The AFP published an article today that troubles me. I’m jaded already with AFP and Reuters imprinting their ideology on the news about Honduras, but there are some facts they let slip that could show what this summit was all about.

Honduras was not invited to the summit. And, that the organizers of the summit should snub Honduras because Honduras is not a member of the OAS is telling. The summit was held to create an alternative to the OAS, a regional “alliance that would exclude the United States and Canada”, AFP reported Mexican President Felipe Calderón as saying. So if it is an alternative to the OAS, why wasn’t Honduras included? Why should it matter if Honduras isn’t a member of the OAS any more?

But even more telling is this: the next summit will be held in Caracas, Venezuela. Smell the sulfur already? The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas is another alliance created by Hugo Chavez to “liberate us from the yoke of the dollar”, and the “imperialist project that oppresses us and leads us to barbarism.” This new “alliance” seems to be going in the same direction.

The AFP reported Raul Castro as “one of the first to laud the new regional bloc as a historic move toward ‘the constitution of a purely Latin American and Caribbean regional organization.’ ” That AFP should only report host Felipe Calderon’s and Castro’s comments show their leanings a little too clearly.

Calderón’s quote seems very anti-US as well. What do you think? I would shudder to see Honduran president Porfirio Lobo go to the Caracas summit next year, almost as if he were going to Berlin during the Third Reich.

Three Bolivians hijacked Aeromexico Flight 576, travelling from Cancun to Mexico City, with 104 passengers on board. They asked the flight crew to circle the capital city, but the pilot said they were nearly out of fuel and landed the aircraft. Once on the ground the passengers were released.

The Bolivians demanded to speak to Mexican President Felipe Calderón, whose plane was scheduled to take off this afternoon from the Mexico City airport. Very little else is clear at the moment.

UPDATE: Seven hijackers have been taken into custody.

The Monterrey mayor did not authorize a large scale demonstration against Chavez today. Nevertheless a small group of Venezuelans and Hondurans braved the rain to meet in front of the Colombian consulate to show their rejection of Hugo Chavez.

Sadly our group leader never answered our emails and failed to show up today. Nevertheless we took pictures, signed collected emails and chatted a while. I’ll be editing a video later today.

A new article on the Wall Street Journal Online analyzes the links between the Colombian guerilla, Hugo Chávez, and the UD party in Honduras. Apparently the UD is listed in the documents that were recovered in last year’s raid of a rebel base in the Ecuadorian jungle.

The article places the FARC’s share of the Colombian cocaine market at 60%. It highlights the contradictory postures of Mexico’s President Calderon, and US President Obama in backing Manuel Zelaya’s return to office, and the growing cost of the war on drugs.

No mention is made of Zelaya’s imprudent comments. These rash words probably had a chilling effect in Calderón’s attitude toward Zelaya. Word of mouth says he swore loudly when he heard of them.

Although the Honduran issue is not on the agenda for the ongoing summit between the presidents of Canada, the US and Mexico, the topic is very likely to come up.

Image by HablaHonduras, used with a Creative Commons license

Zelaya was holding a meeting with the left of Mexico, seemingly not knowing that they are acerbically critical of Felipe Calderón’s government. Just the mention of Calderón’s name was enough for general booing. Zelaya is showing his ignorance of Mexican politics, and of the history of the left in general. Why did he hold that meeting? It was the most counterproductive thing he could possibly do! He had the support of Mexico, but sqandered it.

Yesterday, a day after Mexican President Felipe Calderón received him with honors and gave him the keys to Mexico city, Manuel Zelaya made a verbal gaffe that cost him access to the press today as he was leaving. He said that in Mexico, it was “better to feel one was president than to be president. I say this to López Obrador, who is listening” he added.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, pictured above, is a former mayor of Mexico City. He and his followers claim he is the legitimate President of Mexico after a narrow loss to Felipe Calderón in the 2006 presidential election. Mr. Zelaya could hardly have said something more insulting to Calderón, his host. It was a small wonder the Mexican government implemented damage control in keeping him away from the press that was waiting for him at the airport.

Apparently, this was a response to a question by a reporter about Zelaya’s six presidential bids. Zelaya had placed himself in an uncomfortable position by holding a meeting with the political leaders of the Mexican left, who support Obrador. Very unwise.

I am deeply dissapointed that Mexican President Calderón is siding with Zelaya, who didn’t hesitate to use his podium to call Micheletti’s goverment a repressive dictatorship. He said that the Honduran government had created laws that had removed Constitutional rights, and created a state of siege in “many regions of the country in a permanent form, that they are searching home without judicial orders…”

Am I surprised to discover that it was Krupskaia Alis, a former memeber of Daniel Ortega’s government, who made this report?

I’ve been fighting in the internet with comments from leftists who call Micheletti’s government a dictatorship. This is the definition, according to the Oxford English Dictionary:

dictator |ˈdikˌtātər|
noun

1. a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained power by force.
• a person who tells people what to do in an autocratic way or who determines behavior in a particular sphere : the prewar era was a period whose apple-cheeked dictator was Doris Day.
• (in ancient Rome) a chief magistrate with absolute power, appointed in an emergency.

Why doesn’t anyone mention that Cuba is run by a dictator, or Venezuela?

With all the coverage given to the Mexican flu epidemic this week, I expected at least one story to point out two factors that might be the reason why the disease has only been fatal in Mexico City.

1. Altitude
2. Pollution

Mexico City is built on a plateau over two kilometers (almost a mile) above sea level. Surrounded by mountains, the restricted airflow over the metropolis has made it one of the most polluted cities in the world. The second-largest urban agglomeration in the world by population, and the eigth by GDP, Mexico City has staggering public health problems.

But still, there has been an epidemic of regular, seasonal flu, in April, affecting many people in Monterrey, including my sister, my niece, a nephew and I. We had a fever, runny nose, painful joints, and all the symptoms now being trumpeted by the media. But we got better, after a week or two. I was back to normal by last monday. But then, the news started to come in about a possible pandemic.

Even in the twenty-first century, seasonal flu complications kill hundreds of thousands of people a year, even in the United States. I concurr with President Obama, that this is a matter of concern, but not alarm.

Image by Geoff de Burca, used with a Creative Commons license

Last Thursday, a friend and I hiked up a stream in the Estanzuela park near Monterrey. It was an exhausting trek, which in several places involved scrambling up rock walls with ropes, hoping not to slip or topple over. However it was very enjoyable and rewarding, especially considering how close this park is to Monterrey, a city of more than 5 million. We kept ourselves from collapse by imagining the hamburger we would eat once we got down.

The first image is of a cave (or abandoned mine, dunno) called “La Cueva de los Murcielagos”. Names sound much more musical and intriguing in Spanish, wouldn’t you agree? In English the name would be “the Bat Cave”; Yawn.

Along the stream, many insects were awakening from the winter, and stretching their wings for the first time, like the infant monarch in the second picture.

While the vegetation was not quite as luxurious as La Tigra national park in Tegucigalpa, the water was astoundingly clean and clear, and after a sweaty climb, tasted as spectacular as tears from the eyes of God. We weren’t allowed to cool ourselves in the water, since this stream is one of the oldest to supply the city with water, since 1909.

Wodka, Whisky or Wum?, originally uploaded by aaronernestoortizlopez.

Mangled spanglish is everywhere in Latin America. This is a shot of a restaurant menu in García, Nuevo León. The sign outside boasted of a regional “bufeet”.