Post-Event Summary At an AEI event on Wednesday, former National Intelligence Officer for Latin America Brian Latell opened with remarks on how Cuban President Raúl Castro’s pragmatic style of leadership has contributed to the development of a legal and semi-legal private sector economy in Cuba. Although Latell acknowledged the pervasive corruption and racial tension in Cuba, he noted that there are many citizens running profitable small businesses. He called Raúl’s reforms the most “significant and comprehensive” reforms since Raúl’s brother Fidel Castro’s presidency. Moreover, he stated that Raúl’s changes are likely permanent because they are supported by the Cuban people, who are growing less dependent on their government.

The discussion then shifted to Cuba’s eventual transition to an open economy. Marc Wachtenheim of W International debunked two myths regarding communist transitions: 1) that a gradual transition avoids chaos and creates permanent change and 2) that a more market-based ... Read More

¿Los radares chinos de Manta y Esmeraldas están funcionando? La interrogante la planteó hoy el analista en temas de seguridad, Mario Pazmiño, quien emplazó hoy al presidente de la República, Rafael Correa, a que informe al país si funcionan o no los radares comprados a China para reemplazar los mecanismos de control que habían en la base estadounidense de Manta.

Pazmiño formuló este planteamiento en Radio Democracia a propósito de la caída de una avioneta mexicana en la provincia de Manabí cargada de dólares. Según Pazmiño, cuando salieron las instalaciones estadounidenses de Manta desde donde se vigilaba el tráfico de narcotráfico en cinco países, Correa se comprometió a reemplazarlas con mecanismos que mantuvieran bajo estricta vigilancia los vuelos clandestinos.

Según Pazmiño, lo ocurrido en Manabí con la avioneta hace pensar que los radares chinos instalados en Esmeraldas y Manta no funcionan.

Dijo también que la Asamblea Nacional debería convocar al ministro de Defensa, ... Read More

JORGE FERNANDEZ MENEDEZ

No hay, al momento de escribir estas líneas, información suficiente como para sacar conclusiones, pero estoy convencido de que la PGR y la Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional no hubieran divulgado la presentación en la SIEDO del general retirado Tomás Ángeles Dauahare y del general brigadier Roberto Dawe González, sin contar, por lo menos, con elementos sólidos que justificaran esa acción. Tomás Ángeles es un hombre de peso e historia en el Ejército Mexicano y no estaría hoy detenido, presuntamente acusado de relaciones con el crimen organizado, por simples sospechas. Pero insistimos, falta información.

Desde hace años me precio de ser amigo del entonces secretario de la Defensa, el general Enrique Cervantes Aguirre, uno de los militares más talentosos que ha dado el Ejército Mexicano. En sus oficinas conocí al general Ángeles, que era entonces su secretario particular y se decía, no sin fundamento, que manejaba buena parte de la inteligencia militar, particularmente en ... Read More

BRITTA CRANDALL

“You are immensely lucky to be living in a full democracy where each of you can say, feel, express, and shout whatever you wish.”

—President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, April 29, 2012

At a rally commemorating the ninth anniversary of the electoral victory of her late husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, President Fernández sang the praises of Argentina’s vibrant democracy and political progress. Under the slogan “United and Organized,” her fiery 45-minute speech was enthusiastically received by the estimated 100,000 supporters in attendance. However, most in the Argentine media would beg to differ with their president’s depiction of the current level of democracy in the country. Indeed, contrary to Fernández’s idealistic portrayal, freedom of speech in Argentina is in a dismal state, and is poised to worsen before it improves.

Legal maneuvers and harassment of the press

For the past few years, the Fernández administration has actively taken advantage of its congressional majority to ... Read More

QUITO, Ecuador — Ecuador’s official news agency says police have found a cocaine-processing lab near where a small Mexican-registered plane crashed over the weekend with $1.3 million in cash aboard.

Andina news agency says three people were arrested and a half ton of cocaine seized at the lab Wednesday.

Andina also says authorities assume the plane was carrying more than the $1.3 million that was found after it crashed, killing the pilot and co-pilot. It identifies them as presumed members of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

Unlike neighboring Peru and Colombia, Ecuador is not known to cultivate coca, the basis of cocaine. But it is a transit country and authorities say they dismantled five cocaine labs in Ecuador last year and have found four so far this year.

Click here for original ... Read More

JORGE HEINE

Acts have consequences. After partially renationalizing Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), Argentina is feeling the pressure. But ideas also have consequences. After being put on the table by the Washington Post, The Economist and The Wall Street Journal, the proposal to suspend Argentina from the G20 acquired some teeth.

On May 11, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., introduced a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that Argentina’s membership in the G20 should be made dependent on its “adherence to international norms of economic relations and commitment to the rule of law.”

As the G20, the “steering committee of the world economy,” gears up for its next summit, to be held in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18-19, the timing of this could not be worse.

Instead of focusing, as it should, on the deep crisis of the Eurozone and on kick-starting higher growth in the world economy, the G20 is now distracted by this ... Read More

BY CHARLIE SAVAGE & THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — A commando-style squad of Drug Enforcement Administration agents accompanied the Honduran counternarcotics police during two firefights with cocaine smugglers in the jungles of the Central American country this month, according to officials in both countries who were briefed on the matter. One of the fights, which occurred last week, left as many as four people dead and has set off a backlash against the American presence there.

It remains unclear whether the D.E.A. agents took part in the shooting during either episode, the first in the early hours of May 6 and the second early last Friday. In an initial account of the second episode, the Honduran government told local reporters that two drug traffickers had been killed and a large shipment of cocaine seized; he did not mention any American involvement. Several American officials said the D.E.A. agents did not return fire during the encounter.

But ... Read More

Mexico’s economic expansion probably accelerated in the first quarter as demand from the U.S. picked up, the latest sign that it is surpassing Brazil after trailing Latin America’s biggest economy for most of the past decade.

Gross domestic product expanded 1 percent from the previous three months, when the economy grew 0.42 percent, according to the median estimate of 10 economists in a Bloomberg survey. Analysts expect year-on-year growth to accelerate to 4.5 percent from 3.7 percent. The national statistics institute will release the figures at 9 a.m. today in Mexico City.

Mexico’s growth exceeded Brazil’s in the last three quarters of 2011 as domestic consumption and exports picked up on the heels of a strengthening U.S. recovery. The lowest inflation rate in Latin America and a benchmark interest rate that has remained at a record low for 34 months are helping improve the outlook for growth in the region’s second-largest economy, ... Read More

BY MARTHA MENDOZA

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials said Wednesday their agents were working with Honduran military forces aboard a helicopter during an anti-drug operation in which several people were reportedly slain.

Human rights organizations and Honduran news media report that at least four people were killed and several more were wounded when forces aboard the helicopter fired on a boat Friday night in eastern Honduras.

“We were there in a support role, working with our counterparts,” said DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden in Washington D.C.

U.S. government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because their statements had not been authorized said, Honduran law enforcement did not initiate fire, but returned fire after being attacked. The officials also said the DEA agents did not fire.

When asked about the shooting, U.S. Embassy official Matthias Mitman in Tegucigalpa provided a written statement that said “the U.S. assisted Honduran forces with logistical support in this operation” as part ... Read More

MEXICO CITY –  Two army generals, including a former assistant defense secretary, were detained by anti-drug prosecutors and are being questioned for alleged links to drug traffickers, authorities said Wednesday.

Soldiers detained retired Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare and Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, the Attorney General’s Office said in a brief statement released late Tuesday. The office gave no other details.

An official at the Attorney General’s Office said the officers are being investigated for alleged links to a Mexican drug cartel, but he would not say which cartel. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to discuss the case.

President Felipe Calderon named Angeles Dauahare as assistant defense secretary in 2006. He left the post in 2008, when he retired.

Dawe Gonzalez is currently assigned to a military base in the western state of Colima.

President Felipe Calderon deployed 50,000 soldiers and other military personnel to fight organized crime shortly after ... Read More

BY JOHN OTIS

Tuesday, May 15 was the day Colombia’s free-trade agreement with the United States took effect. At 11:15 a.m., however, a brutal message was delivered, reminding everyone of the ugly problems on the home front that the country’ has yet to overcome, despite its new status as a regional economic comer. The message came in the form of a powerful bomb that exploded on crowded Caracas Avenue in north Bogotá that killed at least two people and wounded 54.

A man wearing a wig and posing as a street vendor apparently attached a bomb with magnets to the hood of an armored SUV that was stuck in traffic. The car was also carrying Fernando Londoño, 68, a right-wing former government minister. The blast decapitated Londoño’s driver, killed a bodyguard in the backseat and showered pedestrians with shrapnel and broken glass. Londoño, who staggered out of the vehicle covered in blood, ... Read More

Trade: Six years after it was signed, the U.S.-Colombia free-trade agreement took effect Tuesday, giving our economy a shot in the arm. Tell us again why this pact was a bad thing?

Look at the Port of Long Beach. Monday, port officials drove the first golden pile into the water for their $1.2 billion upgrade and expansion, hailing a modernization that will double the port’s traffic when completed in 2019.

The project restores the California port as the U.S.’ biggest, and competitively answers the Panama Canal’s $5.25 billion expansion.

Increased trade capacity makes that possible — and nothing turbocharges trade more than free trade treaties.

With the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact going into force Tuesday, the U.S. stands to gain $1.1 billion in new sales to Colombia, meaning plenty of demand for Long Beach. In anticipation, U.S. trade with Colombia increased 19% last year alone.

And ports like Charleston, Miami, Houston and New Orleans may ... Read More

* Economy grew 5.55 percent year-over-year in March

* Economy grew 6.02 percent in first quarter

* Manufacturing fell 3.15 percent in March (Adds month-on-month growth)

LIMA – Peru’s economic growth slowed to 5.55 percent in March from a year ago, weighed by a decline in manufacturing output, the government statistics agency said on Tuesday.

Economic growth in March was flat compared with February, the INEI statistics agency said.

For the first quarter, growth was 6.02 percent from the same period in 2011, reinforcing expectations for growth of 6 percent this year and steady interest rates from the central bank in the near term.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast year-on-year growth of 6.15 percent in March after February growth data came in at a faster-than-expected 7.18 percent.

But manufacturing output fell for the first time in four months in March, down 3.15 percent due to waning demand overseas as the prolonged European debt crisis weighs on ... Read More

BY VIVIAN SEQUERA

BOGOTA, Colombia — A midday bombing that killed two bodyguards of an archconservative former interior minister and injured at least 39 people in a busy commercial district of Bogota has raised fears that violence not seen in the Colombian capital in years could return.

Former Interior Minister Fernando Londono, 68, had glass shards removed from his chest and was out of danger, authorities said.

But the ex-minister’s driver and another bodyguard were killed almost instantly. Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro said a pedestrian attached an explosive to a door of Londono’s armored SUV and set it off remotely.

Authorities said they had video of Tuesday’s attack and Petro said the culprit “walked away disguised.” A wig of long black hair and a hat were found nearby.

It was the first fatal bombing of an apparently political nature in the capital in nearly a decade and it traumatized a capital that two decades earlier ... Read More

BY MARIE DELCAS

Last month the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, convened the first session of the council of state. Opposition parties are convinced the aim is to avoid a power vacuum. The decision certainly confirms the impression that the transition process is under way.

The first topic on the council’s agenda is Venezuela‘s withdrawal from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which Chávez condemns as a tool of “US imperialism”.

The president, who has cancer, returned to Cuba to continue radiation therapy. Before leaving he acknowledged that these were not “easy days”, but said he was still “a warrior for facing adversity [...] with faith in God and Christ the Redeemer”. Returning home, Chávez and said the therapy was successful.

The subject is so sensitive for United Socialist party (PSUV) militants that almost no one dares to discuss it openly. But everyone wants to know who will replace Chávez.

Since January Chávez has spent more than a ... Read More

Un supuesto vendedor ambulante adhirió la carga explosiva al vehículo y luego huyó.

Hasta la noche de este martes, ninguna autoridad se atrevía a señalar a un responsable por el atentado terrorista contra el exministro conservador Fernando Londoño Hoyos, que dejó a dos de sus escoltas muertos y al menos 54 personas heridas en una atestada esquina del sector de Chapinero, norte de Bogotá. (Vea un especial en video con todos los detalles del atentado)

Londoño, uno de los hombres más cercanos al expresidente Álvaro Uribe y reconocido como uno de los principales opositores de las Farc, sobrevivió a un inédito atentado en el que el terrorista caminó con la bomba hacia su camioneta blindada, la adhirió al vehículo y huyó corriendo segundos antes de la explosión.

El atentado -uno de los más graves ocurridos en Bogotá desde el ataque contra el Club El Nogal, en febrero de 2003- sucedió pocas horas después ... Read More

El general retirado Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, quien fue subsecretario de la Defensa Nacional, fue detenido por elementos del Ejército Mexicano y la PGR para que rinda declaración ministerial por presuntos nexos con la delincuencia organizada.

Asimismo fue asegurado el general brigadier Roberto Dawe González, actual comandante jefe de Estado Mayor adscrito a la 20/a. Zona Militar (Colima, Col.), quien junto con el exsubsecretario rinde su declaración ministerial ante la Subprocuraduría de Invesigación Especializada en Delicuencia Organizada (SIEDO). Ambos están en calidad de presentados.

La Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional informó que el mando, quien pasó a situación de retiro el 1 de marzo de 2008, está sujeto a investigación de la Procuraduría General de la República.

“La Sedena reitera su compromiso con la sociedad mexicana que de ninguna manera tolera actos contrarios a la leyes, y cuando alguno de sus elementos no se conduce conforme a derecho, sus actos se investigan y en ... Read More

BY MARIO LOYOLA

At the height of Argentina’s bond default ten years ago (a fancy way to describe what was really a con-job of global proportions), Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle caused a major diplomatic incident when he said, “The Argentines are a mob of thieves, from the first to the last.” He was duly forced to travel to Buenos Aires to apologize, and the crisis eventually blew over.

But the Argentine government’s shameless pattern of lying and stealing only got worse. In February, The Economist devoted an entire article to announcing that it would no longer publish Argentina’s official inflation statistics, and not just because “almost nobody believes” them:

In an extraordinary abuse of power by a democratic government, independent economists have been forced to stop publishing their own estimates of inflation by fines and threats of prosecution. Misreported prices have cheated holders of inflation-linked bonds out of billions of dollars.

That’s just one relatively ... Read More

The May 2012 issue of the venerable Jane’s Intelligence Review features an interesting and in-depth analysis of the political situation in Venezuela leading up to October’s presidential election and beyond. It takes as its starting point that the mystery regarding the severity of Hugo Chávez’s illness indicates that the months ahead are unlikely to be smooth. It then posits various scenarios for the possible course of events, systematically assessing how Venezuela’s stability across a range of fronts will be influenced by whatever direction those events take.

Jane’s concedes that the lack of official transparency about Chávez’s health complicates any effort to predict outcomes. That same obfuscation, however, raises the destabilization factor: the lack of a succession plan has led to Chávez’s PSUV party being “riven with factional divisions” — primarily breaking down along military and civilian lines.

The individual to watch is Diosdado Cabello, currently head of the National Assembly and a former Chávez ... Read More

El general Luis Eduardo Martínez,  confirmó que son tres los fallecidos por este ataque terrorista. Y el presidente Juan Manuel Santos insinnuó que podría tratarse de un ataque contra el exministro del Interior, Fernando Londoño Hoyos.

Londoño sufrió un trauma encefálico leve, y hemoneumotórax, que es una lesión cerrada que le produjo entrada de aire y sangre en el pulmón, que se resolvió con un tubo que le drenó la sangre.

En estos momentos las autoridades evacuan la zona aledaña a la explosión que se presentó hace cerca de media hora en la calle 74 con Avenida Caracas, dentro de una buseta verde de transporte público.

El presidente Santos, en una intervención pública, condenó el antentado “de la manera más enérgica. No entendemos cuál es su propósito pero tengan la seguridad de que el Gobierno no se va a dejar descarrilar por estos actos terroristas”. (Imágenes del lugar de la explosión en el norte de Bogotá).

Las autoridades ... Read More