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Latin America Politics General Thread

  • Thread starter Thread starter CRHeel94
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He's a very dangerous guy. There is no such thing as a benevolent or cool dictator. All fun and games til he turns his attention on you.
They are spending like crazy.
 
"Since coming to power, Bukele has not hesitated to implement despotic measures. On his first day in office, he fired hundreds of public employees and dissolved entire institutions with a single message on Twitter. Over time, he took even bolder steps — like in February 2020, when he entered the Legislative Assembly with soldiers and sat in the chair of the Assembly president as a pressure tactic to get lawmakers to approve a loan to fund his security strategy."

Later, in 2021, after winning an absolute majority in Congress, Bukele dealt a blow to the Supreme Court of Justice and handpicked judges who later approved his reelection bid, despite it being prohibited by the Constitution. He also removed the attorney general who was investigating his negotiations with the MS-13 and Barrio 18 gangs, and forced prosecutors to flee the country. That same year, he launched a purge of the judiciary to install judges aligned with his agenda.

But the move that most accelerated his global image as an authoritarian was the implementation of the state of emergency — a measure allowed by El Salvador’s Constitution in cases of natural disaster or national emergency, and intended to last one month. Bukele has renewed this measure more than 36 times."

TAKING NOTES IN DC

"In mid-March, El Salvador began a prison agreement with Donald Trump’s administration to hold undocumented immigrants in its maximum-security prison, CECOT.

At first, Bukele claimed they were criminals, but later, U.S. authorities revealed that many of the people sent on the first flight were simply migrants whose only offense was entering the United States without papers. It was later revealed that Bukele’s real motivation behind the agreement was to bring back nine gang leaders, allegedly to prevent them from testifying in a New York court about his secret deals with them. The agreement significantly damaged Bukele’s image, to which he responded by attacking the media and humanitarian organizations."
 
Here's a little interesting tidbit. The two countries spending the most on their basketball programs are Nicaragua and El Salvador. They both see sport in general and basketball in particular as a means of circus for the masses.

Nicaragua brought in a coach from Puerto Rico, has funneled massive amounts of money towards nationalizing players and paying foreigners to play in their domestic league. They will be hosting the American this August which is for the top 16 teams in the Americas...that event will easily cost them half a million dollars (and no they will not be recouping the money from the gate). They classified by virtue of being host. When you go to their national team games in Nicaragua the court is ringed by Juventud Sandinista members. Their annual budget is about $1.3 million dollars.
El Salvador doesn't have the athletes to compete at the same level as Nicaragua. They also have foreign coaches for their teams with nice deals. They have built out their facilities...really nice practice court, totally refiurbished national gym. They have hosted three different home events in an attempt to give their national teams home court advantages (my CR team is undefeated there). Their women's team has done better, classifying for the women's Americas. Their budget? About $800k.

The budget for the CR basketball federation? $60K per year. Panama which is actually good at basketball? About $200k.
 
Is Nicaragua planning on building a program around Norchad Omier then?

I attended a number of basketball games at the "Central American Games of Peace" back in the late 1980s in Guatemala. In those days it seemed to me that basketball was considered more of a women's game...and there were some pretty good women players to my eye across the region.

I played a few games in the Guatemala City league around that same time...pretty rough hoops..."Que Mula!" But as time went by, especially with the rise of the Dream Team, Jordan, Bird, and Magic in particular it seemed to me that the game became more and more associated with men. I also played in a couple of leagues outside of the capital in the early 1990s. I'm 5-10 and was, for the first time in my life called upon to rebound. There was a guy playing the that league...6-5, who had played at Whittier College in CA who completely dominated even the taller Guatemalans (I have a Guatemalan friend who is 6-6 but was very slight and pretty easily pushed around). Only one guy on my team...actually named "Don Bosco"...could dunk.
 
That was probably because Guatemala has only been good on the women's side.

They've been building around Nomier for the last four years. They have a handful of prospects in schools in South Florida. This Americup will be their crowning achievement. The guy who runs their basketball program was Rosario's money man; he hired hit squads back in the 2018 uprising.
 
Yeah...that makes sense. I tended bar there for a while and the lady who owned the place always said that she had been an All-Guatemala basketball player. I saw her play in an old-timers game and tend to believe her. She also claimed to be the country's only licensed female boxing referee. Her brother had been a middleweight boxer there and her husband (disappeared by the Right-Wing Military) a goalie on the national futbol team. A very athletic family to say the least.

A young woman named Lisa Garcia was a legend in those days...I saw plenty of Mayan women hoopsters burning up the nets from downtown. I always chalked it up to them sort of inventing the game.
 
The US Government was very much behind the actions of the Guatemalan government in the times focused upon here stretching back several decades previous. We trained and equipped these fighters.

"3 Ex-Paramilitaries in Guatemala Get 40-Year Sentences for Rape of Maya Achi Women"​

HeadlineJun 02, 2025

"
A Guatemalan court sentenced three former paramilitaries each to 40 years in prison for crimes against humanity for raping six Indigenous Maya Achi women between 1981 and 1983, at the height of Guatemala’s bloody, U.S.-backed genocide. This is survivor Paulina Ixpata, speaking after the sentence was announced.

Paulina Ixpata: “I feel very good because we achieved justice, because we are not lying. We lived through it — not just me, other women, too. There are other women who are no longer with us. They died. They didn’t have the opportunity to see this justice. But we also hope that we get dignified reparations, because it is a government obligation.”
Click to expand...
A separate trial in 2022 convicted five other paramilitaries for raping Maya Achi women. At least 36 Maya Achi survivors have come forward to accuse U.S.-funded paramilitaries and soldiers of rape during the war. Twenty-nine survivors are still alive, including those in this most recent case."

 

White House taps special ops vet for key Latin America post, sources say​

By Gram Slattery
June 4, 20257:48 PM EDTUpdated 2 days ago

  • Michael Jensen will oversee Latin America policy at the National Security Council
  • White House has floated military action in Mexico to take out cartels
WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The White House has tapped a career special forces operative with experience in counterterrorism operations to oversee Latin America policy at the National Security Council, two U.S. officials said.
The appointment of retired Air Force commander Michael Jensen as senior director of Western Hemisphere affairs at the NSC follows President Donald Trump publicly floating the idea of sending troops into Mexico to battle drug cartels.

In February, the Trump administration designated six Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, a move that some Democrats and analysts believe could serve as a legal pretext for U.S. military action in Mexico or other foreign countries.
Jensen, who served in multiple special tactics groups over the course of more than two decades in the Air Force, had been nominated in February to serve as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. The administration pulled that nomination in mid-May, according to a congressional notice that did not give a reason.

Jensen has no obvious Latin America policy experience, according to his LinkedIn profile and publicly available documents. A 2008 article written by an Air Force public affairs officer said Jensen helped manage a "high-value target hunt" in Afghanistan, during which he "guided 31 close air support and surveillance aircraft during a 5-1/2 hour mission, which disrupted al-Qaeda operations."
CBS reported in April that Jensen was a candidate for the post, though Jensen has only stepped into the position in recent days amid a broad shake-up at the NSC, said the U.S. officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

TROOPS TO FIGHT CARTELS​

Trump said on the campaign trail that he might send troops to Mexico to battle drug cartels. During the final year of his 2017-2021 presidency, he privately floated the idea of launching missiles into Mexico, according to a memoir by his second defense secretary, Mark Esper.

In May, Trump said he had offered to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum combat drug trafficking, an offer that she rebuffed.
Jensen's appointment comes at a fraught time for the NSC, which helps coordinate U.S. foreign policy across a large number of agencies.

In late May, dozens of staffers were cut in a purge, the latest and most dramatic in a series of cuts that started in March. Mike Waltz, the first national security adviser, was replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in early May and Rubio now holds the top posts at both the NSC and the State Department.

The White House did not confirm Jensen's appointment in a comment to Reuters, but defended the NSC reorganization.
"Under President Trump's leadership, the National Security Council has been right-sized to facilitate more streamlined processes and greater coordination between the White House and the federal agencies," said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

 

Latin America set to benefit from US market shifts, investors say​



NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) - Latin America has emerged as a top investing destination as ongoing wars - both of the military and trade variety - make investors seek options in a region they view as refreshingly untroubled by tariffs and major conflicts.
Portfolio flows data suggests that investors are largely underexposed to Latin America even as many stock markets - including Brazil's and Mexico's - are trading at or near record highs, while sovereign bonds offer still-attractive yields. Although some prefer not to chase a stock rally, others have focused on the local debt market.

 
The average male height in Nicaragua is about 5'6". In much of Northern Europe, it's 6'0" or 6'1" (Serbia also, IIRC). In the US it's like 5'9, 5'10."

Small country + average height = never going to be good at basketball internationally. There could be a good player or two of course, but the talent pool of 6'6" people is probably less than 1% of the US. At 6'10, 6'11" it's probably much less than that.
 
superrific said:
The average male height in Nicaragua is about 5'6". In much of Northern Europe, it's 6'0" or 6'1" (Serbia also, IIRC). In the US it's like 5'9, 5'10."

Small country + average height = never going to be good at basketball internationally. There could be a good player or two of course, but the talent pool of 6'6" people is probably less than 1% of the US. At 6'10, 6'11" it's probably much less than that.
Click to expand...
They can hit the country transfer portal. Nationality is somewhat flexible when it comes to international sport.
 
superrific said:
The average male height in Nicaragua is about 5'6". In much of Northern Europe, it's 6'0" or 6'1" (Serbia also, IIRC). In the US it's like 5'9, 5'10."

Small country + average height = never going to be good at basketball internationally. There could be a good player or two of course, but the talent pool of 6'6" people is probably less than 1% of the US. At 6'10, 6'11" it's probably much less than that.
Click to expand...

5-10 - been a point guard all my life and never got more than long rebounds in organized play. On all but the one team I played on in Guatemala City I was expected to do inside work and was often the leading rebounder.

OTOH, I played a good bit of pick-up in Argentina and Brasil and it was back to point guard for me there.
 
I am also 5'10 Played a lot of basketball
but it was 95% driveway basketball-neighborhood basketball
3-4-5 dribbles then pass or shoot
When I got to be in my 30s I picked it up again in old man leagues Lord after3-4-5 dribbles I was not even close to half court and just did not know what to do ,,,,,,,,,
 
mpaer said:
I am also 5'10 Played a lot of basketball
but it was 95% driveway basketball-neighborhood basketball
3-4-5 dribbles then pass or shoot
When I got to be in my 30s I picked it up again in old man leagues Lord after3-4-5 dribbles I was not even close to half court and just did not know what to do ,,,,,,,,,
Click to expand...


I have to say that I grew to love the conical lane of international rules for the way that it works to keep the area around the rim clearer. The concept of the extra step to the hoop on lay-ups was something I never got used to though (All my Guatemalan friends actually called a lay-up un triple in fact...I suspect this is the term everywhere). In those days (I'm talking over 25 years ago, the three-point shot was already the goal in my circle there, as it was in Europe, and as we know, would become in the USA soon enough). Coaching and trying to get my teammates to work the ball around for a good shot...not the first three pointer available was particularly irritating. To play hard defense and get a steal only to pull up and toss a three from the top of the key rather than take it all the way to the unguarded hoop seemed like anathema to me in those times.
 
donbosco said:
www.economist.com

A Harvard man turned narco-gang-buster

Daniel Noboa assures The Economist he can save Ecuador without hurting democracy
www.economist.com www.economist.com
Click to expand...

"The president loves jogging. Yet so determined are gangsters to kill Daniel Noboa that his runs require a military operation. As his motorcade of black SUVs and outriders sweeps back to his apartment after a morning run in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s biggest city, a swarm of heavily armed soldiers surrounds him. Mr Noboa and his wife, incongruous in colourful lycra, slip swiftly inside. “We’ve had death threats on a daily basis for two years,” he tells The Economist, matter-of-factly.

Ecuador is deep in the bloody grip of transnational criminal gangs with links to Mexico, Colombia and Albania. They ship thousands of tons of cocaine, mostly made in Colombia, out of the country to Europe and the United States. Illegal mining and extortion bring in stacks more cash. Other Latin American countries have balked at taking on the gangs. Mr Noboa was recently re-elected on the promise to do just that. His efforts to make Ecuador safe again pose a crucial test that is about more than just one country: is it possible to beat back the rampant transnational gangs while respecting the rule of law and democracy?"
 
superrific said:
The average male height in Nicaragua is about 5'6". In much of Northern Europe, it's 6'0" or 6'1" (Serbia also, IIRC). In the US it's like 5'9, 5'10."

Small country + average height = never going to be good at basketball internationally. There could be a good player or two of course, but the talent pool of 6'6" people is probably less than 1% of the US. At 6'10, 6'11" it's probably much less than that.
Click to expand...
This is where averages can mislead.

They have region on the Caribbean coast that is largely of Jamaican descent. About 70% of their players come from that area. Costa Rica has a similar region: our premier football players are way over-indexed as coming from that region (about 8-10% of our population is black, yet 33% of our soccer team historically been black).

Plus they want to be good at the LatAm level, not challenge for an Olympic berth.
 
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CRHeel94 said:

Violeta Barrios passed away yesterday. She stunned observers in beating Daniel Ortega in elections in 1990. Her administration tiptoed a delicate tightrope as the country emerged from a decade long civil war, with criticism coming from all sides. IMHO, she is one of the underrated figures of Central American history.
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Why do you call her Barrios instead of Chamorro? Lord knows both names are huge in Central America. Was she related to Justo Rufino Barrios by chance? And I agree that she, along with the rest of her family, are major figures in history.
 
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