Two Latin American movies are up for an Oscar in the awkwardly-named Foreign Language Film category.
El Secreto de sus Ojos, from Argentine director Juan José Campanella, looks like an investigative thriller, starring that one actor that seems to be in all Argentine movies that achieve international recognition, Ricardo Darín:
The other nominee is a Peruvian flick called La Teta Asustada. Directed by Claudia Llosa, it looks quiet, beautiful, sad:
I’m looking forward to seeing them both.
Venezuela just became the proud owner of a Nicaraguan television channel, Telenica (Canal 8 ). The Venezuelans themselves confirmed to El Nuevo Diario that the money for the purchase of the channel came from ALBA de Nicaragua S.A., a corporation founded to manage incoming Venezuelan petrodollar handouts that is, in point of fact, 51% owned by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA).
The purchase is just the latest addition to the swelling business holdings of President Daniel Ortega, according to an excellent round-up on the whole affair published in The Nica Times. The purchase also appears to be another step in the silencing of independent media outlets by ALBA countries. From the El Nuevo Diario article:
The change in the news and information profile of Channel 8 was evident just one week after orteguismo took control of the media. Now it broadcasts international reports from the Telesur network, of which the son of the presidential couple – Juan Carlos Ortega Murillo – is part owner. Government spokesman William Grisgby appeared with his program “Without Borders,” replacing “Tonight” with Carlos Fernando Chamorro. Several vignettes of Daniel Ortega talking during various activities appear during the commercials.
The article also points out that Nicaraguan law bans corporations majority owned by foreigners to own major media outlets, although that doesn’t appear to have made much of a difference.
Martín Redrado resigned his post as president of Argentina’s Central Bank last night. Bloomberg News has a comprehensive round-up. Most interesting was a quote from an analyst to the effect that this is not a huge deal because the Central Bank lost its autonomy years ago, and that Redrado is mostly at fault for the loss of autonomy because he did not stand up to the Kirchners until it was too late.
Early in the showdown over the Central Bank’s reserves, Redrado had threatened to expose “friends of the power” who purchased dollars from the Central Bank, possibly on inside information that the Central Bank was set to devalue the Argentine currency. The executive responded by threatening to prosecute Redrado for a cover up if he does not release the names. It will be interesting to see if Redrado is now forced to follow through on his threat.
Somehow, I doubt he will be.
Behind you.
Semana has a story up about “The 10 plagues afflicting Chávez.” It’s mostly predictable (inflation, student protests, cabinet shake-ups), and I think my favorite part was the illustration, but overall it’s a good review of the confluence of bad news he’s having to deal with at this particular moment.
One particular point stuck out. Point number three, I believe:
Several facts indicate that the Venezuelan president is becoming isolated in the region:
Chile elected right-leaning businessman Piñera as president. Honduras is now led by conservative Porfirio Lobo, after the coup that brought down Manuel Zelaya, an ally of the Venezuelan president. Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, has distanced himself from the Venezuelan government after reestablishing relations with Colombia; the Kirchner government in Argentina continues to lose popularity, and in Brazil, despite the popularity of Ignacio Lula, the favorite for October’s elections is José Serra, an opposition leader.
I would add also that Panama recently elected a businessman as president, and in Costa Rica, another pro-business “libertarian” candidate is running even with the ruling party’s center-left candidate. Now, one has to be careful about these Latin America political wind stories. The electorates in countries like Panama and Chile have almost nothing to do with each other, and I think a lot of North American media connect the dots with a little too much gusto.
That said, one could probably make the argument that the region is experiencing one of those natural undulations of the democratic process, wherein the public gets exhausted with one side of the spectrum and decides to try something new. If that’s the case, we might expect a shift in Venezuela as well during this year’s legislative elections, and indeed, the Semana article mentions that recent polls put Chávez’ approval rating at an all-time low of 46.2%.
Of course, for the shift to be peaceful, the Chávez administration would have to respect the democratic will of the people, which it did not do when it lost several key governorships in 2008. Instead, Chávez responded by gutting their budgets and their autonomy. With his steady attacks on independent media, it appears rather likely that Chávez won’t go down without a fight.
Racist.
A Mexican congressman and radio host took an early lead for the Asshole of the Year Award when he hated on Haitians for being black. Said Ariel Gómez León, a.k.a. “El Chunko”:
“In the media, for example on television, we see the faces of the people when aid is handed out. They’re not faces of need – more like the faces of insatiable abusers… Since they’re all so black and they look so much alike, they should be marked with permanent ink so that they don’t get a second helping; the ink has to be white, since the ink used by the Federal Electoral Institute wouldn’t be noticed because they’re so black.”
Gómez was apparently annoyed because the government deducted part of his salary as a congressman to send aid to Haiti. He now says it was a joke that got picked up on an open mic.
But come on, Gómez, tell us how you really feel.
Sweet Jesus. A mass grave containing 2,000 bodies was discovered outside a Colombian town, 200km south of Bogotá. The town’s residents say it’s been there since 2005. While the military says the bodies are guerrillas killed during fighting, the townspeople told El Nuevo Heraldo that they suspect many murder victims are among the dead as well.
Human rights activists say at least 63 people have been forcibly disappeared in the Macarena region, where the grave is located. The grave contains so many bodies, it’s contaminating the water supply. The Colombian media apparently first reported on the grave in early December. So far, the government doesn’t sound too enthusiastic about picking through and identifying the bodies.
Money all gone. (ht germeister)
Honduras is, for all intents and purposes, broke. That is, incoming Finance Minister William Chong told the AP that Micheletti left the government with only about $50 million in its coffers (note to self: Do governments really still use coffers? Because if so, no wonder they can’t keep track of their money).
This is not at all surprising. It’s what six months of international isolation do to a government’s finances, especially when the country is a poor one like Honduras and partly dependent on international aid. According to an article in El Heraldo, President Lobo is calling for swift reinstatement of Honduras into the international community so that international funds and aid can begin flowing again.
However, there is one problem: International aid is about publicity as much as it is about actually aiding people, and the popular place to give money right now is Haiti. More than $1 billion $2 billion has been pledged there by governments at last count. Also, I think it’s safe to assume that international aid is something of a zero-sum game, which would mean that at least some of the aid flowing into Haiti is flowing out of a different program (at least those are the rumblings I hear from friends working with NGOs).
Anyway, at least one Honduran is doing pretty well: Mel Zelaya. He’s camped out at an exclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. No word yet on any “international aid” he might be receiving.
Eight women are being prosecuted for murder in Veracruz after having abortions, according to an NGO called the Veracruz Women’s Institute (Instituto Veracruz de la Mujer). According to the article in La Jornada, several of the abortions were actually miscarriages brought on by medical treatment. Five of the women have already been sentenced to 12-15 years in prison.
I would have thought the Mexican authorities had bigger problems to worry about.
A very interesting article in Bloomberg yesterday about Chávez’ attempts to prop up the boliver and whack black market currency exchanges by meeting dollar demand with the government’s reserves:
The plan will fail because Chavez’s nationalizations and land seizures are prompting Venezuelans to pull money from the country, said Alberto Ramos, a Goldman Sachs economist. More than $93 billion has left the South American nation since 2005, according to the central bank’s capital account data.
The article says the Central Bank has been throwing about $100 million a week at propping up the bolivar, when real dollar demand is something closer to $100 million a day. Demand is high because no one who owns anything wants to keep it in Venezuela:
Venezuela, which last had a capital account surplus in 1998, the year before Chavez became president, posted a capital account deficit of $10.8 billion through the first nine months of 2009, the most recent central bank data show.
That means billions of net dollars in capital are fleeing Venezuela every year, despite strict foreign currency exchange controls. It’s going to get worse. With the bolivar now devalued by 50% against the dollar and the vast majority of goods consumed in Venezuela being imports, Morgan Stanley is projecting an incredible 45 percent.
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]
Kirchners in the hotseat: Why buy US$2 million?
Though the power struggle over Argentina’s Central Bank has ended, the controversy hasn’t. Central Bank ex-President Redrado made good on his threat to release a list of “friends of the power” who had purchased dollars from the Central Bank. A more accurate description would have been “husband of the power.”
That’s right, in October of 2008, just as the world economy was imploding and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was admonishing her fellow citizens to have faith in their homeland, Nestor Kirchner was exchanging pesos for $2 million U.S. dollars. Clarín says that, depending on when exactly he made the exchange, he could have made the equivalent of about 366,000 pesos, since the Argentine peso lost quite a bit of value against the dollar that month.
The specter of insider currency speculation raises its ugly head. At first, the Kirchners argued that everything was “legal,” which is kind of beside the point. Now, Néstor tells Pérfil that he needed dollars to buy a hotel.
None of this explains how, in 2008, Kirchner declared about US$650,000 in income from “interest” on his savings. As Clarín points out, this would have to mean that: a) He was getting massively-preferential interest rates from banks; or b) he has way, way more money in savings accounts than he’s let on.
Or I guess c) he had some difficult-to-explain income that year that he reported as earned interest.