Weblog

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Friday, March 07, 2008

  • Paraguay Today: International Arms Trade Alive & Well

    Viktor Bout, the Tajikistan-born ex-Russian military arms dealer who was caught doing who-knows-what in Thailand (meeting with the North Koreans? buying Chinese arms from the Burmese? getting some sun?) seems to have had a penchant for using Paraguay as a staging ground to get his weaponry to interested parties in South America. Notably, FARC in Colombia (perhaps going through the northern border with Bolivia? This is a less sexy border than the Triple Frontera with Argentina and Brazil (see: Miami Vice (2006)) that has nevertheless attracted US attention amid rumors that the Bush clan is buying up great swaths of land).

    For more about Viktor:
    Arms Dealer Arrested for Weapons Sale to the FARC

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

  • Social Deviance and Paraguay Today: Following Up On Two Herbs

    I keep getting hits from people searching for something that leads them to my entry on mate cocido, which is about yerba mate, an herb that people drink in the Southern Cone and Lebanon/Syria (and now in the global North). Is it interest in yerba that leads these surfers to my site via google images at 2:30am or is it that they're searching for some really kinky porn?

    And, remember my earlier entry on pot in Paraguay and Brazil? Well, here's more from ABCdigital:

    Paraguay provides marijuana to Brazil

    Brazilian authorities calculate that 60% of the marijuana consumed in their country comes from Paraguay. So says a UN report about the drug financing for the year 2007, released last night in Asunción. It also claims that 60% of the 5 tons of the herb confiscated in Chile also were from our country. The lowest levels of consumption of the drug were registered in Paraguay, Bolivian, and Peru.


    My Commentary: Word on the street is that this marijuana comes from the Mennonite communities in the Chaco... Paraguay's version of the Amish (though a little less strict in their practice, obviously).

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

cfolch

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    • Name: cfolch
    • Member Since: 8/29/2003

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