… and we pretend to work. The long-standing Cuban axiom has come to bear more truth than its users may have hoped or imagined. President Castro announced yesterday in his address before the National Assembly that the Cuban government will actually begin to lay off redundant workers, which he estimates are perhaps 1 in every […]
Polling results released this past Friday showed the Workers Party’s (PT) Dilma Rousseff leading José Serra – her main challenger from Brazil’s Social Democrat Party (PSDB) – by a margin of 5-8 points. The results mark the first time that most polls decisively show Lula’s chosen successor ahead of Mr. Serra since the formal election […]
Telefónica’s Cesar Alierta prepares to challenge Carlos Slims’ plans for Brazil Spain’s Telefónica announced today the successful takeover of leading Brazilian mobile operator Vivo after weeks of strained negotiations with its joint-owner Portugal Telecom (PT). The move will allow Telefónica to merge its fixed landline services with Vivo’s national mobile network and begin offering Brazilian […]
Ignacio Coronel Villarreal is described as one of the Sinaloa’s drug syndicates top three. Villarreal, known as “Nacho,” was believed to oversee the Siñaloa group’s operations in the western states of Colima, Nayarit, and Jalisco. He was killed after opening fire on law enforcement, closing in on his hideout in an upscale neighborhood of Guadalajara. […]
In spite of the decades of pressure coming from the United States, Canada has maintained consistently cordial relations with Cuba—in fact, Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the hemisphere to maintain uninterrupted diplomatic relations with Cuba following the revolution in 1959. [Interesting Wikipedia fact of the week: Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre […]
Spain’s Telefónica announced today the successful takeover of leading Brazilian mobile operator Vivo after weeks of strained negotiations with its joint-owner Portugal Telecom (PT). The move will allow Telefónica to merge its fixed landline services with Vivo’s national mobile network and begin offering Brazilian consumers ‘triple-play’ and ‘quadruple-play’ service packages (i.e. fixed-phone, internet, television, and […]
Cuba watchers and analysts pick apart every move, every statement in Washington or Havana that might be a political / economic / diplomatic bellwether and yet on a daily basis, particularly lately, we find ourselves stymied in the art of predicting the “what next.” Fidel emerges unexpectedly for a string of appearances after years out […]
Immersed in the agony of the distraught victims, and 20 million cubic meters of rubble, some little candles –sparks of hope– barely noticeable, are flickering in Haiti. They are optimistic signs indicating that the lives of many Haitians are improving. However, if like most people, you were bombarded with traumatic images of the reprehensible conditions […]
The recent car bomb set off in Juarez marked an escalation in Mexico’s drug wars. After police and medical workers were lured to the car’s location, the bomb was detonated using a cell phone, killing three innocent men. Similar tactics denoted Colombia and Iraq’s spiral into anarchy, but this was the first time a car bomb […]
Spending a week in Tuscany has its benefits, certainly, but without dependable Internet access and Western Hemisphere-centered news items, it seems I’ve missed a number of notable (and indeed, unusual/surprising/jaw-dropping) events in Cuba… Here are a few of the ones I’m picking up in the airport now. What else have I missed? Cuba indicates that […]
“You have several hundred NGOs operating in Haiti, and basically doing what they want, with no regard to the wishes of the Government of Haiti.” These are the words of Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit expressed during a recent meeting of Caribbean leaders in Montego Bay, Jamaica. “We have called on the UN Secretary General […]
This year’s Presidential candidates are increasingly resorting to fear and competing claims of victimization to win over the electorate. Today Jose Serra’s running mate (and de facto attack dog) Indio da Costa furthered allegations tying Dilma Rousseff’s Workers Party (the PT) to organized crime and drug trafficking. Indio da Costa not only reiterated previous claims […]
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