Good morning from Bogota. My linkroll on the side is down, so here's some stuff that should be on there.
US and Mexican authorities will hold a "mirror operation" on each side of the border to arrest drug traffickers. If this works, it could be a good model for future counter-narcotics operations between any two countries. Of course, it would help if Mexico captured the right people. Also, see my post below about the PRI internal politics and this article from the NYT on deforestation in Mexico.
In Brazil, Lula is naming new cabinet ministers after dealing with weeks of scandal in the media. It's not just Lula's Party, an opposition deputy was arrested with a lot of money in his suitcase. The US will oppose the G4, led by Brazil, in their UNSC reform plan.
Nearby, the Washington Times runs an AP article about Arab communities in Brazil and BBC Mundo (in Spanish, por supuesto) has a special with several articles on Islam in the tri-border region.
Eduardo over at Barrio Flores has some thoughts about why Evo Morales may be pushing for absentee voting. It's definitely not the Bolivians in the US that will be voting for him.
Joseph Britt has an op-ed questioning Arab silence on the Darfur genocide and Maria Szalavitz questions why we can't buy Afghan poppies to make cheap medical pain relief medications. The answer to the second has to do with the Afghan traffickers simply increasing production over what's legally allowed.
The head of the State Department's Cuba desk will switch jobs with Venezuela's DCM, in an obvious attempt to show how close those two governments are. In the meantime, James Cason, the former chief in Havana, will become the US Ambassador to Paraguay.
And finally, the Associated Press has a look at Colombia's coal industry and compares it to the American Old West. Well, except for the assassins on motorcycles and the thermal imaging sensors to detect them. The article, however, never answers my question. I know they're probably just running extortion rings, but what the hell do the bad guys do with a train of coal if they capture it?
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