I am so, so sorry your country has to deal with our shit.
I'm worried about all of Latin America; Trump seems poised to return to the time honored American tradition of treating the entire western hemisphere of our exclusive sphere of influence.
A procrastination in of itself
If Trump tries that might we see USAN (Union of South American Nations) pull together (like the EU appear stop be considering) so as to protect its members. Now obviously that wouldn't protect all of Latin American but it would protect a big chunk.
edited 27th Jan '17 10:00:13 PM by Silasw
"And the Bunny nails it!" ~ Gabrael "If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we." ~ Cyran
Been reading in my local newspaper that they are thinking of doing just that. In terms of an economic union/free trade area, as it were.
Also, since we need to talk about more than the evil dog, Chile has apparently been run over by large forest fires lately. To the point that they've received international help.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Oh, bother.
The EU was formed in part to keep Russia in check, right?
It is immensely unnerving to an American like me to realize that the USA may end up taking a similar Big Bad role to justify Latin America forming a Union of their own.
The question is: if that actually happens, who will Mexico choose? It's ostensibly still part of NAFTA for now but...
edited 28th Jan '17 1:54:02 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
The Wanderer
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Friend of mine who lives there mentioned unconfirmed reports of arsonists where that's involved.
If that's so they'd succeed where Bolivar failed.
edited 28th Jan '17 1:53:40 AM by rmctagg09
Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.
use political terms to describe, not insult
It's really annoying to me that Brazil might not be a part of this plan. Next year we're going to have an even bigger fiasco than the US elections with someone even worse than Trump running for President and you guessed it - he has a lot of momentum behind him, just like the orange clown did.
I'd be worried regardless, but now that Trump is in power what's not to say he isn't going to take a leaf from Putin's book and meddle in our elections to get a pro-us neo-fascist elected? It wouldn't be a first for the US.
The law in the night
Argentina and Brazil are more likely to be willingly aligned with the US without the need for direct intervention since, Argentina has a pro business president and Brazil has kleptocrats of the same brand as Trump and his kind on power.
Venezuela is in deep shit right now.
Also the Mercosul was supposed to be our NAFTA but everyone started undercutting everyone so much, the whole thing lost its meaning.
So far the Trump administration has been harping about immigration and taxing stuff from Mexico, the Middle East however is in for some hard times long before he sets his sights on us.
Inter arma enim silent leges
use political terms to describe, not insult
Our situation is kind of complicated with regards to Trump and the US. One one hand, our foreign minister explicitly said we were hoping for Clinton, and many government officials have said they don't like him. But our current president, Macri, does know Trump personally (though I can't say if it's a good or a bad relation, there's been stuff for both interpretations). Former president Kirchner has kind of compared Trump's politics to her own (more or less saying "you called me nuts when I did this, now it's the president of the US doing it, HA!") and one of the highest-profile members of her administration more or less said "Trump is a peronist like us, I'll meet with him and give him Peron's books as a gift", and her party's 2015 candidate said this about Trump's inauguration speech
: (translated): "If I have to rescue something from Trump's speech it's the idea of defending work and the national industry. #ArgentinaFirst!". Now, for the third political force in the country?, Massa (third place in the 2015 elections with about 20% of the votes) was here January 19th and here
◊ the 21st (yes, that's the Women's March on DC, he went to Washington to see the inauguration). So our politics are spaghetti, as usual.
Among the people, it's strange because the opinions on Trump seem to be unrelated to political affiliation.
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV
More on these Chile wildfires: Apparently a town of about 5,000 inhabitants (?) has been burned down. 11 fatalities so far over all fires and strong winds, drought and a heatwave are making firefighting difficult. Apparently about 8,000 people have been displaced.
Apparently the largest of these fires ("Las Máquinas fire") has burned 920 square kilometres so far.
These aren't the first wildfire disasters in Chile, the 2014 Valparaiso fire destroyed about 2500 homes there.
So uh, yeah, supposedly Trump came very close to threatening to invade Mexico if they don't help Trump with border security.
To our Latin American tropers, I am deeply sorry we appear to be headed right back to cold war era fuckery in the western hemisphere.
edited 1st Feb '17 4:15:35 PM by CaptainCapsase
Not looking forward to the possibility of Trump trying to influence Brazil's elections in 2018 to ensure a pro-US strongman is in power. It wouldn't be the first time.
use political terms to describe, not insult
Because not-bad governments try to be honest and responsible to some degree. Strongmen live in fantasy.
use political terms to describe, not insult
I get what you're saying. There's only so much a head of state can realistically do, and if the outside world is going nuts, they can only try and limit the damage.
I'm still amazed at how both our countries' current governments are staying fairly calm (in spite of our economic issues) and trying to work things out, while some of the bigger nations' governments and politics are knee deep in chaos and shit...
The law in the night
Given the political climate in Brazil, Trump wouldn't have to lift a finger to have our people to elect a Pro-USA candidate.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Oh, bother.
It wouldn't surprise me if the opposite ended up happening if he actually tried to interfere. The man is incompetent as fuck.
Brazil prosecutor aims graft probe at dozens of politicians:
Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot also requested that the Court send 211 other requests to lower courts based on much-anticipated testimony by dozens of executives of engineering group Odebrecht SA [ODBES.UL] in Brazil's biggest-ever corruption scandal.
Brazilian newspapers reported that Janot called for an investigation of five members of President Michel Temer's cabinet, along with his most senior allies in Congress, raising concerns about the stability of his administration and the fate of fiscal reforms cheered by investors.
Temer said last month that he would suspend any cabinet member who is placed under investigation and would dismiss them only if they are indicted for corruption.
Under Brazilian law, cabinet ministers, federal senators and lower house lawmakers can be tried only in the Supreme Court, where cases often take years to come to trial.
Janot could not disclose the names of the politicians and others covered by his request as the Odebrecht testimony and related investigations are still under seal. He asked Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin to lift the judicial secrecy on the case for the sake of transparency and the public interest.
In a letter to explain the operation, Janot said his actions on Tuesday will remind Brazilians "of the sad reality of a democracy under attack by the corruption and the abuse of political and economical powers."
President Temer himself has not been directly implicated in illicit party funding and has denied any wrongdoing in the sprawling three-year corruption scandal centered on overpriced contacts at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
Dozens of politicians reportedly named for taking kickbacks in the testimony by Odebrecht executives included senators in Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PDMB) and the allied Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), which led the impeachment of leftist Dilma Rousseff last year.
Janot called for lower courts to investigate Rousseff and her predecessor and political mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, according to newspapers O Globo, O Estado de S.Paulo and Folha de S.Paulo. Both former presidents have repeatedly denied any involvement or knowledge of alleged corruption.
The new investigations will be a test for Temer as he strives to pull Latin America's largest nation out of its worst recession in more than a century.
A nice butterfly
Brasil is not even real latin america, they dont speak spanish!!11
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
Hey, Aszur's back! Haven't seen in you a long time. Hope things have been going well.
Also, huehue.
Nations urge Venezuela on elections, warn of diplomatic 'last resort'
:
The statement, which Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said was aimed at encouraging Venezuela to "re-establish democracy," called for dialogue and negotiation to resolve a crisis in the oil-exporting country, which is suffering severe food and fuel shortages.
Suspending Venezuela from the OAS was a last resort, the nations said, and something that should be avoided unless other diplomatic efforts have been exhausted.
"We reiterate that inclusive and effective dialogue is the right path to achieve lasting solutions to the challenges faced by the Venezuelan people," the statement said.
Venezuela has jailed around 100 government opponents it accuses of inciting violence and planning the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro. Opposition activists and human rights groups say they are prisoners of conscience.
Venezuela's election board in October suspended the opposition drive for a recall referendum against Maduro despite the country's crushing economic crisis, the government's unpopularity and public opinion in favor of a plebiscite.
Venezuela has also delayed until 2017 elections due in December for state governorships.
The declaration by the 14 nations called for the separation of powers, the rule of law and the establishment of an electoral calendar for postponed elections.
The group that signed the declaration, which includes regional powerhouses the United States, Mexico, Canada and Brazil, also called on Venezuela to recognize the legitimacy of the country's national assembly, which has been defanged by Maduro's government since the opposition won a majority in 2015.
A nice butterfly
At this point, I just assumed Venezuela had either become the utopia they were promised by a little bird, and flown into space to escape all the FAKE NEWS led at the helm by Supreme Bus Driver Maduro, or they had sunk into the ocean by the sheer weight of stupidity they handled.
How are they still around?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
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I wish your country good luck, and I hope you can survive this situation without too much harm. I'm a bit worried because I have an uncle living in Mexico.
1 2 We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. -KV