Chavez welcomes Russian Warship

On Tuesday, Russian warchips sailed into Venezualan port, la Guairia, and were welcomed with a 21 cannon solute by Venezuelan troops waiting for them on the dock. A destroyer, a nuclear powered cruiser and two support ships were the ships that completed the voyage, Russia's first visit to the Caribbean since the Cold war. This meeting is thought to be a further arms deal between the two countries as well as an oppurtunity for Russia to invest in the natural gas and oil resources abundantly found in Venezuela. However, due to falling oil prices, the pockets of both countries are hurting and little might be done in the way of seeing out Chavez's plans for a Russian funded gas pipeline throughout his country.
The United States is skeptical of the meeting between the two countries, but is not afraid that their meeting will have any real affect. Some think that it the Russians don't want to engage in anything too deep with Venezuela when they are beginning to renew their relationship with the United States with the new Administration. To read more, click here

Flooding In Brazil

After severe flooding, a state of emergency has been declared in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil. As of Sunday night, at least twenty people have been found dead, and many more have been forced from their homes. At least one million people have been affected by the floods. Many of these deaths are the result of landslides that destroy roads and homes. The federal government and nearby states have been helping, including sending supplies and rescue workers.

Chile Strike Ends with 10 Percent Raise

A strike by nearly a half million Chilean government workers ended Friday in anticipation of government approval of a 10 percent wage increase. Chile's Senate unanimously approved the measure Thursday and the Chamber of Deputies, Chile's lower house, was scheduled to vote on it Friday afternoon. Passage was widely expected.

Chile's minister of labor said he approves of the 10 percent increase. The increase would go into effect December 10 and affect 450,000 government workers, from the president on down. The workers, who had been on strike since Monday, had been asking for a 14.5 percent increase. The government had initially offered a 6.5 percent increase, then upped the offer to 9.5 percent on Wednesday. Officials then increased the offer to 10 percent after the lower house rejected the 9.5 percent adjustment on Thursday. Striking workers had taken to the streets this week, staging large protests in most of the nation's major cities. Because of the strike, garbage piled up on streets, 18 hospitals were paralyzed and 3,000 surgeries were postponed. Even weddings and autopsies were not performed.


cnn.com

Volcanic eruption kills 4 in Colombia

A volcanic eruption in southwestern Colombia has caused the death of at least four people from landslides triggered by the eruption. Governor Guillermo Alberto Gonzalez of Cauca state says the dead were found Saturday by rescuers about 177 miles away from Bogota. The Nevado del Huila volcano erupted late Thursday and loosed avalanches of mud and ash that injured nine and killed four. Alberto tells Caracol Radio that rescuers evacuated residents by helicopter on Saturday.

Drugs in Mexico

In Mexico drug trafficking is a huge problem.  Over 90 percent of Colombian cocaine passes through Mexico on its way to the US.  It has taken a toll on Mexican children that I had never considered.  In some Mexican cities decapitated bodies, severed heads and corpses can be found in streets.  This brutal violence is becoming a part of daily life and the children are being desensitized to the violence.  Rival drug cartels post videos of murders they commit on YouTube.  Popular songs called narcocorridos list the names of famous drug cartel leaders and sometimes make them out to be heroes. 

Meriendas Deliciosas

As our trip to La Unión quickly approaches, I've been thinking about the Latin American foods I had during my time in Costa Rica. The first thing that came to mind was a cookie very popular in the area called a Chiky. The Chiky is a plain square biscut whose one side is dipped in chocolate. It also comes dipped in vanilla and strawberry.
Though initially marketed towards children, Chikys have become so successful and popular that the manufacturing company has expanded its product line to include other treats such as the Yipy (also highly recommended), the Chocolina, and Chiky Blak, similar to the original Chiky, but with a chocolate biscut dipped in chocolate.
Hopefully we'll be able to get our hands on some this weekend!

Source: http://www.pozuelo.com/galletas_con_cobertura.htm

Hugo Chavez edging further and further away from Democracy

In the state elesctions this coming week in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez threatens to cut of supplies and funds to states that vote against his chosen leaders. Manuel Rosales, a frontrunner for the governor position of the state of Zulia in which Venezuala's second largest city, Maracaibo, is located, is one of the anti-Chavez candidates that has a very good chance of getting elected. Says Rosales of Chavez, "he wants to wipe out and criminalize Venezuela's opposition, or those who don't think like he does, to attempt a constitutional reform allowing him to remain in power." Chavez has also threatened to send tanks into the streets that elect oponents of Chavez as governor.

Chavez also threatened TV stations that show early results of the elections adding futher shadiness to this not-so-democratic process...As it stands now, Chavez's popularity rating is droppping because of currency inflation, almost regular blackouts, coffee shortage, and wide spread crime. Meanwhile death threats to opponents of Chavez have become normal, hopefully it won't scare his opponents, but, we'll see.

To read more, click here.

Defender of the Drug Lords

This New York Times article talks about Silvia Raquenel Villanueva a Mexican lawyer.  Her clients consist mainly of powerful drug lords.  Her work is very unpopular and people have attempted to kill her four times.  It is interesting to see her try to justify her clients.  Her motives are not simply that everyone deserves a fair trial.  She has received some sizable monetary rewards for her work.  To read the article click here.

Three years ago, President Hugo Chavez discharged missionaries from the Venezuelan Amazon region where the Yanomami tribe dwells. Resentment is growing in the tribe due to what they consider the neglect that led to the deaths of 50 indigenous people in the Yanomami community. These deaths have been caused mostly by a lack of food, medicine, and access to medical facilities. Chavez responds to this resentment by claiming to have raised overall spending on social welfare programs for the indigenous community. Yanomami leader, 49 year old Ramón González, is quoted saying that this claim is merely rhetoric and not at all reality.

Indigenous healthcare has been an issue lately in Venezuela after a mysterious disease killed 38 Warao Indians in August. González says that indigenous lives are gravely underrated in the politics of Venezuela. "The boats, the planes, the money, it's all for the criollos", or the nonnative Venezuelans.

There are 26,000 Yanomamis in the Amazon rain forest, between Venezuela and Brazil, and they are semi-nomadic, subsisting on crops such as maniocs and bananas. These communities are not at all like the indigenous tribes from anthropology books. They can be seen in Puerto Ayacucho wearing modern-day attire and using cellphones. They are, however, extremely susceptible to many diseases for which they still have weak defenses, such as some respiratory diseases and drug-resistant strains of malaria.

Yanomamis say that while the Venezuelan governments put pictures of the tribes all over tourist brochures and in airport lobbies, the tribes are allowed no political positions. This shows the Yanomami community their governments complete lack of respect for the rights and individualism of the indigenous society.

a little girl with a lot to say

Mafalda has long been hailed in Argentina not only as a good comic but as excellent political commentary. She and her friends have plenty to say on the political situation of the latter half of the 20th century; why not check it out?

El Mundo de Mafalda

Hundreds Could Be Unknowingly Spreading HIV in Chile

In Chile, at least hundreds have not been told of their positive HIV tests. Health Minister Alvaro Erazo told lawmakers Thursday that public health services did not tell 512 people that they tested positive for HIV. Private sector services did not tell an estimated 1,700 people. Chile is beginning a campaign to inform the patients who Chile's public health service said provided incorrect addresses.

Read more here.

512 Chileans tested HIV+ but likely never found out

Insufficient efforts were made to notify 512 Chilean hospital patients that they tested positive for HIV. Approximately half the patients may have been notified, but receipt of the notification was never verified. The previous health minister Maria Soledad Barria resigned after it was discovered that some patients were never told that they had tested HIV+. The atrocious error may lend partial blame to false biographic information provided by the patients, which would inhibit contact being made between the hospital and the patient.

Novalima

The Peruvian band Novalima performed on Monday to kick off Newsnight's "Inside Latin America week." 

The group also published their own article to explain the origins of their music, and to eliminate some of the misconceptions surrounding the Afro-Peruvian musical tradition.

Mexico City plans to give Viagra to older men

Men 70 and older are being given free Viagra and other impotence drugs from Mexico City. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the city decided to put this plan into action because sexuality "has a lot to do with quality of life and happiness." Starting December 1 the government will start handing out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra, or Cialis from three centers that specialize in sexual health for the elderly. The City Health Secretary Armando Ahued says there is an estimated 112,000 men over 70 years old living the Federal District who will be able to receive these free drugs.

Abortion law vetoed by Uruguayan president

Uruguay has been prevented from having South America's most liberal abortion law by a presidential veto. Women's rights groups are outraged and are planning protests, saying that President Tabare Vasquez is "authoritarian," while religious groups are supporting him. First-trimester abortions were legalized by Uruguay's Congress despite threats from national bishops to automatically excommunicate any lawmaker approving the measure. However this law was stopped short by Vasquez's veto on Friday, calling the law unconstitutional. He also says he doesn't agree with abortion "philosophically or biologically." Now the measure will be sent back to Congress because of the veto, but most likely will die as lawmakers lack enough votes to override the veto.

Landmines in Columbia

Everyday about three people are killed by landmines in Columbia. Columbia has the most landmines of any country in the southern hemisphere, an estimated 150,000. These mines terrorize farmers, who sometimes move their families into cities to get away from the threat these mines pose. Despite the signing of the Ottawa treaty, prohibiting the use of these fatal weapons, landmines remain a popular form of land protection for guerrillas and drug traffickers alike. However, natural forces, such as hurricanes, can relocate these dangerous devices, putting innocent citizens in grave danger. One of the most horrifying aspects of this issue is the statistic that over 40% of the victims are civilians, and over 20% of these victims are children, under the age of 14.

This picture shows a group of young Columbian children at an informational session on how to protect themselves from landmines.

Former El Salvador Leader in War Crimes Case

Human rights groups from the United States and Spain filed a lawsuit in a Spanish court Thursday, charging El Salvador's former president, Alfredo Cristiani, with covering up crimes against humanity. The case involves the killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenaged daughter nearly two decades ago during El Salvador's civil war. Fourteen former Salvadoran military officers are accused of war crimes, murders and state terrorism in connection with the massacre dating back to November 1989. It has become one of the most notorious episodes of El Salvador's 12-year civil war that pitted leftist guerrillas against the U.S.-backed conservative government. Some 75,000 people died. The case filed by two human rights groups in Madrid argues that justice was never done in El Salvador. Two military officers were convicted of murder in 1991 in the deaths of the Jesuits, but were pardoned in 1993 under an amnesty law approved by the national assembly.

www.cnn.com

Ecuadoran Chocolate

Cacao bean farmers in Ecuador have always sold their beans to a middle man who then sells them to companies that make chocolate, which means the farmers are paid a tiny amount for something that is so expensive in the end. A large group of indigenous farmers decided to band together with the help of a woman from Kansas to cut out the middle man. Step by step they became more in charge of their own production and now make their own organic chocolate which is sold for as much as $5.99 in Whole Foods. It's pretty interesting.. check it out.

Tiger in Mexico City

Earlier this week, a tiger's cage at Mexico City's zoo was left unlocked and the animal escaped. Once out, it fatally attacked its caregiver. Officials searched the 740-acre property for the animal before capturing and killing it.
Shockingly, events like this is not unheard of in Mexico.
Last week, several circus tigers escaped and made their way into a private home in western Mexico.
In September, an elephant in a Mexico City circus escaped and made its way onto the public highway system, leading to its death of a collision with a bus.
In August, a lion escaped from a zoo and attacked numerous dogs, a pig, and a woman and child riding a donkey in southern Mexico.
Hopefully this situation will be taken under control before another tragedy has the opportunity to occur.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081111/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_tiger_killing;_ylt=AsPMwcYh44aG3S3kOYLSTzS3IxIF