Latin America

Students, troops clash in Venezuela over election

"National Guard troops are firing tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse students protesting the official results in Venezuela's disputed presidential election. The students are hurling chunks of concrete and stones back at the troops on a highway in the capital of Caracas. The students are trying to reach the western part of Caracas, where most of the government is headquartered and where Nicolas Maduro is being declared winner of Sunday's election to replace the deceased Hugo Chavez. Citizens around the capital also are banging pots and pans to protest the proclamation of Maduro as the victor." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: $10,000 each in two suitcases

"Price controls didn't work for the Romans. They didn't work for the Germans. They didn't work for the Zimbabweans or any of the other hundreds of governments that have tried them. But who knows? Maybe they'll work for the Argentinians. But inflation is just getting started here. The rate is officially about 10%. Unofficially, it's 30%. Officially, you can trade a dollar for 5.4 pesos. Unofficially, you'd be a fool to do so. The black market rate is eight to the dollar – and more. So what do we do? Every time we come to Argentina we bring the maximum - $10,000 each – in $100 bills. Then, when we need to buy things, we trade our dollars on the black market." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: $10,000 each in two suitcases

Ecuador announces plans to launch first two satellites into space

"Ecuador will launch its first satellite into space from China in two weeks, President Rafael Correa announced Saturday. 'It’s not a satellite bought in another country, it’s a satellite made in Ecuador,' Correa said proudly during his weekly address of the homegrown engineering team. The 'Pegaso' (pegasus) nanosatellite will be launched from China aboard an unmanned rocket at 0513 GMT on April 26. Measuring just 10 by 10 by 75 centimeters (four by four by 30 inches), and weighing 1.2 kilograms (2.6 pounds), Pegaso will beam live video images back to Earth from an onboard camera. The Ecuadoran Space Agency plans a second satellite launch in July." Continue reading →

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Venezuela inmates open jailhouse nightclub

"Venezuelan inmates have opened their own nightclub and hosted friends and family at an inaugural bash complete with strippers and a light and sound show, a newspaper reported Saturday. The so-called 'Yacht Club' at a prison on Margarita Island in the Caribbean boasts 'professional sound, spectacular lights, air conditioning, strippers, bad girls and all the toys,' the inmates wrote in an invitation to their opening night gig, according to the El Universel newspaper. The party was attended by friends and relatives of the detainees, who publicized it through messages on social media, the newspaper reported." Continue reading →

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Peru’s engineers ‘make’ their own drinkable water in response to shortages outside of Lima

"The fresh, pure water on offer along a busy road in this dusty town some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Lima, has been extracted, as if by magic, from the humid air. Within the enormous, raised, double-paneled billboard inviting all takers is concealed a tube, wires and mechanical equipment that draws the water from the air and purifies it. Inhabitants from far and wide who flock here toting liter bottles and buckets say this purified water is a wonderful alternative to the stagnant well water that used to be the only water source for many in this town." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPeru’s engineers ‘make’ their own drinkable water in response to shortages outside of Lima

Special Privilege: Beyonce, Jay-Z Cuba trip was OK’d by US Treasury Dept

"Beyonce and rapper husband Jay Z visited Havana last week on a trip that was fully licensed by the United States Treasury Department, according to a source familiar with the trip, reports Reuters. The longstanding U.S. trade embargo against Cuba prevents most Americans from traveling to the island without a license granted by the U.S. government." Continue reading →

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Legendary Havana bar ‘Sloppy Joe’s’ reopens

"Mythic Cuban bar Sloppy Joe’s, a watering hole for a who’s who of Hollywood stars during Prohibition, reopens its doors Friday in Havana. The revived bar is in the center of old Havana, just steps away from Central Park and some of the city’s grand hotels. Founded in 1920 by Spanish immigrant Jose Garcia, Sloppy Joe’s was restored exactly the way it once stood, down to its long, black mahogany bar, which was immortalized in the 1959 British film 'Our Man in Havana' with Alec Guinness and Maureen O’Hara. In its heyday, it was frequented by Errol Flynn, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy and even Clark Gable." Continue reading →

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Communism Survivor To Gun-Grabbing Politicians: “You Don’t Know What Freedom Is”

"'You don't know what freedom is because you never lost it!' With a pointed finger Manuel Martinez called out Anti-Gun Committee Leader Floyd Prozansky during heated testimony on Friday. You can bet Prozansky got the message. Mr. Martinez escaped the brutal Communist regime in Cuba in 1954. His testimony included how citizens under Castro were first disarmed by legislation similar to that being shepherded along by Gun-Grabber in Chief Floyd Prozanski. Defenseless, many Cuban Citizens were later summarily slaughtered." Continue reading →

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The Most Dangerous Conspiracy of All Time

"They justified their 'revolution' by saying they’d end the conspiracy and bring order to society. But in reality, they only made things a lot worse. The country I’m talking about is Brazil — and the social blight I described was especially apparent in the central and northern regions where I lived and traveled in the 1950s and ’60s. The conspiracy: The deliberate policy of massive money printing by the central bank, the Bank of Brazil. The immediate consequence: Hyperinflation. The long-term impact: Destruction of wealth, erosion of social institutions, mass corruption in government, enrichment of the few, impoverishment of the many, and chaos." Continue reading →

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The Story of Kidnapped Costa Rican Internees in One of America’s World War II Concentration Camps

"We last year attended a reunion of the camp members at the facility here in Texas, and I was amazed to hear stories of some whose families had been US citizens for their entire lives, yet were swept up in the hysteria, stripped of their US assets and put into the camp. Most I spoke to were, like my wife, US citizens, most born to their now-American parents, but thrown into the camp regardless. One interesting fact to me was that in order to deport all of the folks they did following the War, they officially charged all of the detainees, people who had been kidnapped at the point of a gun, with 'unlawfully entering' the nation they were kidnapped TO against their wishes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Story of Kidnapped Costa Rican Internees in One of America’s World War II Concentration Camps