Raúl Gallegos (Continuación)

MundoAmérica

The “birther” movement that contested President Barack Obama’s presidential legitimacy marked a low point in U.S. politics. In Venezuela, a country with a history of coup plotting, a month-long opposition campaign to paint leftist President Nicolas Maduro as a presidency-usurping foreigner has proved equally embarrassing.

The case made fresh headlines on Tuesday when Henrique Capriles, the 41-year-old opposition leader who narrowly lost the presidency to Maduro last April, demanded in a Webcast speech that the political heir to Hugo Chavez clarify his citizenship status: “Where were you born Nicolas? Venezuelans want to know. Will you lie? Show your birth certificate.”

Capriles’ decision to pick a fight that only his most radical followers will support shows how desperate he is to regain political strength after his electoral defeat, and that he’s running out of ideas.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

The severity of Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista's financial troubles is perhaps best gauged by his silence. The publicity-loving jetsetter has ignored his Twitter fans since the end of May, despite the fact that his companies have been making headlines -- and not good ones.

At the beginning of July, Batista's flagship oil company, OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA, announced it may shut down its only oil-producing field next year. The jewel of Batista's EBX group is running out of money -- fast. Barclays Plc. reckons OGX will have about $150 million in cash by the end of September. The company is desperately selling assets, its top executives are leaving and its lenders are huddling with lawyers to figure out how to get their money back.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaEuropaUnión EuropeaPolítica Exterior,

The decisions by France, Spain and Portugal to interrupt Bolivian President Evo Morales's flight home, apparently on the hunch that he was smuggling Edward Snowden out of Russia, have proved embarrassing for Europe. Even unfortunate.

The episode has made these European states appear beholden to U.S. political pressure. It also made them look silly, once Austrian airport police had searched the Bolivian president's aircraft and found no leaker of U.S. National Security Agency secrets on board. Asked to explain why they did what they did, French officials in particular seemed speechless.

In Latin America, though, fallout from the high-handed treatment of Morales is proving more than unfortunate.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica

Populist regimes in Latin America have long followed a "bread and circus" formula for governing -- plenty of state spending and plenty of political drama. Ecuador’s willingness to consider an asylum petition by Edward Snowden, the U.S.’s most wanted man, fits the script.

The U.S. government has charged Snowden, who's currently holed up in Russia, with espionage for his role in leaking classified information about a surveillance program that delved into telephone records, e-mails and Internet use. For a leftist regime bent on thumbing its nose at the U.S., this makes Snowden a rock star of sorts.

At a press briefing yesterday meant to confirm receipt of Snowden’s asylum petition, Ricardo Patino, Ecuador's minster of foreign affairs, took pains to describe Snowden as a hero persecuted by elites who “should give explanations to the government and citizens of the world”.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAmérica,

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s administration is having a hard time making sense of the protests erupting across the country.

A couple of things are clear. Rousseff must come to terms with the end of a period of nearly boundless popularity. And she must contend with a new middle class that feels politically empowered but squeezed by the rising cost of living in Latin America’s largest economy.

More than 250,000 people took to the streets in cities across the country on Monday and Tuesday, primarily to denounce a 7 percent increase in subway and bus fares, along with a host of other grievances.…  Seguir leyendo »