Hola!
This is Latinokos, the latino/latin america interest open thread. Here are some stories I find interesting. Feel free to post your own stories, links and chatter.
From Venezuela:
Analysis: Oil helps Venezuela growth again
By CARMEN J. GENTILE
UPI Energy Correspondent
MIAMI, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Venezuela's supercharged petroleum-based economy has posted greater than 10 percent economic growth, for the third year in a row, according to the country's central bank.
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The statistics, at face value, seem to support the Chavez policy of renegotiating contracts with foreign oil firms to increase Venezuela's share of the profits. Growth reached 10.3 percent in 2006, said Central Bank President Gaston Parra, equaling last year's mark. In 2004, the Venezuelan economy expanded by a staggering 18 percent.
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http://www.upi.com/...
From Argentina:
Soaring temperatures put heat on Argentina’s powergrid
Summer has come to Argentina with a vengeance, bringing temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius this week and almost unbearable loads on the power system.
The national grid is groaning under the strain of soaring demand for price-capped electricity and as sticky residents in Buenos Aires flip on their air conditioning en masse, consumption has hit a new peak, surpassing last summer’s high and plunging parts of the capital into sporadic blackouts.
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http://www.mercopress.com/...
On the past Mexican election, an interesting analysis from the San Francisco Bay Guardian:
The future of MexicoAfter 12 months of unprecedented turmoil, will 2007 be the gateway to the next Mexican revolution? By John Ross
MEXICO CITY (Jan. 1) -- After a tumultuous year in which the red and black flags of civil insurrection unfurled on the barricades and the rancor of "los de abajo" ("those from below") took fire, newly sworn-in president Felipe Calderon and his transnational backers are banking on fading the color scheme to a ubiquitous gray in 2007. Their success will be measured by the response of a popular resistance that has surged from the bottom in many parts of the country during 2006.
"Unprecedented" became a cliché in Mexico 2006, as social and political turbulence crested in anticipation of the presidential elections. By spring, striking steelworkers were being gunned down and militarized police under the command of Calderon's new attorney general brutalized angry farmers in San Salvador Atenco in one of the most egregious violations of human rights ever witnessed on Mexican screens. The teachers rose in Oaxaca.
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http://www.sfbg.com/...
Finally, the key to making Latinokos a success on kos is your participation. You don't have to be an expert to start the diary. Just spend twenty minutes on google news and find some interesting stories like I did here if you don't have the time or knowledge to write an original diary.