DAILY LINKS
The Nation has a long, wonky, wonderful article on Mexican maize cultivation, the effects of NAFTA, and the dangers of genetically-modified seeds. Author Peter Canby backs up his excellent writing with piles and piles of meticulous research. Not to be missed. [link, via SM] (Image from Joel Penner.)
Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas ended his hunger strike yesterday after 134 days. Farinas decided to end his strike after the Cuban government said it would release political prisoners rounded up in the "Black Spring" crackdown of 2003. Get well soon. [link]
The Uruguayan selection, which has made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup, just received a shipment of half a ton of fine cuts of beef for the mother of all asados in preparation for a contest against Ghana on Friday: "450 kilos of lomo, 200 of entrecot, 75 of vacío, 75 of colita de cuadril, 150 of ojo de bife and 50 kg of picaña." [link]
Hitmen have assassinated the PRI candidate for governor of Tamaulipas State, Rodolfo Torre Cantú. Torre was gunned down along with six others at about 10:30 this morning on a highway on the way to a campaign event. Drug mafias are assumed to be responsible. [link]
From the days when coups were something of a regional sport, new documents detail a famous British ballerina's role in a plot to topple the government of Panama. The plan was to use her yacht to gather men and arms, then "land somewhere and collect in the hills." It didn't work. [link]
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has posted on its web site irrefutable evidence that gold-plated AR-15s and diamond-studded pistol grips are not nearly as cool-looking as they sound. The deadly knick-knack collection is said to belong to Valencia Cartel leader El Lobo. [link]
Two Brazilian ranchers were sentenced to 30 years in prison apiece for ordering the killing of an environmentalist nun: "Prosecutors said the pair offered to pay a gunman $25,000 to kill the 73-year-old [Dorothy] Stang because she had prevented them from stealing a piece of land that the government had granted to a group of poor farmers." [link]
This video of a kidnapping and car chase in Mexico is notable mainly for the bad-assitude of the TV journalists who were on this like white on rice. Well done, gentlemen.
The Economist takes a peak at the Mockus phenomenon in Colombia: "His moustacheless beard gives him the air of a Baltic pastor... He is financing his campaign with a bank overdraft. His supporters rely on Facebook and make their own posters; street vendors sell unofficial campaign T-shirts." [link]
Some cruise lines will cease traveling to Antarctica after this cruise season, as a ban on the use and carriage of heavy fuel oil goes into effect next year. The ban came after a 2007 incident when a Gap Adventures ship got punctured by ice and sank, causing a mess. [link]
Category Archives: Politics
IPS has a nice profile of Marco Arana, the priest and environ-mentalist who looks to be preparing a run for the presidency in Peru. Arana has steadily opposed destructive mining activity in the Cajamarca region and was named a Hero of the Environment by TIME magazine in 2009. He was suspended from the priesthood in [...]
Also posted in Peru, Side notes | Leave a comment
Welcome Home, Hugo Chávez
Thank the Blogger Gods, Hugo Chávez is going to launch his very own blog. This is the perfect medium for the long-winded and famously workaholic president, and frankly, I can’t wait to see what he writes about. My only piece of advice is: Do not enable comments. Anti-Chávez commenters are about as insightful and polite [...]
Political analyst Rosendo Fraga says Argentina is right now facing “its most serious institutional crisis since the return of democracy in 1983.” It’s the first time since that year that a Peronist president has not also had control of the Congress, and the two branches of government are clashing. On the upside, the crisis might [...]
Also posted in Argentina, Side notes Leave a comment
Lula for SecGen?
I have no idea if this is credible, but there are rumors that Brazilian President Lula Da Silva is interested in running for U.N. Secretary General after his term ends this year. The Secretary General spot will up for a vote in 2011, though Lula would have to run against incumbent Ban Ki Moon. This [...]
Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS walked out of a meeting of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights when Ecuador proposed a resolution condemning Colombia for its attack last year on a FARC encampment on Ecuadorean soil. Relations between the two countries have been cold ever since the attack, and now it appears they will remain [...]
Also posted in Colombia, Side notes Leave a comment
Wrong way
Costa Ricans are terrible drivers, and they know it. Pretty much every day in this country of 4.5 million, I can open the newspaper and read about someone dying somewhere on the roads: Pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, head-on collisions, drunk drivers, people driving off cliffs. I have no idea if it’s a statistically significant number of [...]
Here’s hoping for more episodes
I laughed at this for a very long time. (H/T Structurally Maladjusted)
Also posted in Arts and Culture, Odd Leave a comment
Magician with the picana
It sounded like a straight-forward political scandal. An Argentine judge named María José Sarmiento blocked Kirchner’s controversial attempt to use Central Bank reserves to pay its foreign debt. Yesterday, the government tried to arrest her father. An outrageous example of the executive harassing the judiciary, right? Except the judge’s father is Luis Sarmiento, a retired [...]
It’s the body count, stupid
The best reason to dislike Hugo Chávez is not that he’s a Marxist or a tyrant or anti-American or any other such silliness of the likes you find in the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal. The best reason to dislike Hugo Chávez is that after 11 years, it’s safe to say he’s failed [...]
