Free Republic

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez switched from coffee to another stimulant during a speech on Saturday -- he popped a coca leaf into his mouth and chewed it while defending the use of the plant. Bolivian President Evo Morales, an advocate of the Andean nation's indigenous coca growers, brought Chavez coca leaves while in Caracas for a summit of Latin American leaders allied with Chavez. "I knew you wouldn't let me down, my friend, I was running out," Chavez said as he received the leaves from Morales during the televised summit. He broke one in half and chewed...

When Bergoglio visited Bolivia in 1979, "it was the time of greatest abuse," says the former Jesuit Lima The former Jesuit Pedro Lima, who has become one of the most visible faces that denounces paedophilic priests, points out that in a meeting in 1979, in which the current Pope Francis participated, they knew about "the issue of John XXIII College."

Bolivia’s socialist President Luis Arce signed contracts with both China and Russia on Thursday to hand over control of the country’s two largest lithium deposits. Bolivia is home to some of the world’s largest known lithium resources. The contracts, which amount to $1.4 billion, will see state-owned Citic Guoan (of China’s CITIC Group) and Uranium One Group (of Russia’s Rosatom) work alongside the state-owned Bolivian Lithium Deposits (YLB) company to build two lithium carbonate processing plants.

The State Department is steering over $37,000 to a Bolivian nonprofit group to launch a "campaign against disinformation" training program for journalists in the South American country, funding documents show. Thwarting alleged "disinformation" has remained a top priority of the Biden administration, which has come under fire from Republicans for bankrolling left-leaning entities taking aim at conservative websites over their advertising revenue. President Joe Biden's State Department is now in the process of granting taxpayer dollars until April 2024 to Fundacion para el Periodismo, which translates to Foundation for Journalism, so the Bolivian entity can create a "network of 150...

A trio of archaeologists from the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina, the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Institute of Research for Development, France, has found more than 100 pre-Hispanic religious sites that they believe are linked to ancient Andean cults in Bolivia. In their paper published in the journal Antiquity, Pablo Cruz, Richard Joffre and Jean Vacher, describe the sites they found and highlight one in particular that stood out from the rest.In this new effort, the researchers were studying hilltops in the Carangas region of Highland Bolivia, which was once home to pre-Hispanic people....

Archaeologists in the Peruvian Andes have discovered an Inca bathing complex built half a millennia ago, which they believe may have served the elite of the sprawling empire than once dominated large swathes of South America.Found near the "House of the Inca" in the Huanuco Pampa archaeological zone in central Peru, local archaeologists believe that the bath may have served a religious purpose for high-ranking members of the Inca empire, which 500 years ago extended from southern Ecuador to the center of Chile.Luis Paredes Sanchez, project manager at Huanuco Pampa, said the structure was similar to "more hierarchical, restricted and...

Asmall town in Bolivia was sent into a frenzy when locals found a dead alien on their streets after allegedly witnessing a green strobe from what they claimed looked like an alien spacecraft.The tiny town of Huarina, La Paz, which had a total population of 1,300 according to the last census in 2001, had its inhabitants excitedly pointing their cameras up to the sky to witness the never-before-seen paranormal events. The main paranormal event, as reported by resident Rita Marquez to local news outlets, was a peculiar sight of small figures, “like those little people who appear to children,” scuttling...

After a meeting between representatives of the Bolivian Aviation airline (BOA), the Authority for the Regulation and Supervision of Telecommunications and Transport (ATT) and the owner of the lost cat Tito, it was agreed that the state company must return all the expenses incurred by the affected in the search for your pet. In two more days it is a month since the loss of the cat Tito, who disappeared without a trace of the kennel in which he had to travel from Tarija to Santa Cruz. Tito the cat lost by BOA. Bolivia.comThe Government hired an interspecies communicator to...

LIMA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Peru barred Bolivia's socialist former president, Evo Morales, from entering its territory on Monday, Peru's government announced in a statement, a decision Morales later derided as an attack meant to distract from rights violations. The move to ban Morales, along with eight other unidentified Bolivians, follows weeks of deadly protests in Peru targeting President Dina Boluarte... ...The statement from Peru's interior ministry said Bolivian citizens have entered the country in recent months to carry out political activities, violating immigration laws while undermining national security.... ...Shortly after the ban was announced, Peru Prime Minister Alberto Otarola...

Peru's Supreme Court upholding the decision to hold former President Pedro Castillo... The air raid warnings early Thursday morning in Kiev and other parts of Ukraine... The US military talking about an incident involving a Chinese warplane and a US reconnaissance aircraft last week... A group of Jewish settlers evicted tonight in Israel in a move that seems totally inconsistent with the new government's character... In Arizona some final vote numbers put out today including the very close contest for Attorney General... Authorities in Australia and Canada are not following the United States lead in imposing COVID testing on people...

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – With his narrow election victory over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro Sunday, Brazil's president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appears to have cemented a left-wing political conquest of Latin America. From Mexico in the north to Chile in the south, the region's constantly see-sawing political map once again resembles that of the early 2000s, when a so-called "pink tide" of left-leaning governments washed over it. But analysts say this time is different: the trend is driven by pragmatism rather than ideology. "It's not because Latin Americans are becoming more leftist. I don't think there's any evidence to...

Some of the bizarre aspects of the Snowden Moscow story: Snowden and Harrison have allegedly been in the transit terminal at Sheremetyevo airport for almost two weeks now, and despite the presence of many prying eyes, neither has been seen. How is that possible? They were reported to have flown from Hong Kong to Moscow, but in this age of cellphone and iPad cameras, there is not one piece of photographic evidence that they were on the flight, or got off it. Snowden is allegedly in communication with his legal team, but Julian Assange is the source of that information,...

Spanish galleon San Jose sank more than 300 years ago in battle with British, while carrying vast cargo of gold and precious stones Colombia’s discovery of the 300-year-old, shipwrecked galleon San Jose, thought to be loaded with some $10 billion in gold and precious stones, could shed light on an important period in Spanish colonial history but also spawn legal battles over the valuable cargo. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said his country spent two years studying historical maps, meteorology and used the latest sea-searching technology to locate the Spanish vessel, which sank during a battle in 1708 in the...

A more than 300-year-old Spanish shipwreck carrying treasure that might be worth up to $17 billion was discovered with the help of an underwater robot. It's called the Remus 6000 and it can dive nearly four miles and is loaded with sensors and cameras. Bronze cannons confirmed "the holy grail of shipwrecks" had been found at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. They are engraved with dolphins — a telltale sign they belong to the Spanish galleon San Jose, lost more than 300 years ago. "I just sat there for about 10 minutes and smiled," said Jeff Kaeli, a research...

The Royal Navy sank the galleon in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession, but its resting place had been a mystery for more than three centuries. Today its contents could be worth billions. ...Experts speculate that the ship was loaded with at least 200 tons of treasure, including millions of high-purity gold doubloon coins, as well as many silver coins and emeralds that the Spanish empire had plundered from South America, worth up to $17bn (£13.5bn) today. The salvage rights have been subject to decades of litigation and are contested by a professional salvage company that claims to...

“Those Cuban-CIA men (Bay of Pigs vets) were as tough, dedicated and impetuous a group of soldiers as I’ve ever had the honor of commanding,” wrote legendary anti-communist mercenary “Mad Mike” Hoare, commander of the “Wild Geese,” in his book Congo Mercenary. ''This is the history of a failure,'' said the oddly frank opening lines of Che Guevara’s Congo Dairies. “I stood above Che Guevara, my boots near his head, just as Che had once stood over my dear friend and fellow 2506 Brigade member, Nestor Pino. ‘We're going to kill you all," Che said to Pino.’ Now, the situation...

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The Bolivian soldier who pulled the trigger to execute famed revolutionary guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara died on Thursday at age 80, according to his friends. Mario Terán “simply complied with his duty as a sergeant of the army,” said retired Gen. Gary Prado, who led the group that captured Guevara in 1967 after a months-long pursuit. Speaking to Radio Companera, he said Terán had died after a long illness. He is survived by his wife and two children.

It is quite interesting to see how exactly Bolivians defeated the vaccine mandate set out by their authorities. The protests and roadblocks have finally yielded favorable outcomes in the country.The government of socialist President Luis Arce abolished the necessity of proof of coronavirus vaccination to access any public institution or place of business on Jan. 19.Jeyson Auza, the minister of health, issued the statement.On December 28, representatives from the Movement for Socialism (MAS) released the original “supreme decrees” 4640 and 4641, which sparked widespread protests and legal challenges in the provinces of Santa Cruz, La Paz, Cochabamba, El Alto, and...

The chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, warned Friday that the SCOTUS risks losing its own authority if it allows the existence of a law like Texas’ near-total abortion ban, which attempts to circumvent the courts. In a strongly worded opinion joined by the high court’s three liberal justices, Roberts wrote that the "clear purpose and actual effect" of the Texas law was "to nullify this Court’s rulings." That, he said, undermines the Constitution and the fundamental role of the Supreme Court and the court system as a whole. The opinion was a remarkable plea by the chief...

“Felix’s life has been dedicated to fighting communism, to supporting freedom, to supporting liberty, and we appreciate Felix as a brave and courageous freedom fighter,” said Governor Ron DeSantis. “From his service as a paramilitary officer with the Central Intelligence Agency during the Bay of Pigs Invasion to a Colonel in the United States Army at the height of the Vietnam War, Felix has marked his legacy as one of the bravest fighters for freedom in history. I am honored to award Felix the Governor’s Medal of Freedom and may God bless him and the Great State of Florida.”“Rodríguez said...