Laura Meckler of the WSJ, winner of this week's coveted award

This is the condescending drivel written in the lead para of her note this morning:

"With the Middle East in turmoil, Japan’s nuclear reactors at least partly melting down and Congress in the midst of a budget battle, President Barack Obama is going to … Latin America."

Let's be clear before continuing that this is not about Obama's job choices, because he's turned out to be a tosser too. Oh my stars, I'm so tempted to come out with a whole line of words that I wouldn't use in my mother's presence. But I'm going to keep it steady, make it clear this is just another slice of the normal "our backyard" piffle that your idiots in power up there still cling to and then tell the ridiculous excuse for a journalist named Laura Meckler to...

Peru municipal elections surprise candidate?

One of the two people pictured in this election poster is running for the job of mayor of Barranco, one of the 43 districts of Lima. The other isn't.

UPDATE: That regular reader and commenter Cansarnoso, he's a sharp one I'm telling you:

cansarnoso said...

denzel washington is a film star, not a politician

Ah, memories.....

Who remembers this, an Op-Ed written by The Hawaiian in April 2009 as soft soap bullshit just before the Summit of the Americas that month? Here's the bit about what The USA was going to do to help that violent druggyborder thing (IKN provides the red ink):

"Just as we advance our common prosperity, we must advance our common security. The United States will strongly support respect for the rule of law, better law enforcement, and stronger judicial institutions. Security must be advanced through our commitment to partner with those who are courageously battling drug cartels, gangs and other criminal networks throughout the Americas. And our efforts start at home. By reducing demand for drugs and curtailing the illegal flow of weapons and bulk cash south across our border, we can advance security in the United States and beyond. And going forward, we will sustain a lasting dialogue in the hemisphere to ensure that we are building on best practices, adapting to new threats, and coordinating our efforts."

He talk talky, he no walk walky. Or if you like, more bollocks talked by a depressingly poor President. Or as Jonathan Schwarz put it in A Tiny Revolution yesterday, "I have to admit, I may have once again underestimated the ability of the Democratic Party to make the world a much, much worse place. Well, at least it will be exciting!".

December 2011

On this day, December 14th, 2011, IKN records the words spoken by President Barack Obama regarding the US invasion of Venezuela that started last night:

"When I accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009, I was leading a country that was, at that time, accelerating its war in Afghanistan. At that time I said that a nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies, negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida's leaders to lay down their arms and that noting force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history.

"This is as true today as it was then. Last month's decision of the dictator Hugo Chávez to refuse to sell his country's natural resources to the USA is an open act of defiance against our great nation that wishes to uphold and maintain the ideals of peace and democracy. Denying oil to the USA is a clear violation of human rights and threatens the lifestyle that we all hold so dear. Though we desire peace, the belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it. We will defend ourselves by all full spectrum means at our disposal and we will continue to seek long-lasting peace.

"The invasion surge that I, as Commander in Chief of the US armed forces, ordered into Venezuela last night will not be a permanent presence in the country. We are there to get the job done and will then leave Venezuela to decide its own future of peace and democracy and will respect its sovereign decisions once a democratic government that truly represents its people has been installed. We know that, however great and justified the cause, that in the moments of war some will kill, some will be killed. No matter how justified, war promises human tragedy, but let us reach for the world that ought to be. We can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. God bless America."

deja vu all over again

I first saw this a few months ago....

(click to enlarge)

...and at the time it was just funny. Not so funny anymore.

Ah yeah....those foreign relations, right?

Just to mark your card about the end of the honeymoon period down this neck of the woods. The Hawaiian stabs Zelaya in the back, The Hawaiian signs his troops into Colombia and it's not only your humble correspondent that has had the scales falling from his eyes. People that actaully matter have twigged on, too. People that really matter.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim last weekend warned that relations between the United States and South America are deteriorating and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to begin a dialogue with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“It’s possible that by the time President Obama concentrates on the region’s problems, relations between United States and South America will have deteriorated even further,” said Amorim in a Sunday interview with Folha de Sao Paulo (CONTINUES HERE)

Meanwhile, the true scope of the recent agreement between Colombia and the USA to establish a ten year do-what-you-want-boys beachhead in South America (and right next to the country with the world's biggest reserves of oil.....what a coincidence) is starting to come to light. COHA published this note yesterday that pointed to out the following:

Though details were not released to the public prior to the signing of the agreement, official statements from both governments have continuously affirmed that the leased facilities would be exclusively used to support counternarcotic and counterinsurgency initiatives within Colombia. However, a recently publicized U.S. Air Force document presents a far more ominous explanation for massive congressional funding for the forthcoming military construction at the Colombian bases. It emphasizes the “opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America” against threats not only from drug trafficking and guerrilla movements, but also from “anti-U.S. governments” in the region.

CONTINUES HERE

Dear Gringos: After the abysmal record of your paymasters' interventions and direct involvement in human rights atrocities stretching back over decades in Latin America, do you honestly think we down here are stupid enough to give you the luxury of innocence until proven guilty?

This is what I mean, Bennett

People like this guy were right and I was way wrong.

Via Sketch, here are the words of Wilton Vought written in August 2008:

"Anyone who succeeds in becoming the presumptive Presidential nominee of either corporate party does so only with the blessing of the corporate interests who run those parties.

..........

"Expecting a front man for such interests to be a catalyst for substantive progressive change is akin to believing in Santa Claus. Fine for the kids, but it's time to grow up."

I believed in Santa Claus until Honduras. More fool me.

The weekend's best posts

The best commentary on the Obama Nobel? Here at Trend and Value, where Lucas wraps it all up in just 40 words.

The best post on gold in many moons? Here at Cassandra, and make sure you read the comment left by David Pearson underneath the entry. His position is mine, almost to a tee.

Honduras: Gotta love this Enrique Ortez guy

Hot off the presses, here's a Youtube (with subtitles in English) of the Chancellor of Honduras's de facto government, aka racist shit Enrique Ortez, speaking on yet another TV show and yet again calling Obama "That blackie who doesn't even know where Honduras is" (again, plenty of much worse ways to translate the word 'negrito' he uses in this context). This isn't the same occasion we reported last week.

Enjoy.

Honduras's de facto chancellor: "Obama is a little black man who knows nothing."

Cute huh?

Enrique Ortez (for it is he)

Meet Enrique Ortez, the man given the job of Chancellor of Honduras (basically foreign minister) by the usurper Micheletti. In an interview on Honduras TV last night he said the above about President Obama and a whole lot more. Here's a translation of this report in the El Salvador daily, LaPagina:

Following the Coup D'Etat over José Manuel Zelaya, the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti has named its new government team, among them the new Chancellor Enrique Ortez Colindres, who in his declarations has made the position of the coupmongers clear.

According to the Argentine newspaper El Clarín, the new "chancellor" Enrique Ortez took part in a journalistic TV program in Honduras where he was asked about the international reactions to the coup d'etat. Ortez said that he gave no importane whatsoever to the OAS and "the other little groups out there", he said (Spanish premier) José Luis Rodrígues Zapatero should "go back to his shoes*" and said that he was not going to talk about (Honduras neighbour) El Salvador "because it's not worth talking about such a small country, where you can't even play football because the ball lands in another country".

But he went for more by defining President Barack Obama of The United States as "that little black man who doesn't know anything".

Keep apologizing for your coupmongers, wingnuts. Cos by gawd, every day there's more to apologize for.

UPDATE: I've had a couple of mails from people about what this Ortez scumbag actually said about Obama, so here goes with a bit more. His precise words in Spanish were "Ese negrito que no sabe nada de nada". I decided to translate this as "that little black man who knows nothing" or "that little black man who doesn't know anything" to stay away from the controversial side of the statement and be as bland as possible. In fact the use of the word "negrito", i.e. the diminuitive of "negro", is very derogatory in nature and overtly racist in context; the kind of racism that would force the resignation of any public figure in the USA (for example). One mailer offered up the translation of "that know-nothing black boy" to get the proper feeling of the message implied by Ortez, and although it's extremely difficult to hit the translatory nail on the head in this case, I'd tend to agree that the offered translation captures the sentiment better than my deliberately bland version. Another way of catching the drift would be "That blackie that knows nothing about anything", or even "That negro...." would work, even the other "N" word would be a fair translation of what he meant.

The bottom line is that Ortez's statement, alongside the equally offensive words he has for Zapatero and the nation of El Salvador (note Revolter's comment below and Google up about the "football war" if you haven't heard about it previously) is dripping with bigotry and hatred.

UPDATE 2, July 5th: Must see photo from Honduras today.

UPDATE 3, July 6th: Enrique Ortez speaks! About Obama! On Youtube! With English subtitles!

* a play on words with the word "zapatero", which means "shoemaker" in Spanish

Long Live The Capybara

The above photo is taken from today's "El Chigüire Bipolar" (The Bipolar Capybara) as it reports on yesterday's meeting between Uribe and The Hawaiian and the results of the game of Boggle they played .

I always feel a bit cheesy stealing a Chigüire photo and putting it up here, but it's only cos I want you guys to go over and check out his blog. It's the best Spanish language coverage of Venezuela by a long, long way. If you know the language you just gotta go there early and often, so here's the link; now use it.

The Honduras Coup: Obama and Clinton say the right things

Thanks to reader PE (in the comments section of the previous post....thanks dude), your humble correspondent gets to hear about this page at HuffPo that has been liveblogging the emergency OAS meeting. Here's what The Hawaiian and Hillary (esp good) had to say for themselves:

President Obama:
"I am deeply concerned by reports coming out of Honduras regarding the detention and expulsion of President Mel Zelaya. As the Organization of American States did on Friday, I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Any existing tensions and disputes must be resolved peacefully through dialogue free from any outside interference."

Sec. of State Clinton:
The action taken against Honduran President Mel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and thus should be condemned by all. We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law, to reaffirm their democratic vocation, and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully and through dialogue. Honduras must embrace the very principles of democracy we reaffirmed at the OAS meeting it hosted less than one month ago.

Kaption Kompetition

We're going topical and straying away from the region. This photo from today. What's the follicule-challenged dude thinking?

Answers (hopefully printable) by mail or comments below. First prize is the usual something nice whatever you want.

UPDATE 7pm: STOP! GAME OVER!! miguelito has just killed the competition by entering an unbeatable caption, so we may as well end it here and publish now (below). Well played miguelito, what you want as a prize?

Hawaiian Heart Studmuffin

Here's the link to the official White House communiqué (to prove I'm not making this up). I like how the serious politicos ignore the crap spewed by Oppenheimer&Co and recognize a vibrant democracy that has a free and independent press. No word on whether Studmuffin made any comments about the foxiness of Michelle or whether The Hawaiian got defensive and told The Muffin to back the hell off.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_____________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 11, 2009

Statement by the Press Secretary on the President’s call with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador

The President spoke with President Correa yesterday to congratulate him on his recent reelection and to commend the people of Ecuador for their commitment to democracy. The President stated his desire to deepen our bilateral relationship and to maintain an ongoing dialogue that can ensure a productive relationship based on mutual respect. President Obama expressed his support for a vibrant democracy in Ecuador that includes a free and independent press as the means of promoting human prosperity, security and dignity, which are important goals for both of our countries and for the people of the Americas.

Videogame news from Peru

This hurt my head when I read it.

A screenshot

It's been a while since I had a real wild thing about videogames. Back in the 18th century I was pretty good at the arcade version of Centipede (remember that zippy ball control, guys?) but if the game mentioned underneath turns out to be a hit then I'll know that I'm now old, old, and three times old. I think I'll just translate the start of this review of the game and leave it without further comment (except that this is a faithful translation .....and I'm not on drugs):

""Inka Games" is the Peruvian company of businessman Aldo Mujica that has just launched a videogame in which President Obama joins forces with tennis star Rafael Nadal and Argentine footballer Lionel Messi to save the last surviving family of panda bears that has been kidnapped by aliens........"

Loose Change We Can Believe In (great video)

It's not a LatAm thing, but this is the kind of show'n'tell that the interwebnetpipes does best. Anybody who takes obscure financial concepts and makes them intelligible gets my applause, and this clip is a great example. H/T to Sullivan's Daily Dish (where I found it).

Obama made that $100m spending cut sound pretty big and important, didn't he? I ask you to invest one minute and thirty-eight seconds of your time to put a little context in your life and see The Hawaiian can BS just as much as the last crew when he puts his mind to it.

Borev scoops the world.....

....by noting that you gringos really will buy anything.

On the menu today is the book Hugo Chávez presented to The Hawaiian in Trinidad and Tobago. According to da boorev it stood at 54,295th on the Amazon sales list before Hugo gifted the gift. Guess where it is now?

Go have a look at the Borev post linked here to find out.


b

What Lula and Obama talked about, according to Lula

It's not just that Hugo guy in Venezuela and that Rafa guy in Ecuador that do weekly shows for their people, you know. Cuddly old Lula da Silva of Brazil also does his number in a weekly radio program called "Coffee with the President". This week he elaborated on what was said when he got together with the Hawaiian on Saturday, and here below is the Ottotrans™ via a Spanish-language report (my Portuguese isn't hot, y'see). No more blabbing, here's Lula dixit:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I talked with Obama about the need for the USA to have a new vision in its relationship with a democratic Latin America, which is growing and has made itself a development option. It is important that he has a vision of association and not insurgency, a vision of contribution and not interference.

"I think Obama understands this and I believe we can advance (together). I think that Obama has the conditions to make this inflection, especially if we analyse the Cuba issue. There is no reason to continue the Cuba blockade. I know it isn't an easy thing, but we have to take important step to democratize our relationship with the USA and the USA with Latin America.

"I was impressed with his clarity about the magnitude of the (current financial) crisis, clarity about the responsibility of the USA and the need to establish a consensus between the G20 countries to take the necessary measures to resolve this crisis."

In one simple phrase...

The face of agendas past or future? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

.....Peter Hakim, economist* and president of Washington's Inter-American Dialogue explains to the world exactly why the Bush regime was so hated by Latin America. The subject is next month's Summit of the Americas (you'll be hearing a lot about this little gathering for sure, and the word association with Cuba will become intensely boring). Hakim dixit:

"He (Obama) shouldn't simply say what the United States is going to do, he should say what he expects Latin America to do."

No further comment necessary.

*aka dumbass in a suit

Mmmmm, stimulate my package, baby

With a post title like that, discretion
is the greater part of valour

All fun down here, as the likelihood of the Obama stimulating the world is reflected in trading all over the region. Brazil's Bovespa is up 4%, Argentina's Merval up 3% and copper is zooming and dragging PCU, Peru and Chile out of da funk. A special mention is needed for the banks, as fun is being had all over the region in that sector. Here are a few US-traded ADRs as examples:

• Peru's Credicorp (BAP) up 4%, even though it announced a crappy quarter (it was Madoffed to the tune of $45m) after the bell yesterday.

• Brazil's Itau (ITU) up 9%

• Argentina's Grupo Galicia (GGAL) up 12%

• etc (pick your own fave...plenty to choose from)
  

The general effect of the soon-to-be stimulated States on trading has even been strong enough to see Peru's Nuevo Sol currency (PEN) strengthen against the greenback after its surprise (for some at least, hahaha) rate cut last night. Proof, if needed, that the US economy still calls the LatAm tune bigtime.