Free Republic

A Strategic Challenge In China’s New Tactical Fighter Exports by Richard Fisher, Jr. Published on February 7th, 2012 REPORTS As part of its campaign to build global strategic influence China is offering increasingly sophisticated weapons exports that it uses to reinforce important political and economic relationships. China is no longer a last resort supplier of cheap but obsolete weapons for isolated regimes; it can now offer a full range of weapons that are increasingly competitive with Western systems in capability and very competitive in terms of price. This increase in both capability and value is creating new weapons sales opportunities...

“Our homeland is bleeding painfully,” is how Honduran Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez put it recently at a religious event whose audience included Honduran President Porfirio Lobo. Indeed, Honduras is spiraling into an ungovernable and unstable situation due to the increased operations of international drug syndicates and their local gang proxies within its territory. Last October, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported that Honduras, a nation of 7.6 million, now has the highest homicide rate in the world. Honduras is a victim of what counter-narcotics experts refer to as the “balloon effect,” where heavy pressures on traffickers in Colombia...

At the best of times, the U.S. government is regarded as somewhat out of touch with what’s happening in the American “heartland,” much less the world at large, so much so that the phrase “inside the Beltway” was coined to define the syndrome. But every now and again, an incident occurs that so perfectly encapsulates Washington’s self-absorbed navel gazing that little further comment is needed. On 9 January U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland provided such a “Kodak moment” to the Washington press corps. The object of her concern? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s visit to Latin America, where he is...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program as he began a four-nation tour of Latin America, joining his ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in accusing the U.S. and its allies of using the dispute to unjustly threaten Iran.[snip] Both leaders planned to travel to Nicaragua on Tuesday for the inauguration of newly re-elected President Daniel Ortega, and then Ahmadinejad will also visit Cuba and Ecuador.

Hugo Chavez has a new theory: that the US has developed a secret technology and is using it to give cancer to left wing Latin American rulers that we don’t like. After all, Fidel Castro, the Hero of Venezuela himself, the president of Paraguay, the current and former presidents of Brazil and now Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have all come down with (quite different) cancers. Bringing the logical acuity and sure grasp of the laws of probability and of cause and effect that he brings to all his policy making, Chavez, the Times of India reports, has shared his reasoning...

A series of recent law enforcement actions indicates the depth of Iranian-tied criminal activity in Mexico may be greater than previously known. In October, a Texas-car salesman was arrested in connection with an Iranian plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington. Prosecutors say officials in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps believed they were dealing with a "large and sophisticated" Mexican drug cartel to carry out the hit. A $100,000 down payment on the hit shows the Iranians were comfortable dealing with the cartel representative, who in fact was a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant. Earlier this month, prosecutors in Virginia...

President Bush had many important foreign policy issues to discuss when he went to Lima, Peru, last weekend, but you wouldn't have known it from watching NBC's weekend "Today" show on Sunday. Because while Bush was talking about narcotics trafficking, trade and international terrorism with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, "Today" and other Sunday news shows led with the case of convicted American terrorist Lori Berenson. American media coverage of President Bush's trip to Mexico, Peru and Central America revealed how our media establishment views Latin America. Basically, our journalistic agenda-setters in New York and Washington ignore our neighbors to the...

Middle Eastern terrorists have infiltrated Latin American countries—especially Mexico—to plan an attack against the United States, according to an alarming exposé broadcast this week by the world’s largest Spanish news network. Related Article Here The Univision documentary, “La Amenaza Irani,” (Iranian Threat), uses undercover, never-before-seen video footage to illustrate how Iran’s growing political, economic and military ties to Latin America threaten U.S. security. The videos were part of a seven-month investigation in which college-aged Mexicans infiltrated diplomatic circles in Mexico to obtain recordings that prove diplomats from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba planned a cybernetic attack against the White House, FBI,...

(English-language translation) Its big yellow "M" on a red background is practically recognizable anywhere in the world, and it is one of the symbols of globalization, but there is one place in Latin America where the McDonald's chain did not have the expected success. It was in Bolivia where, despite the restaurant's attempt to adapt to local tastes (including llajwa, the sauce Bolivians season their dishes with, and folkloric music), it did not succeed. Therefore, in 2002 and after 5 years in the country, the hamburger chain decided to close its 8 franchises in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz....

Face of evil: MOHSEN RABBANI The Islamic Shiite cleric active in Latin America since the early 1990s. Responsible for the 1992 and 1994 anti-Jewish massacres in Argentina. Wanted in that country and by the Interpol for the crimes. Called for Israel to be "wiped off," in 1994. 'Chief' Islamic operator of Hezbollah - Quds activities of: Islamizaton --including 'recruting converts for Islam'-- and terror networks in Latin America, resides in Brazil. Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil - Pages 122-3Tom Diaz, Barbara Newman - Random House Digital, Inc., 2006 - History - 272 pagesThe man directly responsible for this cell-building...

China is continuing its bold economic and geopolitical march through the Caribbean and Latin America, using its growing economic might to dole out grant aid and soft loans to win friends and influence governments, continuing its plans to displace the United States as the region's major trading partner in the not-too-distant future. For two days this week, a large Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan spent hours in talks with Caribbean leaders and business delegations. By the time the forum ended in Trinidad's capital of Port of Spain, Beijing had unveiled measures worth $6.3 billion aimed at sealing better...

(CNSNews.com) -- The Iranian government is racing to launch its first Spanish-language news channel by the end of this year, which is expected to reach audiences in Latin America and Europe, a Brazilian news outlet reported. HispanTV, the name of the upcoming Iranian channel, has already made its debut on the Web, covering news in Iran, the Americas, the United States, Canada, Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa and also reporting on culture, health, sports, society, economy, and technology. The Iranian channel is expected to air “varied” programming, including interviews and talk shows about movies and books on Iranians and...

Perhaps the biggest foreign-policy story of the past decade, thoroughly overlooked by the American media after 9/11 and its subsequent monomaniacal focus on terrorism, security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the fact that Latin America has essentially moved away from Washington's influence. This quiet revolution from below, in rejecting the Monroe Doctrine, first enunciated in 1823 whereby the U.S. essentially barred European powers from influence in Latin America, has essentially for nearly 200 years served as an ideological platform for countless U.S. interventions south of the border but has yet to register on the radar the politicians...

A Republican move to end $48.5 million in funding to the Organization of American States is the wrong tack to take in a region where U.S. influence appears to be eroding. For much of the last decade, the United States has been relatively disengaged from Latin America, getting involved mostly to combat drugs or violence. Now, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a measure that would further limit the U.S. role in the region. Under the proposal, which would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate, the U.S. would eliminate its $48.5-million contribution to the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has placed utmost importance on secrecy, carefully offering only scraps of information about his condition… Maria Teresa Romero, a professor of international studies at the Central University of Venezuela, said controlling information about Chavez's illness is important for him both to secure his hold on power in Venezuela and in his United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Private companies received nearly $2 billion in Latin American drug war contracts between 2005 and 2009, according to a report released Thursday by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). That money may as well have been stuffed in garbage bags and dropped randomly from the backs of airplanes. The two major agencies tasked with overseeing the drug war in Latin America—the State Department and the Department of Defense—lack “a centralized database or system with the capacity to track counternarcotics contracts," McCaskill found. As a result, both agencies struggled to explain contracts worth millions of dollars that were awarded to unknown recipients to...

First it was Venezuela, then Bolivia, then Ecuador, then Nicaragua. Now it’s my native Peru. One by one, largely unremarked here, Latin America’s nations are turning to the authoritarian Left. Ollanta Humala, who won yesterday’s presidential run-off, is typical of the breed of modern caudillo. A cashiered former army officer, he had concocted an angry and aggrieved programme which mingled ethnic nationalism, hostility to private enterprise, nostalgia for pre-Columbian times and anti-Chilean revanchism..... Humala’s opponent in the run-off was Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the man who, as president in the 1990s, closed down Congress and gave himself autocratic powers, and...

Elections: For years, Peru has been Latin America's top-performing economy, leading the pack on GDP, inflation, poverty eradication, free trade and markets. So why did Peru's voters suddenly elect a communist? Markets plummeted in Peru on Monday after leftist Ollanta Humala won Peru's presidency with nearly 51% of the vote. Stocks on the Lima exchange fell 13% at last glance, their biggest one-day drop since records began in 1990. Bonds and the currency were down, too. It was painful because Peru had been the brightest light among Latin America's economies. Embracing markets over two decades had paid off handsomely for...

Peru’s Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat in yesterday’s presidential election to Ollanta Humala, who won a narrow victory as voters overlooked his past support for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and rallied behind his pledges to stamp out corruption and extend a mining boom to the nation’s poor. Fujimori, speaking to reporters in Lima, said she will lead a responsible opposition and “build bridges” with Humula’s government. She said she will offer him her personal congratulations in a meeting later today. “I recognize his triumph,” said the 36-year-old congresswoman. “It’s important that the country continues its economic course and that it has clear...

Chávez’s purchase of $15 billion in weapons causes concern in Latin America BY ANTONIO MARIA DELGADO With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country. Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald have said that Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion. The analysts warned that the purchases are made in an improvised fashion, following a “dubious” process with no bidding or prior...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – As a nuclear nightmare stalks Japan, and Libya and Bahrain crush hopes for reform, US President Barack Obama on Friday heads to an oasis of surprising stability in a troubled world -- emerging Latin America. Obama plans to highlight an amazing economic leap forward by Brazil, which has lifted millions from poverty and won a new global influence that President Dilma Rousseff seems keen to wield. He will cite Chile's evolution from authoritarian misery to increasingly prosperous democracy as an example for Middle Eastern nations emerging from repression. And in El Salvador, Obama hopes to show that...

Leftists Advance: Nation by Nation The Venezuelan people are not the only ones suffering under this resurgence of fanatical left-wing leaders. The BBC reported in 2005 that 75 percent of South Americans were governed by leftist rulers, all of whom had risen to power in the preceding six years. And the trend has only accelerated since then, with some analysts using the term “Pink Tide” to describe the phenomenon that has enveloped Latin America. Bolivia: With strong backing from Chavez, former coca farmer Evo Morales of the Movement for Socialism assumed power in 2006. His party now controls about two-thirds...

The Washington Post recently reported on the successful Palestinian drive to achieve statehood recognition from South American countries. Over the past few months, several countries—including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay—have endorsed the existence of an independent Palestinian country. (In years past, Palestine had garnered official recognition from Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.) To a casual observer, the wave of recognition may seem like a spontaneous outburst. In fact, there was nothing spontaneous about it. The flurry of diplomatic activity represents the culmination of a robust Palestinian lobbying push that was blessed and encouraged by former...

Colombia has announced it is negotiating with China to build an alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed transport route is intended to promote the flow of goods between Asia and Latin America. The plan is to create a "dry canal" where the Pacific port of Buenaventura would be linked by rail, across Colombia, to the Atlantic Coast. Trade between Colombia and China has increased from $10m in 1980 to more than $5bn last year. The announcement came from the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, who told the Financial Times that the project was "a real proposal... and it is...

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) decided at a meeting on Friday to set up a South American Parliament in Bolivia to promote the bloc's integration. Chilean President Michele Bachelet, also the UNASUR's temporary president, and Bolivian President Evo Morales opened the meeting in Bolivia's Cochabamba province which drew representatives from 12 countries in the region. "There are many tasks that the UNASUR is urged to accomplish, as part of the Latin American and Caribbean efforts," Bachelet said. Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that UNASUR members consider it necessary to promote the construction of the institutionalism and the...

Iran: Northern border of Costa Rica They're public and undeniable terrorist strategies, discriminatory and violative of human rights promotes Iranian President in his country and attempts to export to the world. It is also indisputable the serious and imminent threat to mankind posed by Iran's nuclear program, which Ahmadinejad has refused to stop despite the five Security Council resolutions ordering it and the repeated warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Many Costa Ricans believe that a humanitarian tragedy resulting from the Iranian regime would occur "across the world" and would have consequences for our country. Who thinks this is...

Uruguay also expected to recognize independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders in March; Ecuador also due to open PA embassy. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said that in the coming weeks, Chile and Paraguay will declare their recognition of an independent Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, Israel Radio reported on Sunday. Al-Maliki said that Chile plans on making its declaration in the coming weeks, and that Chile's president Sebastian Pinera is even due to visit the West Bank in three months. Paraguay is also expected to declare its recognition of Palestine in the coming weeks. Al-Maliki also announced...

Unbelievable!!! Foreign nations telling Americans the Constitutionality of our US Constitution and Obama allowing them to way in on it in court. View video at Randy's Right blog YOU MUST WATCH THIS: IMPEACH OBAMA NOW..10 Latin American Nations Way In on the Constitutionality of Immigration!!

Bolivan president Evo Morales brought down one of his political opponents during a soccer friendly with one swift blow. A low blow, that is. In a match to inaugurate a renovated stadium in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, Morales and a gang of bodyguards and government officials faced off against a team led by political ally turned foe, La Paz mayor Luis Revilla. About five minutes into last week’s match, the 50-year-old Morales was challenged and gashed by Revilla’s teammate, La Paz civil servant Daniel Gustavo Cartagena, according to guardian.co.uk.... Morales walked up to Cartagena after the play and...

When Iran's Ahmadinejad started throwing out crazy accusations from the UN General Assembly's podium, claiming that the United States government had organized the September 11 attacks, members of the US delegation stood up and walked out. So also did the delegations of what the NY Times pegs at about 33 nations. That's thirty-three countries whose leaders refused to listed to the anti-American ravings of the Iranian lunatic. Nice. You could probably name all thirty-three countries pretty close to correctly just off the back of your hand. But, wait. There are 192 member nations of the UN -- every one of...

WASHINGTON - Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before -- you'll never find a place to sit there," says...

Legal immigrants are required to have medical screening to ensure that they do not bring any contagious diseases into the United States. Illegal aliens are not screened and many are carrying horrific third world diseases that do not belong in the USA. Many of these diseases are highly contagious and will infect citizens that come in contact with an infected illegal alien. This has already happened in restaurants, schools, and police forces. Malaria was eradicated from the USA in the 1940s but recently there were outbreaks in southern California, New Jersey, New York City, and Houston. Additionally, Malaria tainted blood...

PHOENIX — Two more Latin American countries added their own objections Tuesday to Arizona's new immigration law. In legal papers filed in federal court, Luis Gallegos, the ambassador to the United States from Ecuador, said his country wants to join Mexico in the fight to convince U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton to block the state from enforcing the law. “Similar to Mexico, Ecuador has a substantial and compelling interest in ensuring that its bilateral diplomatic relations with the government of the United States of America are transparent, consistent and reliable, and not frustrated by the actions of individual U.S....

The twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago would seem to be the last place to raise alarm bells over the threat of radical Islam. Trinidad was briefly catapulted into the spotlight in June 2007 when reports surfaced that one of the suspects linked to an alleged plot to attack New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was a Trinidadian national and that the suspects reached out to Yasin Abu Bakr, the leader of Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM, Association of Muslims), for assistance in executing their plan. JAM is an enigmatic Trinidadian Muslim militant group that is implicated in violence,...

Ted Kennedy's KGB Correspondence By Kevin Mooney on 6.22.10 @ 6:08AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip the Massachusetts Democrat took to Mexico and other parts of...

(CNSNews.com) - Amid growing concern about the illicit drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas have been linked to South American drug trafficking organizations–and the money Hezbollah and Hamas make from narco-trafficking is used to finance their organizations, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” stated CRS in an April 30 report. As evidence that Hezbollah and...

Elections: Loopy Green candidate Antanas Mockus was hailed in the press as Colombia's next president. But the voters had someone else in mind and stunned with Sunday's result. It exposed Mockus' rise as pure media hype. Where have we seen this movie before? The media hailed the vaguely leftwing Green Party candidate with his hip sunflower campaign theme as "The New Obama." They pointed to polls as proof he'd win the election, said he was a new kind of politician and voters were in a mood for "change." "Colombian election tilting toward a maverick," crowed the Global Post, in a...

Venezuelan authorities have raided four money-changing businesses and arrested one man in the start of a clampdown on what President Hugo Chavez calls capitalist speculators distorting the currency market. The Attorney General's office said on Saturday that the businesses were illegally selling dollars in violation of Venezuela's currency exchange rules. The raids came late on Friday shortly after Chavez promised action to prevent unregulated foreign exchange activities following the bolivar's crash against the dollar on a free-floating "parallel" market. "The bourgeoisie have gone crazy, they want money, money and more money," Chavez said ... Analysts have warned this strategy may...

Recent weeks have brought more depressing economic news from Venezuela, where populist leader Hugo Chávez seems intent on destroying not only democracy but also the last remaining vestiges of private enterprise. On April 21, the Latin Business Chronicle predicted that Venezuela would post the world’s highest inflation rate in 2010, ahead of even the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. On May 5, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Venezuela dropped from $349 million in 2008 to negative $3.1 billion last year, “mainly as a result of nationalizations.” In...

<p>In a recent interview with PBS host Charlie Rose, Sudanese-born businessman Mohamed Ibrahim said that Africans had great hopes for Barack Obama, but are still waiting for him to announce a new set of U.S. policies toward their continent.</p> <p>All of Obama's four immediate predecessors spearheaded at least one major initiative in the Western Hemisphere. Ronald Reagan established the Kissinger Commission on Central America and launched the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). George H.W. Bush started the "Enterprise for the Americas Initiative" and spearheaded the NAFTA talks. Bill Clinton completed NAFTA, created the Summit of the Americas, supported enhanced trade preferences for CBI members, and began negotiations for a "Free Trade Area of the Americas." George W. Bush signed CAFTA with Central America and the Dominican Republic), plus single free-trade pacts with Chile, Peru, Colombia and Panama; he also introduced the anti-drug Mérida Initiative.</p>

Wednesday, 5/5/10 El Sol de Mexico (Mexico City) 5/4/10 Central American legislators take hands-on action re U.S. immigration The “Presidents” of the Congresses of seven Central American countries plan to meet in Guatemala on May 13 & 14 to elaborate a proposal to be presented to the U.S. Senate. That document would seek to halt Arizona’s law against immigrants. Roberto Alejos, President of Guatemala’s Congress, added that “At the same time, we will set out (to the senators) the importance of approving an integral migratory reform.” The presidents of the congress of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua...

The head of the Sandinista Government in Nicaragua protected one of the world’s top drug barons and helped him to establish trafficking routes through the country, a former high-ranking officer has claimed. During the 1980s Daniel Ortega, the revolutionary leader and current President, gave Pablo Escobar, the head of Colombia’s Medellín cartel, access to drug corridors as well as sanctuary and a military guard, according to the allegations. Cuba and Panama, then led by Fidel Castro and Manuel Noriega, are also said to have participated in the deal, with Panama acting as a financial and money-laundering centre and Cuba protecting...

SNIPPET: "President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a “nuclear village” in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that “the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes.” The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear technology transfers. In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Iran’s support for Venezuela’s search for uranium deposits....

SNIPPET: "In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. The TBA has long been used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods." SNIPPET: "This article is an edited portion of a longer January 25, 2010 CRS report, Latin America: Terrorism Issues (PDF) prepared by Mark P. Sullivan, Specialist in Latin American Affairs for the Congressional Research Service...

"Now Arizona has more than one war in our backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes" By Lionel Waxman, Inside Tucson Business Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 SNIPPET: "For years, I have been warning that the Mexican drug war will sweep over Southern Arizona if we don’t close the border. Well now the war is here. But today, I am writing to warn you of another war. It is using the drug routes but it isn’t connected to the cartels. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

"US Accuses Guinea-Bissau Military Officers of Drug Trafficking Two top officers are named as major players in cocaine shipment from Latin America to Guinea-Bissau" SNIPPET: "Na Tchuto denied the allegations on Friday and said that he will cooperate with the United States government. He also said the charges of drug trafficking do not make sense because he was in Portugal on June 29, 2008 when the cocaine shipment from Venezuela arrived. Na Tchuto said he did not return to Guinea-Bissau until July. Na Tchuto also pointed out that he was not arrested by Interpol when he was in Gambia or...

Beam me up, Hugo. As Venezuela sinks deeper into economic quicksand, President Hugo Chávez continues to mortgage his country’s future with weapons purchases and harebrained schemes. Last week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin visited the South American nation to promote greater bilateral cooperation on strategic issues, including energy and defense. According to Russian media outlets, Putin said that Moscow’s arms sales to Caracas “could exceed $5 billion.” It’s unclear how much of that $5 billion reflects previous agreements -- Chávez has already spent billions on Russian military equipment -- but we can safely say that the Venezuelan arms buildup is moving forward...

The United States is concerned about Iran's bridge-building with Latin American regimes as the confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions gets sharper. Washington's focus is primarily on Venezuela and Brazil at the moment; especially Brazil, which is emerging as a new energy power. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a center-leftist, seeks to transform Brazil into a diplomatic heavyweight on the world stage. Since Iran's firebrand President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was first elected in 2005, he has opened embassies in six Latin American states: Nicaragua, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay. All told, Iran has 11 embassies in the...