INTL Latin America and the Islands: Politics, Economics, Military- August 2022

[Plain Jane]

July's thread:

INTL - Latin America and the Islands: Politics, Economics, Military- July 2022

June's rhread: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/latin-america-and-the-islands-politics-economics-military-june-2022.620070/#post-9217638 Main Coronavirus thread beginning page 1592: https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/main-coronavirus-thread.566780/page-1593...

www.timebomb2000.com

Main Coronavirus thread beginning page 1615:

CORONA - Main Coronavirus thread

Is this not a real heads up? We’re all this young healthy doctors all murdered together in a drive by? Man, this not something I’ve seen before…. :whistle: I have recently seen commercials for the Shingles Shot that I never saw before -and BTW, I’ve been of that age for a few years, so I have...

www.timebomb2000.com

Main Monkeypox thread beginning page 101:

MNKYPOX - Monkeypox - Consolidated Thread.

Monkeypox specifically affects homosexual men and not framing it explicitly as an Acronym-du-Jour public health emergency is negligent/discriminatory Monkeypox is not an A-du-J-specific disease and framing it as such is homophobic/discriminatory The important thing, of course, is that...

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Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

"Give Up Your Yacht Before Lecturing": Bolsonaro Sinks DiCaprio In Titanic Twitter Thread

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, AUG 01, 2022 - 12:05 AM
Brazilian President Jair Bonsonaro gave Leonardo DiCaprio a lecture in hypocrisy, telling the virtue-signaling actor that he should 'give up his yacht before lecturing the world' about the environment.

Of note, in January DiCaprio was pictured vacationing with friends on the $150 miullion "Vava II," the largest yacht manufactured in Britain, which is estimated to produce 238kg of carbon dioxide per mile - as much as the average British car emits in two months.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1480507806679662594

View: https://twitter.com/Footyfied/status/1480507806679662594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1480507806679662594%7Ctwgr%5Ead18f7d4236f3586bb88412b91d8ea6fce744f9a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fgive-your-yacht-lecturing-bolsonaro-sinks-dicaprio-titanic-twitter-thread


Bolsonaro was responding to DiCaprio, who tweeted that the Amazon rainforest has "faced an onslaught of illegal deforestation at the hands of extractive industry over the last 3 years."

"You again, Leo?" Tweeted Bolsonaro. "I could tell you, again, to give up your yacht before lecturing the world, but I know progressives: you want to change the entire world but never yourselves, so I will let you off the hook."

"Between us, it's weird to see a dude who pretends to love the Planet paying more attention to Brazil than to the fires harming Europe and his own country," he continued.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1552472763222425600

View: https://twitter.com/jairbolsonaro/status/1552472763222425600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1552472763222425600%7Ctwgr%5Ead18f7d4236f3586bb88412b91d8ea6fce744f9a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fgive-your-yacht-lecturing-bolsonaro-sinks-dicaprio-titanic-twitter-thread


The trouncing continues (emphasis ours):

But don't worry, Leo, unlike the places you are pretending not to see by brilliantly playing the role of a blind man, Brazil is and will carry on being the nation that most preserves. You can carry on playing with your Hollywood star toys as we do our job.


Actually, in my government average deforestation is way lower than it was in the past, when the crook turned candidate that your Brazilian buddy supports was in power.

It's clear that everyone who attacks Brazil and its sovereignty for the sake of virtue signaling doesn't have a clue about the matter. They don't know, for instance, that we preserve more than 80% of our native vegetation or that we have the cleanest energy among G20 nations.

It's also clear that you don't know that my government announced a new commitment to eradicate illegal deforestation by 2028, and not by 2030 as most countries. Or maybe you do know that, but for some reason pretend to be ignorant. I hope you not getting too much for this role.

If its within your reach, we would love to see you stop spreading missinformation. In the recent past, you used a 2003 image to talk about the Amazon wildfires allegedly happening in 2019 and was exposed, but I have forgiven you. So please go and sin no more.

By the way, what do you think about the hitting coal market in Europe? And what about Greta Timberlake, do you know what she has been up to lately and what she has to say about it? If I was hosting a barbecue in my house, I'm sure she would be yelling "How dare you?".

* * *

When being a hypocrite, remember - don't look up!

 

[Plain Jane]

Panama teachers end long strike that set off wider protests

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s teachers will return to the classroom Tuesday after a month-long strike supported by a number of other sectors that blocked commerce and snarled the capital with traffic over the high cost of living and government corruption.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/education-caribbean-strikes-panama-b57aa99ce9652e1563831cc6dd7ca9f7#

Panama teachers end long strike that set off wider protests
today



1 of 3
Members of the Teachers Union hold a general assembly as they end their nationwide strike to protest inflation outside the Republica de Venezuela school in Panama City, Monday, Aug. 1, 2022. Teachers continue to negotiate with the government over other issues. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama’s teachers will return to the classroom Tuesday after a month-long strike supported by a number of other sectors that blocked commerce and snarled the capital with traffic over the high cost of living and government corruption.
The teacher walkout started what became the largest social protest that Panama had seen in years. Educators said they were fed up with the soaring prices for gasoline, food and medicine and wanted more investment in education.

The teachers were eventually joined by construction workers and Indigenous groups, as well as frustrated average Panamanians. They erected highway roadblocks that froze supply routes and caused some shortages.

After more than a week of dialogue mediated by the Roman Catholic Church, the government agreed to hold prices on dozens of basic consumer products and a lower cost for gasoline.
The government said it would create mechanisms for the direct purchase of medicines to avoid shortages plaguing public hospitals and promised to set maximum prices for 150 medicines.


The dialogue between protest groups and the government was scheduled to resume Wednesday. Several pending demands remain, including reducing the cost of electricity, increasing government transparency and reducing government corruption.
Before announcing the end to their strike Monday, teachers held a big rally in the capital.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mexico to investigate former President Pena Nieto's finances – DW – 08/03/2022

Enrique Pena Nieto, who was in power from 2012 to 2018, has been accused of several alleged crimes including money laundering.

www.dw.com

Mexico to investigate former President Pena Nieto's finances
Enrique Pena Nieto, who was in power from 2012 to 2018, has been accused of several alleged crimes including money laundering.




Enrique Pena Nieto was replaced by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and currently resides in Madrid

Prosecutors in Mexico launched an investigation into former President Enrique Pena Nieto for several alleged crimes, including money laundering and illicit enrichment, weeks after the country's anti-money laundering agency accused him of handling millions of dollars in possibly illegal funds.

In a press statement, the Attorney General's Office (FGR) referred to Pena Nieto as "Enrique 'P'", in line with Mexico’s policy of not identifying those accused of crimes. The statement said he was under investigation for potential election-related crimes tied to a Spanish construction company, including money laundering, illicit enrichment and illegal international transfers.

Mexico’s former leader, who was in office from 2012-2018, now lives in Madrid. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Investigation into financial irregularities
The statement said some of the allegations involved Spanish construction company OHL: "Progress in this investigation will allow prosecutions in the coming months."

The Mexican unit of OHL was fined over inadequacies in its financial reporting in 2016, despite the company maintaining that there was no evidence of fraud. OHL Mexico was also hit by corruption allegations over leaked recordings that appeared to show its executives discussing overcharging the government for a highway concession.

In July, Mexico's anti-money laundering unit said Pena Nieto had received around 26 million pesos ($1.25 million) from a relative in Mexico, calling the FGR to investigate the cash transfers with unknown origins.

He was also believed to have ties with two companies that won lucrative contracts with Mexico during his term.

No charges filed
Pena Nieto had addressed the accusations at the time: "I am certain that before the competent authorities I will be allowed to clarify any question about my assets and demonstrate their legality."

No charges have been filed but the prosecutor's statement said that could change in the coming months.
Left-wing populist leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador replaced Pena Nieto as president in 2018. He has repeatedly accused his predecessors of corruption.
see/msh (Reuters, AP, AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Prime minister resigns, adding to political turmoil in Peru

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's prime minister announced his resignation Wednesday, adding to political uncertainty in the South American nation as President Pedro Castillo faces several criminal investigations after only a year in office.

apnews.com

Click to copy
Prime minister resigns, adding to political turmoil in Peru
By FRANKLIN BRICEÑOyesterday

FILE - Peru's President Pedro Castillo, front right, walks alongside Prime Minister Anibal Torres
and members of his cabinet outside the government palace in Lima, Peru, March 8, 2022. On Aug. 3, 2022 Torres announced that he presented his resignation to the president, citing personal reasons. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File)

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s prime minister announced his resignation Wednesday, adding to political uncertainty in the South American nation as President Pedro Castillo faces several criminal investigations after only a year in office.

In a letter to the president posted on his Twitter account, Aníbal Torres said he was giving up the post “for personal reasons.”

Castillo, who under the law can accept or reject the resignation, made no comment.

Torres was Castillo’s fourth prime minister, having taken the post in February. Previously, he had been justice minister since Castillo took office July 28, 2021.

Castillo was a rural teacher before he shocked Peru’s political elite by winning election as president campaigning on promises to improve education, health care and other services. But the political neophyte’s first year has seen near constant turmoil, with Cabinet members changing multiple times and Castillo staving off two impeachment attempts.


The president also has five investigations pending against him, including some involving claims of corruption and one for the alleged plagiarism of his master’s thesis.

Torres, who said he wanted to return to university teaching, has been a strong defender of Castillo. He has criticized the press and said those attacking the president “belong to the upper class, the right and the ultra-right.” He said those who are accusing the president are “the real thieves, who have stolen billions” from Peru.

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Argentina Vows Not To Go Full Weimar, Will Stop Printing Money Amid 60% Inflation

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, AUG 04, 2022 - 09:20 PM
Hours after Argentina's new Minister of Economy Sergio Massa was sworn into office, he pledged to stop printing money in an attempt to halt a spiraling currency crisis which has seen inflation hit 60% - and has been projected to reach 90% by the end of this year.

According to the Buenos Aires Times, Massa's economic roadmap also focuses on boosting exports, reducing the country's fiscal deficit, and refilling the central bank's severely depleted reserves.

Protests have erupted across the country over the last several months, as citizens are demanding that their center-left government reinstate various subsidies, and reconsider cutting more - such as the country's notorious welfare program, which has grown to 22 million Argentinians receiving assistance amid a 43% unemployment rate.

The country's deteriorating economic picture has left it cut off from international capital markets as the Fernández administration has relied on printing money to cover its chronic fiscal debt.

As the Epoch Times noted earlier in the week, the country’s state funded programs extend to nearly every aspect of the economy, from wages to utilities, education, and health care.
Argentina already spends an estimated 800 million pesos per day—a sum of more than US$6 million—on state benefit programs.

Concurrently, inflation in the South American nation hit 58 percent in May and soared above 60 percent in July. By comparison, national inflation was just over 14 percent in 2015.
Harry Lorenzo, chief finance officer of Income Based Research, told The Epoch Times the spending habits of Argentina’s government are at the root of the escalating problem.

“The Argentine government has been grappling with a collapsing economy for some time now. The main reason for this is the government’s unsustainable spending, which has been funded in part by generous welfare programs,” Lorenzo explained.

While the Peso's official spot price has weakened to over 130/USD...

The grey market 'blue dollar' for US dollars is trading dramatically weaker at around 300/USD...
via bluedollar.net
"Magic doesn’t exist," Massa exclaimed to reporters in Buenos Aires. "We have to confront inflation with determination."

The government will finance its budget by reducing its deficit or via private lending. The country is considering four loan offers by three international banks and a sovereign wealth fund, he said, without providing a figure of the potential deal.
Although light on specifics, Massa committed to meeting the government’s primary deficit target this year, a key pillar of its US$44 billion program with the International Monetary Fund. Massa said he spoke to IMF staff Wednesday to discuss the program’s future. An IMF spokesperson said in a statement that its staff spoke to Massa about implementing the program. -Buenos Aires Times

Meanwhile, and perhaps related to Massa's swearing-in, crypto exchange Binance has partnered with Mastercard to launch a 'cryptocurrency power card' for customers in Argentina. It will be used to spend digital currency on everyday items, according to a press release.

The Latin American country will be the first to see this product available on its territory. At the time of writing, Binance claims the product is currently in beta; it will become “widely available” for all users in Argentina over the coming weeks.
The Binance Card is issued by Credencial Payment, the press release revealed. Every user in the country will be available for the product as long as they have completed the exchange Know Your Customer (KYC) process and presented a valid national ID. -Bitcoinist

According to Mastercard Latin America EVP Walter Pimenta, "Our work with digital currencies builds on our strong foundation to enable choice and peace of mind when people shop and pay. Together with our partners, Mastercard has been leading the payments industry in enabling entry to this exciting new world, helping bring millions of additional users into crypto and other digital assets in a safe and trusted manner."

 

[Plain Jane]

Police kill 13 in north-central Mexico after agent slain

MEXICO CITY (AP) — State police in north-central Mexico killed 13 alleged gang members in a shootout the same day they captured four people burying one of their officers and a relative, authorities said Friday.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-caribbean-arrests-44d082eb7ef41fa9b064948ee43a5f62#

Police kill 13 in north-central Mexico after agent slain
yesterday


MEXICO CITY (AP) — State police in north-central Mexico killed 13 alleged gang members in a shootout the same day they captured four people burying one of their officers and a relative, authorities said Friday.

The San Luis Potosi state security agency said in a statement the clash occurred Thursday evening in the Vaqueros community in Rayon municipality.

Among the victims were 10 men and three women. Authorities did not report any wounded state police.

The San Luis Potosi state prosecutor’s office said weapons, tactical gear and vehicles were seized. Thursday’s operation was the result of intelligence gathered after police arrested four people as they buried a member of the state police and a relative earlier Thursday, the office said.

In the southern state of Guerrero, authorities said Friday they had found six bodies with bullet wounds and two heads nearby.

The Guerrero state prosecutor’s office said the remains were found near a burned out and shot up vehicle in the municipality of Quechultenango.



Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador continues to face stubbornly high rates of violence more than midway through his 6-year term. The president has emphasized attacking violence with social programs rather than head-on confrontations with the country’s powerful drug cartels.

“I am absolutely convinced that you can’t confront violence with violence, coercive measures are not enough, that is the conservative, authoritarian vision,” López Obrador said last month.

 

[Plain Jane]

Venezuela, Colombia border areas hopeful as reopening looms

SAN JUAN DE COLON, Venezuela (AP) — The freight company owned by Alfredo Rosales and his brothers was hustling, its 50 or so trucks constantly on the go hauling about 1 million tons of coal, cement, flour and other goods every year in commerce between Venezuela and Colombia.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/venezuel...lobal-trade-937057314eae844b26c375498e0d653b#


Click to copy
Venezuela, Colombia border areas hopeful as reopening looms
By REGINA GARCIA CANOtoday



1 of 23
Alfredo Rosales talks with an AP reporter on his property in San Juan de Colon, Venezuela, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, on the Colombian border. Rosales said he had a prosperous fleet of over 50 trucks before the border was partially closed by the Venezuelan government in 2015, but had to downsize to four trucks and sell the rest as scrap as the Colombian coal import business dropped. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

SAN JUAN DE COLON, Venezuela (AP) — The freight company owned by Alfredo Rosales and his brothers was hustling, its 50 or so trucks constantly on the go hauling about 1 million tons of coal, cement, flour and other goods every year in commerce between Venezuela and Colombia.

Their work came to an abrupt halt in 2015, when the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro shut down border crossings with its neighbor after years of deterioriating relations with conservative Colombian administrations.

“When they closed the border, we had nowhere to go to work. ... It seriously hurt us,” Rosales said Thursday as he looked over the family’s quiet five-acre truck depot in the western Venezuelan community of San Juan de Colon, on a plateau with views of lush mountains. They have only a handful of trucks now, the rest sold off, some for scrap.

Yet optimism is starting to creep into the border area, now that leftist Gustavo Petro is being inaugurated as Colombia’s president Sunday promising to normalize relations with Maduro. Colombia’s incoming foreign minister and his Venezuelan counterpart announced in late July that the border will gradually reopen after the two nations restore diplomatic ties.


“And this is what remains, hope to start working,” Rosales said.
Despite those hopes, business owners and residents in the region know meaningful vehicular activity across the border will not resume overnight. Venezuela’s economic woes have only worsened in the years since border commerce was shut down and more than 6 million people left seeking better lives mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, with about 1.8 million migrating to Colombia.

Colombia and Venezuela share a border of about 1,370 miles (2,700 kilometers). Bandits, drug traffickers, paramilitary groups and guerrillas take advantage of the remote and desolate landscape to operate, though that did not deter trade before the closure.

And goods have continued to enter Venezuela, illegally over dirt roads manned by armed groups and others with the blessing of officials on both sides of the border. Similarly, illegal imports also enter Colombia, but on a smaller scale.

On Saturday, men slogged loads of soft drinks, bananas, cooking oil, specialty paper, scrap metal and other goods on carts, bicycles, motocycles and their own backs down an illegal road turned into a muddy mess by rain.

Sanctioned trade, however, would flow at a much higher rate.

Although the border is long, all but two of the official border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia are concentrated in a 45-mile (75-kilometer) stretch, which before the shutdown handled 60% of commercial activity between the neighbors. The country’s northern-most bridge is about 330 miles away and Venezuela continued to permit some cargo to cross there.

“The expectations are very positive, and we have been waiting for a situation like this for so long,” said Luis Russián, chairman of the Chamber of Venezuelan-Colombian Economic Integration, which is projecting that the agricultural, pharmaceutical and personal hygiene sectors will be among the first to benefit from the reopening. “We consider it a new chapter that is going to be written between Venezuela and Colombia.”


Russián said a few Colombian companies have shown interest in joining the chamber as they consider whether to try to enter the Venezuelan market. The group had about 180 members in the late 2000s but now has roughly half that.

Food, cleaning products, auto parts, chemicals and myriad other goods used to cross between the two nations. Commerce remained strong even in the early years of Venezuela’s socialist governments, when the country’s oil dollars allowed businesses to import all sorts of things. Those relationships were strained when Venezuela’s economic slide left businesses unable to meet payments and access lines of credit.

The commercial exchange that in 2014 reached $2.4 billion was reduced last year to about $406 million, of which $331 million were imports from Colombia, according to the Venezuela-based chamber. The group estimates this year’s activity could reach $800 million if the border remains closed but could go as high as $1.2 billion if the crossings reopen to vehicles.
The Venezuelan government has estimated that the commercial exchange within a year of a fully reopened border could exceed $4 billion.


“That is going to generate employment, that is going to generate wealth, that is going to generate possibilities to produce, to carry out commercial exchanges,” said Jesús Faría, president of the Venezuelan National Assembly’s Permanent Commission on Economy, Finance and Social Development.

Petro, unlike outgoing President Ivan Duque, has expressed willingness to improve ties with Venezuela. After Maduro’s 2018 re-election, Duque, along with dozens of other nations, stopped recognizing him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Duque supported the economic sanctions that the U.S. and European Union imposed on Venezuela and repeatedly accused Maduro of protecting some Colombian rebels.

More than relations will have to be repaired, however, before trailer trucks, tankers and other large vehicles can resume moving between the two countries.

On the Venezuelan side, roads leading to the border are in disrepair and the bridges haven’t been maintained. One span even shakes when pedestrians push particularly heavy loads on dolly carts. A bridge that hadn’t gotten to open before the closure is still blocked by more than a dozen shipping containers and cement barricades.


Venezuelan truckers lack permits that they stopped paying for when business dwindled. Their counterparts in Colombia want safety guarantees. Venezuelan business owners hope that somehow financing can be arranged, as banks stopped offering loans due to the country’s runaway inflation and other economic problems.

It’s not only big companies with hopes for renewed trade. The self-employed and small business owners have hopes for the resumption of regular vehicle traffic across the border.
Among them is Janet Delgado, who sells clothes in Venezuela that she buys in Colombia, where she travels on foot about twice a week.

When she goes to buy only a few clothes, she uses a foldable grocery store cart. But like many other merchants, if she needs to bring in a large load, she crosses the border by one of the illegal roads, where the price to move between countries is lower than the bribes she would have to pay to get the clothes home at an official crossing.

“It would be helpful if they stopped charging us,” she said, referring to the bribes. “I bring two bags and they think one is a millionaire. (Vehicular traffic) would be great for me and for others. I bring a few things, but others carry a lot more.”

 

[Plain Jane]

Official: Gang kills, burns former Haitian senator, nephew

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A former senator who worked for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor was killed in an upscale neighborhood near Haiti's capital and his body set on fire along with his nephew, Government Commissioner Jacques Lafontant told The Associated Press on Sunday.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/fires-ca...ial-affairs-79106db8be7b529eb560b6b7857e1633#

Official: Gang kills, burns former Haitian senator, nephew
By EVENS SANONyesterday


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A former senator who worked for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor was killed in an upscale neighborhood near Haiti’s capital and his body set on fire along with his nephew, Government Commissioner Jacques Lafontant told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The bodies of Yvon Buissereth and his unidentified nephew were found Saturday afternoon in the community of Laboule. That is near Pelerin, where President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his private home in July last year.

Buissereth, director of Haiti’s Public Company for the Promotion of Social Housing, and his nephew were traveling in a government-issued vehicle and were found inside the charred car, Lafontant said. He said a gang trying to control the area is likely to blame.
“It was a terrible incident,” he said.

The Ti Makak gang, which means “Little Macaques,” is fighting with the Toto gang over control of that area. Gangs in the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond have become more powerful and waged violent turf wars since Moïse was assassinated.



Buissereth and his nephew were killed while driving on a road that a growing number of Haitians are using to avoid the Martissant area, which connects the Port-au-Prince with Haiti’s southern region and is controlled by warring gangs that have killed or injured dozens of civilians in that area.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry condemned Buissereth’s killing as a “barbaric act” by armed gangs in Laboule.

“His assassins, as well as all the other criminals who sow mourning in the country, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and must respond for their ignominious acts before justice,” he wrote Sunday in a social media post.

 

[Plain Jane]

Oil facility fire jeopardizes Cuba's frail electric system

A deadly fire that began at a large oil storage facility in western Cuba has spread, threatening to plunge the island into a deeper energy crisis as it forced officials to shut down a key thermoelectric plant.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/cuba-fires-caribbean-havana-83fada3ae9c902d311fcc260635168b4#

Oil facility fire jeopardizes Cuba’s frail electric system
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZyesterday



1 of 13
A man types on his cellphone near a huge plume of smoke rising from the Matanzas Supertanker Base as firefighters work to quell the blaze which began during a thunderstorm in Matanzas, Cuba, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Cuban authorities say lightning struck a crude oil storage tank at the base, sparking a fire that sparked four explosions. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

HAVANA (AP) — A deadly fire that began at a large oil storage facility in western Cuba spread on Monday, threatening to plunge the island into a deeper energy crisis as it forced officials to shut down a key thermoelectric plant.

Flames around dawn enveloped a third tank that firefighters had tried to cool as they struggle to fight the massive blaze in the western province of Matanza that began just days after the government announced scheduled blackouts for the capital of Havana.

“I am very worried about the children, the elderly, the economy of Matanzas and the country,” said Dailyn de la Caridad, a 28-year-old resident. “We don’t know how this is going to end.”

At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with another 14 reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions at the facility, which plays a key part in Cuba’s electric system.


“The risk we had announced happened, and the blaze of the second tank compromised the third one,” said Matanzas Gov. Mario Sabines.

By late Monday, four tanks were compromised, Lt. Col. Chief Alexander Ávalos of Cuba’s fire department told Televisión Cubana.

“The fire has taken on a greater magnitude,” he said.

Firefighters had sprayed water on the remaining tanks over the weekend to cool them but failed to stop the fire from spreading. On Monday afternoon, the government’s power company announced that the fire had forced the shut down a thermoelectric plant that provides power to the island’s western region after it ran out of water, according to the official Cubadebate website. No further details were immediately available.

The governments of Mexico and Venezuela have sent special teams to help extinguish the fire, with water cannons, planes and helicopters fighting the fire from several directions as military constructions specialists erected barriers to contain oil spills.

Local officials warned residents to use face masks or stay indoors given the billowing smoke enveloping the region that can be seen from the capital of Havana, located more than 65 miles (100 kilometers) away. Officials have warned that the cloud contains sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and other poisonous substances.

The majority of those injured were treated for burns and smoke inhalation, and five of them remain in critical condition. A total of 24 remain hospitalized. Over the weekend, authorities found the body of one firefighter as relatives of those still missing gathered at a hotel to await news about their loved ones.

Sabines and Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said it was impossible to search for the missing firefighters given the roiling temperatures.

The blaze at the Matanzas Supertanker Base in Matanzas city prompted officials to evacuate more than 4,900 people, most of them from the nearby Dubrocq neighborhood. The facility’s eight huge tanks hold oil used to generate electricity, although it wasn’t clear how much fuel has been lost as a result of the flames. The first tank that caught fire was at 50% capacity and contained nearly 883,000 cubic feet (25,000 cubic meters) of fuel. The second tank was full.

Jorge Piñon, director of the Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program at the University of Texas, said officials should inspect the walls of tanks that aren’t on fire to ensure they weren’t affected. He also warned that the government must be careful before bringing the system back online once the fire is extinguished.

“If not, there’ll be another catastrophe,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is going to take time.”

Piñon noted that the facility receives Cuban crude oil — operating an oil pipeline that crosses the center of the country — to be transferred via small tankers to the thermoelectric plants that produce electricity. It is also the unloading and transshipment center for imported crude oil, fuel oil and diesel, with Cuba producing only half of the fuel required to keep its economy afloat.

The blaze comes as Cuba struggles through a deep economic crisis and faces frequent power outages amid a sweltering summer, issues that helped unleashed unprecedented antigovernment protests last year. Officials have not provided a preliminary estimate of damages.
___
Associated Press videographer Osvaldo Angulo in Matanzas, Cuba, contributed.
___
Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

 

[Doomer Doug]

Chile, Peru and Columbia are now Marxist dictatorships. Nicaragua and Venezuela have been for decades. China rules them all.
Get ready.

 

[Plain Jane]

Raging fire consumes 4th tank at Cuba oil storage facility

Flames have engulfed a fourth tank at an oil storage facility in western Cuba as the raging fire consumes critical fuel supplies on an island facing a growing energy crisis.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/cuba-fires-caribbean-havana-3342b916dd0d527f43a0d6202f5b8bf9#

Raging fire consumes 4th tank at Cuba oil storage facility
By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZyesterday



1 of 16
Smoke continues to billow from a days-long, deadly fire at a large oil storage facility in Matanzas, Cuba, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022. The fire was triggered by lighting at one of the facility's eight tanks late Friday, Aug. 5th. (Yamil Lage, Pool photo via AP)

HAVANA (AP) — Flames engulfed a fourth tank at an oil storage facility in western Cuba on Tuesday as the raging fire consumes critical fuel supplies on an island grappling with a growing energy crisis.

Firefighters and specialists from Mexico and Venezuela helped fight the blaze in the province of Matanzas with boats, planes and helicopters as they sprayed foam on the containers, a first for crews since broiling temperatures had prevented them from doing so earlier
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said crews have taken control of the area where the fire is burning and are taking further steps to quell it.

“They are not easy tasks,” he said. “It is an intense and complex incident.”

The fire at the Matanzas Supertanker Base has killed at least one person and injured 125 others, with another 14 firefighters still missing. It also forced officials to evacuate more than 4,900 people and shut down a key thermoelectric plant on Monday after it ran out of water, sparking concerns about additional blackouts.


Those injured were treated mostly for burns and smoke inhalation. More than 20 remain hospitalized, with five of them in critical condition.

“This situation has us very worried at the moment because there are problems with electricity, with the environment, with the people who are still living here,” said Adneris Díaz a 22-year-old cafe owner.

The eight-tank facility plays a crucial role in Cuba’s electric system: it operates an extensive oil pipeline that receives Cuban crude oil that is then ferried to thermoelectric plants that produce electricity. It also serves as the unloading and transshipment center for imported crude oil, fuel oil and diesel.

The facility caught on fire late Friday after lightning struck one of its tanks, sparking several explosions as it spread over the weekend. The first tank was at 50% capacity and contained nearly 883,000 cubic feet (25,000 cubic meters) of fuel. The second tank was full.
Officials have yet to provide an estimate of damages.

The blaze comes just days after the government announced scheduled blackouts for the capital of Havana amid a sweltering summer.

“The economic effects are clear,” said Tahimi Sánchez, a 48-year-old cafe owner. “They are there, we will notice them and we will see them, but we are confident, and we are going to come out of all this well.”
___
Associated Press videographer Osvaldo Angulo in Matanzas, Cuba, contributed.
___
Andrea Rodríguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

 

[joannita]

And rain is compounding the problem, spreading pollutants from the air onto houses and fields. This is a huge economic and environmental disaster in what one person has termed a concentration camp disguised as a nation.

 

[Plain Jane]

Brazilians rally for democracy, seek to rein in Bolsonaro

Thousands of Brazilians are rallying in defense of the nation’s democracy. The event was held Thursday at the University of Sao Paulo’s law school.

apnews.com

Click to copy
Brazil manifestos seek to rein in Bolsonaro before election
By DIANE JEANTET and DÉBORA ÁLVAREStoday



1 of 5
FILE - A banner emblazoned with an image of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who is a candidate for reelection, is displayed for sale in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 2, 2022. Almost half a century later to the day, thousands are expected to rally on Aug. 11, for the readings of two documents inspired by the original “Letter to the Brazilians”. Both new manifestos defend the nation's democratic institutions and electronic voting system, which Bolsonaro has relentlessly attacked ahead of his reelection bid. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilians poured into the University of Sao Paulo’s law school to hear a manifesto denouncing the brutal military dictatorship and calling for a prompt return of the rule of law.

That was 1977. Almost 45 years later to the day, thousands are expected to rally at that same stage Thursday for readings of two documents inspired by the original “Letter to the Brazilians.” Both new manifestos defend the nation’s democratic institutions and electronic voting system, which far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked ahead of his reelection bid.

While the incumbent isn’t named in either document, analysts say it is abundantly clear to whom they are directed.

They underscore widely held concern Bolsonaro may follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s lead in rejecting election results and attempting to cling to power. In a country whose democracy is mere decades old, that specter has encouraged hundreds of thousands of people — even those who previously refrained from sticking their necks out — to sign the letters. The president has not only refused to sign on, but also belittled the initiatives.
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“We are at risk of a coup, so civil society must stand up and fight against that to guarantee democracy,” José Carlos Dias, a lawyer who helped write the 1977 letter and the two that will be read Thursday, told The Associated Press.

The first of the new letters, composed by the law school’s alumni, has received over 880,000 signatures since its online launch July 26. Among them are musicians including Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and high-profile bankers, executives and presidential candidates. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who leads all polls ahead of the October election, is among them.

The other document was published in newspapers Aug. 5 and has received less public attention, but political analysts told AP it is more important. It is endorsed by associations representing hundreds of companies in the banking, oil, construction and transportation sectors.

Normally averse to taking public political stances, companies were apparently concerned a backslide on democratic norms would be bad for business, said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo.


“The novelty is that sectors that have been remaining neutral, or were even somehow favorable to the president, also signed, because they saw themselves as being at risk,” Melo added. “Democracy is important for the economy.”

Bolsonaro’s commitment to democracy has been scrutinized since taking office, in large part because the former army captain has insistently glorified the three-decade dictatorship. Earlier this year he met with Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orban, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

For over a year, Bolsonaro has claimed the electronic voting machines are prone to fraud, though he never presented any evidence. At one point, he threatened that elections would be suspended if Congress didn’t approve a bill to introduce printed receipts of votes. The bill didn’t pass.

He began expressing desire for greater involvement of the armed forces in election oversight and, last week, army officials visited the electoral authority’s headquarters to inspect voting machines’ source code. Bolsonaro has alleged that some of the authority’s top officials are working against him.

When Bolsonaro launched his campaign, he called on supporters to flood the streets for Sept. 7 independence day celebrations. On that date last year, tens of thousands rallied at his behest, and Bolsonaro told them only God can remove him from power. He threatened to plunge the nation into an institutional crisis by declaring he would no longer heed rulings from a Supreme Court justice. He later backtracked, saying his comment was made in the heat of the moment.


Bolsonaro’s rhetoric resonates with his base, but is increasingly alienating him politically, Melo said.

Since last year, the electoral authority has been proactive in countering claims against the voting system. Its top officials, who are also Supreme Court justices, have made repeated statements in its defense. Behind the scenes, they have been working overtime to recruit allies in the legislature and private sector, though many had been loath to echo their public pronouncements.


A turning point came last month, after Bolsonaro called foreign ambassadors to the presidential residence to lecture them on the electronic vote’s supposed vulnerabilities. Since then, both leaders of Congress and the prosecutor-general, all of whom are considered Bolsonaro allies, have expressed confidence in the system’s reliability.

The U.S. also weighed in, with its State Department issuing a statement the day after the ambassadors’ meeting to say the Brazilian electoral system and democratic institutions are a “model for the world.” In a July conference with regional defense ministers in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said militaries should carry out their missions responsibly, especially during elections.


The letters to be read Thursday — which at any other time might have been a dry exercise relegated to academia — have struck a chord with society. Television stations in recent days have aired clips of artists reading the pro-democracy pledge

Bolsonaro, for his part, has played down concerns and repeatedly dismissed the manifestos.
“We don’t need any little letter to say that we defend democracy, to say we will fulfill the constitution,” the president told allied politicians July 27.

Still, concern about Bolsonaro’s rhetoric has spread even among some allies, two Cabinet ministers told AP on the condition of anonymity, as they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The ministers said Bolsonaro rallying supporters to the streets is justified, but worry his manner of expression may lead some to believe he is inciting violence. They said Bolsonaro’s impulses and fiery reactions have also undermined their efforts to keep the peace between the administration and other institutions.

Bolsonaro’s party has distanced itself from claims the election could be compromised. The party’s leader sought out the electoral court’s president to assure him of his trust in the voting system, Augusto Rosa, the party’s vice president, told AP.

It will be an uphill battle for Bolsonaro. More than half the people surveyed by pollster Datafolha said they wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstance. But support has perked up recently amid lower unemployment, reduced gasoline prices and higher welfare spending. Some polls say da Silva is down to a single-digit lead in the first-round vote. A close race would make pre-election promises to respect results all the more relevant.

Independent political analyst Thomas Traumann said he views the industry-led manifesto as the most significant document in Brazil since its 1988 constitution.

“There are going to be people defending democracy, which we haven’t seen since the dictatorship,” Traumann said by phone. “Isolating coup mongering at this moment is very important.”
___
Álvares reported from Brasilia.

 

[Plain Jane]

Brazilians fill streets in 'defense of democracy' – DW – 08/12/2022

A coalition of big businesses, labor leaders, academics and artists staged protests in major cities amid attacks from President Jair Bolsonaro on the country's voting system. General elections will be held in October.

www.dw.com

Brazilians fill the streets in 'defense of democracy' ahead of key elections
A coalition of big businesses, labor leaders, academics and artists staged protests in major cities amid attacks from President Jair Bolsonaro on the country's voting system. General elections will be held in October.




Some protesters fear that President Bolsonaro could attempt a military coup if he loses the October elections

Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday in "defense of democracy" amid sustained attacks from President Jair Bolsonaro on the country's voting system. The rallies took place weeks ahead of key presidential elections in October.

Far-right Bolsonaro has been lagging in the polls behind left-wing former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In recent months Bolsonaro has attacked the electronic voting system and the Supreme Court justices who oversee elections in order to sow doubt about future election results.

Thursday's pro-democracy rallies swept major cities including Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and Recife. Protesters chanted "out with Bolsonaro" and held banners with slogans like "respect the vote."

The protesters slammed the president's attacks on democratic institutions

More than 900,000 Brazilians, including union officials, high profile artists, intellectuals, business leaders and bankers also signed two manifestos defending the country's democratic institutions that were read out at the protests.

"After 200 years of independence in Brazil, we should be thinking about our future... but we are focused on preventing a regression," University of Sao Paulo rector Carlos Gilberto Junior told a gathering.

Former Justice Minister Jose Carlos Dias — who helped pen the manifestos — said the protests were an "unprecedented moment, in which capital and labor come together in defense of democracy."

Bolsonaro lagging in the polls
Observers fear that Bolsonaro's repeated attacks on Brazil's democratic institutions could be used to dispute the election result if he loses in October.

Last month, the president repeated his unfounded claims in a private meeting with foreign ambassadors, prompting the US embassy to later say Brazil's electoral system was a "model for the world."

In the capital Brasilia, and other cities, protesters rally in support of Brazil's judiciary and democratic institutions

Lula, the former left-wing president who was imprisoned over a corruption scandal involving state oil company Petrobras, has consistently led opinion polls with over 40% of the vote. He maintains that his conviction was politically motivated.

On the day of the protests, Lula tweeted: "Our country used to be sovereign and respected. We need to get it back."

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro has belittled the democratic manifestos as "little letters" and said that he respects the constitution. On Thursday, he mocked the demonstrations on Twitter: "Today, a very important act took place... Petrobras reduced, once again, the price of diesel."
zc/wd (AFP, AP, Reuters)

 

[Plain Jane]

Rescuers to start search for Mexican miners – DW – 08/13/2022

Ten workers were trapped after a mine in Mexico's main coal-producing region of Coahuila collapsed nearly 10 days ago. Rescue efforts have been impeded by harsh conditions.

www.dw.com

Mexico: Rescuers to begin search for trapped miners
Ten workers were trapped after a mine in Mexico's main coal-producing region of Coahuila collapsed nearly 10 days ago. Rescue efforts have been impeded by harsh conditions.




Hundreds of rescue workers, including military personnel, have been engaged in efforts to save the miners

Authorities in Mexico on Friday said they were in the position to search a flooded coal mine in the northern state of Coahuila, where 10 workers have been trapped since August 3.

"We have all the conditions to go down there... to search for and rescue" the miners, civil defense national coordinator Laura Velazquez said via video during President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's morning news conference.

Hundreds of rescuers, including soldiers and military scuba divers, are taking part in efforts to save the miners. A specialist team with the military has attempted several descents into the vertical shafts of the El Pinabete mine to remove wood and other debris blocking their way, Velazquez said.

However, they had not yet reached the floor of the deep shaft to access the main tunnels where the workers were believed to be trapped.

The mine collapsed when the miners entered a neighboring area filled with water earlier this month. Authorities had said the miners were stuck in 200-foot (61-meter) shafts that were half flooded.

Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said the water level in one of the three shafts that rescuers would try to enter had been reduced to 70 centimeters (27 inches), down from over 30 meters initially.

The other two shafts still had 3.9 and 4.7 meters of water.

Authorities consider 1.5 meters to be an acceptable water level to gain access to the crudely constructed mine.

The latest announcement on Friday offered a new glimmer of hope to the miners' families amid drawn-out rescue attempts.

Mexico's main coal-producing region of Coahuila has seen several fatal mining incidents over the years, the worst of which was an explosion that claimed 65 lives at the Pasta de Conchos mine in 2006.

Last year, seven people died when they were trapped in another mine in the region.

The latest incident has reignited concerns over the actions of mining companies in the area, with Mexico's Attorney General's Office announcing on Thursday that the owner of the collapsed mine will be charged over illegal exploitation.

see/jcg (Reuters, EFE, AFP)

 

[Plain Jane]

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

"Tijuana Under Attack!": Sudden Eruption Of Cartel Violence Leaves Cars Burned Across Border City

BY TYLER DURDEN
SATURDAY, AUG 13, 2022 - 03:00 PM
The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana has requested all American government employees to shelter in place until further notice after cartel violence erupted in parts of northern Mexico.
The violence began in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city on the Rio Grande, just south of El Paso, Texas, with a prison battle between two rival cartels that left eleven people dead -- then the chaos spread outside into the streets of the city, according to the Times of San Diego.
By the weekend, the violence moved west, warranting the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana to advise Americans to shelter in place after a sudden eruption of violence.

"The U.S. Consulate General Tijuana is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada and Tecate," the consulate said. "U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice."

San Deigo County Vice Chair Nora Vargas warned all "binational residents to be cautious and follow the recommendations from government officials and avoid unnecessary travel to allow authorities to do their work and maintain safety. My thoughts are with those impacted by the incidents."

Here's footage of the chaos spreading through Tijuana as cartels duke it out.

Please be careful if any of you are in Tijuana! The Jalisco Cartel has sent a message to not be out in the streets after 10pm !! pic.twitter.com/gd245mu7uG
— b:-) (@queentrizz) August 13, 2022

The San Diego Union-Tribune noted parts of Tijuana have gone into lockdown.

**********

See this thread also:

BRKG - Mexican border towns erupting

https://mx.usembassy.gov/alert-fires-roadblocks-and-police-activity-in-tijuana-mexicali-rosarito-ensenada-and-tecate/ AUGUST 12, 2022 ALERT: FIRES, ROADBLOCKS, AND POLICE ACTIVITY IN TIJUANA, MEXICALI, ROSARITO, ENSENADA, AND TECATE Location: Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, Tecate...

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[Plain Jane]

Colombia and ELN rebels begin moving to restart peace talks

HAVANA (AP) — Colombia's new government and members of the nation's last guerrilla group took steps Friday toward restarting peace talks that were suspended three years ago in Cuba. After a meeting between representatives of both sides in Havana, Colombia's national peace commissioner, Danilo...

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/cuba-colombia-caribbean-arrests-a7456b3425b732879ab4bae24e5fb816#

Colombia and ELN rebels begin moving to restart peace talks​

By ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and MANUEL RUEDAAugust 12, 2022



1 of 6
Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva speaks as Colombian Peace Commissioner Danilo Rueda looks on during a meeting with representatives of the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN) in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. The delegations of the Colombian government and the guerrilla National Liberation Army announced on Friday that they are committed to taking the necessary steps to try to reactivate the peace negotiations suspended four years ago. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

HAVANA (AP) — Colombia’s new government and members of the nation’s last guerrilla group took steps Friday toward restarting peace talks that were suspended three years ago in Cuba.

After a meeting between representatives of both sides in Havana, Colombia’s national peace commissioner, Danilo Rueda, said the government would take the necessary “judicial and political steps” to make peace talks possible with the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN.

Observers consider it likely that those steps will include lifting arrest warrants for ELN negotiators who are currently living in exile in Cuba.

The administration of newly inaugurated President Gustavo Petro will engage with the ELN delegation and considers them to be legitimate representatives of the rebel group, Rueda said.

“We believe that the ELN has the same desire for peace as the Colombian government,” Rueda said in his statement. “And hope that they are listening to the many voices in different territories who are seeking a peaceful solution to this armed conflict.”


Peace talks between Colombia’s previous government and the ELN were terminated in 2019 after the rebels set off a car bomb at a police academy in Bogota and killed more than 20 cadets.

Following that incident, Colombian authorities issued arrest warrants for ELN leaders in Cuba for the peace negotiations. But Cuba refused to extradite them, arguing that doing so would compromise its status as a neutral nation in the conflict and break with diplomatic protocols.

The United States responded by placing Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Petro has said he wants to start peace talks with the nation’s remaining armed groups in an effort to reduce violence in rural areas and bring lasting peace to the nation of 50 million people.

A 2016 peace deal between the government and the nations largest guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, helped to reduce kidnappings, homicides and forced displacement.

But violence has picked up in some parts of the country as FARC holdouts, drug trafficking groups and the ELN fight over cocaine smuggling routes, illegal mines and other resources that were abandoned by the FARC.

In July, criminal groups staged almost 90 attacks on the police and military, killing 13 police officers, according to CERAC, a think tank that monitors violence in Colombia. That made it one of the most dangerous months for Colombia’s armed forces in the past two decades.


The ELN, which was founded in the 1960s, has long been designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization. The group has an estimated 2,500 fighters in Colombia and also runs drug trafficking routes, extortion rackets and illegal mines in neighboring Venezuela.
___
Rueda reported from Bogota, Colombia.

 

[Zagdid]

PDVSA pauses oil-for-debt shipments to Europe, wants product swaps

HOUSTON — Venezuela has suspended new crude shipments to Europe under an oil-for-debt deal and has asked Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol to provide it with fuel…

financialpost.com

PDVSA pauses oil-for-debt shipments to Europe, wants product swaps​

Author of the article:

Reuters
Marianna Parraga
Publishing date: Aug 15, 2022 • 7 hours ago

HOUSTON — Venezuela has suspended new crude shipments to Europe under an oil-for-debt deal and has asked Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol to provide it with fuel in exchange for future cargoes, three people familiar with the matter said.

Venezuela’s oil company PDVSA no longer is interested in the oil-for-debt deals that the U.S. State Department authorized in May, the sources said, which allowed the state company to resume shipments to Europe after a two-year suspension caused by U.S. sanctions.

Washington authorized the shipments as long as cargo proceeds were used to pay off accumulated debt PDVSA owed to joint ventures with Eni and Repsol.

“PDVSA wants to go back to oil swaps, and that is not possible yet,” said a person involved in cargoes previously delivered to Europe. “There’s zero interest in the oil-for-debt deals.”

Venezuelan oil shipments, particularly those sent to refineries in Spain, have helped Europe reduce purchases of Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine. But the deal’s terms have not provided needed cash or fuel to PDVSA, whose own refineries are struggling to produce gasoline and diesel after years of underinvestment and lack of repairs.

PDVSA, Eni, Repsol and the U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

According to PDVSA’s shipping schedules, there are no loading windows assigned to Eni or Repsol for Europe-bound cargoes in August, even though stocks of diluted crude oil (DCO) at the Jose port rose to almost 5 million barrels as of Aug 8.

PDVSA wants to get fuel in exchange for its crude, while using a portion of the cargoes’ value to offset billions of dollars in debts to joint venture partners including Chevron, Eni and Repsol, according to the sources.

The deal reshuffle could help the Venezuelan company reanimate its Orinoco Belt extra heavy oil operations, which need imported diluents such as heavy naphtha, and ease the country’s motor fuel deficit.

Since last year, PDVSA has relied mostly on Iranian diluents to turn its extra heavy crude into exportable grades.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mexican National Guard Deployed To Tijuana Amid Eruption Of Cartel-Fueled Violence | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Mexican National Guard Deployed To Tijuana Amid Eruption Of Cartel-Fueled Violence​

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, AUG 15, 2022 - 10:35 AM
From the border city of Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas, there is an increased presence of National Guard troops in the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur following an eruption of cartel violence over the weekend.

At least 350 National Guard troops were emergency deployed to the region on Saturday as cartels hijacked and burned vehicles and left the border city of Tijuana in utter chaos.


Late Friday night, the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana advised all American government employees to shelter in place until further notice due to escalating violence. At one point over the weekend, the busiest U.S. border crossing was blocked by torched vehicles.

Fox News noted the Jalisco New Generation Cartel threatened violence to anyone in Baja California over the weekend:

"Be warned. As of Friday at 10 p.m. through Sunday at 3 a.m. we're going to create mass chaos so the [expletive] government frees our people. We're the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, we don't want to hurt good people but it's best they don't go outside, we're going to attack anyone we see on the streets on these days."

Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero immediately responded to the cartel's message and said:

"We are not going to allow a single Tijuana citizen to pay the consequences of those who didn't pay their bills.
"We ask that you make the people who owe you pay up, not the families and citizens who work."

The mayor said, "the problem is serious," and about 3,000 federal troops attempted to keep the peace in the northern state. She added that no one was seriously injured as cartels tried to create as much chaos as possible.

The question remains if Baja California has returned to normal after a weekend of cartel violence or if it will persist through the week.

 

[Plain Jane]

Mexico's week of drug violence shakes administration

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Days of widespread drug cartel arson and shootings in four states last week have left Mexicans asking why the drug cartels exploded and what do they want. The attacks killed 11 people, including a young boy and four radio station employees who were randomly shot on the...

apnews.com

Mexico's week of drug violence shakes administration

Mexico’s week of drug violence shakes administration​

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and FABIOLA SÁNCHEZyesterday

FILE - Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, flanked by Defense Secretary Gen. Luis Crescencio Sandoval, left, and Marine Secretary Jose Rafael Ojeda, surveys National Guard troops as the new force is presented at a ceremony, in Mexico City, June 30, 2019. Lopez Obrador has begun exploring plans to side-step congress to hand formal control of the National Guard to the army. That has raised concerns, because he won approval for creating the force in 2019 by pledging in the constitution that it would be under nominal civilian control and that the army would be off the streets by 2024. (AP Photo/Christian Palma, File)

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Days of widespread drug cartel arson and shootings in four states last week have left Mexicans asking why the drug cartels exploded and what do they want.

The attacks killed 11 people, including a young boy and four radio station employees who were randomly shot on the streets of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, on Thursday.

Two days earlier, more than two dozen convenience stores owned by a well-known national chain were set ablaze in the northern state of Guanajuato. Cars and buses were commandeered and burned in neighboring Jalisco state. And two dozen vehicles were hijacked and set on fire in cities on the California border Friday.

The federal government deployed soldiers and National Guard troops to calm residents’ fears, but the outbursts of violence raised questions about President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s approach of putting all responsibility for security in the hands of the military rather than civilian police forces.
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Some were quick to brand the arson and shooting attacks as terrorism, while the government denied it. Interior Secretary Adán Augusto López said, “They are not terrorist attacks; you don’t have to exaggerate the facts.”

But it is not clear what the goal was.

“I think that the orders that were given to these gunmen was to cause chaos,” said Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope. “Generate chaos, generate uncertainty, generate fear, shoot at anything that moves. That is something that generates terror.”
But, Hope added: “Terrorism implies a political goal. I don’t know what the political goal is in this case.”

López Obrador suggested Monday the attacks were part of a political conspiracy against him by opponents that he describes as “conservatives” and he argued that “there is no big problem” with security.

“I don’t know if there was a connection, a hidden hand, if this had been set up,” he said. “What I do know is that our opponents, the corrupt conservatives, help in the black propaganda.”

Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said later that the cartels had lashed out because they have been weakened. “They want to still feel like they’re strong and they generate violent situations where by way of publicity they send messages that they are still strong,” he said.
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Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero sounded very different when she issued a strange public appeal Friday to the cartels to stop targeting innocent civilians.

“Today we are saying to the organized crime groups that are committing these crimes that Tijuana is going to remain open and take care of its citizens,” Caballero said in a video. “And we also ask them to settle their debts with those who didn’t pay what they owe, not with families and hard-working citizens.”

The streets of central Tijuana were busy Monday after an unusually quiet weekend of canceled medical appointments and closed restaurants.

On Monday morning, pedestrians waited more than three hours to enter the United States at the San Ysidro border crossing connecting Tijuana and San Diego. There was no visible stepped-up security presence in central Tijuana.
There

Omar García, who runs a clothing souvenir stand near the border crossing in Tijuana, said tourism evaporated over the weekend. He was encouraged by Monday’s heavy traffic but said the violence could turn into an economic jolt to his business.

“They are blows that come occasionally,” said García, 34, who has sold souvenirs at the border crossing since he was a young boy. “We are 100% dependent on tourism. If they get scared, they don’t come.”

José Andrés Sumano Rodríguez, a professor and security specialist at the Northern Border College in Matamoros, a city on the border with Texas, said the decision of targeting civilians was a considered one.

The cartels “have learned that when they pressure on the side of generating terror and attacks on civilians, it gives them good results,” he said. “Often it is much more effective to do this than have direct confrontation with the armed forces, where they are almost always going to lose.”
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For security analyst David Saucedo, the attacks were “narco terrorism,” and he said the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was behind the violence in the states of Guanajuato and Baja California.

Saucedo said there has been a change in Mexico’s drug policy since last year, when soldiers at roadside bases simply watched as cartels battled for control of the western state of Michoacan with bomb-dropping drones, IEDs and land mines.

Saucedo said the change may have angered the cartels.

Mexico has made more attempts to capture drug lords, something López Obrador previously said he wasn’t interested in. Mexican marines captured fugitive drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero in July after years on the run for the 1985 killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.

And Mexico’s seizures of meth labs and the synthetic opioid fentanyl have risen sharply in recent months.

“There has been a change in the strategy in fighting drug cartels. Andrés Manuel (López Obrador) has been very much criticized recently for his ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy,” Saucedo said. “I think that due to pressure from Joe Biden, he is changing that and agreeing to capture high-profile drug traffickers.”
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The spark that set off the chaos in Jalisco and Guanajuato last week was apparently the military coming upon a meeting involving a boss from the Jalisco cartel. Sandoval, the defense secretary, said the soldiers hadn’t known about it and were just there to intercept a cartel convoy.

“The narco terrorism of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is a reaction to the president’s change in strategy,” Saucedo said. “If the Mexican president continues with this strategy of capturing high-ranking members of the Jalisco cartel, the Jalisco cartel is going to respond with acts of narcoterrorism in the states it controls as part of its vast empire.”
Sandoval said there has been no change in strategy.

“It’s not that we’re looking for the leader ... it’s not that operations are centered on certain levels of the organization,” he said.

“We have to know where to employ that force, where to use it, the quantity of people we have to send to reinforce, the specific places and know where we have to act to be able to guarantee security,” Sandoval said.

He denied the government was not being reactive, noting that in 19 of Mexico’s 32 states the National Guard already has superior numbers to state authorities. “It is part of a strategy that is already laid out and that we are going to apply accordingly.”

There have been such terrorist acts before. In June of last year, a faction of the Gulf cartel entered Reynosa on the border with Texas and killed 14 people authorities identified as “innocent citizens,” as part of a bid to unseat a rival faction that controlled Reynosa.

Ana Vanessa Cardenas, coordinator of the international relations program at Anahuac
Mayab University in Merida, said that with any other president half the security Cabinet would have been ousted, there would be consultations with international experts and work would be underway on new security strategy. But she expects no change from López Obrador, who she considers to be in denial.

“We’ve seen a total militarization of security and of the country, which is the last rung,” Cardenas said. “If having already reached the last rung in security we have an increase in violence, in murders, in narco control, then where do we go?”
____
Sánchez reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writers Mark Stevenson and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.

 

[Housecarl]

And crickets from the US MSM......

Posted for fair use.....

Nicaragua detains Catholic bishop in escalating crackdown on dissent

Nicaragua detains Catholic bishop in escalating crackdown on dissent​

Mary Beth Sheridan, Ismael López Ocampo, Ana Vanessa Herrero - Yesterday 4:34 PM

Federal police stormed the home of a Catholic bishop in northern Nicaragua at dawn on Friday and detained one of President Daniel Ortega’s most prominent remaining critics as the government moved ever closer to silencing all dissent in the Central American country.

Authorities placed the bishop, the Rev. Rolando Álvarez, under house arrest at his parents’ home in Managua, the capital. Five priests and two seminarians who were with him at his residence in Matagalpa were locked up in El Chipote, the notorious prison where more than 100 of the president’s opponents have been jailed.

The government said in a statement that the bishop had “persisted in his destabilizing and provocative activities.” It did not elaborate or say what legal charges the Catholic leader was facing. Two weeks ago, police surrounded his residence, saying he was under investigation for allegedly sponsoring violent anti-government groups, a charge he denies. The government’s spokeswoman, Rosa Murillo — Ortega’s wife and vice president — did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Spies, harassment, death threats: the Catholic Church in Nicaragua says it's being targeted by the government

In the past year, Ortega’s government has jailed nearly all his best-known opponents, including seven politicians who had been expected to seek the presidency last November. His government has also shut down hundreds of civil society groups, as well as universities and media organizations, in one of the most intense waves of repression in the hemisphere.

It has engaged in an increasingly bitter feud with religious leaders in the majority-Catholic country, closing eight Catholic radio stations and expelling the Vatican’s ambassador, the Rev. Waldemar Sommertag. Authorities also expelled 18 nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa, who had been helping run shelters and orphanages.

Relations between Ortega and the church soured after the government cracked down on nationwide protests in 2018, prompting street battles that left more than 360 dead, according to human rights groups. When Catholic bishops called for justice, the Ortega government accused them of fomenting a coup. Several priests and a prominent bishop, Silvio Báez of Managua, have gone into exile.


Related video: Nicaragua accused of cracking down on Catholic groups

Álvarez, 55, has recently been the most influential Catholic critic of the government, speaking out in radio and newspaper interviews about what he has condemned as Ortega’s authoritarian behavior. After his arrest, the archdiocese of Managua said his physical condition had deteriorated but “his courage and spirits are strong.”

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres is “very concerned by the severe closure of democratic and civic space in Nicaragua and recent actions against civil society organizations, including those of the Catholic Church,” a deputy spokesman told journalists on Friday after the bishop’s arrest. He called on the Nicaraguan government to guarantee “freedoms of association, thought, conscience, and religion, and to release all people arbitrarily detained.”

Nicaragua strips universities' legal status in new crackdown on dissent
Government critics said Álvarez’s detention was stunning even by the standards of a country whose democracy had shriveled.

“With a pained, indignant heart I condemn the nighttime kidnapping of Monsignor Álvarez,” tweeted Báez, who is living in the United States. “Once again, the dictatorship has surpassed even its own evil and its diabolical spirit.”

Pope Francis has not commented publicly on the bishop’s detention or any other recent government moves against the Catholic Church, to the dismay of some Latin American human rights activists. The Vatican’s permanent observer to the Organization of American States, Monsignor Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, expressed concern this month about the developments and called for dialogue.

Ortega, 76, helped lead the Marxist Sandinista revolution that triumphed in 1979, toppling the U.S.-backed Somoza dictatorship. He headed the government until 1990, and then returned to power in 2007. Last year, he won an election after eliminating all possible opposition. Human rights organizations say his government has detained more than 160 political prisoners.

The United Nations estimates that more than 120,000 Nicaraguans have fled the country since 2018, the largest exodus since the civil war of the 1980s.

Álvarez himself left the country during the civil war, moving to Guatemala, where he studied for the priesthood. In 2011, he was named bishop of Matagalpa, one of the least developed areas in Nicaragua. In 2015, he led major demonstrations against government plans to allow mining in a northern area of the country, charging that it would pollute the groundwater. The government backed off.

The bishop “went on horseback to the most remote parts of the mountains to visit the sick and celebrate Mass,” said Emiliano Chamorro, a journalist who accompanied him on several trips. “People love him. He’s a true pastor.”

 

[Zagdid]

Venezuela's second largest refinery resumes gasoline production

Venezuela's state oil and gas company PDVSA has restarted gasoline production at the country's second largest refinery after repairing a breakdown, five sources with knowledge of the operation said on Monday.

www.reuters.com

Venezuela's second largest refinery resumes gasoline production​

Reuters August 22, 202212:38 PM EDT Last Updated a day ago

CARACAS, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Venezuela's state oil and gas company PDVSA has restarted gasoline production at the country's second largest refinery after repairing a breakdown, five sources with knowledge of the operation said on Monday.

The Cardon refinery's naphtha reformer, with a capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), produces high-octane components for gasoline and is key to the country's gasoline supply.

PDVSA (PDVSA.UL) commissioned it with an output of about 28,000 bpd about a fortnight ago. The reformer "is already producing", one source told Reuters.

PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The reformer suspended production at the end of June to undergo maintenance that extended beyond the 21 days originally scheduled.

"We are producing 28,000 b/d (barrels per day) of pure lomito (high-grade gasoline) of 102 octane," said another source.

But Cardon's 88,000 bpd capacity Fluidised Catalytic Cracking (FCC) unit remains stalled, the sources said.

A restart would provide relief to ongoing supply failures in the nation, whose 1.3 million bpd grid has been crippled by years of disinvestment and lack of maintenance.

The Amuay refinery and Cardon make up the Paraguana Refining Center in the western state of Falcon, which has a combined production capacity of 955,000 bpd. At Amuay, the catalytic cracker was operational.

The El Palito refinery on the country's central coast, the smallest in the Venezuelan refining circuit, halted gasoline production at the end of 2021.

In May, an agreement was announced between Iran's state-owned National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Company and Venezuela to repair the refinery.

Reporting by Mircely Guanipa in Maracay and Deisy Buitrago in Caracas

 

[Plain Jane]

Guatemala follows money in migrant smuggling investigations

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — When Guatemalan investigators raided the home of the alleged leader of a migrant smuggling ring in mountains near the Mexican border, they found some $51,000 in coins, nearly 100 slot machines and late-model vehicles purchased with cash.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/caribbea...a-smuggling-763b793e37269e59b585394629a2c5cc#

Guatemala follows money in migrant smuggling investigations​

By SONIA PÉREZ D.today



1 of 5
FILE - The flag-draped coffins of Guatemalan migrants who were killed near the U.S.-Mexico border in January stand on the runway after they were flown to an Air Force base in Guatemala City, Friday, March 12, 2021. Guatemalans are paying as much as $15,000 to get to the U.S. and prosecutors are increasingly trying to track where that money goes as the illicit business evolves. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — When Guatemalan investigators raided the home of the alleged leader of a migrant smuggling ring in mountains near the Mexican border, they found some $51,000 in coins, nearly 100 slot machines and late-model vehicles purchased with cash.
They arrested David Coronado Pérez and nine others, three of whom were lawyers who allegedly helped him launder the money he made getting Guatemalans to the United States. Some $200,000 in cash, in addition to the coins, was also seized in the January raid. Coronado has denied the allegations.

Guatemalans are paying as much as $15,000 to get the U.S. and prosecutors are increasingly trying to track where that money goes as the illicit business evolves. While villages once had a local trusted “coyote” to guide migrants, now large smuggling rings rake in many hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

In many cases, the investigations begin when a migrant’s death draws prosecutors’ attention.
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Coronado became a target when 19 people, including 15 Guatemalan migrants, were killed and incinerated — allegedly by rogue Mexican police — near the U.S. border in January 2021. Coronado’s outfit is accused of smuggling them and his son Adán, allegedly their guide, was among those killed.

Propelling the notoriously difficult cases -- migrants almost never want to identify their smuggler even when things go badly -- is Stuardo Campo, who leads the Attorney General’s Office investigating migrant trafficking.

In November, federal agents dismantled a migrant smuggling ring in Nahuala, in western Guatemala, arresting five people and seizing $256,000. It is a mainly Indigenous area and among the country’s poorest.

One of the migrants that group had taken to the United States had been caught by U.S. Border Patrol. While he was in detention and out of contact, the smugglers took advantage and extorted more money from the family, telling relatives he had died and demanding more to get his body back. He was later deported.

“They not only bought the latest model vehicles, but also a bus they used to traffic people,” Campo said.

“When they buy new-model vehicles they do it with cash,” he said. By law, the seller is required to report the transaction to the bank and then the bank is supposed to report it. That is sometimes the start of their investigations.
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In December, 55 migrants, including 40 Guatemalans, died when a semitrailer crashed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas, an example of the smuggling’s scale. There have been no arrests in Guatemala so far, but the investigation continues.

Campo’s office also opened an investigation after smugglers abandoned a semitrailer on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, on a sweltering day in June Fifty-three migrants died, including 21 Guatemalans.

In February, weeks after the raid on Coronado Pérez, Guatemala’s Congress reformed the country’s immigration law, increasing the prison time for those smuggling migrants to 10 to 30 years from six to eight previously.

The reform was supposed to dissuade smugglers and cast the government of President Alejandro Giammattei, who has a strained relationship with the Biden administration over corruption, as a willing partner of the U.S. in managing migration.
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Critics said at the time that increased prison sentences mean little if those responsible rarely make it to trial.

Enter Campo’s office.
Police and federal agents raided a ranch in northern Guatemala near the Mexican border this month. With helicopters buzzing overhead, agents inventoried customized SUVs, guns, a swimming pool and horse stables, where they found a thoroughbred named Picasso valued at $100,000.

Felipe Diego Alonzo, the alleged ringleader arrested in that raid, said he was just an onion farmer who sometimes sold cars on the side. In that case too, it was the death of a migrant allegedly smuggled by Alonzo’s ring that attracted the attention of investigators, this time including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Marta Raymundo Corio was found dead near Odessa, Texas, after being smuggled through Mexico in early 2021. Campo said the woman had died in a warehouse due to a lack of food and water and her relatives had asked authorities to determine what had happened.


Alonzo and three others were arrested at the request of the U.S. government, which is seeking their extradition.

The smuggling rings often use networks of relatives or close associates. Like many illicit endeavors, they pour their profits back into businesses in the darker corners of the economy that operate primarily with hard-to-trace cash -- brothels, gambling, bars and loan-sharking.
Large cash purchases for things like new cars is also common, Campo said.

“The majority of these structures launder money,” Campo said.

César Calderón, Coronado’s lawyer, said his client is innocent and that his slot machine business is legal, Coronado is a farmer, not a smuggler, and is himself a victim because his son was among those killed in Mexico, Calderon said.

But in court earlier this year, Campo said the tragedy, which included the deaths of five minors, had not stopped Coronado’s business.

“It was documented after this event that they trafficked two more groups that included three minors,” he said.

 

[Plain Jane]

Colombia's police will boost efforts to replace coca fields

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's police force said a newspaper misreported Tuesday that it suspended operations to forcibly eradicate coca fields as the country's new leftist government seeks to change its approach to dealing with illegal drugs.

apnews.com

https://apnews.com/article/colombia-caribbean-bogota-cdb0f5619caa28b1de122eb91f0f9222#

Colombia’s police will boost efforts to replace coca fields​

By MANUEL RUEDAtoday

CORRECTS THAT COLOMBIA IS NOT SUSPENDING ITS COCA ERADICATION EFFORTS - FILE - New Colombian police chief, Gen. Henry Sanabria, parades during his swearing-in ceremony in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. A police statement issued Tuesday, AUG. 23, 2022, says manual eradication teams are still operating but adds that officials are stepping up efforts to persuade farmers to voluntarily adopt alternative crops. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s police force said a newspaper misreported Tuesday that it suspended operations to forcibly eradicate coca fields as the country’s new leftist government seeks to change its approach to dealing with illegal drugs.

A police statement said that manual eradication teams are still operating but added that officials are stepping up efforts to persuade farmers to voluntarily adopt alternative crops.

The Bogota newspaper El Tiempo initially reported that the nation’s new police director, Gen. Henry Sanabria, said during an interview that eradication operations had been suspended. The paper later reported that Sanabria’s communication team explained that Sanabria referred only to aerial fumigation of coca crops, which was suspended in 2015

Sanabria, who was named to the post last week, said during the internview that police are trying to lessen the impact of anti-narcotics policies on people who “have the least responsibility for drug trafficking.”


His statements reflect the priorities of Colombia’s newly innaugurated president, Gustavo Petro, a leftist who said during his campaign that he wants to find new ways to fight drug trafficking, including putting a greater emphasis on rural development in areas that are still producing large amounts of coca leaf, which is the basic ingredient in cocaine.

Previously, governments in Colombia set annual targets for eradicating coca crops, and deployed thousands of police and soldiers to remote parts of the country to manually pull coca bushes out of the ground with shovels, or kill coca plants with crop dusters and most recently drones.

But forceful eradication operations have led to violent confrontations between police and farmers, who argue that the lack of infrastructure in remote parts of Colombia makes other crops economically unviable. Over the years, dozens of police officers who participated in eradication operations have been killed by snipers or injured by landmines.

The eradication programs received financial and technical support from the United States, but failed to make a significant dent on the cocaine trade.

According to the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, Colombia’s cocaine annual production potential rose from 273 tons in 2011 to 972 tons last year. The agency estimates the amount of land used to grow coca tripled in the same period.


In his inauguration speech earlier this month, Petro said that the “war on drugs had failed” and that it was time for nations around the world to find new ways of addressing substances like cocaine.

On Tuesday, Justice Minister Nestor Osuna said cocaine will continue to be illegal in Colombia though some permits could be granted to farmers who grow coca leaves for medicinal products.

Osuna added that police and judges will focus on dismantling drug gangs and businesses that launder money for traffickers.