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Expert says global leaders must not ignore Brazil, which is ‘brewing variants left, right and centre’ As a coronavirus variant traced to the Brazilian Amazon marauded through Peru’s coastal capital last month, Rommel Heredia raced to his local hospital to seek help for his brother, mother and father. “I said goodbye and promised I’d come back to take them home,” said the 47-year-old PE teacher, his voice muffled by two black masks pulled tightly over his face. Heredia was unable to fulfil his pledge. Three days later, his 52-year-old brother, Juan Carlos, died as he waited for a bed in...

Ecuador moves to the right and the ultra-left passes to the second round in Peru EFE International Edition 12 Apr. 2021https://www.efe.com/efe/espana/mundo/ecuador-gira-a-la-derecha-y-ultraizquierda-pasa-segunda-vuelta-en-peru/10001-4509419 Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso Wins Presidential Election Conservative banker defeats protégé of leftist ex-president Rafael Correa, setting the country on pro-business path Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso waved to supporters as he celebrated his victory on Sunday. By Ryan Dube Updated April 11, 2021 11:15 pm ET Ecuador on Sunday elected a conservative former banker and supporter of free-market policies as president over his populist opponent, setting the country on a pro-business path. Guillermo Lasso, 65 years old, received over 52% of...

Abdala Rada Ramel has close ties to Salman Raouf Salman, who has been also accused of an important role in the AMIA bombing attack The "clans" consist of groups of Lebanese origin who exert control over given territories in South America - and enable Hezbollah All three clans are strategically positioned close to the most important ports of Venezuela, from which they doubtless oversee the trade and handling of goods that in turn allows Hezbollah to profit Assad Ahmad Barakat is accused of having been involved in the AMIA bomb attack and operating call centers and shell companies on behalf...

In a March 24 blog, Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton reported that 42 million adults in Latin America and the Caribbean said they would like to immigrate to the United States. "There are 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Roughly 450 million adults live in the region. Gallup asked them if they would like to move to another country permanently if they could," wrote Clifton. Twenty-seven percent of those adults said "yes." That equals roughly 120 million who want to migrate somewhere. From that group, Gallup asked them "where they would like to move." "Of those who...

MIAMI - It seemed like a match made in finance heaven. In 2010, China, its economy roaring and state companies looking to expand globally, set its eyes on Latin America, a region starved of capital but rich in natural resources the Asian giant lacked. The result: a record $35 billion in state-to-state loans that year. Fast forward a decade and the once-torrid relationship is starting to mature in ways that suggest China may be growing wary of its once do-no-wrong partner. For the first time in 15 years, China’s two biggest policy banks — the China Development Bank (CDB) and...

Designating Hezbollah as a terrorist group is a legal tool On the heels of the Third Western Hemisphere Counterterrorism Ministerial Conference in Bogota, noted journalist Jana Beris from Colombia’s daily newspaper El Tiempo conducted an extensive interview with SFS Executive Director Joseph Humire on the implications of the recent terrorist designation of Hezbollah (and other Islamist terrorist organizations) by the Duque government in Colombia.  The following is an unofficial translation of the interview: JosephHumire, one of the foremost experts on Hezbollah and Iran in Latin America,doesn’t have any doubt: designating Hezbollah as a foreign terroristorganization isn’t just a political show—it’s a legal...

In the years leading up to the Civil War, many Northerners and Southerners alike wanted the federal government to take a more aggressive approach toward acquiring new territory. In fact, some private citizens, known as filibusters, took matters into their own hands. They raised small armies illegally; ventured into Mexico, Cuba, and South America; and attempted to seize control of the lands. One particularly successful filibuster, William Walker, actually made himself president of Nicaragua and ruled from 1856 to 1857. For the most part, these filibusters were just men in search of adventure. Others, however, were Southern imperialists who wanted...

Brazilian authorities said on Feb. 26 that tests confirmed the first case of the new coronavirus in the country. The 61-year-old man, who lives in Sao Paulo, traveled to Italy earlier this month. The confirmed case is the first in Latin America. Previously, only the United States and Canada had confirmed cases in the Americas. Brazil’s Ministry of Health said that the first test, which was done at Albert Einstein Hospital, came back positive. A counterproof conducted at the Adolfo Lutz Institute confirmed the infection. The patient is in good condition and is at home with his family, authorities said...

So long as the world is entertaining worst-case scenarios, the media does Americans no favors in omitting that Iran-Hezbollah has for years prepared to strike in their own hometowns. Weirdly absent from much of the professional speculation about where and how Iran will exact its promised “severe revenge” for the U.S. drone strike killing of Quds Force Gen. Qassem Suleimani is mention of the dead man’s highly suggestive hint. During a time of intense saber rattling between Iran and President Donald Trump in July 2018, Suleimani gave a speech during which he called out the American president: “Mr. Gambler, Trump!...

Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s external terrorism forces eliminated overnight Friday by a U.S. drone strike, oversaw every military decision taken by Iran in Latin America, according to a report by the Argentine news network Infobae last year. Soleimani ran the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, the “elite” terrorism unit responsible for, along with Hezbollah, the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) headquarters in Buenos Aires. The attack was the deadliest in the Western Hemisphere prior to September 11, 2001, killing 85 people. Soleimani took over the Quds Force after that attack, in 1998, and focused...

If these predictions come to pass, their fulfillment will have lasting effects upon America in the 2020s and beyond. In 2008, as the Obama administration prepared to take control in Washington, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey offered a list of bold predictions for the coming five years. Some of them bore out: The economy performed well globally despite the Great Recession, relations with Russia became more hostile without devolving into outright dysfunction, and the United States withdrew from Iraq right at the 36-month mark, which McCaffrey specified. Other predictions, such as a North Korean collapse, improved prospects for success in...

Catholic Traditionalism Booming in Latin America Pachamama triggers liturgical backlash ROME (ChurchMilitant) - The rise of Catholic traditionalism in Latin America, rooted in the Latin Mass, is rapidly reversing the long march of progressivism and Protestantism. "We see that traditionally oriented churches and seminaries are increasingly full, especially with young people, while those of progressive orientation, increasingly empty," Juan Migel Montes, director of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), Rome, told Church Militant.  "Catholic traditionalism is back in fashion," an upbeat Montes said. "This explains the defeat the Left is suffering in ballot boxes everywhere as the social, political and cultural realities linked...

What will Americans face if southern countries fall into chaos? When President Trump proclaimed “Build the wall!” in 2015, pundits mocked the slogan as an empty promise, a simplistic non-solution, or a dog whistle for racist nationalism. But astute observers of Central and South American geopolitics heard something different. Rather than a call for a more robust physical barrier or even a byword for immigration reform, “Build the wall!” suggested that candidate Trump grasped the cataclysmic threat to U.S. stability evolving in the south. Unlike President Trump, however, few Americans think about what a multi-national breakdown of order among our...

QUITO, ECUADOR — Protesters here in this capital city dug up cobblestones to throw at the police and set fire to the office of the comptroller general. In Peru, enraged marchers picketed Congress and images of a traffic cone, hurled from a distance, crashing onto a lawmaker's head went viral. In Chile, protesters clashed with police, looted shops and burned buses. And in Bolivia, marchers have been peacefully confronting police decked out in full riot gear across the country. Across South America, October has been a month of public fury at elected leaders, in expressions ranging from social media ridicule...

Iran’s main proxy terrorist group is expanding in Latin America and networking with organized crime and other violent groups, according to U.S. and Argentinean officials. “It matters whether the U.S. can move the dial and thwart Iranian-backed penetration in our backyard,” Toby Dershowitz, a senior vice president at the U.S.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner. "This may be the year that serves as a wake-up call for others in the region impacted adversely by Hezbollah’s malign activities — including but not limited to money laundering and narco-terrorism.” Faurie emphasized that Hezbollah has formed ties with historically...

The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday unveiled new travel restrictions to Cuba as part of President Donald Trump's foreign policy position. The Department amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) which now bans all non-family travel to the country. The State Department said the United States will no longer permit visits to Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, including cruise ships and yachts, as well as private and corporate aircraft. The goal of the restrictions is to significantly hinder Cuba's economy and pressure its government to stop aiding Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. “Cuba...

Latin America accounts for one third of world's homicides, life expectancy dropping in some countries: study. (Full title). The rising number of people being murdered across Latin America and the Caribbean is so high that the life expectancy in some of those countries is dropping, a new study claims. Unlike the rest of the world where homicide rates have generally dropped, statistics in some countries show that the murder rate has skyrocketed in recent years. So much so, that Latin America now accounts for about a third of the world’s homicides. ... more than 2 million people aged 15-19 in...

CARACAS - Buoyed by a telegenic new congressional chief, Venezuela’s opposition is daring to hope that President Nicolas Maduro’s days in office could be numbered, but the unpopular leader’s bedrock base - the armed forces - shows few signs of erosion. Opposition sympathizers, rallying around opposition leader Juan Guaido, are holding open air town-hall meetings that buzz with excitement about the legislature’s recent challenges to the legitimacy of Maduro, who this month began a new term widely slammed as illegitimate. Bolstered by the United States and numerous Latin American neighbors promising to back the opposition in seeking a transition, the...

President Jair Bolsonaro said in his address to the nation on Tuesday that Latin America’s most populous country has now been "liberated from socialism and political correctness". He promised to combat the "ideology of gender" teaching in schools, "respect our Judeo-Christian tradition" and "prepare children for the job market, not political militancy". Notable foreign leaders attending the inauguration include Hungary's hardline Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Israel's hawkish premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who has hailed a budding "brotherhood" with Brazil's new leader. Leftist Presidents Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba, deemed dictators by Bolsonaro,...

For non-Chinese journalists, in Africa and elsewhere, working for Chinese state-run media offers generous remuneration and new opportunities. When CCTV launched its Washington headquarters in 2012, no fewer than five former or current BBC correspondents based in Latin America joined the broadcaster. One of them, Daniel Schweimler, who is now at al-Jazeera, said his experience there was fun and relatively trouble-free, though he didn’t think many people actually saw his stories. But foreign journalists working at Xinhua, the state-run news agency, see their stories reaching much larger audiences. Government subsidies cover around 40% of Xinhua’s costs, and it generates income...