The USA once again confused about how South America can develop quite nicely without its presence

Abiding in Bolivia takes down the woeful crap written about Bolivia and lithium in today's WaPo article. El Duderino's article entitled "Washington Post dreams lithium while Bolivia moves ahead" takes the gringo ignorance to task (and rightly so) but is also indicative of a more general issue. Really, when are you guys going to get it through your thick skulls that South America is not tied to your Manifest Destiny apronstrings and has a whole bunch of other choices when it comes to FDI?

The Washington Post, winner of this week's coveted award

Today the WaPo runs this story about how China is taking over the world blah blah etc etc nothing much new, but the make-shit-up factor is strong, like garlic and mouldy French cheese kinda strong. Here's the point where this humble scribe learned something new:

"China's investments are also booming elsewhere -- from Peru, where one-third of the minerals sector is in Chinese hands, to Japan, where Chinese mergers and acquisitions quadrupled from 2008 to 2009."

Cue Owly:

ONE THIRD!!! Are they mad? I mean really, spend about four minutes on the interwebnetpipes and do some fact checking, please...the word is Google, be not afraid. When it comes to exported product alone the number is less than 15%, but saying that the whole minerals sector is 33% Chinese is a joke worth telling to Xstrata, Grupo Mexico, BHP, Anglo, Barrick, Freeport, Gold Fields, Buenaventura, Volcan the thousands of small mining companies and my stars I could continue all morning on this one.

And so John Pomfret, staff writer at the Washington Post and utter dumbass on LatAm trying to make himself sound wise, you win this week's coveted award that you can share with your equally dumbassed sub-ed if you like. Basic law of journalism: Don't write crap cos nobody will ever believe a word you say on anything. Here you go dude, enjoy:

WaPo, the paper that pretends US foreign policy in LatAm, has no freakin' idea as to who Evo Morales is

A great little post and piece of sleuthing from Jakob over at Maladjusted (and thanks due to that bodega owner) . Click this link right here and see for yourself just how much of TEH STOOOPID there is in US media over LatAm affairs.

Fun with exchange rates, Washington Post edition

An enlightened reader of this humble corner of cyberpace was reading about Venezuela in the Washington Post recently. After drudging through the article in question, said reader felt sufficiently roused to send a mail to the author of the report, one Steve Yanda. The factual errors found in the piece were many and varied, but one is worth sharing here.

I'll leave it to the hand of our WaPo critic to explain:

You write: "Participants [at pro-government marches] are handed free lunches, 50 bolivares (about $300) and T-shirts with "Sí" on the front."

Well, paying for marches as large as the one I saw for myself would be prohibitively expensive, I can tell you that. But that's not the silliest part. No, the silliest part of your story is the inversion of the actual exchange rate, so that in your universe 50 bolivares is "about $300." A quick google search (You do have access to the googles over there at the WaPo, right?) tells me that 1 U.S. dollar = 2 145.92275 Venezuelan bolivars. The Bolivar is worth LESS than the dollar, not MORE. And as anyone who knows contemporary Venezuela would tell you, this 1:2.14 dollar to bolivar rate is well below the de facto street exchange rate, of more like 4 - 5 bolivares to the dollar.

But listen, if you really believe 1 bolivar is worth $6, I would love to trade currency with you sometime and chat you up about some beach front property near the Grand Canyon

Washington Post = Permanent Venezuela Epic Fail

Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates called out

Back on Monday IKN ran this post about how a bunch of Washingston DC lobbyist shysters called Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter & Associates (crazy names, crazy guys) were about to be given the "we're not afraid of shouting at your walls" treatment by a bunch of protestors. CLS&A (I'm sure they won't mind me abbreviating) has been found taking the 30 pieces of silver from the coupmonger turds in Honduras and have been paid the neat'n'cool sum of U$350,000 to lobby the politicos and tell them "look, fascism isn't That bad..really".

The good news is that Revolter, the loyal sidekick of da boooorev, was there at the scene and has just posted this report on how the whole thing went down. Go check it out, good job Revolter and down with moneygrabbing DC scum forevahs.

Here's the link to the borev on-the-scene report again, just in case. You now have no excuse. Go now and leave a snarky message.

Is Borev run by Ecuador's Ambassador?

On May 20th the man battling Simon Rosemary of the title of 'LatAm's worst hack', namely Juan Forero of 'The Washington Post' filed this report entitled "Ecuadoran Town a Hub for Drug-Running Rebels, Colombia says" that was basically yet another ridiculous and politically laden hit-piece trying to blame anyone except America's Friend™ Uribe and the abject failure of Plan Colombia for the ever-rising production of Colombia's number one export.

So when Borev took up the cause to rebut Forero's guff&nonsense, a small section of the world cheered a little cheer. Here's a quick excerpt from da booorev, but go see the full thing here:

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"The information is incontrovertible, because it comes from Forero's knowledgeable and 100% disinterested source-base including, let's see: unnamed Colombian intelligence officials, unnamed paid government informers, unnamed "Senior Colombian officials," and Sergio Jaramillo, Colombia's vice minister for defense. Indisputable!"

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But then today the weirdest thing happens: The WaPo has published this e-mail from Ecuador's Ambassador to The United States which is nothing less than protocol-laden diplomatic officialdom telling Forero and his controllers that they are talking out of their lower orifices. Here's the whole thing:

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The May 20 news story "Ecuadoran Town a Hub for Drug-Running Rebels, Colombia Says" provided a misleading account, driven by senior Colombian officials, that was designed to confuse readers. Colombian irregular groups cross the border because of the Colombian government's omissions on its side of the border, thereby gravely affecting Ecuador.

Ecuador has had to devote onerous resources to meet the challenges of security and development in a border dominated by Colombian irregulars. This effort by Ecuador has been praised by the U.S. State Department in the "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report" and the "2008 Monitoring Report on Terrorism," which highlights as an Ecuadorian achievement the dismantling of 11 laboratories for cocaine production and more than 130 FARC camps, as well as the deployment of more than 100 battalions at the border, despite not having the billions of dollars of support that Colombia receives from the U.S. government.

It was worth mentioning that Ecuador is free of coca cultivation because it is the most successful country in the region in combating drug trafficking. It is unfortunate that Colombian armed forces are being diverted to discredit the government and people of Ecuador.

LUIS GALLEGOS

Washington

The writer is Ecuador's ambassador to the United States.

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All this begs the question; Are Luis Gallegos and blogmeister Borev related? Is the mysterious and knowledgeable Borev really a LatAm diplo hanging in the Empire somewhere? Is there some sort of international conspiracy going on via the humble media of internetwebpipes?* I think we should be told.

*natch

The Borev Peeps Campaign: Time for that final push over the cliff

There are just two days to go before The Washington Post hits us with the finalists in their Peeps™ diorama competition and we need......nay we BEG you to get on board the Borev diorama promo campaign.

Here's the info-packed post with all the details, above is the magic work of art, and this is the link to the all-important petition campaign. Borev is aiming for 10,000 signatures, so when you go over take a look at just how close he is to making that magic number.....AND JOIN IN AND SIGN ON THE LINE, DUDETTES AND DUDES. It only takes a minute and the love you will spread will be karmically returned to you in the course of your life, of that you can be sure.

Make this an Easter to remember for Borev and everyone that sails with him. Thank you in advance.

Alert! Borev needs your help, NOW

Remember that laudable and superlative diorama (above) that Borev put together for the Washington Post Peeps Easter competition thingy? Well he now needs our help to lobby (read 'bully') the WaPo into recognizing true democratic spirit and putting his wunderbar entry into the next round.

Go here, read the reading thing and sign the piece of e-paper. Do it! Now!

peep show

For the last three years, the WaPo has run a bizarro Peeps™ diorama competition. In the words of the venerable newspaper:

We want you to make a diorama of a famous occurrence or scene or concept. It can be a historic, current or future event. It can be a nod to pop culture. It can be an evocation of an idea or abstraction. The one rule is that all the characters in the diorama must be played by Peeps, those marshmallowy chicks and rabbits plaguing checkout lines in every convenience store this season.

Well, Borev has taken up the challenge and has his entry in, just before the March 15th 11:59pm deadline. Quite frankly I think he's cracked. Here's the link to all the details explaining just why he chose to display a WaPo editor's meeting. Here below the photo of his diorama. There's a $100 prize up for grabs, so wish the laddie good luck.

Doug Schoen is funny

Even the WaPo gets the joke. Here's an extract from its review of his new book, "The Threat Closer to Home" (yeah, it's about Chávez..how did you guess?)

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".....Schoen and Rowan undermine their argument with hyperbole and unsupported allegations. On the first page of "The Threat Closer to Home," they write that "Chávez arguably presents a greater threat to America than Osama bin Laden does on a day-to-day basis," but they make no case that Venezuelaintends to attack the United States or help others to do so. They repeat a litany of previously published allegations about Chávez's support for Hezbollah and his close relationship with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But they do not add anything to the factual record, nor do they attempt a coherent explanation of what the two radical leaders are up to. The authors allege that Hezbollah operates "at least five training camps in Venezuela," but they offer no evidence for this. There is not even a footnote to buttress that sentence or the following one: "Hamas and even al-Qaeda have sent members to Venezuela to avail themselves of Chávez's hospitality."......"

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For those not versed in review-speak, this is as close as a publication like WaPo can get to saying "bullshit" without worrying its lawyers.

Books like this = more proof that you gringos will buy anything. Do you guys want to find out what Venezuela is really like, or do you want even more excuses for a baseless hate campaign? If you raise your hand on the first option, I got a good idea; why not find out what Venezuelan people think and do when faced with wholesale media lies.

It's a quiet Saturday out there, so sit back, click that button, relax and watch "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", one of the most amazing documentaries of all time. You'll find out far more about Venezuela in an hour than you would spending a year in Doug Schoen's company. And once you've watched it, take a wild guess as to why the distribution of this documentary* is still banned in the United States of America.

Censorship in the USA? Shome mishtake shurely ossifer!

*Miriam Webster Dictionary: "Factual, Objective"

Still don't believe that US reporters lie to you about LatAm?

Well read this.

Some idiot who thinks he's special because he got hired by The Washington Post named Joshua Partlow has been conclusively shown as a know-nothing liar and peddler of proven falsehoods that were ordered retracted by court order over a year ago. And surprise surprise, Partlow was spreading BS muck about...wait for it.......roll on the drums....yes....you've guessed it already...Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador! Wow, shocker, huh?

All this thanks to the diligent work of excellent (and I'm proud to say long-time linked here) blogs Abiding In Bolivia and The Mex Files (and their own mini-eminence gris Utpal.) Click on the blognames to find the full exposés to Partlow's lies. Good work, guys.

So Joshua, you receive an award that so many professional journalists who read IKN have deserved this week. All yours, dumbass: