Tag Archives: Latin America

China’s new playground: America’s backyard

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“China is moving into the United States’ backyard—but it’s not clear if this is a bad thing for anyone.  Beijing is directing an increasing amount investment into Latin America, raising sphere-of-influence worries in the U.S. and trepidation among some local enterprises. China’s involvement in Latin America can be seen as an extension of its 1999 Go Out policy, which said the country should invest abroad to secure access to natural resources, gain new markets for exports and internationalize Chinese firms. Despite this open strategy—Beijing explicitly addressed its interest in Latin America in a 2011 white paper—the growth of China’s involvement in the region has taken many by surprise.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102376129

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Hershey, Cuba

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“Hershey, Cuba, was founded by Milton Hershey, the American chocolate tycoon who founded Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hershey invested his own money to found this town around 30 miles east of Havana.  The town revolved around a sugar mill, ‘once among the world’s most advanced,’ according to the Post. Everything in the town was first-class. ‘Neatly laid residential streets,’ houses with clapboard siding, and ‘some of the only screened-in porches anywhere in Cuba.’ Also a company hotel and ‘big, stately flagstone homes, where the American supervisors lived.’ There was also the Hershey Social Club and a golf course.”

http://fff.org/2015/05/06/hershey-cuba/

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US Bid to Contain Russia and Latin America Speeds New Alliances

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“Economist Ariel Noyola Rodriguez notes that US attempts to contain emerging economies including Russia and the countries of Latin America work only to hasten these nations’ efforts to create a new, truly multipolar world order independent of Washington’s influence.  The economist argues that the Eurasian Union project and Latin America’s  Mercosur complement each other, serving as ‘a crucial mechanism in the defense of sovereignty and the development of a multipolar world order.’  The two economic blocs have a combined territory of 33 million square kilometers, a population of nearly 450 million, and a combined GDP of 8.5 trillion dollars, or 11.6% of nominal global GDP.”

http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150320/1019800596.html

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Freedom Train Rolls? Legitimate ‘Color’ Revolution in Brazil

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“The Free Brazil Movement, a growing force that is more focused than the 2013 unrest that expressed a wide range of middle-class anger. Brazil’s new wave of protests are seen as a right-leaning movement clearly channeled against Rousseff and her Workers’ Party. A widening kickback scandal at Petrobras, the state oil company, is one of several complaints undermining the administration. Kataguiri and others are striking a chord with Brazilians fed up with soaring inflation, a high and growing tax burden, and those who blame government intervention for hobbling Brazil’s economy, which grew just 0.1 percent last year and is expected to shrink in 2015.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/news-analysis/36202/Freedom-Train-Rolls-Legitimate-Color-Revolution-in-Brazil-/

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In Jungle Long Known for Cocaine, a Rare Nut Is Now All the Rage

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“Suddenly, the cacay (pronounced kahk-ai) has become a red-hot commodity, providing the key ingredient to anti-aging facial creams that can fetch $200 an ounce in beauty shops in Los Angeles and London.  While most of the nuts come from wild trees in remote areas, new plantations are popping up in impoverished parts of Colombia that were better known for cocaine and anti-government rebel groups.  It was Albert Jaramillo, the head of Bogota-based Kahai SAS, who found a market for the oil after attending trade shows and hiring a trial study of the oil’s use in skincare. Kahai, which buys nuts from growers and scavengers, expects to double sales this year.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-14/in-jungle-long-known-for-cocaine-a-rare-nut-is-now-all-the-rage

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Venezuela Runs Out of Toilet Paper, Achieves True Socialism

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“Venezuela’s product shortages have become so severe that some hotels in that country are asking guests to bring their own toilet paper and soap, a local tourism industry spokesman said on Wednesday.  Says Xinia Camacho, owner of a 20-room boutique hotel in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada national park, ‘For over a year we haven’t had toilet paper, soap, any kind of milk, coffee or sugar. So we have to tell our guests to come prepared.’  Recently, Venezuelan officials have been stopping people from transporting essential goods across the country in an effort to stem the flow of contraband. So now Camacho’s guests could potentially have their toilet paper confiscated.”

http://fee.org/blog/detail/venezuela-runs-out-of-toilet-paper-achieves-true-socialism

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Mass escape from Brazilian prison after women seduce guards

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“Twenty-eight inmates escaped from a Brazilian jail after three women in fantasy police costumes ‘seduced’ prison wardens. Police found three wardens naked and handcuffed inside the Nova Mutum public jail, near Cuiaba, central Brazil, the morning after the mass break-out. The women reportedly drugged the prison guards by giving them spiked whisky after convincing them to take part in an orgy, according to investigators.  Inmates then left the prison through the main doors, even taking with them guns and munitions they had taken from prison caches.  Police later found a bag of lingerie and dominatrix police uniforms believed to have been worn by the temptresses.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/11397583/Mass-escape-from-Brazilian-prison-after-women-seduce-guards.html

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Chinese loan to Argentina was expected in November

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“A multibillion-dollar currency swap between Argentina and China will launch in November, bolstering the South American country’s diminished foreign reserves, the central bank chief was quoted as saying in a local paper on Sunday.  The swap will permit Argentina to either pay for Chinese imports with the yuan currency or reinforce its hard currency reserves, which have fallen by more than 30 percent this year.  It is part of a loan worth a total $11 billion signed by Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez and her Chinese counterpart in July, shortly before the Latin American nation defaulted on its debt for the second time in 12 years.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/19/argentina-reserves-idUSL2N0SE0JS20141019

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Argentina Is Getting Clobbered

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“A lot of investors were betting that 2015 would come around, and Argentina and the holdouts — led by Elliott Management founder Paul Singer — would sit down and sing Kumbaya. Instead Argentina is coming up with more creative ways to raise cash, like a recent debt swap plan the government has announced to raise $3 billion locally.  Argentina’s relies heavily on commodity exports like soybeans for revenue, and commodities are getting crushed.  It’s clear that the country’s 40% inflation rate is putting Argentines on guard. They’re carrying lots of cash around, and because they carry around all that cash, Argentina has become the robbery capital of Latin America.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/argentina-is-getting-clobbered-2014-12

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Venezuela mortgaged another $4 billion of its oil exports to China

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“The agreement will raise Caracas’s existing debts to Beijing by almost 25%, to over $20 billion—money that the country may find it increasingly difficult to repay.  China has lent its South American partner more than $40 billion since 2008 to help Caracas shore up its ailing economy, which is expected to slip into a recession this year and has suffered from shortages ranging from medicine to toilet paper. Venezuela has been paying that money back mostly with oil, but that is getting harder to do.  Every day, about 500,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil are exported to China, half of which go to pay off the country’s loans from Beijing.”

http://qz.com/239106/venezuela-just-mortgaged-another-4-billion-of-its-oil-exports-to-china/

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