Borda: A day with the Crazies
One Saturday I had the pleasure of being invited to partake in an extraordinary visit. I took some maté and bought cigarettes for the first time in four years. The maté was to help me get over the ill effects […]
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Asunción Anillo Energético
The 28th Mercosur meeting (Mercado Común del Sur) took place in the Paraguayan capital of Asunción, June 20th. Various accords were signed including Latin America’s first poverty eradication and common structural funds agreements. The smiling presidents were also photographed happily […]
A question of Royalties
By Latin American standards, Chile is an industrialized nation par excellence. Their exports are on a par with Venezuela’s, ranking a close third to Brazil and Argentina. But, when it comes to the primary industries, like the huge mining industry, […]
A Divided Bolivia
The newspapers suggested that “Nothing can stop the Santa Cruz movement.” The peaceful protests in La Paz on the 28th of January and all over the country yesterday suggest otherwise. Pro-government protests like the one in La Paz, are taking […]
A Gentleman’s Insurrection
In the remote Peruvian mountain town of Andahuaylas, not far from where I write a strange media revolution has taken place. Don’t get me wrong! This was a real attempt at a coup d’Etat complete with guns, death and violence […]
Argentina and the IMF, Time for hardball?
When the new IMF Managing Director (MD), the unfortunately named Rodrigo Rato, paid a visit to Buenos Aires last month he must have come prepared to lay down the law. Boy, was he in for a surprise! Rato set his […]
Crossing the Andes, No Road (Part II)
From Port Velho across Acre into Madre de Díos and over the Andes to Cuzco
Medical Emergency in Manuas
Manaus, Amazonas; but all was not well in my world. I started to experience what I first thought was severe indigestion. By 4 A.M. back in my not-so-posh hotel my temperature reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit and I relented. Waking my […]
Roraima, British Guyana and Chávez in Manaus
Manaus had been chosen for this celebration because of its proximity to Venezuela. The Amazon poses a formidable barrier to land transportation in the north of Brazil; it may never be bridged. However one working road, BR-174, connects Manaus with […]
Recall referendum: all over Bar the shouting
Accusing the national election board (CNE by its Spanish initials) of “Gigantic Fraud,” opposition leaders this morning called for the population to protest the results in the streets! After an exhausting day of long voting lines in the heat, and […]