PORTUGAL/SPAIN/ EUROZONE: Socrates Out After "Austerity"Third Strike Rejected By MPs; Fitch Lowers Rating; Moody's Downgrades Spanish Banks.

  

NYTIMES/


  A day after his parliament rejected the third round of budget cuts, PM Jose Socrates (pictured) has quit.
  Now, Portugal may need as much as 70-80 billion euros... even as it continues to rule out a rescue.
  Fitch added to the fiscal mess by lowering the nation's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to ‘A-’ from ‘A+’... and in its short-term issuer default ratings to ‘F2’ from ‘F1’.
  Portugal soon faces its first bond maturities of 2011 with redemptions worth about 9 billion euros on April 15 and June 15.
  Spain is now also under market pressure from speculators after Moody's today downgraded most of its banking sector.

SPAIN: Working Putas Must Wear Reflective Yellow Vests In Lleida.

GUARDIAN/
     Police in Lleida are forcing prostitutes to wear highly visible yellow reflective vests while working on a roundabout outside the city to avoid fines of 40 euros.
     There is currently a debate over the thriving prostitution trade in Spain, where it is part legal and part illegal.

SPAIN SOCCER: Colonies Root For Former Master.

WSJ/ NICHOLAS CASEY And MATT MOFFETT /
" ...during Sunday's World Cup final—pitting Spain against the Netherlands—Spain's murderous rule of Mexico in the last millennium will be forgotten. "If Spain is the Motherland, it's an awful mother to have," says Jamie Abundis, a Mexico City historian. "But the truth is I want them to win."
Tomorrow  "... an unlikely battle cry will hail from the former colonies of Spain: "Vamos España!" Sure, Spain once robbed, raped and raided its way across the Americas. But it also bequeathed a language, religion and culture that still inspire loyalty from Chile to New Mexico."

THE EU: Euro's First Big Test Underway.

NYTIMES/ANALYSIS/  The 16 countries that use the euro are facing a new reality: their 10-year-old common currency is being challenged by the diverse economic and financial conditions of its members. “... It is clear this year that global macro risk will come from Euroland and not the U.S.,” says a financier.

THE EU: Decline Of The PIIGS And Euro Fears.

NYTIMES/ Paul Krugman blog/
Europe is roiled by sovereign debt fears due to a crisis among the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain). Krugman explains using Spain's debt problems.

ENERGY: Spain's Windfarms Provided 53% Of Weekend Power .

GUARDIAN.UK/
Over the past weekend, winds provided 53% of Spain's total electricity needs for several hours. With unusually high winds, Spain's network of windfarms provided the equivalent of 11 nuclear power stations' worth of electricity into the national grid. Spain has the world's third largest array of wind turbines, after the United States and Germany.

Spain's Minister Shuns Dissidents During Cuba Visit.

AP/
Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos met with Raul Castro for nearly three hours discussing human rights and repayment of nearly $300 million Cuba owed to Spanish companies that do business in the country.
But he declined to visit dissidents, political activists, independent Cuban journalists or members of Havana-based human rights organizations, a change for Spanish leaders. Madrid and Havana relations were frosty before the trip.

92-Year-Old Woman Busted As Coke Mule In Spain.

LAHT/
A 92-year-old woman arriving from Brasil in a wheelchair was arrested Friday at Madrid’s Barajas Airport after agents found more than four kilos of cocaine attached to her body.

Socialism's Slow Death In Europe.

NYTIMES/
"Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance,” greed and the weakness of regulatory systems, European Socialist parties and their left-wing cousins have not found a compelling response, let alone taken advantage of the right’s failures.
German voters clobbered the Social Democratic Party on Sunday, giving it only 23 percent of the vote, its worst performance since World War II.
Voters also punished left-leaning candidates in the summer’s European Parliament elections and trounced French Socialists in 2007. Where the left holds power, as in Spain and Britain, it is under attack. Where it is out, as in France, Italy and now Germany, it is divided and listless."

How To Act Like a Native In Madrid.

GLOBALPOST/
Madrid natives or Madrileños have an uncanny ability to point out Americans in a crowd. And while there are telltale signs, such as flip-flops, oversized sunglasses and baseball caps, there is a secret madrileño aura lacking in my friends and I that separates us from natives. Well, what is this secret aura, you ask? Well, that’s exactly what we’d like to find out.

Spain Intends To Curb Immigration.

LAHT/
Spain proposes to reform its immigration laws to ensure “legal and orderly immigration” through steps such as limiting family reunification and punishing those who promote illegal immigration.
The government says reform is needed because the number of foreigners in the country went from 800,000 in 1999 to 4.5 million by March 2009 – nearly 10 percent of Spain’s 46 million residents – amid a savage recession that has pushed unemployment to 18 percent.

Repsol Makes Mammoth Gas Find Off Venezuela.

BLOOMBERG/
Spain’s oil company Repsol-YPF announced finding a gas field off Venezuela with as much as 8 trillion cubic feet of fuel, equivalent to 1.2 to 1.4 billion barrels.
The potential gas is enough to supply all of Spain for more than five years.

On Tour With Hugo Chavez: Joking With Spain's King, Recognizing Russia's Disputed Regions.

AP.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stirred-up more controversy during a swing through Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Russia and former Soviet satellites. Get all the details.

Or Read The Latin American Herald Tribune's Editorial:

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=343577&CategoryId=13303

Spain To Use Obsolete Telephone Booths To Recharge Electric Cars.

GUARDIAN.UK.
The streets of Madrid are full of useless telephone booths. But 30 telephone boxes have been chosen as tests for auto recharging points in Madrid, as well as Barcelona and Seville.
The Spanish government will spend €10m on kick-starting the use of electric cars over the next two years, with €1.5m going on recharging points.

Barcelona Police Begin Prostitution Crackdown.

LAHT.
In downtown Barcelona, police officers began a crackdown on prostitution, making 16 arrests and identifying 78 others .
Two Nigerian prostitutes, two Brasilian transvestites and another 12 foreign illegals were arrested.

Still Kissing And Touching In Spain Despite Swine Flu Warnings.

GLOBALPOST.COM.
Kissing and touching are instinctual in Spain. For doctors’ swine flu prevention advice of "don't kiss, don't shake hands" to be adopted, “the situation would have to be tremendously serious, almost a catastrophic epidemic like the Black Death,” says one sociologist.

67-Year-Old English Bullfighter Returns To Ring.

THE GUARDIAN.UK.
Frank Evans, the world's only English bullfighter and a grandfather of five with a titanium knee, who has also had a QUADRUPLE HEART BYPASS, restarted his career as a professional bullfighter facing two bulls at Benalmadena, in southern Spain.

DVD Review: THE MATADOR.

LINK: TO YOUTUBE MOVIE TRAILER.

I have never really understood bullfighting.

Ernest Hemingway grew-up in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago,and loved the event, writing furiously and famously about it.

I grew-up in Chicago proper and the only Bulls I saw or heard about played basketball.

And I don't like basketball.

But recently I came across a documentary about bullfighting in the Austin Public Library.

It's called "The Matador."

It is marvelous!

The documentary tracks three years in the career of young David Fandila of Spain as he struggles to become a top-rated bullfighter, suffering setbacks and devastating injuries.

Fandila's quest is informative, riveting and inspiring.

Maybe, just maybe, bullfighting must be respected as a sport and an art... not just a cultural throwback to another more primitive time.

In any case, this DVD is worth viewing...and keeping.

"The Matador"
Stephen Higgins, Producer/Director
75 minutes, 2009
City Lights/ Warner Brothers

Guatamalan Women Fakes Kidnapping To Extend Foreign Affair.

LAHT.

Police said that a Guatamalan woman invented a kidnapping story to lengthen her vacation in Barcelona, where she went to join a man she met on the Internet.

Majorca To Limit Tourist Damage After Bombings.

BBC.

Majorca has set-up a new information hotline for tourists worried about security.