A huge earthquake rocked Chile this morning. At 8.8 on the Richter scale, some experts are saying it was a thousand hundred times more powerful than the earthquake in Haiti. Of course, Chile was significantly more prepared than Haiti. Interior Minister Edumndo Pérez Yoma is on TV Chile right now saying 82 people died in the quake, which doesn’t sound bad, but it’s almost certain to go up.
The greatest damage looks to have been to infrastructure. Several large bridges collapsed, but fortunately, since the earthquake took place around 3 a.m., it doesn’t look like many drivers where on the bridges at the moment of the earthquake.
Chile was also the site of the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, in 1960. The Valdivia earthquake measured 9.5 on the Richter scale.
The Constitutional Court of Colombia just struck down a referendum on whether Uribe can run for a third term in office. 
Death is a pretty decent indication that a hunger-striker is not making things up. Cuban dissident Orlando Zapata Tamayo was arrested in a political crackdown in 2003 and was named a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. 
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. [
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. [
Some alternative
U.S.: Gone.
Russia’s pretty excited about this new-fangled Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLACS?) thing. In a “communique” (I guess the Russians still use those), the foreign ministry stated that “The new organization can be an important factor for the formation of a multipolar world order.”
And they’re right. Regardless of how successful CLACS is, the fact that Latin America would even attempt to exclude the U.S. from a regional organization indicates that the U.S. is losing its international mojo. The U.S. has never been what you might call a paragon of moral leadership in the region, so one would hope that a regional organization intended to replace the U.S.-backed OAS would try to fill that role.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening.
The buzz around CLACS offers little hope that support for human rights and democracy will be central to the organization’s purpose. Russia’s relationship with Latin America centers on arms sales. The CLACS charter will be drafted at a summit in Venezuela, which by this point is basically anti-democratic. Cuba, also an abuser of political and human rights, is all in favor of the new organization. And Mexico’s Calderón described the organization mostly in economic terms.
The final chapter is not yet written, but as an alternative to the OAS, CLACS would appear to be developing some large holes.