Latin America

[Vrede too]

All interesting to me:

Ex-Green Beret led failed attempt to oust Venezuela's Maduro

The plan was simple, but perilous. Some 300 heavily armed volunteers would sneak into Venezuela from the northern tip of South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the socialist country and ignite a popular rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro’s arrest.

What could go wrong? As it turns out, pretty much everything.

The ringleader of the plot is now jailed in the U.S. on narcotics charges. Authorities in the U.S. and Colombia are asking questions about the role of his muscular American adviser, a former Green Beret. And dozens of desperate combatants who flocked to secret training camps in Colombia said they have been left to fend for themselves amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The failed attempt to start an uprising collapsed under the collective weight of skimpy planning, feuding among opposition politicians and a poorly trained force that stood little chance of beating the Venezuelan military....

Meanwhile, the socialist leadership in Caracas couldn’t help but gloat.

Diosdado Cabello, the No. 2 most powerful person in the country and eminence grise of Venezuela’s vast intelligence network, insisted that the government had infiltrated the plot for months.

“We knew everything,” said Cabello. “Some of their meetings we had to pay for. That’s how infiltrated they were.”

It's like the Bay of Pigs with more incompetence and no one dies.

[Vrede too]

Did we just witness one of the nuttiest foreign policy blunders in American history?

It's a Venezuelan Bay of Pigs fiasco.

American captured over alleged Venezuelan coup plot says Donald Trump ordered plan

This might be coerced or bribed just like with some of our jailhouse snitches. No matter, PINO is ultimately responsible, directly or indirectly.

Pompeo says US to use 'every tool' to free Americans in Venezuela

They’re terrorists. Let them rot in a Venezuelan prison unless Pompeo and the lifelong cowardly Chickenhawk in Chief accept full responsibility and apologize.

[neoplacebo]

It's like a whole regiment of Hasenfuses.

[Vrede too]

It's like a whole regiment of Hasenfuses.

When my roommate was on his way to Nicaragua in the 1980s I had a t-shirt made for him that read in Spanish, 'I am not Hasenfus'.

[Vrede too]

How Donald Trump Helped Kneecap the Robert Mueller of South America

Figures, there's no limit to his corruption.

[Vrede too]

United States Department of State
Contact Us

Re: Cubans stage boat protest against U.S. sanctions
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cubans-stage ... 34200.html

The cruel and counterproductive Cold War sanctions should have ended long ago. Get on it already.

Yours,
(Vrede too)

[Vrede too]

Peru: (right-wing LOSER) Fujimori cries electoral fraud – and unleashes torrent of racism

Sound familiar, down to most details?

[neoplacebo]

That's what they get for having a Japanese president. The Japanese are rabid racists but (usually) very subtle about it. It's also a very patriarchal society. Maybe if he'd sit back and relax with a big pile of fine Peruvian flake cocaine he'd mellow out some. Or go totally berserk.

[Vrede too]

That's what they get for having a Japanese president. The Japanese are rabid racists but (usually) very subtle about it. It's also a very patriarchal society. Maybe if he'd sit back and relax with a big pile of fine Peruvian flake cocaine he'd mellow out some. Or go totally berserk.

Right-wing Keiko Fujimori, a candidate for president, was born in Peru to Japanese Peruvian parents.
Her father, President and near dictator Alberto Fujimori, also born in Peru but to Japanese parents, is in prison for corruption.

I don't know whether Keiko's extreme racism springs from her 3rd generation Japanese heritage, her rabid conservatism, her elitism or some combination.

[Ulysses]

In the 1980's I took a night school Spanish class. The teacher was a young lady from Peru. Very nice, good teacher, heart of gold. She was sort of closed mouth about her life in Peru, though, so I gathered conditions there were not so good. I did not pry.

At the end of the class we all had assignments to write a little story in Spanish about some activity.

So I wrote about how I was in a little sailboat in the bay, which sprung a leak and was sinking. I was yelling for help, and she was the only person standing on the shore. But, she refused to help me until I got the grammar correct. LOL. The rest of the class loved it. She took it as well as one might.

[Vrede too]

Slim Win Makes Ex-rebel Colombia's First Leftist President
Former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly won a runoff election in Colombia, ushering in a new era of politics by becoming the country’s first leftist president.

Former rebel Gustavo Petro narrowly won a runoff election over a political outsider millionaire Sunday, ushering in a new era of politics for Colombia by becoming the country’s first leftist president....

The vote came amid widespread discontent over rising inequality, inflation and violence — factors that led voters in the first round to turn their backs on the long-governing centrist and right-leaning politicians and chose two outsiders in Latin America’s third-most populated nation.

Petro, 62, was once a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.

He has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agricultural reforms and changes to how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. He obtained 40% of the votes during last month’s election and Hernández 28%, but the difference quickly narrowed as Hernández began to attract so-called anti-Petrista voters.

Petro’s showing was the latest leftist political victory in Latin America fueled by voters’ desire for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year’s presidential election....

What a huge change in what has been among the ugliest of Latin American countries. Viva la revolucion!

[Vrede too]

Mexico's Sheinbaum holds commanding lead in presidency race - polls


Ruling MORENA party announces its presidential candidate, in Mexico City

"would be the first female president in Mexico's history"

Claudia Sheinbaum

Was "Head of Government of Mexico City, a position equivalent to that of a state governor", otherwise described as Mayor of Mexico City
Leftist
Jewish - maternal grandparents were Holocaust refugees from Bulgaria
Secretary of the Environment of Mexico City, and of Mexico
Ph.D. in energy engineering
Multi-published academic
Contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and is thus a Nobel Peace Prize recipient
"Both of her parents are scientists"
Researcher
Mayor of Tlalpan
Feminist
Supporter of LGBT rights, became the first Head of Government of Mexico City to attend the city's pride march
Mother

I'm not sure which is most surprising to me. Several would be a first for a Mexican president, or a US one for that matter.

GoClaudiaGo