MEXICO: Jorge Castañeda Examines...The Mexican Character; Calls Them Bad Team Players.

M.HERALD / A. Oppenheimer interview and book review

MH: "Reading the new book by Jorge Castañeda, Mañana Forever: Mexico and the Mexicans, I was struck by his observation that Mexicans tend to seek individual solutions to collective problems, while Americans and Europeans tend to seek collective solutions to collective problems.

Castañeda, one of Latin America’s sharpest intellectuals and a former Mexican foreign minister, says Mexico suffers from an acute individualism that is evident in Mexicans’ attitudes toward politics, architecture, arts and even sports.
Mexicans are not team players, he says."

AND: "When faced with economic or social problems, Mexicans take advantage of their geographic closeness to the United States to seek the ultimate individualist solution: emigration. “Their reaction is, ‘I’m leaving; you take care of this mess,’ ” he said."

BOLIVIA / CHILE: Oppenheimer: Evo Picking Fight With Pinera To Improve Popularity.

M.HERALD/ OPINION: Andres Oppenheimer

    "Leftist populist President Evo Morales — until recently one of Latin America’s most popular presidents — is playing a dangerous card to improve his falling support at home: reviving a 132-year-old territorial conflict with neighboring Chile.
    What’s going on?, I asked several Bolivian politicians and journalists. Virtually all responded that Morales, who won a second term in 2009 with a massive 64 percent of the vote, has been in a political free fall since December, and is propping up the fight with Chile for domestic political reasons.
   Morales’ popularity has fallen to 32 percent in most polls, his lowest number since he took office five years ago."
   “The government is rapidly losing popular support, and this fight with Chile is a consequence of that,” says Samuel Doria Medina, a business tycoon and opposition leader who is currently facing several government suits for alleged economic crimes. “Morales is trying to divert public attention from our economic problems.”

LATIN AMERICA: Oppenheimer Interviews Prez. Obama.

M.HERALD/ Andres Oppenheimer

  Oppenheimer interviews President Obama on Cuban policy, Venezuela's alleged uranium aid to Iran, Argentina's recent confiscation of equipment at its airport and ratification of FTA's with Panama and Colombia.

  "Obama, who talked extensively about issues ranging from tensions with Venezuela and Argentina to the pending U.S. free trade deals with Panama and Colombia, said he has made some of the most significant changes in U.S. policy to Cuba in decades but the Cuban leadership has not responded in kind."

VENEZUELA: Oppenheimer: Will Egypt, High Oil Prices Help Chavez In 2012 Election?

WINNIPEG F.PRESS/
OPINION: Andres Oppenheimer/

    "...will oil prices rise enough to give Chavez's 12-year-old regime a second wind, and allow him to win the 2012 elections? Will he be able to resume his checkbook diplomacy in Latin America?
     Venezuela's narcissistic leader -- if you think this depiction is unfair, consider that in his Jan. 15 speech to Congress he used the word "I" 489 times -- knows that his political future depends on oil prices."
    "Chavez's financial problems won't be solved this year by the current spike in oil prices," claims energy analyst Evanan Romero "What he wins with rising oil prices, he loses with declining oil production."

COLOMBIA: OPPENHEIMER: Santos' Drift Away From U.S. Makes It Uneasy; Ecuador Restores Relations With Santos.

M.HERALD/ A.OPPENHEIMER/ OPINION:
   "Colombia's right-of-center President Juan Manuel Santos may have been kidding when he recently said that radical leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is his ``new best friend,'' but few in Washington are laughing.
    There is a growing feeling in the U.S. capital -- especially in Congress -- that Santos is moving closer to Chávez, and shifting away from Colombia's close alliance with the United States over the past eight years."

 ALSO,  President Santos and Rafael Correa announced the restoration of full diplomatic relations broken off in March 2008 after Colombia bombed a  FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory, killing 26 including its No. 2  Raul Reyes.
 FOR MORE DETAIL, SEE:
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=379837&CategoryId=14089

ARGENTINA: Oppenheimer On Kirchner's Influence.

    MIAMI HERALD/  ANDRES OPPENHEIMER OPINION :

   "The death of former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner will most likely make it difficult for current President Cristina Fernández -- his widow -- to govern, and may speed up Argentina's reluctant insertion into the global economy.

    Judging from my interviews with the late president, the current president and several of their closest advisers in recent years, Nestor Kirchner pretty much ran the government until the day of his death.

     He was the harsh Peronist party leader who maintained union leaders under government control through a mix of intimidation and economic rewards. And he was behind virtually all of his wife's government decisions."

VENEZUELA: Oppenheimer : Chavez's Counter-Attack Will Be "Nasty."

M.HERALD/ OPINION / Columnist ANDRES OPPENHEIMER :
    "Venezuela's opposition leaders are ecstatic about the results of Sunday's legislative elections, which dealt a heavy blow to President Hugo Chávez. But they should get ready for Chávez's counter-attack. It will come soon, and it will be nasty.
     Judging from what I hear from former close Chávez aides and other well-placed analysts, he is likely to circumvent the results of Sunday's vote by pulling several tricks to consolidate his powers ahead of the 2012 presidential election."

CUBA: What Is Fidel Up To...???

M.HERALD/ ANDRES OPPENHEIMER/ OPINION/
ANALYSIS/
   As expected, the Habanistas have been swirling and studying their coffee grounds to explain Fidel Castro's recent spate of public appearances. Columnist Andres Oppenheimer gives the 5 most common explanations.

OPPENHEIMER:   "Here's the question being asked by almost anybody who is following the latest news from Cuba -- what on earth is Fidel Castro up to? Since he made his first public appearance in four years last month, Cuba's officially retired dictator -- who turned 84 Friday -- hasn't stopped showing up in public, and grabbing the headlines. Proclaiming himself ``totally'' recovered from the intestinal ailment that forced him to turn over the presidency to his brother Gen. Raúl Castro in 2006, Fidel Castro has made more than a dozen public appearances since he was photographed visiting the National Center of Scientific Investigations on July 7."

COLOMBIA/VENEZUELA: Oppenheimer Believes Rebel "Spat" Is No Big Deal.

M.HERALD/ ANDRES OPPENHEIMER: OPINION/            "Journalists are not supposed to shoot down a good story, but I have to confess that I'm not terribly excited about the news of Venezuela's break of diplomatic relations with Colombia, nor about Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's threat to stop oil exports to the United States.  
Despite the big headlines about Latin America's latest conflict, senior Latin American and U.S. diplomats tell me that the spat between Chávez and outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is likely to subside -- at least for a while -- once Colombia's President-elect Juan Manuel Santos takes office on Aug. 7."

SEE ALSO: AP analysis of Chavez troubles by CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER  :
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jCNG0F21aaSxDw8Qjsc4T-eSWlhQD9H8M1VO0

BRASIL: Speculation Lula Wants To Be U.N. Chief .

MIAMI HERALD/ Andres Oppenheimer/ Opinion/        "Veja," Brasil's leading weekly magazine hints that President Lula da Silva may consider running for United Nations secretary general after he leaves office this year. Former U.N. official Diego Arria,claims ``Lula would be a very strong candidate because of Brazil's weight as an increasingly independent power, and because of his international prestige.''

CUBA: Oppenheimer On Fallout From Dissident Orlando Zapata's Death.

MIAMI HERALD/ Andres Oppenheimer OPINION/     "My opinion: Zapata's death will not lead to any internal upheaval. At best, it will make it a bit harder for Latin American leaders to pose smilingly for the cameras with a military dictator with fresh blood on his hands, as they did at a Feb. 23 summit in Mexico, or as the president of Brazil did Feb. 24 in Cuba at the very time Zapata was dying in prison. And it may also make it a bit harder for Spain, the current chair of the European Union, to go forward with its plans to normalize Europe's relations with Cuba, as if that country were any civilized democracy."

BRASIL: Lula's Support Of Iran Baffles Many.

MIAMI HERALD/ Andres Oppenheimer/ OPINION/    "Brazil's key diplomatic support of Iran's increasingly isolated regime is baffling the international community. There are several theories about Brazil's behavior, some of them quite troubling."

BRASIL, MEXICO: Only Modest Growth Ahead.

MIAMI HERALD/Opinion, Andres Oppenheimer/
"Most international financial institutions and independent economists agree that Brazil will grow by about 4.2 percent next year and Mexico by about 3 percent. Because the two countries represent the bulk of Latin America's economic output, they will drive up the region's overall economy by about 3 percent in 2010, they say."

Southern U.S. Senator Blocks Nominated Latin American Officials.

MERCOPRESS/Andres Oppenheimer/
South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint argues that he won’t unblock the designations for Under Secretary Arturo Valenzuela and ambassador Thomas Shannon, until “there’s an agreement on the Honduras November election and US aid to the country is restored”. He added that the Obama administration describes what happened in Honduras as a military coup “when documents clearly indicate that the Honduran government acted following the constitutional process.”
“Democrats are showing little respect for the US constitution and for the Honduras constitution; the Obama administration is becoming in this case an ally of Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez”, insists DeMint.