Around the Hemisphere

• Good article on Brazil’s emergence as a global economic power.
  

• Caracas lands at the top of FP’s list of Murder Capitals of the World.
  

• More on the impact of the financial crisis in Latin America
  

• More FARC members land on the Treasury Department’s "Lista Clinton":
  

• The failure of Chavismo to provide even basic services to Venezuela’s sprawling slums, as regularly documented by Radar de los Barrios: “If you don’t pay for the tank…there won’t be water. After ten years of discussions about ‘socialism’, water has become ‘privatized’ in the most perverse way. As such, the only thing the “revolution” has efficiently distributed is thirst…”
  

• Perhaps in response to Venezuela’s recent shopping spree on Russian weaponry, a comparison of Brazil and Venezuela’s military defense capabilities. The author makes a case for strengthening Brazil’s air-land defense capacity (just in case Paraguay wants to invade I guess?)
  

• Speaking of Paraguay, the nation’s equivalent of Paris-Dakar is the Transchaco Rally. According to Wikipedia (I seem to hear those three words a lot lately…as if it makes Wikipedia any more reliable) rally racing is Paraguay’s second most popular sport after fútbol. Unfortunately, the race has been postponed this year due to a sustained drought in the region. In the meantime, dozens of owners of souped-up 1983 Subaru DLs sit waiting to kick some ass…
  

• Colonialism as the primary cause of the current crisis in Bolivia; exploring historical roots, looking at the crisis from a regional standpoint, with the obligatory “U.S. is behind it all” scenario thrown in for good measure.
  

• In the Antonini Maletagate case, one witness confirms that the money came from the Venezuelan government.
  

Around the Hemisphere

• Ecuador ratifies a new constitution with a 64% “Yes” vote. Some of the immediate impacts: 1)tightens presidential control over banking, energy and telecom industries 2)Correa now has direct control over central bank, can set interest rates 3)allows for a second, four-year presidential term. Given Correa’s wild popularity in Ecuador (around a 70% approval rating), winning re-election seems a foregone conclusion. Now let’s see if he starts to consolidate power even more, as Chavez did when he first pushed through his constitutional rewrites in 1999.
  

• The cartel violence rages on in Mexico as sixteen bodies are found in Tijuana, murdered execution-style.
  

• With the uptick in hurricane action these last few years or so, stories of devastation seem to blend into one another. Katrina, Ike, Rita, etc… What we rarely see, however, is how all these hurricanes hit other, much poorer nations than our own. Ike did some massive damage in Cuba, as evidenced in these photographs.
  

• U.S. financial crisis impacts markets in Buenos Aires and São Paulo
  

• Does Obama’s “Change” message remind Venezuelan-American voters a little too much of Chavez?
  

• A statue dedicated to recently deceased FARC leader Manuel (Tirofijo) Marulanda Vélez was erected in Caracas. Gustavo Coronel characterizes it as “a new affront to the decent and democratic people of America”.
  

• Statistics like this always make me sad. In August alone, the Amazon lost another 756 square kilometers of acreage, an area roughly half the size of the city of São Paulo.
  

Around the Hemisphere

• Jamestown article reassessing Islamic terrorism in Latin America: I won't say this article offers up recycled, rehashed theories about...oh hell, I guess I just did

• Venezuela’s Support For Palestine: A Model For Third World Diplomacy - Probably not too many people out there who would consider Chavez's diplomatic skills as a model for anything...

• “USAID, arma clave de la guerra sucia contra América Latina” ;
One opinion that finds American aid offers to Cuba following Hurricanes Ike and Gustav particularly nefarious…

• Daniel at VZ News and Views provides some compelling visual evidence that Chavez’s vaunted social programs have done little to alleviate poverty in Venezuela. I couldn’t imagine a worse fate than to fall into the Guaire river (and I use the term “river” very loosely here. It makes the Ganges look like an unspoiled Artesian spring).

• While many are suspicious of USAID’s efforts in Latin America, there are others who are bending over backwards to justify Chavez’s expulsion of the director of Human Rights Watch Venezuela last week. While the underlying premise is the same (both are imperialist tools aimed at forcing American policy down the throats of smaller countries, blahblahblah), this editorial tries to document the many ways in which HRW has been tied to Washington over the years.

• Documenting the arrival of Russian warplanes in Venezuela (in Portuguese); on a similar note, Russian nuclear warship “Peter the Great” (or Pedro el Grande as some like to call it down south) is on its way to the Caribbean.

• New report by the always thorough Douglas Farah, chronicling FARC links to a whole host of international players, including Ortega and Qaddafi. The report dissects details from the treasure trove of documents found on a FARC laptop when a Colombian military raid killed second-in-command Raul Reyes last spring. Farah also interviewed plenty of figures close to the case, making this report the best yet on what was uncovered (links to a Pdf file).