Monthly Archives: August 2011

As Chile plunges into its first general strike in eight years, outside observers can be excused if they are a bit surprised. Chile is supposed to be the stodgy, conservative, institutionality-respecting corner of South America, where nothing ever happens. But … Continue reading →

In my prior post on Venezuelan gold, I should have included a couple links that are probably worth posting here rather than making an update: Caracas Chronicles put up a clever post about the many arbitration cases that Venezuela is … Continue reading →

Venezuela’s only private-sector gold miner says it has nothing to worry about after President Hugo Chavez says he will nationalize the gold mining sector. It’s “not a concern for us at all,” Andre Agapov, president and CEO of Rusoro Mining, … Continue reading →

Decent story giving the overall story of the PDVSA Pension Ponzi on Reuters today. Nothing much new in there except that PDVSA retirees are marching against the company. But not a bad way to get up to speed if, like … Continue reading →

So long as we’re on agriculture (or at least, the Brazilian is), I thought I’d post this image from an organic sheep farm in Chile: This is a pile of wool on its way to be composted into soil mulch. … Continue reading →

Holy cow, Quasecarioca is a good writer. And for those many of you obsessed with Venezuela, please note that today’s post does in fact touch on the Bolivarian Republic. It’s all about land reform. It’s pretty amazing that while gringos … Continue reading →

Just busy. Weirdness in Venezuela & Chile = plenty of paid work for me, and less time for the website. My bedtime reading has been the PDVSA annual report. The local press and wires have picked up on most of … Continue reading →

Cuasecarioca is blogging. This person, who is remaining anonymous, is really smart, really informed, and really sharp with the analysis. I was honored to have a couple guest posts from this character this year, and I highly recommend that you … Continue reading →

Venezuela beat Brandes Partners arbitration suit at the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, state oil company PDVSA said in an e-mailed statement. All we get from the statement is that Brandes got rejected by the … Continue reading →