Adventures of a Gringa

Q&A With Boz of Bloggings by Boz

James, known as Boz, is one of the foremost Latin American foreign policy bloggers on the Web. He's an American based in Nicaragua, but he covers the entire region, from daily news stories to more complex policy issues. He's especially interested in transnational crime and security, but he does an excellent job writing about a large variety of topics. He writes Bloggings by Boz, and also has a popular Twitter account for those interested in Latin American news. Boz was kind enough to answer some questions I had, and I'm really excited to feature him here.

You're quite a prolific writer - you've been blogging since 2004 with hundreds of posts a year, and you also freelance. Where else have you been published?

Most of my public writing is on my blog and Twitter feed. I started my blog as an experiment in 2004 and it became a hobby that I really enjoy. With over 3,500 blog posts in seven years and over 7,000 tweets, I'm not sure where it all comes from. I just sit down to write every morning.

In terms of public writing, I contribute to some of the analysis published by Southern Pulse. In the past year I wrote a paper on organized crime in Honduras for the Woodrow Wilson Center and a speech on Arms Trafficking in Central America for the Parliamentary Forum on SALW. I was also excited my paper on botnets and cybersecurity, which I wrote in late 2009, was released publicly by the Conficker Working Group.

My freelance writing and consulting business leads me to do a lot of private memos and analytical reports for clients around the globe. A lot of what I write as part of work is never published publicly, so I'm glad to have an outlet in my blog to post stuff I want to say.

Why Latin America? How did you first become interested in the region, and what do you find fascinating about it?

I'm asked "Why Latin America?" fairly often and I've never been quite sure. I'm part hispanic and have a lot of relatives in Argentina, but I don't think that completely explains why I'm drawn to the region. I took every university course I could on Latin American politics and history and spent a semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. About a year after college, I stumbled into a job as a Latin America analyst with a strategic communications firm. Even though I've also done work related to Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as US politics, I never enjoy working on those regions as much as I do Latin America.

How is that you came to live in Nicaragua? As someone who covers Latin America and foreign policy, why was it important for you to live there?

I'm actually in Nicaragua because of my wife's job. The flexibility of being a freelancer means I can write from almost anywhere with an internet connection. That said, I'm glad to be living and working in Latin America and appreciate the opportunity to get to know Nicaragua and Central America better. It's been a good experience.

On your blog, you do a daily round up of interesting news stories from the English, Spanish and Portuguese language press. How do you determine what's worth sharing?

I share whatever news articles interest me. My blog is still my hobby, even though I have far more readers today than when I started. Of course, as my interests change over time, so do the articles I share. I've become much more interested in technology, energy and innovation issues in the past year, and I think it shows in what I share. I also have an interest in transnational crime, which I think is the big threat to the region.

You cover the region as a whole but you give Brazil plenty of attention. What do you think is one of the trends most worth watching in Brazil, be it political, economic, social, etc?

I give Brazil attention because Brazil deserves attention. It's a political and economic powerhouse in the region and increasingly in the world. Anyone who does regional analysis and ignores Brazil is missing a big piece of the puzzle.

In terms of trends, I think Brazil's interest in South America as a regional community is incredibly important. They have the opportunity to build up their neighbors and work to everyone's strengths through integration. However, that integration with a South American community also creates some risks for Brazil. In the coming years, Brazil will want stability in their neighborhood, leading to them influence other governments. We see this already with Brazil helping Bolivia and Paraguay do border patrols with UAVs or with their construction contracts in Venezuela and Peru. As Brazil works to maintain stability, help out neighbors, and promote Brazilian multinational businesses, it's going to lead to both good and bad consequences for the image of their country.

How do you think Dilma's administration is going? How do you predict things will play out given the corruption scandals and her beleaguered relationship with Congress?

I think the Rousseff administration is hitting some rocky times as happens any time a party moves to its third term in office, whether with the same person or with a new leader. Her administration has one clear advantage: Brazil has a set of goals it must achieve in the eyes of the world with the upcoming big events. They need to build infrastructure for the World Cup and Olympics. I'm 90% sure that Brazilian politics will pull together, move past their differences, and make it happen on time. Dilma will get the credit when it does.

TEDx Brazil

You're probably familiar with TED Talks, but did you know they're now international, with independent events held worldwide? There was recently a TED Talk in Rio (TEDx Rio), and there was another one held last year, also in Rio, called TEDx Sudeste. There have also been talks in São Paulo, Manaus and Porto Alegre. Here are some highlights from both Rio talks.

Vik Muniz

 

Rodrigo Pimentel

 

Pedro Franceschi - One of the world's youngest hackers

 

More videos - TEDx Sudeste 2010

2011 videos after the jump.

Don't Hate on Me Argentina

Some will say that the contentious relationship between Brazil and Argentina is all about soccer rivalries. That certainly plays a role - try asking a Brazilian who's the best soccer player of all time, and then ask an Argentine. And even though there's often a begrudging respect for the other country's star players, it's not often admitted. On both sides of the border, there are often mean-spirited jokes and even open hostility in regards to the other country. On the Argentine side, the antagonism sometimes takes a racist tone. But soccer is one of the more obvious components of a very complicated relationship, one that actually goes back hundreds of years and has reached a turning point as Brazil continues to rise and Argentina continues to struggle.

Here's a very brief background on their history. Argentina and Brazil have actually gone to war, both against each other and united. They fought each other in the Cisplatine War from 1825 to 1828. Brazil lost an entire territory it had annexed, which later became the country of Uruguay. But Argentina and Brazil fought together with Uruguay in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay from 1864 to 1870, and won; the death toll in Paraguay was estimated between 300,000 and 525,000. While both economies grew at the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina enjoyed a golden age; in the 1920s, it was the wealthiest country per capita in Latin America and was amongst the top ten wealthiest countries in the world. That changed after the Great Depression, and both countries shared some similar struggles in the following decades, including populist leaders, military dictatorships, debt, and inflation, amongst other things. In 2001, Argentina's economy crashed, and while things have stabilized, the economy still has not quite recovered, while Brazil's economy booms. Despite all this, the stereotypical Argentine "attitude" is that Argentina is still the most superior country in Latin America, and despite economic hardships, they're still the best -- even better than Brazil.

It must be hard then to deal with some very difficult realities in recent months. President Dilma made her first international visit in office to Argentina, which underscores the importance of the two countries' relationship but also of its power parity. Dilma and Cristina Kirchner signed bilateral agreements, including a nuclear agreement and an agreement to build two hydroelectric plants on the border. While both countries do a large amount of trade, Argentina is more dependent on Brazil. Argentina is Brazil's #3 trading partner after China and the US, while Brazil is Argentina's #1 trading partner. Plus, Argentina's trade deficit is large and growing; Brazilian exports are on the rise while Argentine exports are shrinking. Some Argentine sectors are especially dependent on the Brazilian market, like the auto industry, which exports 85 percent of locally-produced cars to Brazil.

But it gets worse - to add insult to injury, Brazil will actually start printing Argentine money. Brazil is expected to create 16 billion pesos for its neighbor this year, as Argentina again fights an old enemy: soaring inflation, which is hurting the country's poorest. And if that wasn't enough, President Obama has decided to skip Argentina during his brief upcoming Latin American tour, his first ever in the region. This has caused quite a stir, as spurned politicians and diplomats called the decision "unfair." In short, Argentina is essentially living in Brazil's shadow, which looms bigger every day.

And there's that final component that will forever drive a wedge between the two countries: culture. So sure, southern Brazil is in many ways similar to parts of Argentina, what with the gauchos and descendants of German and Italian immigrants. There's the mutual love of barbecue and red meat, of soccer and beer, and close-knit families. But you can't underestimate the influence of the original colonizers and how different it has made both cultures, and how their histories have been shaped apart, despite bordering one another. One of the main elements is the lack of African influences in Argentine culture, and the belief that Argentina is far more European than any Latin American country, as well as the racial implications of considering itself one of the region's "whitest" countries. When living in Buenos Aires, I had the sense that while parts of the culture were considered uniquely Argentine, a lot of the culture seemed to be an adoration or imitiation of European culture, while Brazil has such an eclectic mishmash of cultures from all over the world. While Argentina is very culturally insular, Brazil is wide open, like a blank canvas.

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw here, but one thing is for sure: Argentines will have to learn to get along better with Brazilians, and to better understand them. Apparently, the economic and political future of their country depends on it.

South of the Border

Back in college, when I had finished my third semester studying international affairs and Latin America, I finally began to understand the United States' relationship with our neighbors to the south and just how much the U.S. government had done to interfere in nearly every country in the hemisphere. More than anything, I was in disbelief that I hadn't learned any of this before, and was disappointed my how little information was available to the American public.

Oliver Stone's new documentary South of the Border could have potentially filled the void to help provide useful information about US-Latin American relations, and a brief history and basic snapshot into political trends in the region. Instead, it is an unabashedly one sided view of the rise of socialism in Latin America and mainly a loving ode to Hugo Chavez, although Stone, who evidently does not speak any Spanish, calls him Sha-VEZ during the entire movie. If that doesn't turn you off, the plot likely will.

Stone interviews several leftist Latin American leaders, though he spends the most time with Chavez. He also interviews President Lula, arguably the most powerful leader in Latin America, but spends the least amount of time with him. He also speaks to both Kirchners in Argentina, as well as the presidents of Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Bolivia. He completely ignores Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and doesn't so much as mention him or anything related to Central America. He manages to paint a very rosy picture of Chavez as a sweet but determined everyman who is beloved by most in his country, other than the "evil" media and a minor group of opposition.

In between the interviews, Stone devotes a lot of time discussing Chavez's rise to power and recent Venezuelan history, as told by Chavez and his chavistas. There are also some very funny clips from US TV news shows, particularly FOX and CNN, meant to show how uninformed the US mainstream media is about Latin America. Unfortunately, Stone's version of events and complete unwillingness to show interviews with the opposition or even regular citizens in each country lead the viewer to believe that the film isn't terribly different from those silly news broadcasts.

The film's main flaw, other than the blatant bias, is that it spent very little time actually focusing on the structural changes brought about by leftist movements, in particular extending health care, education, and social benefits to those who previously had little access to them. It completely misses the point about why these leftist leaders have become so popular (other than their charming, "likeable" personalities, which is more than evident in the movie). It makes it seem like Chavez's "bravery" and popularity helped spread the movement in Latin America, giving him much more credit than he is due.

One of the other things that bothered me was Stone's attack on the Latin American media, who he blamed for demonizing the leftist rulers in the same vein as the US media. He also refers to human rights as a "buzz word" and mentions it only in reference to "false claims" of human rights abuses in Venezuela as compared to worse abuses in Colombia. Aside from not understanding what human rights are and how tenuous the balance has become between human rights and democracy during political shifts in the region, Stone clearly does not understand the vitality of a free press. He lumps the media together as an overall negative force that is hindering progress in Latin America, rather than recognizing that some media outlets attempt to exercise the right of free speech and try to combat propaganda from other media conglomerates.

It became clearer how out of touch the director and writers were in the panel discussion after the film, when rabid New York socialists had the opportunity to puxar saco and drone on and on without really asking questions (a few people did, though only one person, an Argentine, really questioned Stone's take on events). One person asked about the status of the transition to socialism in the region, and how each country was progressing, and the people on the panel couldn't quite answer. It made me want to laugh, thinking about Brazil or Argentina as a "socialist" country in the Chavez model. In all, I spent a lot of time rolling my eyes, at both the movie and the excitable people in the audience. But in the end, I was mostly just disappointed. Like several other reviews point out, this was a huge missed opportunity.

Further Reading

Oliver Stone's Latin America in 'South of the Border', New York Times

South of the Border movie review, Star Ledger

Oliver Stone, Visiting Points 'South' With A Few Buds, NPR

South of the Border review, Variety

Oliver Stone and Hugo Chávez: A Love Story, TIME

South of the Border review, AV Club

Busted in Copacabana

One of my fellow Latin America-philes was kind enough to write a guest post about a huge Colombian drug kingpin bust in Rio. Brazil has become a major transshipment point for cocaine in the Americas, and big time dealers seem to have even lived in Brazil without much of a hassle--until recently. Joint task forces and Federal Police operations have managed to bring not one but two Colombian drug kingpins down in Brazil, the most recent one in one of Rio's most famous playgrounds.

Narco Arrested in Copacabana

One of Colombia’s most wanted drug barons was arrested while leaving his apartment on the afternoon of April 16.

The apartment wasn't a luxurious residence hidden in the hills outside Medellin or Cali. Nor was it a multimillion-dollar apartment in downtown Bogotá.

It was the intersection of Rua Hilário de Gouveia and Avenida Atlantida on Copacabana beach. A joint task force consisting of three different Brazilian anti-crime organizations and collaboration from the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) arrested Nestor Ramon Caro Chapparo, aka “Felipe”, in one Rio's most famous neighborhoods. The US Department of State was offering up to US $5 million for Caro Chapparo’s arrest. 

It’s the second high-profile bust of a Colombian drug trafficker in one week that occurred outside of Colombia. Ramon Quintero, a suspected leader of the Norte del Valle Cartel, was arrested in a bakery in an upscale neighborhood in northern Quito, Ecuador, on April 13. Like Caro Chapparo, the US State Department was willing to pay up to US $5 million for information leading to Quintero's arrest.

However, unlike Quintero, who was a leader of one of Colombia’s most powerful cartels, authorities believe that Caro Chapparo was largely an independent trafficker, who likely used his connections with the former members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to facilitate the transportation of thousands of kilograms of cocaine to the United States, as well as West Africa and Europe via various points along the Brazilian coast.

The timing of Caro Capparo’s arrest occurs within the same week that a Defense Cooperation Agreement between Brasilia and Washington in “defense related matters” and “cooperation in any other military fields that may be of mutual interest to the Parties”.

Although the deal doesn’t specifically call out monitoring drug trafficking, it is likely implied. The US State Department recognizes Brazil, particularly Sao Paulo, as a cocaine export corridor for US and European bound cocaine. 

The arrest of Caro Chapparo highlights Brazil’s relevance as a port of exit for drugs bound for the US and Europe. Caro Chapparo was not the first to fall. In August 2007, Brazilian authorities arrested Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, another Norte del Valle leader, in Aldeia da Serra in Greater Sao Paulo. Though the local market, which Veja says is dominated by Bolivian cocaine, exists in Brazil, the presence of internationally wanted suspects such as Caro Chapparo shows that it is Brazil's geographic location, not population, that attracts international drug traffickers.

At the local level, a lethal confrontation between Police and gang members in an attempted bust of a leading trafficker in Vila Alianza on April 20 that left five dead offers a chilling reminder that men like Capo Chapparo are the exception, not the rule, in drug-related arrests and attempted arrests in Brazil.

Eliot Brockner is a Rio Gringa reader. He writes at LatAmThought.

Presidential Island

The writer of the Venezuelan blog El Chiguire Bipolar created a funny cartoon series called "Presidential Island," where the presidents of Latin America and the president and king of Spain get stranded on a desert island. I especially love the scene at the helm with Lula in the middle, while Chavez and Uribe argue whether to go left or right. This is just the first episode, so it will be fun to see what else he comes up with. The first version has Portuguese subtitles, and the second has English subtitles. To figure out who's who, watch this little intro first.

Jews in Jamaica

I stumbled upon a fascinating story from the Wall Street Journal about Jews in Jamaica, and how the government wants to attract tourist using the Jewish history angle.

"No matter that Jamaica has just one synagogue and no rabbi, or that its Jewish community is down to around 200 people. It was once home to a Jewish pirate named Moses, according to one account.

A global economic downturn and "ferocious" competition from Mexico, says Jamaican tourism director John Lynch, mean that every traveler counts these days. Jamaica's Jewish history, he concedes, has "been a well-kept secret."

Read the full story here, and also make sure to watch the video embedded in the article. As it turns out, Jamaica was a destination for Jews fleeing the Inquisition, and at one point it had a thriving Jewish community, one of the largest in the Caribbean. The current Jewish population is only around 200, but the tourism bureau hopes the sand-floor synagogue, one of very few in the world, could be a tourist attraction.

While reading, I noticed that two different people in the article, including a Jamaican Jew and a Jewish pirate, both have the surname Henriques, which is of Portuguese origin. So I looked it up, and the full story of the Jewish pirate is completely fascinating: Moses Cohen Henriques, a Portuguese Jew, allegedly aided Dutch captain Piet Hein in one of the biggest heists in history, capturing Spanish ships in Cuba with silver and gold worth around US$1 billion in today's currency. It gets better! Then, Henriques headed to Brazil, where he established a pirate colony on an island off the coast. In 1754, when the Dutch took over Northern Brazil, he left Brazil to join pirate Henry Morgan in his adventures.

There's a lot more where that came from in Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, which is going on my to-read list.

While I'm not sure how much luck Jamaica will have with this "attraction," it's certainly an interesting idea, one that could definitely be adopted in Recife, home to one of the oldest synagogues in the Americas and a former thriving community of Dutch Jews that later established the first Jewish community in New York. The temple is simple but beautiful, and there's also a small museum in the synagogue. But the city itself could do more to promote its former Jewish heritage as a cultural destination, and it could use Jamaica's experience as a model, since I think Pernambuco actually has an even larger and more complex Jewish history.