Axis of Evo confirmed! Bolivia about to nuke YOUR CHILDREN! via Iran

We're all dead, we're all dead
Spud, Trainspotting, 1996

At last we can all relax, pull up a chair and watch as the invasion of South America in the name of Freedom™ moves from mere planning into full scale build-up and FoxNewsMiamiHerald jingo time (not just the boring old "hypothetical scenarios" that the US Military has been musing and mumbling about it).

Today Disassociated Press blows the lid off the commies super sneaky secret plan by reporting (and follow the bouncing ball carefully, dudettes and dudes) on the secret documents obtained by Israel that state that Venezuela AND Bolivia are supplying Uranium to Iran so they can make nuclear weapons and blow up Jerusalem... I think. They also manage to mix in how there are Hezbollah cells "in Latin America" (actually suspected cells in East Paraguay, but hey....no ruining this story, eh?) and how Hugo Chávez has some sort of special power to give out visas that allow Iranians to travel freely through all 11 sovereign states of South America...in the name of freedom.

Of course it doesn't occur to anyone to worry about the shitload of yellowcake that Russia exports to Iran, cos loading 10kg or so on a plane from Caracas makes for a better story and the damning proof that Evo is about to eat YOUR CHILDREN is contained in the blockbuster revelation that, "...recent collaboration with Iran in strategic minerals has generated speculation that Venezuela could mine uranium for Iran...".

No arguing with that one, eh? After all, Iraq...WMDs...you know the score, people. So welcome, officers and troops of the US Army. We'll be so glad to see you down here and be cheering you on as you secure the world's largest oil rese....oops...NOOO!!, nothing to do with it!!....as you secure South America FOR FREEDOM™ and help us all be FREE™.

Freedom Chuños Served.

News roundup (half the news, some of the time)

Trade-in, che?

Venezuela has recalled its ambassador to Peru 'for consultations' by way of protest against Peru's granting of asylum to Manuel 'BraveSirRobin' Rosales. Hugo himself has been pretty quiet about the whole Peru thing.........so far.

Ecuador. Only in Spain would Studmuffin have to field such dumbass questions about an Axis between Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela. Sincerely, the Spaniards make your average US Joe look smart on LatAm and there's not even the language barrier to deal with. Anyway, Mr Prez-Til-2013 said (and I quote), "I've probably travelled more to Brazil than to Venezuela. I've travelled many more times to Argentina. If they (you) want to look for axes, look for them and find them....If there were an axis it wouldn't (necessarily) be a bad thing, but explicitly there isn't one. There's too much talk and popular is confused with popularism."

Yay, The Muffin still rules!

Fox News again accuses Mexico of...being slow off the mark with its swine flu prevention program. They even managed to find some Neocon doctor to agree with them.....que sorpresa.

Argentina, and big agromachinery company Agco reports country tractor sales down 60% in the first quarter even though they climbed 3% in Brazil in the same period. The reasons being a combo of the drought weather period and total dumbasses in government. Klishtina&Co still insist that GDP is rising in Argentina....it's skin-crawlingly embarrassing.

More one-sided reporting on Bolivia: Antidote available here

Evo explains what bodypart is held most tightly
by capitalist economic policies

What we hear: Bloomberg reports that Bolivia exports for January were down 32.9% compared to January 2008. The total of $345.85m means there is a $170m or gap in the macroeconomic numbers compared to last year. For sure it's a big drop and part of it includes the exports lost to the US market due to the withdrawal of ATPDEA concessions, but the main chunk is the new, lower pricing for its gas exports to Brazil. This comes as no surprise to anyone with half a brain that has analysed the situation.

What we don't hear: Bolivia was adding to its international currency reserves to the tune of $250m a month at this time last year. So let's just assume that Bolivia doesn't move over the excess to its (already all time record) reserves this year; that would mean Bolivia has more than enough money coming in and doesn't have to feel the pinch on a day-to-day basis, this at a time when nearly every other LatAm country is taking money out of its reserves to fund programs.

Bottom line: Expect people with less than half a brain to "raise questions" (a lot of them get featured at the HACER hatemonger's website). Expect Bolivia not to worry. Also expect Bolivia to get through 2009 far better than those truly exposed to this world recession.