Monday, August 17, 2009

Odds and ends

  • Fidel Castro got more than anyone could wish for on his birthday – seven hours of conversation with Hugo Chavez, who dropped in for the occasion. Cuban Colada translates parts of the Venezuelan president’s account.

  • President Obama’s Latin America team is not in place because of dissatisfaction with the President’s policy toward Honduras. Liz Harper reports at Americas Quarterly Blog that Senator DeMint has held up the confirmation of Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon as ambassador to Brazil, and his replacement as Assistant Secretary, Arturo Valenzuela.

  • In a December 1971 conversation between President Nixon and the President of Brazil, the subject of supporting Cuban exiles to overthrow the Cuban government was discussed. Nixon was interested, but apparently having digested Bay of Pigs history, he reportedly “said yes, ‘as long as we did not push them into doing something that we could not support, and as long as our hand did not appear’” New York Times report here, based on declassified documents posted here by the National Security Archive.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the story on private farmers one of the most important aspects on what's happening in cuba today. practicality trumps ideology. very important on so many levels lets hope it spills over to rest of the failed centralization policies