The Latin America thread (VE, BR, AR, CU, MX...)

So now everyone from the New York Times, to Vox, to Slate, is describing the situation in Brazil as a coup. What do you guys think?

What it feels like to me is that even if it was technically legal, it was more motivated by a desire from the right wing to seize political power in the country during a horrible economical and social period more than anything else, rather than it being some super horrible thing that merited justice. It was basically just Game of Thrones. I should point out that Brazil has a pretty terrible history of political stability, we only just got back in a democracy like 3 decades ago.

It's not like Dilma or PT have ever been a flawless government, but they are not the sole reason everything in this country is going bad , people are using them as a scapegoat and what many don't seem to understand is that things aren't going to magically get better after they're gone and the people who are orchestrating this and who will probably be replacing them are even worse. It's like people have no understanding of what's actually going on or worse, actually are aware.It's profoundly troubling that one of the politicians who's getting a lot of support right now is a homophobe, mysogynistic, racist fascist and people are like " WELL AT LEAST HE'S NOT CORRUPT" as if they have no sense of priorities or understanding of how politicians are in Brazil.

edited 28th May '16 12:55:26 PM by wehrmacht

Tomorrow belongs to B!

Temmer has been banned from running for office for 8 years And again I marvel at the corruptness of Brazilian politics, and the butthurt of leftists around the world. Just because a government you don't like get's impeached/suspended by a Congress full of corrupt assholes doesn't mean it's a coup.

Cunha has been suspended

Lula looses privileges

Dilma favors new elections if returned to office

edited 14th Jun '16 6:23:58 PM by JackOLantern1337

Does anyone know a good site for following the stuff currently going on in Mexico?

What if I told you plenty of right-wingers in Brazil are also corrupt? In fact, maybe some of our Brazilian tropers can tell you how the system is completely fucked (corruption-wise), regardless of political ideology.

Though I agree with you that, once in a while, left-wingers need something that can make them come down to earth a bit. Same thing with right-wingers, naturally.

What is going on?

edited 23rd Jun '16 2:23:59 PM by Quag15

There's been protests there (in Oaxaca) since Sunday over an education reform, one way or another there's been lots of street conflict between rioters and police (who seem to be using firearms) with at least 6 dead.

Apparently, Jehovah's Witnesses Destroy Ancient Indigenous Temple in Mexico.

Nobody has posted about it here yet, so, how about dem dead mummies?

About time, I'd say. To quote the Human Rights Watch dude, "he treated Cuba and his people as his own private property".

edited 29th Nov '16 4:30:21 AM by Stormtroper

Didn't that got posted all the way back in June - as in: the month it actually happened?

edited 29th Nov '16 4:31:56 AM by DrunkenNordmann

You're replying to a June post.

...

I'm a moron. I saw your post and the one above it and completely oversaw the date on the latter. :/

edited 29th Nov '16 4:38:17 AM by DrunkenNordmann

oh what gets me riled up is the attitude of the GOVERNMENT, they're more than willing to work with the fascist dictaors and call them friends, and say they shouldn't stand trial for all the people they murdered (looking at you Thatcher, may you rot in hell), but not anyone who is left wing, he is evvvvvvvvvvil, it didn't matter that General France literally supported the Nazi's, was a fascist, and murdered 400,000 people, he wasn't left wing so that makes it fine and only Cuba is bad, and it was fine for the Yanks to overthrow the democratic government to put Batista in power, because that government was going to be left wing, and the same goes for all the other South American democracies overthrown and replaced with brutal fascist regimes in the name of freedom and democracy!

It happens.

edited 29th Nov '16 4:40:44 AM by Stormtroper

So putting aside western hypocrisy for a moment, what has the internal reaction been within Cuba and Latin America as a whole? I'm assuming that the reaction across the greater Third World has been one of sadness, as Castro had a great many friends within the anti-colonial movement and for good reason.

Out of curiosity who's left from that era now? Mugabe? Is that truly it?

Unless you count the Kims, yes. <shrugs> And, I would imagine a lot of crocodile tears for Mugabe in Africa for form's sake when he pops his clogs: he undermined his moral high ground a long time ago.

edited 30th Nov '16 7:58:36 AM by Euodiachloris

I guess Queen Elizabeth, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gobarchev (using Wikipedia's spelling) and that's it.

So far in Peru PPK has been polite in handling the news of Castro's death as well as our past president.

Being honest, Castro is one of those really ambiguous figures in history that had both bad and good sides overall, but if there is anything that perhaps all in Latin America could agree with him is the idea of not letting the USA rule over us.

I assume it's different elsewhere, but here there's a clear divide between those who cherish or not give a blip about his death and like democracy, and those who lament Castro's death and hate human rights.

Fairly good. Until the last year the whole continent was ripe with left wing parties who held a very positive view of Castro and Cuba. Now we will have to wait and see.

Venezuela donated oil to Cuba, Brazil had several infrastructure programs in Cuba, specially ports although we're probably never get our investment there back, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador were also in very friend terms.

My country has always tried to remain friendly with Castro's Cuba, trying to get other countries to maintain diplomatic relations with them, condemning the embargo, etc.

We did have some issues when Castro insulted Mexicans and later on when Fox kicked Castro out of an UN summit in Mexico... but who remembers those, right? :P

Anyway, it is said that the people of Mexico have always respected Cuba for their revolutionary ideals and for sticking it to the US when we couldn't do it ourselves. We also have our fair share of Cuba immigrants and exiles, and they don't seem to hate Castro as much as the ones in the north do.

Finally, many people here admire Castro even more after what happened earlier this month. Quien sabe porqué.

So yesterday I discovered Cantinflas with my parents on You Tube. We saw a scene where he was on trial for murdering a dog. I was surprised by how similar the courts seemed to those we see in US media. As a speaker of Spaniard Spanish, I also found the characters' speech patterns and how they were used to denote social status very interesting, as was the clothing.

This is some pretty high quality cinema. The man does all three Marx Brothers all by himself. I haven't laughed so much in a while. Why is it that all we ever see from Mexico in the mainstream are LCD Telenovelas? They can do so much better!

Unrelated : anyone here know In The Heights?

My parents used to watch some of the movies starring Cantinflas when they were younger (on TV), so, I was exposed to them occasionally throughout the years.

One of the best ones is where he portrays a priest who wants to build a school for the children in a rural town.

edited 7th Jan '17 7:06:15 AM by Quag15

The one that comes to mind is the one about the Doctor. I've watched it several times.

Well, it looks like my poor country is going to hell.

We started the year with the fabled "Gasolinazo", an increment of up to 20% to the price of gasoline (if you're lucky not to live in a state where a**holes will increase the costs even further because of "reasons"). This has impacted almost every person in the country, but especially those in rural areas where they needed it the most. I mean, the people in rural areas struggled with high prices and low supply of gasoline even before this whole mess and, unlike us folks from the cities, they have no access to public transportation so they do need their cars to move their goods to sell them or to move where their jobs are (a lot of our poorest get temporary jobs as construction workers, underpaid and all but a job is a job...).

This particular tax has sparked protests and marches all over the country, some of which have devolved into riots. 6 people have died because of these protests and riots (fun fact: the government is treating them as the same thing) and countless arrests and wounded people from both sides, the federal police and the protesters. Some of the companies affected by these riots have decided to lay off some of their employees because why not.

Then there is the fact that some people have used the Gasolinazo as an excuse to increase the prices of anything and everything they can get their greedy hands on, from tortillas, bread, meat, chicken eggs, milk and other basic products to things like medicine and even the costs of medical attention.

Then there is the effect of Trumps crusade against Mexico and/or the Automotive Industry making countless companies lose faith in the country and deciding that investing here is too risky lest the Trump targets them as well. Suddenly thousands of Mexicans whose future ^note as in not starving to death because we're not a first world country, after all depended on companies like Ford and GM are left in the cold. There are talks about creating suicide watches and the like for these people but activists are already spread thin with all the other crises in the country.

Then there are our own immigrants who are rushing to the US border so they can get in before they can't get in anymore, but, as seen by the Cuban immigrants who are stuck in Oaxaca and demanding our government lets them get to the US. Of course, as I have said before, the cartels are probably salivating at the prospect of "recruiting" these desperate immigrants.

Of course, we can't let Trump or the Cartels have all the fun of being evil assholes. Former governor of the state of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, is being accused of medical fraud. Apparently, during his administration of the state, the state-run hospitals gave children water instead of chemotherapy treatments.

If things keep getting worse, I fear what could happen next year during the election.