COLOMBIA: Former Green Party Prez Candidate Mockus Quits The Party...Over Uribe Praise; Uribe Critiques Santos Via Twitter.

C.REPORTS

The Green Party's stalwart and often eccentric former presidential candidate Antanas Mockus has resigned from it...rather than be associated with any support for ex-President Alvaro Uribe.
The Green's Bogota mayoral candidate Enrique Peñalosa has praised Uribe.

Mockus could not accept the many scandals of the Uribe administration, the "false positives," false demobilizations and wiretapping.

Although recognizing some Uribe achievements, Mockus believes they were done "at the expense of limits established in the constitution," and added "there are things I cannot digest."

AND:  Former President Uribe (above) has been busy recently Twittering his 470,000 followers... and challenging the policies of  current President Santos. Santos has mostly avoided responding to the comments.
    But says an observer...“He (Uribe) wants to be an actor and found his vehicle through Twitter. Uribe is a political animal and he is looking for his place. His poll numbers are still very high. Santos has got to be careful.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8569055/Alvaro-Uribe-tweets-criticisms-of-successor.html

MEXICO: Police Using Twitter To Kill Rumors; Crime Costs GDP 8.9%.

LAHT

     Governmental agencies are increasingly using Twitter to dispel rumors and give info about violent incidents.
    “It’s not about warning of shootouts...but to provide accurate information at the time of the incidents, with the goal of giving certainty and calming the citizenry,”
said a Durango spokesman.
   “The worst communications policy” one can have is “that of silence,” said professor Mario Campos and sites like Twitter let officials reach “citizens directly” and instantly with important messages.

AND:  A new study claims that in 2009 crime cost Mexicans nearly $85.38 billion or about 8.9% of GDP.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=14091&ArticleId=389465

ITALY: Tweet Revenge As EU Screens Display Berlusconi Attacks.

GUARDIAN/
   The EU's huge TV screens in Brussels were taken over for two hours by thousands of negative tweets trashing Italy's PM Silvio Berlusconi as Europe's 27 leaders were meeting there over the eurozone debt crisis.
    Among the angry tweets were charges of pedophilia and : "Berlusconi pays for sex, for votes, for mafia protection, for everything he can buy. What he cannot buy will be stolen;" and "Berlusconi is a mafioso but he make laws for be not judged."

VENEZUELA: Chavez Is A Twitter Success.

GUARDIAN/ RORY CARROLL/
      Since April, President Hugo Chavez has attracted more than 720,000 followers on Twitter...and is adding some 2,000 everyday. Why? Much of  his Twitter popularity is because it allows the public to bypass bureaucrats and go straight to a staff of  200 who process and respond to complaints and help requests. "This telephone is close to melting. Now I am aware of many things going on here," said Chávez. "Twitter has become a fundamental instrument for Chávez," said Carlos Romero, a political analyst at the Central University of Venezuela. "It has tremendous propaganda value and is part of his charisma mechanism."

BRASIL: Ring Used Web Social Network Sites To Locate Kidnap Victims.

AP/ KYIVPOST/    Police arrested nine young men who they say spent hours on internet social networking sites planning their crimes, looking for victims to kidnap. The men searched profiles for postings of expensive trips, luxury cars and big houses and looked up where potential victims worked and their favorite social hangouts.

MEDIA:1ST UPDATE: On Twitter, BP Satire Site Gains Huge Following.

NYTIMES/UPDATE/ 9 June/     
While beleagured BP posts serious gulf gusher updates on its TWITTER site at BP_America - with only about 12,000 followers, it is vastly overshadowed by the TWITTER satirical feed, BPGlobalPR, with more than 150,000 followers. The parody site is updated often and offers a combination of “everything is going exactly according to plan” P.R. speak, macabre humor and occasional glimpses of genuine outrage, eg. on Saturday, — “Safety is our primary concern. Well, profits, then safety. Oh, no — profits, image, then safety, but still — it’s right up there."  Now it is complying with a request by the oil company to specify that the feed is just a fake. with this statement: “We are not associated with Beyond Petroleum, the company that has been destroying the Gulf of Mexico for 51 days.”

VENEZUELA: Chavez Plays Traffic Cop To A Reckless Tailgater; Starts Blog.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/          Finally, positive news about President Hugo Chavez. He's safety conscious.   Recently, he was tailgated in the slow lane by a young man who also honked at the president and then passed him...on the shoulder. So Chavez chased down the truck and reprimanded the motorist. Now Chavez wants police to crack down on speeding and punish reckless drivers. In other Hugo news, Chavez has started blogging. His success on Twitter with 435,000 followers has spurred him to expand his online presence.
 Link to :    http://www.chavez.org.ve/

COLOMBIA: Juanes Blasts Santos For Stealing Song For Campaign.

COLOMBIA REPORTS/   Via Twitter, popular singer Juanes claims presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos used his song in a campaign ad without permission, calling it "abuse." The song "La Camisa Negra" is on YouTube with lyrics altered to refer to Santos. In a recent poll, Santos regained a slight lead over Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus.

VENEZUELA: Chavez Wants Tweeters To Inform On Speculators.

AP/GOOGLE NEWS/  After only recently embracing Twitter, President Hugo Chavez now wants citizens to send tweets identifying illegal traders, whom he calls "thieves" so they be punished for currency speculation. Chavez blames speculators for inflation. "My Twitter account is open for you to denounce them," Chavez said on TV and radio. "We're going to launch several raids. We've already launched some raids, thanks to the complaints from the people." Economists believe the measures will backfire. "It's a Draconian system," said analyst Asdrubal Oliveros. "Unfortunately this new scheme is going to end up increasing inflation, bringing about shortages of products and creating more distortions in the currency market."

MEDIA: Why Twitter Will Live Long And Prosper.

NYTIMES/OPINION/ David Carr/

"Some time soon, the company won’t say when, the 100-millionth person will have signed on to Twitter to follow and be followed by friends and strangers. That may sound like a MySpace waiting to happen — remember MySpace? — but I’m convinced Twitter is here to stay."

And, this...“The history of the Internet suggests that there have been cool Web sites that go in and out of fashion and then there have been open standards that become plumbing,” said Steven Johnson, the author and technology observer who wrote a seminal piece about Twitter for Time last June. “Twitter is looking more and more like plumbing, and plumbing is eternal.”

Editor's note: I'm not on Twitter, nor have I followed it. In fact, actor Ashton Kutcher's heavily publicized early tweets put me off the site. Maybe someday I'll reconsider.

VENEZUELA: Criminals Use Facebook For Fraud And Kidnappings.

GLOBALPOST/
Security analysts say criminals are using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for house robberies, fraud and kidnappings.

VENEZUELA: Twitter Helps Drivers Outwit Caracas Traffic Jams.

BLOOMBERG/
Caracas motorists, with the world’s cheapest gasoline and more cars than its roads can handle, may be the leaders in using Twitter to avoid traffic. Their forum called Trafico is growing 10% a week. Venezuela’s per-capita use of smart phones even outpaces Europe. “Venezuela has the penetration of smart phones we see in countries like the U.S. and Canada,” says one expert.

Colombian Singer Juanes Defends Cuban Concert.

ColombiaReports.

On Twitter, rocker Juanes defended his September 20th concert in La Habana.

He wrote :"Forget politics now! Think of the people. There is a future for Cuba, but we have to give them a hand, help them, open our minds to them, so that they do the same to us."

Going Online Shakes Up Family Routines.

NYTimes.

Twittermania Takes Over Brasil.

From the LAHT.

The number of users is growing faster in Brasil than in the United States, Britain, Spain, Japan and other developed countries.

Will Tweet Send Guatamalan to Jail?

Guatamalan Jean Anleu vented about his country's corruption on Twitter...and urged depositors to withdraw money from a state bank.

Now he's facing a possible five-year prison sentence for undermining trust in the state .

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090627/ap_on_hi_te/lt_tec_guatemala_twitter_arrest_7