Archive for March 16th, 2007
Chavez Won’t Let Up On the Name Calling
1:11 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics|TV|Venezuela · Comments Off
16 Mar 2007
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez isn’t best known for his diplomacy especially when it comes to his word choice. He’s called President Bush the devil and a political cadaver most recently. Tonight on ABC’s 20/20 , Barbara Walters sits down with Hugito where he (surprise) name calls some more.
Bolivia Doesn’t Want the World to Have a Coke
12:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|business · Comments Off
16 Mar 2007
The Bolivian constitution is being rewritten and that could impact business world wide. How? One of the provisions being pushed by the constitutional committee would ban foreign companies from using the name of their sacred coca plant.
Margarita Teran, head of the Coca Committee, told daily newspaper La Razon she was dismayed that Coca-Cola can sell soft drinks worldwide without restrictions while Bolivia is barred from exporting products made with coca.
Such a law is not unheard of. It’s what keeps sparking wine from being called champagne, for example. What’s different here is that coca is placed in the same catagory as opium and cannabis by the U.N. and that prevents its legal export, even when it’s not in cocaine. President Evo Morales is trying to change that by pushing coca leaf products. The U.S. ain’t having it though even though currently the U.S. is the number one market for coca’s most well known use, as an illegal drug.
Via / MSNBC
Pennies from heaven in Brazil
11:13 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Brazil|Money · Comments Off
16 Mar 2007
A plane crash in rural Brazil left many thinking that a miracle had occurred. The accident took place in an area where thousands of “sin tierra“ (landless) farmers live, and from the sky came down $2 million dollars in cash:
The plane, used for the transportation of money, crshed and the inhabitants of the town where it crashed made off with part of the booty. When the emergency crews arrived, a large part of the money had disappeared.…The accident might have been just another statistic if it weren’t for its cargo: $2 million dollars in Brazilian currency. There isn’t a trace left of the money, which was spread all about the countryside and was quickly snatched up by the inhabitants of the area.
At times, fate is just. Apparently the police made a sweep of the nearby town looking for the money and have only come up with a couple thousand dollars, though one farmer returned a bag containing $50,000 to police.
Via / 20 Minutos
Yes, Virginia, there are Spanish drug mules
7:33 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice|Peru|Spain · Comments Off
16 Mar 2007
I’m not sure if this has gone on before, but it seems like every time I read the news these days, another Spaniard has been picked up for trying to sneak drugs from Latin America into Europe. The latest are a couple of women from Spain who were caught in Lima’s airport carrying 23 kilos (51 lbs.) of cocaine between the two of them. The women, one aged 26 and the other 30, carried the drugs in hidden compartment in their suitcase and in dehydrated food packets. Both say they were “victims” and that the drugs were planted without them knowing.
Yesterday, another Spaniard was picked up by Peruvian police after they found 9 kilos (nothing in comparison to what the ladies were packing) of cocaine that he was attempting to transport to Madrid. He also denied knowing that there was coke in his bag, though he did say that someone was going to pay him $5000 to bring “whatever it was” into Spain. I mean, really…
I think this is really interesting because the idea that many have (especially here in the U.S.) of a “drug mule” is that of a poor Latin American person, a la Maria Full of Grace. Well, that may be true in many cases, but judging from the sheer number of Spaniards in custody in Peru alone, it looks like Europeans are just as likely to take part in trafficking. Spain is currently in second place in the number of citizens it has in Peruvian prisons, second only to Colombia.
Hola!
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