such a variety new seeds have to be purchased and planted every year.” Grrrreat. Good news though is that at least some Haitian farmers have committed to burning the seeds…take that!
  
  
• On the “hopey and changey” front; Obama nominated another cold-warrior to a post at USAID. Mark Feierstein, who makes the seamless transition from Vice President of the international polling firm Quinlan, Greenberg, Rosner to Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean. His bio on GQR actually brags that "While at NDI, Feierstein worked with the democratic movements that defeated...the Sandinistas in Nicaragua." He’s worked with the opposition in Venezuela and Bolivia as well. And just because we’ve plugged it before, doesn’t mean we won’t again…so to see what GQR did in Bolivia, go watch “Our Brand is Crisis”….NOW! For a post from a few weeks back about the movie that really made me chuckle, check out Jonathan Schwarz at A Tiny Revolution.
  
  
• More on nominations from Tim’s El Salvador Blog, who checks out the GOP blockade on Obama’s nomination for ambassador. Apparently being questioned in the 1990s about a relationship with a Cuban is enough to kill your career.
  
  
• Dominique Strauss-Kahn is heading to Latin America at the end of the month, as he described the region as “brimming with energy and promise.” Also on the IMF front, RAJ at Honduras Culture and Politics has a nice article on an upcoming IMF mission to Honduras and the balance between money and human rights.
  
  
• From Swan’s Commentary, we get a nice long article from Michael Barker on “Imperialism And The Washington Office On Latin America”. This stems from an issue that was raised by Adrienne Pine, who took on the human rights organization over their actions regarding Honduras.
  
  
• Speaking of Pine, she notes on her Quotha blog the ongoing victimization of the Resistance in Honduras. Two members of the Frente were killed last week after having participated in protests the previous day. Check out Quotha for all your Honduran needs.
  
  
• Quick news round-up: The Nation takes a look at the crackdown in Rio in preparation for the Olympics, Mexican’s aren’t down on cell-phone database, and the US drug war has been a total, abject, utter and complete failure. Speaking of which, WOLA (those imperialist enablers mentioned earlier) has a brief out on proposed drug reforms in Ecuador. They’ve got some seriously draconian drug laws now, why? Put simply by WOLA, “Countries that adopted the “war on drugs” were rewarded economically and politically; countries that wavered were threatened with cuts in U.S. assistance and trade.” Truth, just ask Bolivia. (h/t Hemispheric Brief)
  
  
• Reader and devoted commenter Paul Escobar links to an interesting and informative article on Cuban doctors from FT. Check it out.
  
  
• Influential Colombian magazine, Semana, reports that the results of DAS spying and wiretapping were reported directly Uribe’s personal secretary. Although Uribe denies it, revelations like these will NOT help Santos’ presidential bid. (via Colombia Reports)
  
  
• On presidents being shady as hell, Bananama Republic continues its great coverage of the scandal that’s got Martinelli’s panties in a bunch. Read all about it here, here, and here.
  
  
• Finally, for those with some time on their hands, check out this presentation by Brazilian economist Maria da Conceição Tavares from CEPAL. The press release reads, “Markets were organized in not a very "canonic" form of capitalism, in an unsustainable manner, tied to ghost loans and toxic derived instruments that affected international lending and caused strong restrictions to financing.” Sounds like the world was pretty structurally maladjusted.

Weekend Update

Chop, chop:

• My favorite story of the week, Kanellos the Greek protest dog. Check out the photos from The Guardian. This dog is straight bad ass.
  
  
• Also on Greece, and this at least somewhat relates to Latin America, they are facing some harsh austerity measures courtesy of the IMF (and EU) and are enslaved by a fixed currency...remind you of anything? Well it reminded CFK of something, who warned Greece about the draconian measures, "The recipes that are being imposed on Greece are identical to those that were applied here in 2001,"..."Savage austerity measures are going to be resisted,” she warned. “They are going to end badly." It may not be identical, but she wouldn't be the first to make the comparison. Meanwhile, a majority of Greeks support continued protests...
  
  
• For those of you who haven't seen "Crude", you definitely should check it out. Tells the story of the $27 billion dollar lawsuit indigenous groups in Ecuador are fighting against Chevron. Well, Chevron has used every dirty trick in the book and this is just the latest; Chevron requested all 600 hours of footage related to the movie that producer Joe Berlinger had. Somewhat surprisingly, some judge in New York even granted the request, meaning Berlinger is likely to have to hand over all of his outtake footage. Check out CPJ for a nice comment on the situation.
  
  
• In Honduras, after announcing the whitewash commission last week, Lobo decided against attending (was uninvited) to the EU-LAC summit in Madrid. If you'll remember, the same day as announcing the whitewash commission, several South American leaders pledged to boycott the summit if Lobo was there.
  
  
• On the decision to boycott, Mexfiles gets its snark on: "Bloggings by Boz writes, “UNASUR countries threatened to cancel their meeting with the EU if Honduras was invited,” which he claims was learned behavior from the United States. Apparently, without Big Brother to the North to teach us to act like dickheads, we are unable to do it on our own."
  
  
• Reuters decides to split Latin American into "good left" and "bad left", which is in and of itself bullshit, but the worst part; they fail to categorize Bolivia. It is excluded from the debate until the very end, where it is described as defying "the trend or any simplistic tags", thanks Reuters. I guess its hard to get on Evo, what with the best growth in South America and all. Otto, I am humbly serving up a steaming cup of STFU to Reuters' Andrew Cawthorne.
  
  
• The US has named a new ambassador to their favorite client state in the region. I thought I would be happier the day they got rid of Brownfield, the guy who said Colombia "has been the most successful nation building exercise that the U.S.A. has associated itself with perhaps over the last 25-30 years," although I guess that's not really saying that much anyway. In any case, I don't know much about the new guy...but his expertise seems to be on Venezuela...not Colombia.
  
  
• More on pot-smoking presidential candidates in Colombia....from the folks at the bipolar rodent....
  
  
• On a more serious note relating to presidential elections in Colombia...first signs of a slight drawback in support for Mockus? Smear campaign working? New polls show tightening race in the first round....but still a Mockus win in the second. I think its more likely just coming back to earth a bit. Bad news? Shifty at the Monologue makes sense, for once...sorta...saying a Mockus presidency would make an FTA more likely. Can't say I completely disagree. Trojan horse with an Amish beard? I'm still rooting for him, I'm a sucker for Amish beards.

I'm sure there is plenty more...let me know.

Weekend Update

It's late and I'm sunburned, so let's get to this:

• First off, merry May Day to all. Workers in Venezuela were treated with a 15% increase in the minimum wage, while in the US it was certainly a big day after that racist, fascist bullshit Arizona law. But maybe not as big as in Honduras...read about it (and see the pics) from the irreplaceable Adrienne Pine at Quotha...more here.
  
  
• For what's been going on in ye ol' blogosphere, check out Otto while he plays catch up...we missed you...
  
  
• Does anyone else think this Chavez tweeter thing has been pretty boring?
  
  
• While we're on the internet in Venezuela, Chavez continued his crack down on the web. He's gone so far that, as Reuters says, "Internet use has blossomed in Venezuela during his 11-year rule, especially among the poor." Wait, whaaaaat?
  
  
• Remember how the US was all like "we support democracy in Honduras", well I guess enough time has passed now. Ambassador Llorens talks some trash about Zelaya...revealing what we already knew...the US didn't give a shit about "democracy" in Honduras, they just didn't want to look bad. Again, Quotha is on it.
  
  
• In Ecuador, Correa is planning on tapping Central Bank funds for development projects...good for him. "Why does a central bank that doesn’t even have a national currency need $2 billion in capital," Correa said. What's with autonomous central banks? Autonomous from what? Democracy?
  
  
• Evo nationalized some power companies....and the sky hasn't started falling yet, but don't expect "experts" to stop saying it will. Not like Bolivia had the best growth in South America last year or anything...
  
  
• Colombia presidential candidate admits to poking smot in college....the surprising part, it wasn't this guy.
  
  
• Setbacks for delayed justice...Brazil holds up amnesty law, Peru just goes ahead and lets murderers off the hook...
  
  
• Finally for some entertainment....Like graffiti? Check this out. My favorite, what's yours?
  

In solidarity,

Structurally Maladjusted

Weekend Update

A look around, from IMF/World Bank spring meetings to States of Emergency...I guess those aren't that far apart actually. Onto the update:

• IMF Survey gives the brief version of what Nicolas Eyzaguirre, director of western hemisphere at the IMF, had to say about the region. The region is rebounding relatively quickly, large countries could face serious capital inflows which could lead to boom-bust cycles, therefore capital controls may be justified. Looks like they might be backing up that talk...
  
  
• Brazil is a prime example of country where cap controls could be applied, according to the IMF. From Bloomberg: "Noting the “high liquidity and high commodity prices” in Latin America’s biggest economy, “Brazil is one that should consider all the instruments in the toolkit,” Eyzaguirre said."
  
  
• One country that won't be using capital controls...Colombia. Reuters has the story: "Colombia is not considering capital controls to limit appreciation of its currency, its finance minister said on Saturday, even though the measures are no longer seen as taboo by many other nations." Pretty good article though, good quotes about the surprise of Colombia's finance minister about the popularity of cap controls at this years spring meetings.
  
  
• Finally, the IMF is calling out Argentina for not allowing the annual Article IV consultations. As a member of the G-20, Argentina is a "systemically important" country, says the IMF. Argentina, for their part, released a statement that said: “If we had followed the recommendations traditionally made by (the IMF) — which have favoured opening our economies, foreign indebtedness, financial liberalization and ‘unbeatable’ market-oriented reforms — the outcome would have been totally different and today we would have been embroiled in a fresh economic, social and political crisis,” and that “Therefore, we celebrate today our well-gained economic independence.” Buenos Aires Herald has the English language run-down.
  
  
• From the World Bank, an announcement today of a boost of capital, and a change in voting structure towards developing countries. $86 billion in new capital, but more importantly, "A 3.13 percentage point increase in the voting power of Developing and Transition countries (DTCs) at IBRD, bringing them to 47.19 percent -- a total shift to DTCs of 4.59 percentage points since 2008. This increase fulfills the Development Committee commitment in Istanbul in October 2009 to generate a significant increase of at least 3 percentage points in DTC voting power." Not everyone is happy; China is now behind only the US and Japan, but some African countries actually lost shares, and the Brazilian Finance Minister thinks the aim should be for at least parity at the next round of negotiations in 2015. Its ridiculous how long it takes to change governance at the IMF and WB.
  
  
• The Washington Post reports on the murdering of journalists in Honduras, death toll is now 7 since March 1. Amazingly, the Post doesn't discuss political motives, and barely mentions Zelaya, without ever mentioning the frente. More evidence that if you really want coverage of Honduras, check out The Real News, Honduras Culture and Politics and Quotha.
  
  
• Judicial issues in both Colombia (threats and murder)...and Venezuela (jail)...
  
  
• Also in Colombia, Piedad Cordoba, facing charges of ties to the FARC, blames Uribe. And it turns out not only was the DAS spying on judges, politicians, journalists and human rights activists in Colombia...but also in Europe. Colombia Reports has it all.
  
  
• And, as has been covered by others, Mockus has pulled even closer to Santos. For a good-looking chart showing the change in polls since Mockus teamed up with Fajardo, head over to IKN.
  
  
• Arizona is fucked up. But maybe it will just be a Pyrrhic victory? At least the White House is responding...maybe even with a lawsuit, according to Jake Tapper.
  
  
• What did Evo really say about Chickens? Mexfiles calls out "chicken-shit "progressives""....and at least one person in the mainstream media seems to understand...
  
  
• Lastly, Paraguayan lawmakers granted Lugo a 30 day state of emergency to combat the Paraguayan Peoples Army. Lugo will "be able to order arrests and the transfer of suspects without court approval," and "The new law also places new limits on civil liberties like the right to assemble by prohibiting public protests." Lugo has been criticized by the right for being to soft on the "army"....the "army" is an estimated 100 people.
  

I'm sure there is much more I'm missing, let me know...

Weekend Update

For those who don't like to do the google themselves....

• Otto at IKN has the latest on opinion polls in Colombia's upcoming election, and Mockus continues to rise...29 percent to Santos' (and James Carville's) 36 percent. Past coverage here.
  
  
• What else is going in Colombia? Oh the usual: The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression at the IAHCR says that Colombia is close to being on the list of places where "you can barely say that there is freedom of expression." Because, ya know, that whole being spied on by the government and getting threatened thing....speaking of which...
  
  
• Plan Colombia and Beyond has got the latest on the DAS scandal. The prosecutor-general released some files from their investigation of DAS showing that the direction came straight from the Casa de Nariño. The post is complete with pictures from the report which shows DAS' plans to start an international smear campaign against independent journalist Hollman Morris. One badass dude. No worries though, not like the former Defense Minister and presidential candidate Santos would have had any knowledge of all this.
  
  
• But the largest mass grave in Latin America? You might have some 'splainin to do on that one Santos....2,000 unidentified corpses.
  
  
• Elsewhere, Peter Krupa at Lat/Am Daily picks up where I left off on the NAFTA diet...and takes it to the CAFTA diet.
  
  
• Still on the topic of Mexico being fat...here's a start: "The lower house of Congress approved two reform measures banning the sale of junk food in schools and making physical education classes mandatory in Mexico, where 30 percent of children are obese." They must have read our post...
  
  
• Good news from El Salvador as remittances in March rose for the first time since October 2008. Pretty damn important for a country where some 2.5 million Salvadorans live in the US and remittances account for 17 percent of GDP.
  
  
• Da BRIC met in Brasilia last week with Brazil, and to a lesser extent India and China, continuing to speak out against harsh sanctions on Iran. Noting that sanctions paved the way to the Iraq war years ago. Also, India and Brazil will back each other up for security council seats. Some may argue that the BRIC is weaker than the sum of their parts, but really Yglesias? No common interests between BRIC countries? That's just crazy.
  
  
• Via Ken Silverstein, The Washington Post takes a look at a lobbying scandal that has put Jamaica's Prime Minister on thin ice. A big time lobbyist representing the Government of Jamaica has been hitting Washington hard to try and block the extradition of a drug kingpin, only thing is the Government of Jamaica says they didn't pay anybody, question remains, so who did? Best part, the drug dealer's name is "Coke". No joke, go read the whole story.
  
  
• Venezuela and China are again making moves, one country gets mad cash to try and turn the economy around, the other gets endless supplies of that black sticky stuff. Good for everyone.
  
  
• From Chile, Piñera announced a big reconstruction package worth about $8.4 billion, but who is going to profit??
  
  
• Will be interesting to see what happens this week in Cochabamba as the people's climate summit begins. After getting funding from the US for climate change programs cut last week, Bolivia will continue pushing for stronger measures to be taken. Importantly, those that are actually effected by climate change will be able to participate in this conference.
  

Finally, in Bolivia the anxiously awaited "Coca Colla" has finally hit the market, they only cost a $1.50 and and you'd be giving a royal up yours to Coca-Cola at the same time. Made with real coca leaf (unlike that fake stuff up north), the drink is named after the indigenous Colla from the Bolivian highlands. Shocked? Shouldn't be, another group tried this before in that other coca loving country...Colombia. An indigenous group there released their version in 2005. Even better, get this, "Uribe's presidential Web site even promoted natural coca products as a rare commercial enterprise for poor Indian communities, and the federal food-safety agency provided quality-control advice to the manufacturers of coca tea, cookies, shampoo and other consumer goods." But that all changed when Coke busted out a trademark infringement suit. Or maybe it was just pressure from big daddy up north? As for Coke's use of coca in their soda (and maybe the real reason for the lawsuit), while the recipe might be locked in a vault and unknown now, there was a time when we got a taste of the real thing, from the New York Times in 1988:

This week, details of how Coca-Cola obtains the coca and how it is processed emerged from interviews with Government officials and scientists involved in drug research programs. They identified the Illinois-based Stepan Company as the importer and processor of the coca used in Coke. After Stepan officials acknowledged their ties to Coca-Cola, the soft drink giant confirmed those details of its operations.

So you probably had heard that Coke used coca, but did you know this Stepan company can legally import coca? And that the company supplied Coke with their coca flavoring? Amazing, I know. So now that the recipe is back in a box somewhere who knows if they still do use coca, but one thing is for sure, Stepan Co. is still importing coca, and in the Times article it says most of it is from Peru and Bolivia...kinda ironic.