Let's face it with the Iraq Study Group report breaking out - there wasn't much oxygen domestically for LA news. Nonetheless there are a number of offerings:
- Paramilitary leaders in Colombia have scuttled their disarmament pact with Uribe. With allegation of Senators having improper relationships with jailed leaders and the threat of an escape Uribe had to clamp down - the paramilitary leaders did not like that.
- Little Castro released one dissident yesterday setting in motion a gambit that the Castro brothers set up several years ago. With pressure increasing years ago from the international community the Castro posse lashed back jailing dissidents and sentencing to absurdly long terms. I don't think that anyone but the hardest of the hardliners and most naive of human rights activists believed that the sentences would be served in full. So now the Castros will slowly and painfully start commuting sentences, granting human right releases and such. The idea is that Little C will eventually make a these grand gestures and basically bring us back to where we were over a 5 years ago but to the simpletons in Foggy Bottom and Turtle Bay this will be deemed a major breakthrough. The professional diplo corps and those in the know will then demand a concession from US. Those Castros are geniuses.
- Interesting piece in the Herald notes that Cuba is a demographic time bomb. It astounds me that Cuba which used to attract immigrants from places such as China, Eastern Europe and Spain should find it difficult to attract people to live in the socialist paradise. If people can't vote via the ballot box they vote with their feet (or fins).
- Hugo dragged new BFF Danny Ortega with him to Brazil - the first stop of a South American mini-tour made to shore up the Lefty Alliance. Chavez is going to tour South America and visit all his idiotic buddies - saving the best (or worst), the moronic Evo, for last.
- Speaking of the Evo genius the Bolivian Senate literally split yesterday. There were two sessions held in two different places.
- The Argentines approved the inclusion of Venezuela in Mercosur. (en esp.) Chavez still needs to get the go ahead from Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay.
- Those Brazilians sitting on the border with Venezuela love trying to get that cheap gas. Chavez is no dummy...well he's kind of a dummy, but he's not stupid. The Venezuelans are cracking down on the border jumpers getting gas and those smuggling too.
- Calderon is making a play to help Mexico's 100 most impoverished towns.
- Dallas Morning News wonders if Calderon can back the tough talk on cartels. The perception is that he is much more willing to act than Fox, but challenges remain.
- The Texas governor Rick Perry thinks a fence is a bad idea. Now I understand why the fence is such a sore spot for someone hoping to appeal to Hispanics but isn't this really a security issue. With cartels, smugglers and assassins running amuck on the other side of the Rio Grande, wouldn't it be best to secure the border? I understand New Mexico and Arizona not caring for it but Texas?
- The Prez of Haiti wants to have his prostate checked in Cuba. (en esp.)
