27 de diciembre de 2012, 12:33Buenos Aires, Dec 27 (Prensa Latina) The visit of South American tourists to Cuba increased until last Monday in over 22 percent compared to the same period of 2011, informed here sources from the Tourism sector. Until December 24 a total of 163, 046 visitors from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brasil, Uruguay and Paraguay travelled to the Caribbean archipelago, which represented a yearly increase of 22, 07 percent and a 49, 36 percent compared to 2010, detailed Luis Felipe Aguilera.
The director of the Office of Cuban Information and Tourism Promotion for South America stressed that according to preliminary reports, of this total the largest contribution was made by Argentina, with more than 92 800 visitors, number that exceeded the Annual Plan of 89 000.
Aguilera also commended the outstanding performance of the tour operations from Peru and Chile, which reported a growth of 29.18 and 16.93 percent, respectively.
That means that Cuba was already visited by about 27, 300 Chileans and almost 19,000 Peruvians, he said.
In the cases of Brazil (15, 362 visitors) and Uruguay (over 7, 900), both report increase compared to last year and must also meet the projected figures for 2012, he estimated.
Meanwhile, Paraguay, with 673 passengers, increased production by 24.63 percent, exceeding the projections.
The figures achieved by the Southern Cone markets contrast very favorably with the general behavior of the tourism emission to Cuba, which received over 2,700,000 visitors to grow by 4.63 percent compared to the same period of 2011.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Paraguay: Lowest Human Development in South America
Asuncion, Dec 28 (Prensa Latina) The great inequalities in Paraguay place the country in first place among those with the lowest human development rates in South America, according to a UN Development Program (UNDP) report published in this capital. The document highlighted the serious situation in the departments of Caaguzu and San Pedro, considered the poorest in that Mediterranean nation, where significant populations of farmers without access to land have settled.
The human development assessment by the UNDP covers a whole decade, from the year 2001 to 2011, thus providing abundant data.
Referring specifically to the member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the study highlighted that Paraguay has the lowest rates in health, education, and standards of living, compared to the other member countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
In the case of Paraguay, the country's low growth rate belies the optimistic statements from the current government, and hinders its real development, especially when compared to Argentina and Brazil.
A portion of the study compares the different cities of the country with Asuncion, the capital, which obviously has higher income and more educational and health centers, something that reveals the precarious conditions in the rest of the territory.
A striking observation by the UNDP in its conclusion about Paraguay is that at its current pace, the country would take 36 years to level the rates of all its cities with those of Asuncion.
However, that period is likely to be even longer, considering the huge problems that affect other poor cities, suggesting that many more years are necessary just to reach a minimum state of well-being throughout the entire country.
The human development assessment by the UNDP covers a whole decade, from the year 2001 to 2011, thus providing abundant data.
Referring specifically to the member countries of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), the study highlighted that Paraguay has the lowest rates in health, education, and standards of living, compared to the other member countries such as Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
In the case of Paraguay, the country's low growth rate belies the optimistic statements from the current government, and hinders its real development, especially when compared to Argentina and Brazil.
A portion of the study compares the different cities of the country with Asuncion, the capital, which obviously has higher income and more educational and health centers, something that reveals the precarious conditions in the rest of the territory.
A striking observation by the UNDP in its conclusion about Paraguay is that at its current pace, the country would take 36 years to level the rates of all its cities with those of Asuncion.
However, that period is likely to be even longer, considering the huge problems that affect other poor cities, suggesting that many more years are necessary just to reach a minimum state of well-being throughout the entire country.
Rape of ecuadors rain forest
For the past eighteen years, Chevron has been sued by the peoples of Ecuador, after the company left the country back in 1993. But in order to know why, we must backtrack fifty years to the 1960s, back to a company called Texaco, Chevron absorbed the company in 2001.
From 1964 to 1990, Texaco designed,built, and operated an oil production system in the Ecuadorian region known as the Oriente. Originally, it was a pristine area and home to several tribes; the Cofan, Secoya, Kichwa, and the Huoarani. (Chevron Toxico) The tribes were still living their traditional life styles when Texaco started it’s oil operations in 1964. (Chevron Toxico) As stated before, after Chevron left the area in 1993, the local environment had became decimated and their way of life disrupted. The reason that Texaco, an American oil company, moved into Ecuador was simple.Cheap oil. By employing illegal costcutting practices, Texaco saved an estimated three dollars per barrel of oil. What happened was that Texaco, at the peak of their operations, had dumped an estimated four million gallons of produced water into the region’s streams and rivers every day.
According to the blog ChevroninEcuador, the total amount was an estimated 18 billion gallons of produced water along with an estimated amount of 17 million gallons of crude oil. Defined byan article in the New York Times, New Solutions for Oil,s Produced Water , produced water is “a briny fluid trapped in the rocks of oil reservoirs.”It can contain chemicals, salt, heavy metals, and residual fluids. It is created when underground oil is pumped aboveground.
From 1964 to 1990, Texaco designed,built, and operated an oil production system in the Ecuadorian region known as the Oriente. Originally, it was a pristine area and home to several tribes; the Cofan, Secoya, Kichwa, and the Huoarani. (Chevron Toxico) The tribes were still living their traditional life styles when Texaco started it’s oil operations in 1964. (Chevron Toxico) As stated before, after Chevron left the area in 1993, the local environment had became decimated and their way of life disrupted. The reason that Texaco, an American oil company, moved into Ecuador was simple.Cheap oil. By employing illegal costcutting practices, Texaco saved an estimated three dollars per barrel of oil. What happened was that Texaco, at the peak of their operations, had dumped an estimated four million gallons of produced water into the region’s streams and rivers every day.
According to the blog ChevroninEcuador, the total amount was an estimated 18 billion gallons of produced water along with an estimated amount of 17 million gallons of crude oil. Defined byan article in the New York Times, New Solutions for Oil,s Produced Water , produced water is “a briny fluid trapped in the rocks of oil reservoirs.”It can contain chemicals, salt, heavy metals, and residual fluids. It is created when underground oil is pumped aboveground.
Image of a member of the Secoya Tribe.
Local people bathing in a river.
Such practices have been outlawed from several oil producing states; California, Louisianain 1942 and Texas in 1967. (Chevron Toxico) Instead of reinjecting produced water back intounderground wells where it cannot pollute the water table, standard procedure in the 1970s,Texaco merely dumped it into the local water supply in order to save money and took advantage of the fact that Ecuador had no laws against such practices. This is damaging to the people of the Oriente, because unlike us Americans, there is little running water in their region. People are dependant on the rivers to bath, for their drinking supplies, to water plants and animal; even if the water is slick with oil, they have no choice. This quote from ChevronToxico sums it all:
“We got our drinking water from the rain, and when it didn’t rain, from the stream. It had a funny tasteand sometimes you could see oil floating on top. We bathed there and washed our clothes there. Weknew the water was bad for our health, but what could we do? There wasn’t water anywhere else.”–
-Woman living near Texaco Shushufindi oil field
The polluted water is not the end of the environmental offences. After Texaco left in 1993, the company left over a thousand toxic waste pits in the landscape and many of them are still there. These pits are unlined and full of toxic waste, many were built near inhabited areas.The toxic waste contaminates the soil and overflows in heavy rainstorms, adding to the pollutionin the already decimated water table. Since the 1930s, many US states, an example would beLouisiana and Texas, required such pits to have an impermeable lining such as concrete in order to prevent such leaching into the landscape. (Chevron Toxico)
A youtube video by Mitch Anderson of Amazon Watch and blogger of ChevronInEcuador, shows how these pits are designed to pollute. The full video can be seen athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXCLEDpojPE. It turns out that the waste pit at “Angua Rico 4” oil field has an over flow pipe, allowing the contamination to flow out into the local
“We got our drinking water from the rain, and when it didn’t rain, from the stream. It had a funny tasteand sometimes you could see oil floating on top. We bathed there and washed our clothes there. Weknew the water was bad for our health, but what could we do? There wasn’t water anywhere else.”–
-Woman living near Texaco Shushufindi oil field
The polluted water is not the end of the environmental offences. After Texaco left in 1993, the company left over a thousand toxic waste pits in the landscape and many of them are still there. These pits are unlined and full of toxic waste, many were built near inhabited areas.The toxic waste contaminates the soil and overflows in heavy rainstorms, adding to the pollutionin the already decimated water table. Since the 1930s, many US states, an example would beLouisiana and Texas, required such pits to have an impermeable lining such as concrete in order to prevent such leaching into the landscape. (Chevron Toxico)
A youtube video by Mitch Anderson of Amazon Watch and blogger of ChevronInEcuador, shows how these pits are designed to pollute. The full video can be seen athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXCLEDpojPE. It turns out that the waste pit at “Angua Rico 4” oil field has an over flow pipe, allowing the contamination to flow out into the local
Toxic Pits in Ecuador - Designed to Pollute
streams and rivers. Meanwhile, pits in Texas are meant to be temporary and isolated from freshwater. Afterwards, they are emptied and filled in. (CBS News.com – Amazon Crude – 60 minutes)
ChevronInEcuador, cited Douglas Beltman, an expert on oil contamination and formerecologist of the Superfund program from the American EPA;
"'Reserve pits' have been used to temporarily store drilling fluids and other wastes, such as unrecovered or spilled oil, before the wastes are treated and disposed of... Pits should not be covered with oil and should be closed when the well is completed."
So basically, these pits should not have been left lying around like poxmarks on adying corpse after Texaco left, open to the elements and infecting the landscape with oil like a swollen oozing pus-filled wound. Since its against the law in many American states, why did Texaco decided to leave these open and exposed pits behind?
As stated before, money was the reason that Texaco decided to cut costs in its processof getting rid of produced water. The same thing served as a motive in leaving those pits behind to rot in the landscape, killing humans, animals, and plants. According to ChevroninEcuador, they claim have a quote from an unnamed Texaco official who wrote an internal memo back in 1980;
"...the current [unlined] pits are necessary for efficient and economical operations of our drilling... operations. The total cost of eliminating the old pits and lining new pits would be $4,197,958... It is recommended that the pits neither be lined or filled."
However, the original source for this quote is unknown and repeated in many websitesso its validity is in question. But if the quote is valid, Texaco’s corporate greed knew no bounds. They may have saved 4, 197, 958 dollars but if the people of Ecuador gets their way, Chevron will owe the people of the Oriente, as much as twenty-seven billion dollars in damages. (CBS News.com – Amazon Crude– 60 minutes) Why does Chevron owe twenty-seven billion dollars
ChevronInEcuador, cited Douglas Beltman, an expert on oil contamination and formerecologist of the Superfund program from the American EPA;
"'Reserve pits' have been used to temporarily store drilling fluids and other wastes, such as unrecovered or spilled oil, before the wastes are treated and disposed of... Pits should not be covered with oil and should be closed when the well is completed."
So basically, these pits should not have been left lying around like poxmarks on adying corpse after Texaco left, open to the elements and infecting the landscape with oil like a swollen oozing pus-filled wound. Since its against the law in many American states, why did Texaco decided to leave these open and exposed pits behind?
As stated before, money was the reason that Texaco decided to cut costs in its processof getting rid of produced water. The same thing served as a motive in leaving those pits behind to rot in the landscape, killing humans, animals, and plants. According to ChevroninEcuador, they claim have a quote from an unnamed Texaco official who wrote an internal memo back in 1980;
"...the current [unlined] pits are necessary for efficient and economical operations of our drilling... operations. The total cost of eliminating the old pits and lining new pits would be $4,197,958... It is recommended that the pits neither be lined or filled."
However, the original source for this quote is unknown and repeated in many websitesso its validity is in question. But if the quote is valid, Texaco’s corporate greed knew no bounds. They may have saved 4, 197, 958 dollars but if the people of Ecuador gets their way, Chevron will owe the people of the Oriente, as much as twenty-seven billion dollars in damages. (CBS News.com – Amazon Crude– 60 minutes) Why does Chevron owe twenty-seven billion dollars
One Giants Step ahead of Obama
You may not realize this. While President Barak Obama had visions of fairies, socialism, communism and plum pudding and a one-world order dancing around in his head, twelve South American countries united. Maybe this is part of his grand scheme, I wish he'd tell us.
Obama’s hope for a union of North, Central, and South America may come next, if he has his way, but in May, 2008 twelve South American countries joined hands.
They formed a confederation – like the European Union – consisting of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It’s called UNASUR (Tratado Constitutivo de la Union de Naciones Suramericanas).
Why this new confederation?
UNASUR’s aims are cultural, social, economical and political integration of the South American peoples. While no one is yet saying military integration, in time it is assumed this could also take place. However, one must notice what is going on in the various countries to witness the political division this organization has from within and it’s getting worse.
For example, months ago Hugo Chavez of Venezuela had his navy working with the Soviet navy, doing maneuvers, just a hundred miles off the shores of Key West, USA.
Following the Marxist pattern, and judging by what Obama is doing to America, Barak will be creating chaos everywhere. Then he will swoop down and replace anarchy with oligarchy led by you-know-who. Haven’t you noticed? He isn’t a big fan of our constitutional republic, of America, or of the American way of life.
One of his last campaign speeches said America was in for some "fundamental changes." Most Americans thought it was just so much political rhetoric. We didn’t then think he meant the trashing of our Constitution and the adoption of a statist oligarchy. And that’s precisely where we’re headed.
What kinds of things are being said in the new union of South America about a recent announcement that America, an outsider mischief maker to them, is leasing ten bases inside Colombia?
To U.S. negotiators, it should have seemed like nothing more than a contract renewal. For years America has aided the Colombians in ridding itself of the drug lords, who seem now to have moved to Mexico where drug use has been legalized.What is it that irritates the likes of Hugo Chavez so much? It’s a 10-year lease on space at seven Colombian bases that would improve the fight against drug traffickers and leftist rebels.
Hugo Chavez doesn’t like it. But he must understand that this is just a continuation. U.S. military has already operated in the country for years as part of Plan Colombia, $6 billion in U.S. aid that helped President Alvaro Uribe bring security to the violent nation. In this, there is no difference between Presidents Bush and Obama.
Watch Today's News - Plenty of Jingoistic In-Fighting.
The deal is done - just awaiting signatures, according to Colombia's foreign minister - and Uribe has no intentions of backing down at today’s UNASUR summit of South American presidents. But isn’t America’s timing curious?
Secrecy surrounding the U.S.-Colombia talks enabled Uribe's critics to publicly assume the worst, generating weeks of headlines by warning of a new Yankee menace to the continent.
Diplomats have spent weeks doing damage control since The Associated Press first reported details of the base agreement. That story quoted senior Colombian military and civilian officials who said the idea was to make Colombia a regional hub for Pentagon operations.
A U.S. military document described one of the Colombian bases, Palanquero, as a potential jumping off point for U.S. forces, noting that "nearly half the continent can be covered by a C-17 (military transport) without refueling."
U.S. officials have publicly stressed since then that the U.S. military will remain inside Colombia and only cross borders when invited by other countries.
But the explanation hasn't satisfied presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and other leaders remain uneasy. Brazil hopes to see Uribe make written guarantees at the summit today but his aides say he won’t do that. Rather, he will point to agreements Chavez has with Russia, for example.
Chavez - who has repeatedly denied accusations that he supports Colombia's leftist rebels - said the deal loosed "winds of war." He warned that U.S. troops could use the bases to launch operations to unseat Latin American leaders like himself. Where’s the happy face of Chavez we saw at last winter’s summit, where he gave Obama his recently published book and smirked all the way back to his seat, thinking he had gotten one over on the Yankee president? But later when Obama nationalized GM and Chrysler, Chavez told Fidel Castro that Obama was making Marxist nations like Cuba and Venezuela look far to the right of Obama's America. Now he’s angry. He told his diplomats to prepare to break off relations with Colombia and talked of buying more Russian tanks.
Dmitry Medvedev should consider paying the U.S. a fat commission check for stirring things up in South America, resulting in new lucrative Russian arms sales "
"You can establish 70,000 Yankee bases surrounding Venezuela, but you aren't going to beat the Bolivarian Revolution!" Chavez declared this week.
Honduras is also unresolved, since the coup which ousted a popular dictator. Such political instability provides a pretext for spending big on defense.
Even before news leaked about the bases deal, Venezuela poured about $4 billion into Russian weapons to counter the threat Chavez sees from U.S. military aid to Colombia.
Ecuador is buying 24 Brazilian warplanes and six Israeli drones to keep a closer watch on its borders. Bolivia has opened a $100 million line of credit with Russia to buy weapons.
Citing a need for modernization, the 12 UNASUR nations spent about $51 billion last year on their militaries -up 30 percent from 2007, according to the Center for a New Majority, a Buenos Aires research group.
That's low compared to the rest of the world - U.S. spending alone is well into the hundreds of billions - but a steep burden for democracies in a relatively peaceful region struggling with poverty and economic crisis.
"None of this is good. The last thing the region needs is an arms race," said Markus Schultze-Kraft, a Bogota-based analyst with the International Crisis Group, a conflict-resolution organization. Their real worry is what if the U.S. puts nuclear warheads in Ecuador?
UNASURwill have a South American Parliament. It should be elected and based in Cochabamba, Bolivia, while the headquarters of the Union will be based in Quito, Ecuador.
http://www.comunidadandina.org/sudamerica.htmUNASUR website
http://www.comunidadandina.org/unasur/tratado_constitutivo.htmText of the treaty
Maybe while these twelve nations are at it today, they should sign non-aggression pacts to protect their individual sovereign nation territory. A South American Union doesn’t mean people won’t have arguments. Of course the EU has been in existence much longer than UNASUR, so we’re awaiting the announcement of other agreements such as visa restrictions lifted between countries, a common currency, and perhaps in the future maybe even a defense pact which includes a common military. But it is this writer’s belief that the Obama Administration has something far more nefarious in mind.
New South American Flag?
image by Blas Delgado Ortiz This image was based on an image at www.unionsudamericana.net Field of celestial blue color symbolizes the common sky of South America. The Southern Cross represents the course and the commitment for common destiny. The re
Barak Obama and Hugo Chavez look like old friends in the photo, but there is plenty of apparent animosity brewing between these two hemisphere leaders.
South America has 17.4 million square kilometers compared to North America's 24.7 sq. km. As of 2005 it had 371 million people compared to N. America's 529 million.
Inca Ruins At Machu Picchu in Peru, South America
South America's largest country is Brazil, which is also larger than the U.S. The speak Portugese in Brazil, not Spanish, the most common language in South America.
The spectacularly high peaks of the Andes.extends for more than 8,900 kilometers (5,500 miles) along the entire lenght of western South America, from the Caribbean coast in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The Andes form a formidable natur
The Amazon River is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next eight largest rivers combined. The Amazon is 4,000 miles long and has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounting for approximately on
to
Growth of latin america
Economic Growth:
Latin America now includes many 'powerhouse' economies. The last ten years have seen extremely strong economic growth for coutries such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The best performers in 2011 are expected to be Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. Meanwhile Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama are expected to grow in the 4 to 5 percent range.
However, this economic success is not uniform across the region. Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to show weaker growth, and the economies of Haiti, Jamaica and Venezuela are expected to shrink. At the same time, some commentators are warning that the populist policies of countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia run the risk of increasing inflation and increasing poverty.
New political voice:
There is a marked growth in political solidarity across the region. Instead of individual Latin American countries seeking beneficial relations with the US, they are creating new and stronger relationships with each other. UNASUR is a treay organisation set up in 2009 and modelled on the European Union, aiming to set up a single market for its twelve South American member countries. However UNASUR is not only concerned with commerce, but also in promoting equality and social justice across the region.
Hugo Chavez is a controversial figure but there is no doubt the Venezuelan president has had the confidence to criticize the USA, and to seek to increase Venezuela's influence on the world stage. The discovery of significant oil reserves in Venezuela has meant that Chavez has become a welcome figure in isolated nations such as Cuba, as the oil reserves allow him to play the part of international benefactor to the weak and needy.
Indigenous people are also participating in democracy as never before - as evidenced by the election of Evo Morales as President of Bolivia. This office was traditionally the preserve of wealthy white Bolivians, descendants of Spanish colonial families, but in 200X the majority-indigenous population of Bolivia elected one of their own to the highest office in the land.This Bolivian president recently hosted a conference on climate change specifically for the indigenous people of Latin America to have their say.
Brazil, having experienced incredible economic growth, is stepping up to play an increasing role in world politics. It is Brazil rather than the US who has stepped in to mediate in the growing dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, and it was Brazil who persuaded Iran to sign up to an international nuclear weapons agreement in 2009.
Latin America now includes many 'powerhouse' economies. The last ten years have seen extremely strong economic growth for coutries such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. The best performers in 2011 are expected to be Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. Meanwhile Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Panama are expected to grow in the 4 to 5 percent range.
However, this economic success is not uniform across the region. Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to show weaker growth, and the economies of Haiti, Jamaica and Venezuela are expected to shrink. At the same time, some commentators are warning that the populist policies of countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia run the risk of increasing inflation and increasing poverty.
New political voice:
There is a marked growth in political solidarity across the region. Instead of individual Latin American countries seeking beneficial relations with the US, they are creating new and stronger relationships with each other. UNASUR is a treay organisation set up in 2009 and modelled on the European Union, aiming to set up a single market for its twelve South American member countries. However UNASUR is not only concerned with commerce, but also in promoting equality and social justice across the region.
Hugo Chavez is a controversial figure but there is no doubt the Venezuelan president has had the confidence to criticize the USA, and to seek to increase Venezuela's influence on the world stage. The discovery of significant oil reserves in Venezuela has meant that Chavez has become a welcome figure in isolated nations such as Cuba, as the oil reserves allow him to play the part of international benefactor to the weak and needy.
Indigenous people are also participating in democracy as never before - as evidenced by the election of Evo Morales as President of Bolivia. This office was traditionally the preserve of wealthy white Bolivians, descendants of Spanish colonial families, but in 200X the majority-indigenous population of Bolivia elected one of their own to the highest office in the land.This Bolivian president recently hosted a conference on climate change specifically for the indigenous people of Latin America to have their say.
Brazil, having experienced incredible economic growth, is stepping up to play an increasing role in world politics. It is Brazil rather than the US who has stepped in to mediate in the growing dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, and it was Brazil who persuaded Iran to sign up to an international nuclear weapons agreement in 2009.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Outrage over Argentina sex slavery acquittals
Angry protesters have clashed with police and smashed windows after an Argentine court acquitted 13 people charged with running a sex slavery ring.
Demonstrators furious over the legal ruling took to the streets of Buenos Aires and in at least seven provinces on Wednesday.
Lowest Fertility Rate in South America Registered in Chile
While Bolivian women have over three children during their life, Chilean women have less than two. Statistics estimate fertility rates in Chile to hit 1.8, the lowest in South America. This is under the minimum (2.1) required for population growth.
South American Cities Face Flood Risk Due to Andes Meltdown
Nearly a mile above this city of almost eight million is a rugged, fog-shrouded world, silent except for the trickle of water and whispering wind pushing through the treeless tundra. This is Chingaza, a national park 40 miles from Bogotá in the eastern range of the Colombian Andes.
South American trade bloc looks left, hits bumps in the road
Brazil's exports to Argentina have dropped by a fifth this year, causing friction between Mercosur's two biggest members. Combined with internal struggles, the rift is cited by some analysts as evidence of a broader, worrying move away from trade integration by some emerging markets.
Even as it espouses regional trade, the bloc's members in recent years have grown increasingly protectionist, and Mercosur has recently begun admitting members whose leaders are outspoken critics of free trade.
Venezuela became a member of the bloc earlier this year and Bolivia, led by leftist former cocoa grower Evo Morales, started a membership process on Friday that requires ratification by member legislatures and negotiations over bloc tariffs. Ecuador is also negotiating entry.
Still, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, the summit's host, argued the importance of trade.
"The continued scenario of global crisis makes it more important for us to integrate, which will make each of us stronger and more able to face the volatility of the market," Rousseff said.
With the addition of Venezuela, Mercosur now stretches from Patagonia to the Caribbean, possesses 20 percent of the world's oil reserves and offers a market of 275 million people with a gross domestic product of $3.3 trillion.
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was wrapping up medical treatment in Cuba and skipped the event, the first working summit attended by Venezuela. Though the trip had fueled speculation that his cancer had returned, Chavez flew back to Venezuela on Friday, looking well.
Brazilian business leaders have said the Mercosur group has lost its original purpose as a trading bloc and become merely a political platform for left-wing leaders.
Rousseff was due to meet later on Friday with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez to try to iron out their disagreement.
Brazilian industries are furious over trade restrictions by Argentina that have caused Brazilian exports to its third largest trade partner and the biggest buyer of Brazil's industrial goods to plummet 21 percent in the first 11 months of 2012.
Marco Marconini, international relations spokesman at the powerful Sao Paulo industrial lobby FIESP, said, "We don't expect necessarily a break-through with Argentina because we have gone back and forth a million times, which is disappointing."
He said Mercosur had become "a mockery" with the recent suspension of Paraguay, following impeachment of its president, and the entry of Venezuela.
"It's not functioning as a customs union should function and it's imperfect, but it's not bad enough to throw it away."
‘Police pull guns on players’ in South America final
Argentina's Tigre accused police of pulling guns on their players and refused to emerge from the dressing room for the second half of the Copa Sudamericana final, leaving Sao Paulo to be declared winners of the tournament.
A Discussion About Drug Policy Is Long Overdue
Of the many issues that national politicians routinely gloss over during campaign season, one they're least likely to touch -- and haven't, in any real way, since the 1980s -- is drug policy. A discussion of the costs and benefits of our current policies is largely anathema in our political environment.
But the country ignores the issue at its own peril.
Within the United States, the so called "drug war" has been a significant factor propelling the growth of our grossly outsized prison population -- with many people serving lengthy sentences for relatively minor crimes. As my colleague at Human Rights Watch, Jamie Fellner, has noted in The Huffington Post, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to arrest and incarcerate drug offenders, including millions whose crime was possession of marijuana.
Of those in prison, a vastly disproportionate number are people of color. Human Rights Watch has documented extensively stunning and persistent racial disparities in both arrest and incarceration of drug offenders. Black and white people commit drug offenses at similar rates, but black men are ten times as likely as white men to enter state prisons on drug charges. The impact on the broader black community is devastating.
But the country ignores the issue at its own peril.
Within the United States, the so called "drug war" has been a significant factor propelling the growth of our grossly outsized prison population -- with many people serving lengthy sentences for relatively minor crimes. As my colleague at Human Rights Watch, Jamie Fellner, has noted in The Huffington Post, the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to arrest and incarcerate drug offenders, including millions whose crime was possession of marijuana.
Of those in prison, a vastly disproportionate number are people of color. Human Rights Watch has documented extensively stunning and persistent racial disparities in both arrest and incarceration of drug offenders. Black and white people commit drug offenses at similar rates, but black men are ten times as likely as white men to enter state prisons on drug charges. The impact on the broader black community is devastating.
U.S.-Mexico drug war partnership under Calderon broke new ground
MEXICO CITY — In the six years of outgoing President Felipe Calderon's war against drug gangs, the U.S. became a principal player in Mexico, sending drones and sniffer dogs, police trainers and intelligence agents to a country long suspicious of its powerful neighbor.
Calderon, who steps down Saturday, essentially rewrote the rules under which foreign forces could act here in matters of national security. There has been relatively little public protest, reflecting the severity of a conflict that has killed tens of thousands nationwide and spread violence south into Central America — without significantly reducing the flow of drugs.
Incoming President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party long embodied a vocal Mexican nationalism, has said he wants to maintain cooperation with the United States at a high level, although he is suggesting some policy shifts.
FULL COVERAGE: Mexico Under Siege
U.S. intelligence has led to some of Calderon's biggest successes, the killing or arrest of several key drug capos. At a more modest level, U.S. trainers are teaching Mexico's notoriously corrupt police how to fill out reports and collect evidence. American military officers sit side by side with Mexican navy counterparts planning and monitoring operations from classified centers.
But the United States also has at times been sucked into relationships with security agencies that have been accused of serious human rights abuses. A number of embarrassments, including the shooting by Mexican police of CIA operatives and a fatal attack on civilians by Honduras forces aided by U.S. agents, have highlighted some of the failings of the multibillion-dollar effort. In both cases, local forces involved had received U.S. money, vetting and training.
The military, once one of Mexico's respected institutions, has committed numerous abuses, including torturing detainees and killing innocent people.
Overall, however, officials and experts on both sides praise the cooperation.
"The relationship [with Mexico] is at an all-time high," a top U.S. law enforcement official based in Mexico said in an interview. "There is a partnership across the board, and it is extremely effective."
"It is huge," said a senior U.S. military officer based until recently in Mexico. "I've seen a sea change in just the last three years, more or less."
Since Calderon took office six years ago, Washington has pumped more than $2 billion into Mexico's drug war and discreetly deployed hundreds of operatives from the CIA, the Treasury and Justice departments and the FBI, as well as retired cops and judges.
They have spilled over from the U.S. Embassy building on Mexico City's graceful Reforma Boulevard to the 21st floor of a glass-sheathed high-rise a block away. The so-called Bilateral Implementation Office is a tidy, carpeted nest of cubicles and meeting rooms with pea-green walls that the Mexican newsweekly Proceso recently put on its cover and branded as an "espionage center."
As Calderon's forces have worked with the Americans to take on the powerful Sinaloa, Gulf and Zeta cartels, among others, many of these have moved steadily into Central America, an area historically more susceptible to U.S. intervention. That has prompted the United States to expand its presence there as well.
Calderon, who steps down Saturday, essentially rewrote the rules under which foreign forces could act here in matters of national security. There has been relatively little public protest, reflecting the severity of a conflict that has killed tens of thousands nationwide and spread violence south into Central America — without significantly reducing the flow of drugs.
Incoming President Enrique Peña Nieto, whose Institutional Revolutionary Party long embodied a vocal Mexican nationalism, has said he wants to maintain cooperation with the United States at a high level, although he is suggesting some policy shifts.
FULL COVERAGE: Mexico Under Siege
U.S. intelligence has led to some of Calderon's biggest successes, the killing or arrest of several key drug capos. At a more modest level, U.S. trainers are teaching Mexico's notoriously corrupt police how to fill out reports and collect evidence. American military officers sit side by side with Mexican navy counterparts planning and monitoring operations from classified centers.
But the United States also has at times been sucked into relationships with security agencies that have been accused of serious human rights abuses. A number of embarrassments, including the shooting by Mexican police of CIA operatives and a fatal attack on civilians by Honduras forces aided by U.S. agents, have highlighted some of the failings of the multibillion-dollar effort. In both cases, local forces involved had received U.S. money, vetting and training.
The military, once one of Mexico's respected institutions, has committed numerous abuses, including torturing detainees and killing innocent people.
Overall, however, officials and experts on both sides praise the cooperation.
"The relationship [with Mexico] is at an all-time high," a top U.S. law enforcement official based in Mexico said in an interview. "There is a partnership across the board, and it is extremely effective."
"It is huge," said a senior U.S. military officer based until recently in Mexico. "I've seen a sea change in just the last three years, more or less."
Since Calderon took office six years ago, Washington has pumped more than $2 billion into Mexico's drug war and discreetly deployed hundreds of operatives from the CIA, the Treasury and Justice departments and the FBI, as well as retired cops and judges.
They have spilled over from the U.S. Embassy building on Mexico City's graceful Reforma Boulevard to the 21st floor of a glass-sheathed high-rise a block away. The so-called Bilateral Implementation Office is a tidy, carpeted nest of cubicles and meeting rooms with pea-green walls that the Mexican newsweekly Proceso recently put on its cover and branded as an "espionage center."
As Calderon's forces have worked with the Americans to take on the powerful Sinaloa, Gulf and Zeta cartels, among others, many of these have moved steadily into Central America, an area historically more susceptible to U.S. intervention. That has prompted the United States to expand its presence there as well.
Mexican Drug Trafficking (Mexico's Drug War)
Although Mexico has been a producer and transit route for illegal drugs for generations, the country now finds itself in a pitched battle with powerful and well-financed drug cartels.
In January 2012, the Mexican government reported that 47,515 people had been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón began a military assault on criminal cartels soon after taking office in late 2006.
The official tally, provided by the attorney general’s office, included data only through September 2011, and it showed that drug-related killings increased 11 percent, to 12,903, compared with the same nine-month period in 2010. Still, a government statement sought to find a silver lining, asserting that it was the first year since 2006 “that the homicide rate increase has been lower compared to the previous years.”
But that was unlikely to calm a public scared by the arrival of grisly violence in once-safe cities like Guadalajara and in the region around Mexico City.
In May 2012, the Mexican government detained three high-ranking Army generals, including a former second in command at the Defense Ministry, suggesting the depths to which drug cartels have gone in trying to infiltrate one of the primary forces Mr. Calderón has counted on to combat them.
The three generals, Mexican officials have said, played a role in facilitating drug trafficking, and the accusations against the third general include that he ignored a tip by American drug agents about an imminent airplane delivery of a drug cartel’s cocaine in December 2007.
One of the men arrested, Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, a general who retired in 2008, was the second-highest-ranking official in the Defense Ministry during the first two years of Mr. Calderón’s offensive against drug violence and had been mentioned as a possible choice for the top job. In the early 1990s, he served as the defense attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
In January 2012, the Mexican government reported that 47,515 people had been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderón began a military assault on criminal cartels soon after taking office in late 2006.
The official tally, provided by the attorney general’s office, included data only through September 2011, and it showed that drug-related killings increased 11 percent, to 12,903, compared with the same nine-month period in 2010. Still, a government statement sought to find a silver lining, asserting that it was the first year since 2006 “that the homicide rate increase has been lower compared to the previous years.”
But that was unlikely to calm a public scared by the arrival of grisly violence in once-safe cities like Guadalajara and in the region around Mexico City.
In May 2012, the Mexican government detained three high-ranking Army generals, including a former second in command at the Defense Ministry, suggesting the depths to which drug cartels have gone in trying to infiltrate one of the primary forces Mr. Calderón has counted on to combat them.
The three generals, Mexican officials have said, played a role in facilitating drug trafficking, and the accusations against the third general include that he ignored a tip by American drug agents about an imminent airplane delivery of a drug cartel’s cocaine in December 2007.
One of the men arrested, Tomás Ángeles Dauahare, a general who retired in 2008, was the second-highest-ranking official in the Defense Ministry during the first two years of Mr. Calderón’s offensive against drug violence and had been mentioned as a possible choice for the top job. In the early 1990s, he served as the defense attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Washington.
Brazil: Policeman gets 21 years in judge's murder
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A police officer will serve 21 years in prison after confessing to joining fellow officers in murdering a Rio de Janeiro judge who dared take on the state's criminal militias, a court ruled.
Cpl. Sergio Costa Junior of the Sao Goncalo department of Rio state police was initially sentenced Tuesday to 33 1/2 years for murder and racketeering. The term was reduced because he confessed and is helping the prosecution of 10 other police officers who are facing trial in the slaying of Judge Patricia Acioli.
The judge's body was riddled with 21 police-issued bullets in front of her home in August 2011.
In 90 minutes of questioning before jurors, Costa Junior testified that he and the others decided to kill Acioli because she had ordered the arrest of Costa Junior and five fellow policemen on charges they executed an 18-year-old man and tried to cover up the crime by saying the victim resisted arrest.
"There were rumors that the judge would order our arrest," Costa Junior testified. "When she signed the order, it was the last straw."
Acioli's sister, Simone Acioli, held up her weeping mother after the verdict was read. She told the newspaper O Globo that her sister paid with her life "for doing her job correctly."
The trial was followed closely by the legal community in Rio. Acioli's murder sent a chill through the courts, as intended. Though violence and impunity are common in Brazil, this was the first time a judge was killed in Rio state and it sent a strong message about the reach and power of the state's criminal militias.
These paramilitary organizations, made up in large part of police officers, jail guards, firefighters and others, had been slowly taking over poor communities formerly controlled by drug dealers and coercing residents to pay for illegal utility hookups, transportation and security. A state legislature investigation in 2008 found militias were connected to executions, extortion schemes and the kidnapping and torture of journalists who investigated their activities.
Few dared confront them as did Acioli, who put more than 60 officers in prison, the majority for murder. She had a keen sense of the risk she ran, writing letters to her supervisors requesting protection. Just one week before her murder, she went personally to the Rio police's internal affairs office to report the threats.
The last case on her docket the day she died was the one Costa Junior referred to during questioning in court: the execution of Diego Belini, 18, in a shantytown. One of Acioli's last acts as a judge was to order the arrest of Costa Junior and others.
There are 150 other judges across Brazil who reported death threats in 2012, according to the National Council for Justice. At last count, only 61 were under protection.
The public defender representing Costa Junior told O Globo that he was disappointed in the small reduction in the prison sentence, saying his client ran a significant risk denouncing his former comrades.
"Now he's going to be thrown into the penitentiary system, in the worst place possible, since those who tell on others can't even be kept with other prisoners because of threats on their life," attorney Jorge Mesquita said. "His family is going to suffer threats now."
The prosecutor welcomed the verdict, particularly the racketeering charge that recognized Costa Junior was operating within a gang.
"This will reinforce the prosecution's arguments in the next trials," prosecutor Leandro Navega told O Globo.
The next trial in the case, involving three defendants, is scheduled to begin Jan. 29, 2013.
Cpl. Sergio Costa Junior of the Sao Goncalo department of Rio state police was initially sentenced Tuesday to 33 1/2 years for murder and racketeering. The term was reduced because he confessed and is helping the prosecution of 10 other police officers who are facing trial in the slaying of Judge Patricia Acioli.
The judge's body was riddled with 21 police-issued bullets in front of her home in August 2011.
In 90 minutes of questioning before jurors, Costa Junior testified that he and the others decided to kill Acioli because she had ordered the arrest of Costa Junior and five fellow policemen on charges they executed an 18-year-old man and tried to cover up the crime by saying the victim resisted arrest.
"There were rumors that the judge would order our arrest," Costa Junior testified. "When she signed the order, it was the last straw."
Acioli's sister, Simone Acioli, held up her weeping mother after the verdict was read. She told the newspaper O Globo that her sister paid with her life "for doing her job correctly."
The trial was followed closely by the legal community in Rio. Acioli's murder sent a chill through the courts, as intended. Though violence and impunity are common in Brazil, this was the first time a judge was killed in Rio state and it sent a strong message about the reach and power of the state's criminal militias.
These paramilitary organizations, made up in large part of police officers, jail guards, firefighters and others, had been slowly taking over poor communities formerly controlled by drug dealers and coercing residents to pay for illegal utility hookups, transportation and security. A state legislature investigation in 2008 found militias were connected to executions, extortion schemes and the kidnapping and torture of journalists who investigated their activities.
Few dared confront them as did Acioli, who put more than 60 officers in prison, the majority for murder. She had a keen sense of the risk she ran, writing letters to her supervisors requesting protection. Just one week before her murder, she went personally to the Rio police's internal affairs office to report the threats.
The last case on her docket the day she died was the one Costa Junior referred to during questioning in court: the execution of Diego Belini, 18, in a shantytown. One of Acioli's last acts as a judge was to order the arrest of Costa Junior and others.
There are 150 other judges across Brazil who reported death threats in 2012, according to the National Council for Justice. At last count, only 61 were under protection.
The public defender representing Costa Junior told O Globo that he was disappointed in the small reduction in the prison sentence, saying his client ran a significant risk denouncing his former comrades.
"Now he's going to be thrown into the penitentiary system, in the worst place possible, since those who tell on others can't even be kept with other prisoners because of threats on their life," attorney Jorge Mesquita said. "His family is going to suffer threats now."
The prosecutor welcomed the verdict, particularly the racketeering charge that recognized Costa Junior was operating within a gang.
"This will reinforce the prosecution's arguments in the next trials," prosecutor Leandro Navega told O Globo.
The next trial in the case, involving three defendants, is scheduled to begin Jan. 29, 2013.
Mexican police officers detained over shooting of U.S. diplomatic vehicle
CNN) -- A Mexican judge has ordered the detention of 12 federal police officers accused of opening fire on a U.S. diplomatic vehicle south of the capital last week.
Diplomatic vehicle shot up in Mexico
Under the judge's order, the officers will be held for 30 days, Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for the Mexican Attorney-General's Office, said Monday. They will be transferred to Mexico City from the state of Morelos, where they are being held, he said.
The 12 officers are under investigation in relation to five charges, including attempted murder, according to one of their lawyers, Marco Aurelio Gonzalez.
Following the shooting incident Friday, two U.S. Embassy employees, described by a senior U.S. government official as U.S. citizens, were taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening wounds. A member of the Mexican Navy who was with them in the vehicle suffered light bruises, according to a statement from the Mexican Navy.
Diplomatic vehicle shot up in Mexico
The statement provided the following account of events:
Canada's net worth increases to $6.8 trillion
Statistics Canada says the country's national net worth increased by more than $9 billion to $6.8 trillion in the third quarter.
However, it says an increase in net foreign indebtedness dampened the gain.
This higher net foreign debt was largely a result of increased Canadian borrowing abroad, as well as a decrease in the value of Canadian investments denominated in foreign currency because of the rising value of the loonie.
Meanwhile, the report says new household borrowing was $27.3 billion in the third quarter.
Mortgages increased $18.4 billion to $1.1 trillion, although the increase was at a slower pace than in the previous quarter.
Consumer credit levels hit $474 billion in the third quarter compared with $467 billion in the second quarter.
Published by Courtney Morgan
However, it says an increase in net foreign indebtedness dampened the gain.
This higher net foreign debt was largely a result of increased Canadian borrowing abroad, as well as a decrease in the value of Canadian investments denominated in foreign currency because of the rising value of the loonie.
Meanwhile, the report says new household borrowing was $27.3 billion in the third quarter.
Mortgages increased $18.4 billion to $1.1 trillion, although the increase was at a slower pace than in the previous quarter.
Consumer credit levels hit $474 billion in the third quarter compared with $467 billion in the second quarter.
Published by Courtney Morgan
7 facts and figures about Christmas trees in Canada
A rider pulls a Christmas tree from the bush.
Although artificial trees are becoming more popular, Canada still
exports millions of Christmas trees every year. (Patrick Price/Reuters)
A white Christmas might be a slim possibility for much of the country
this year, but at least one other ho-ho-holiday tradition is sure to be
widespread.
Christmas trees are everywhere during the holiday season, as the nordic tradition has taken root and spread across all parts of the globe. But Canada's winter makes the country a natural home for the seasonal favourite, whether it's real or artificial, .
The number crunchers at Statistics Canada have come up with some fun facts about one of Canada's favourite holiday traditions.
Christmas trees are everywhere during the holiday season, as the nordic tradition has taken root and spread across all parts of the globe. But Canada's winter makes the country a natural home for the seasonal favourite, whether it's real or artificial, .
The number crunchers at Statistics Canada have come up with some fun facts about one of Canada's favourite holiday traditions.
- 1,738,212 — Total number of fresh-cut Christmas trees that Canada exported last year. Almost half of those came from Quebec. By way of contrast, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador did not export a single Christmas tree.
- $51.3 million — The total value of all fresh-cut Christmas trees sold in Canada last year. Sales were down in every province except British Columbia. Sales were down nine per cent last year and have declined by 22 per cent since 2006.
- $47 million — Value of artificial Christmas trees imported into Canada. More than $46 million of that came from China, with the rest coming from Thailand, the United States, Mexico or Vietnam.
- $28.2 million — Value of all the real Christmas trees that Canada exported last year. Within that, $25.8 million worth, or nearly 1.6 million out of a total of 1.7 million trees, went to the U.S. last year. But Canada also sold fresh-cut trees to people in Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, France, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
- $5 million — Value of fresh cut Christmas trees that the U.S. sent north of the border into Canada last year.
- 2,381 — The number of Christmas tree farms left in Canada. The province with the largest number of Christmas tree farms is Ontario, with 647. Both the number and size of Canadian tree farms have been declining steadily since 2006.
- 28,315 hectares — The total
size of all farms devoted to raising Christmas trees in Canada. At 22
hectares on average, Quebec’s Christmas tree farms are the largest in
Canada.
Published by Courtney Morgan
Chris Hadfield ready for 'surreal' space station odyssey Astronaut in quarantine before blasting off in Russian capsule
When Chris Hadfield was a southern Ontario farmboy dreaming of being an astronaut, it just couldn't happen.
Canada had no astronaut program and no Canadian could realistically expect to follow in the American footsteps Neil Armstrong had planted as the first man on the moon in that steamy summer of 1969.
Canada had no astronaut program and no Canadian could realistically expect to follow in the American footsteps Neil Armstrong had planted as the first man on the moon in that steamy summer of 1969.
Members
of the next mission to the International Space Station, Canadian
astronaut Chris Hadfield, left, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and
U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn pose in Star City, Russia, on Nov. 28,
2012. (Mikhail Metzel/Associated Press)Chilean town shaken by reminders of deadly quake
NAVIDAD, Chile --
One jolt hit in the middle of the night. Another caught fishermen
at a nearby beach. Then the ground shook at supper. And then again, and
again: More than 170 tremors were felt in Navidad in just five weeks.
The strongest struck during a funeral, and sent panicked mourners
fleeing into the street.
Navidad, a coastal farming town of 5,500 people, has become one of the shakiest spots in one of the world's shakiest countries. And seismologists can't say whether these were aftershocks from Chile's devastating quake two years ago, or warnings of another huge disaster to come.
Navidenos, though, have learned to take quakes in stride.
In this town whose name means Christmas, some decorate Christmas trees with quakes in mind, wiring ornaments to the branches or taking extra efforts to secure the base. Restaurant owners nail wood railings to their shelves to keep glasses and liquor from crashing down. Some now use canned beer, shunning bottles as too risky.
Children at public schools practice drills every day and everyone seems to have a quake bag with flashlights and food ready.
"We were born, grew up and were raised with earthquakes," acting Mayor Rodrigo Soto said. "It seems like the world for the first time has discovered Navidad. Everyone asks us if we're scared and all we can say is that we need to be prepared."
Still, no amount of preparation can avoid that panicky feeling when the ground really rumbles. There's no way to know at that moment whether the shaking will pass quickly, or become frighteningly worse.
While the ground shook under the pews at the funeral, the faces of the mourners turned pale like the dead. Despite appeals for calm, the church swayed so much that people panicked and ran outside.
"People were terrorized," said Carolina Jeria, recalling that 5.9-magnitude quake on Nov. 21. "In a moment like that, you lose control. We're very worried about the quakes because the big one in 2010 caught us unprepared."
Soto says the town still has an inadequate tsunami alert system - a siren that sounds like a car alarm and lacks the volume needed to reach all the townspeople. But after so many tremors, he says Navidenos know in their bones when to run.
They know they'll barely feel a magnitude-2, but a magnitude-7 will knock them off their feet and that's a sign to scramble for high ground in case there's a tsunami.
Aside from the quakes, life is slow in Navidad. Many farmers still use oxen to plow their land, while others cater to tourists who come for the Pacific beaches from Chile's capital of Santiago, 170 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of town. Yet people are often on edge.
It's not just the ground's trembling that reminds people of earthquake risks here. Alongside the highway into town, wildflowers grow around tsunami warning signs that urge residents to build their homes high or be prepared to run for higher ground.
So far, the recent tremors have not caused damage or injuries, but they're a frequent reminder of the 8.8-magnitude quake and tsunami in 2010 that devastated much of Chile's coast, including Navidad. That quake killed 551 people, destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away docks and seaside resorts, costing Chile $30 billion, or 18 percent of its annual gross domestic product.
No Navidenos died, but nearly 200 homes were lost or severely damaged, and most townspeople had no power or water for a month.
"During the 2010 quake, the rupture zone reached all the way to Navidad. That's why seismologists at the Universidad de Chile indicate that these could be late aftershocks," Miguel Ortiz, national chief of the early alert center at Chile's ONEMI Emergency Office. He also said the recent shaking could be a harbinger of another huge quake to come.
A team of international scientists said the chance of a big, or even great, quake could have increased along a wide expanse of Chile's coast because of the 2010 quake. Their report in the journal Nature Geoscience last year concluded that it relieved only some of the stress accumulating underground since an 1835 quake that was witnessed and documented by British naturalist Charles Darwin.
Just off Chile's long coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American continent, pushing the towering Andes to ever-higher altitudes. The 2010 quake was so strong it changed time, shortening the Earth's day slightly by changing the planet's rotation. The strongest earthquake ever recorded also happened in Chile, a magnitude-9.5 in 1960 that struck about 500 miles south of Navidad and killed more than 5,000 people.
"What strikes me most about Chile is its beauty but also great potential for disasters - from large earthquakes to volcanic eruptions, much like in California," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Service.
"The big faults are responsible for the big earthquakes but also for beautiful mountains, active volcanoes, and a range of climates - from very cold to deserts," Caruso said. "It's a fascinating place, especially for a geophysicist."
Navidenos have different ways of coping.
Retiree Carmen Delgado is so haunted by the 2010 disaster that she often stays awake trembling, anxiously waiting for the sun to rise so she can volunteer as a waitress at a local restaurant to keep her mind busy.
"People are afraid because in the past weeks it shook so much," said Karen Contreras, 18, a waitress at La Boca restaurant, near the mouth of a river that runs down to the ocean from the green hills surrounding the town.
"It's still trembling, but at least people know where to evacuate if it's strong," she added.
At the Divina Gabriela public school, children rush out of classrooms and line up at the sound of a rusty white bell each day. There's also an annual earthquake drill.
"I keep canned goods, a flashlight and batteries, because we're scared about these daily quakes," said Valentina Villagran, 11. "Every kid here knows they should run for the hills."
Evelyn Perez, 31, who's studying to become a teacher, was seven months pregnant when she was jarred awake in 2010. She dragged three kids up cold, dark streets without any emergency supplies. Now she keeps a quake bag at her door.
From his porch overlooking the Pacific, Hernan Cepeda, 82, recalls how the tsunami rolled toward him that night. He ended up clinging to the roots of bushes and losing his dentures, almost swallowed by the sea.
"I didn't return here until last year and now the tremors have brought back memories," Cepeda said. "It seemed like it didn't shake as much before. No one can tell what will happen next, but all you hear is that the next one will be an even bigger quake."
-published by Courtney Morgan
Navidad, a coastal farming town of 5,500 people, has become one of the shakiest spots in one of the world's shakiest countries. And seismologists can't say whether these were aftershocks from Chile's devastating quake two years ago, or warnings of another huge disaster to come.
Navidenos, though, have learned to take quakes in stride.
In this town whose name means Christmas, some decorate Christmas trees with quakes in mind, wiring ornaments to the branches or taking extra efforts to secure the base. Restaurant owners nail wood railings to their shelves to keep glasses and liquor from crashing down. Some now use canned beer, shunning bottles as too risky.
Children at public schools practice drills every day and everyone seems to have a quake bag with flashlights and food ready.
"We were born, grew up and were raised with earthquakes," acting Mayor Rodrigo Soto said. "It seems like the world for the first time has discovered Navidad. Everyone asks us if we're scared and all we can say is that we need to be prepared."
Still, no amount of preparation can avoid that panicky feeling when the ground really rumbles. There's no way to know at that moment whether the shaking will pass quickly, or become frighteningly worse.
While the ground shook under the pews at the funeral, the faces of the mourners turned pale like the dead. Despite appeals for calm, the church swayed so much that people panicked and ran outside.
"People were terrorized," said Carolina Jeria, recalling that 5.9-magnitude quake on Nov. 21. "In a moment like that, you lose control. We're very worried about the quakes because the big one in 2010 caught us unprepared."
Soto says the town still has an inadequate tsunami alert system - a siren that sounds like a car alarm and lacks the volume needed to reach all the townspeople. But after so many tremors, he says Navidenos know in their bones when to run.
They know they'll barely feel a magnitude-2, but a magnitude-7 will knock them off their feet and that's a sign to scramble for high ground in case there's a tsunami.
Aside from the quakes, life is slow in Navidad. Many farmers still use oxen to plow their land, while others cater to tourists who come for the Pacific beaches from Chile's capital of Santiago, 170 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of town. Yet people are often on edge.
It's not just the ground's trembling that reminds people of earthquake risks here. Alongside the highway into town, wildflowers grow around tsunami warning signs that urge residents to build their homes high or be prepared to run for higher ground.
So far, the recent tremors have not caused damage or injuries, but they're a frequent reminder of the 8.8-magnitude quake and tsunami in 2010 that devastated much of Chile's coast, including Navidad. That quake killed 551 people, destroyed 220,000 homes and washed away docks and seaside resorts, costing Chile $30 billion, or 18 percent of its annual gross domestic product.
No Navidenos died, but nearly 200 homes were lost or severely damaged, and most townspeople had no power or water for a month.
"During the 2010 quake, the rupture zone reached all the way to Navidad. That's why seismologists at the Universidad de Chile indicate that these could be late aftershocks," Miguel Ortiz, national chief of the early alert center at Chile's ONEMI Emergency Office. He also said the recent shaking could be a harbinger of another huge quake to come.
A team of international scientists said the chance of a big, or even great, quake could have increased along a wide expanse of Chile's coast because of the 2010 quake. Their report in the journal Nature Geoscience last year concluded that it relieved only some of the stress accumulating underground since an 1835 quake that was witnessed and documented by British naturalist Charles Darwin.
Just off Chile's long coast, the Nazca tectonic plate plunges beneath the South American continent, pushing the towering Andes to ever-higher altitudes. The 2010 quake was so strong it changed time, shortening the Earth's day slightly by changing the planet's rotation. The strongest earthquake ever recorded also happened in Chile, a magnitude-9.5 in 1960 that struck about 500 miles south of Navidad and killed more than 5,000 people.
"What strikes me most about Chile is its beauty but also great potential for disasters - from large earthquakes to volcanic eruptions, much like in California," said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Service.
"The big faults are responsible for the big earthquakes but also for beautiful mountains, active volcanoes, and a range of climates - from very cold to deserts," Caruso said. "It's a fascinating place, especially for a geophysicist."
Navidenos have different ways of coping.
Retiree Carmen Delgado is so haunted by the 2010 disaster that she often stays awake trembling, anxiously waiting for the sun to rise so she can volunteer as a waitress at a local restaurant to keep her mind busy.
"People are afraid because in the past weeks it shook so much," said Karen Contreras, 18, a waitress at La Boca restaurant, near the mouth of a river that runs down to the ocean from the green hills surrounding the town.
"It's still trembling, but at least people know where to evacuate if it's strong," she added.
At the Divina Gabriela public school, children rush out of classrooms and line up at the sound of a rusty white bell each day. There's also an annual earthquake drill.
"I keep canned goods, a flashlight and batteries, because we're scared about these daily quakes," said Valentina Villagran, 11. "Every kid here knows they should run for the hills."
Evelyn Perez, 31, who's studying to become a teacher, was seven months pregnant when she was jarred awake in 2010. She dragged three kids up cold, dark streets without any emergency supplies. Now she keeps a quake bag at her door.
From his porch overlooking the Pacific, Hernan Cepeda, 82, recalls how the tsunami rolled toward him that night. He ended up clinging to the roots of bushes and losing his dentures, almost swallowed by the sea.
"I didn't return here until last year and now the tremors have brought back memories," Cepeda said. "It seemed like it didn't shake as much before. No one can tell what will happen next, but all you hear is that the next one will be an even bigger quake."
-published by Courtney Morgan
Senator Robert Menendez intern 'in US illegally'
An intern for a New Jersey Democratic senator is facing deportation to Peru for staying in the US illegally.Senator Robert Menendez, a backer of immigration reform, told MSNBC that his staff had been informed on Monday, and Mr Sanchez had been fired.
Mr Sanchez denied any knowledge that Mr Sanchez was a registered sex offender, as reported by the Associated Press.
The exact charge was unclear because he was prosecuted as a juvenile and court records are not publicly accessible, AP reported.
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