Today's Train of Thought- We're Not in Kansas Anymore, June 14, 2014

In honor of the 2014 World Cup, today's Train of Thought takes us not just South of the Border, but south of a couple of borders all the way down to Brazil.

Between 1957 and 1999, most of the rail network in Brazil was operated under the authority of the state controlled RFFSA. The size and scope of railroading in Brazil range from antique streetcars in Rio to some of the world's heaviest trains operating in the northeastern part of the country. Starting in the late 1990s, various lines were privatized and sold off to outfits such as MRS Logistica, Ferronorte, Ferrovia Centro Atlantica, ALL Logistica and VALE SA mining [the lions share of the lines in northern Brazil have been incorporated as part of VALE's considerable mining operations- NANESB!].

Brazil's economic growth in recent years has been so rapid that the various private operators- who have a taste of GE and EMD power- couldn't wait for new power to be built and purchased hundreds of secondhand EMD and GE locomotives from US Class 1's such as CSX, BNSF, Conrail, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific. Many of these locomotives were pressed into service so rapidly that a number of them were still painted in the colors of their former owners, despite being a hemisphere away.

Some of the power now in Brazil included models and rebuilds that were unique to their previous owner- such as the SFC30, which were Santa Fe U36Cs rebuilt using components from C30-7s and C39-8s in the 1980s. The SF30Cs soldiered on with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe through the time of the merger with BNSF where they were traded into GE for newer Dash Nines or returned to lessor. Sensing the trade-ins still had some mileage on them, the leasing companies began shopping the SF30C and other GE trade-ins to shortline and regional lines- the Minnesota Commercial purchased a few, but the majority ended up in South America on any number of the privatized lines.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Lucas MR caught FCA [Ferrovia Centro Atlantica- NANESB!] SF30C #4718 smoking it up along with other heavy-duty, 6-axle GEs as it leads FCA train U57 out of the yard at Canguera, Sao Paolo state on January 19, 2013. The tracks in and out of Canguera are dual gauge, meaning that both standard gauge and narrow gauge trains can operate into the yard.

Borderline Psychosis Update- Mexican Marines Capture Elusive Sinaloa Cartel Head 'El Chapo'; Colombian Police Seize 'Game Changing' Coca Paste

MEXICO- Elusive Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman- who has been on the run from US and Mexican authorities since escaping prison in 2001- was captured by Mexican Marines in the resort town of Mazatlan on Saturday.

While on the run, Guzman had enough assets to be named to a list of wealthiest billionaires in the world according to Forbes magazine- although he recently dropped off the list. Some quarters of Mexico viewed him as a sort of Robin Hood figure- so much so that the hashtag #FreeElChapo was trending internationally on Twitter within hours of his arrest.

According to Mexico's Secretariat of the Navy, El Chapo's capture was facilitated by the capture or killings of his top lieutenants and their family members starting in 2013. The son of the Sinaloa cartel's #2 man was arrested in Nogales, AZ in November 2013 while the cartel's top enforcer was detained by Dutch border police in January.

Acting on information from wiretaps, Mexican troops and federal police combed through the streets of the Sinaloan capital of Culiacan earlier this month. While El Chapo initially evaded the dragnet, each raid seemingly turned up cartel safehouses containing weapons, drug caches and cellphones. The day before Valentine's Day, police arrested the Sinaloa cartel's new top enforcer on the highway outside the resort city of Mazatlan. Days later and in two separate arrests, two men who were reportedly part of Guzman's personal security detail were arrested along with hollowed out produce stuffed with cocaine. Between the wiretaps and information gleaned from the arrests of Guzman's inner circle, police and Mexican marines focused in on a beachfront condo in Mazatlan.

Agents learned that Guzman, 56, had started coming down from his isolated mountain hideouts to enjoy the comforts of Culiacan and Mazatlan, said Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation.

"That was a fatal error," Vigil said.

Working on the information gleaned from Guzman's bodyguards, Mexican marines swarmed the house of Guzman's ex-wife but struggled to batter down the steel-reinforced door, according to Mexican authorities and former U.S. law-enforcement officials briefed on the operation.

As the marines forced their way in, Guzman fled through a secret door beneath a bathtub down a corrugated steel ladder into a network of tunnels and sewer canals that connect to six other houses in Culiacan, the officials said.

Guzman fled south to Mazatlan. On his heels, a team of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents set up a base of operations with Mexican marines in the city, according to the current U.S. law-enforcement official.

Early Saturday morning, Guzman's reign came to an end without a shot fired. Marines closed the beachside road in front of the Miramar condominiums, a 10-story, pearl-colored building with white balconies overlooking the Pacific and a small pool in front.

Smashing down the door of an austerely decorated fourth-floor condo, they seized the country's most-wanted man at 6:40 a.m., a few minutes after the sun rose.

The arrest of El Chapo will likely quell US official's concerns that the office of Mexican president Peña Nieto will be reluctant to directly take on the cartels or aid US law enforcement in Mexico's ongoing narcoinsurgeny.

However, the arrest of Joaquin Guzman also raises questions about possible extradition to the United States, a succession battle within the Sinaloa cartel itself or rival organizations such as Los Zetas or the Knights Templar aggressively moving in to seize territory from a now-vulnerable rival organization

COLOMBIA- In what law enforcement is calling a game-changer, police in Colombia seized more than 1000 lbs of an unrefined coca paste from an aircraft that was getting ready to take off in Southern Colombia earlier this month.

Police found the paste in a Cessna airplane at Ipiales airport in Narino province, close to the border with Ecuador. Intelligence shows it was destined for Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, according to the police. Discovering coca paste shipments is rare, says Steven Dudley, a director at InSight Crime, a research group that studies organized crime in Latin America.

“We’ve seen some laboratories in Honduras and there are rumors of them being in other places, Mexico being one of them,” Dudley said by telephone from Washington D.C. “It’s not common, that’s for sure.”

Pablo Escobar’s Medellin cartel and other Colombian crime gangs imported coca paste from Peru and Bolivia in the 1980s, transforming it into cocaine before exporting it. Mexico could now be traveling down the same road, Restrepo said.

Drug gangs would lose less if a shipment of paste were seized, he said, since its wholesale price is only about a fifth of the value of refined cocaine. A difference in the cost of precursor chemicals such as acetone or the Colombian police’s success in finding and blowing up labs are possible explanations for the change, [Colombian police General Ricardo Restrepo, head of antinarcotics] stated.

In the 1990s, Colombian coca output soared, often in areas where the presence of Marxist guerrillas made it hard for police to enter. The farmers turn the leaves of their coca bushes into paste in jungle shacks, in a bucket chemistry process using gasoline, caustic soda, sulphuric acid, ammonia and cement. They sell the paste to mafia groups for about $1,250 per kilo, Restrepo said, who process it into pure cocaine in laboratories hidden in the jungle.

The country’s largest Marxist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, currently controls about a quarter of the country’s annual 309 metric tons cocaine output, according to Restrepo.

The government is holding peace talks with the FARC in Havana in a bid to end a five-decade civil conflict. Negotiators have reached partial agreement on agricultural policy and political representation, with discussion now centering on illicit drugs.

As well as the FARC, Colombia’s cocaine trade is controlled by offshoots of illegal paramilitary “self-defense” groups, such as the Urabenos gang, which has its roots in the border zone near Panama, Restrepo said.

A peace deal will make it easier for security forces to enter some coca-producing regions, although it won’t end the cocaine trade, he said.

“Drug trafficking is going to continue, with or without the FARC,” the counter-narcotics chief said. “The business is constantly changing and mutating. As long as it’s economically productive, drug traffickers will be looking for ways to earn more profits with less risk.”

The seizure means that at least one Mexican drug trafficking organization has switched from trafficking to manufacturing cocaine- intelligence indicating that the Sinaloa cartel was the likely recipient. Should other cartels follow suit and begin manufacturing cocaine from coca paste in Mexico's borders, this would change Mexico from a strategically-placed way station for trafficked cocaine to an active producer, even though the raw ingredients originate in the Andean countries of South America.

Venezuela Rocked by Escalating Anti-Government Protests As Maduro Orders Crackdown on Opposition

Amid several days of clashes between police and antigovernment demonstrators in the capital city of Caracas, Venezuela's embattled president has ordered paratroopers to crack down on protests that have been spreading to other cities.

President Nicolas Maduro's opponent from last year's presidential election- Miranda governor Henrique Capriles- hasn't taken as active a role in the demonstrations, opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez turned himself over to authorities who were seeking his arrest on charges of fomenting unrest against the state earlier this week. Capriles and others have condemned the Maduro regime's detention of opposition figures, but have cautioned supporters to avoid violence.

Early reports indicate that the death toll is at least eight after antigovernment demonstrators clashed with riot police and masked Tupamaros- masked urban guerillas operating in support of the regime- opened fire on a crowd of protestors last week.

Skyrocketing inflation, rampant crime, government expropriation of businesses and shortages of basic consumer goods such as flour and toilet paper led to a massive antigovernment demonstration in Caracas calling for Maduro's resignation from office on Feb 12th, and angry college students have not let up. Nicolas Maduro, the successor to strongman Hugo Chavez, narrowly won a special presidential election in 2013 after the death of Chavez and has carried on nearly all of Chavez's economic policies. As a result, the country is currently experiencing an inflation rate of more than 56%, one of the highest murder rates in the world and near-constant shortages of basic consumer goods, food and fuel.

According to publications in both Venezuela and the USA, the demonstrations got their start in the Andean border town of San Cristobal, which is home to three universities. After the attempted rape of a female student on one of the university's campus, students demonstrated in public, protesting the lack of adequate security on campus. The police reacted swiftly and harshly, reportedly arresting five demonstrators and sending some of them to a detention facility hundreds of miles away. The police reaction led to an even larger demonstration with students from all three universities in San Cristobal as Venezuelans in other cities joined in, using the demonstrations to protest over unemployment, crime, inflation and curbs on the freedom of the press. Maduro has blamed the demonstrations on 'right wing extremists' and 'foreign agitators' while sending paratroopers to the border city of San Cristobal to crack down on demonstrations there, implying that Colombia has sent agent provocateurs across the border to foment further unrest in western Venezuela.

One of the most widely known casualties in this month's demonstration was former beauty queen Genesis Carmona, who was shot in the head during an antigovernment rally in the city of Valencia- to the west of Caracas. Carmona was a student at the university in Valencia and relatives said that she was a semester away from graduating. In 2013, Carmona served as Miss Turismo Caribobo. Eyewitnesses said that about 50 men brandishing handguns and riding on motorcycles drove up to the assembled students and began firing indiscriminately. Carmona was shot in the head and later died from her wounds at a nearby hospital- cameras recorded her limp body being carried off on a motorcycle to a nearby hospital. Government officials claim the fatal shot was fired by opposition demonstrators.

Relatives described Genesis as apolitical but was likely drawn to the rally by worsening economic conditions in the world's 4th largest oil producing nation. Beauty pageants are to Venezuela what baseball is to the Dominican Republic or College Football to Texas- the country has produced seven Miss Universes, more than any other nation.

Meanwhile, Venezuela's oil minister has announced they are suspending fuel shipments to areas under opposition control [How this is any different from the routine shortages under Chavez and Maduro, I'm not sure- NANESB!] oil minister Rafael Ramirez announced via Twitter on Friday. And speaking of twitter, it was becoming rapidly apparent that the social networking site was at least partially blocked by the Maduro government when users attempted to tweet pictures of the demonstrations and attacks by masked Tupamaro gunmen on motorcycle.

Reports have also been circulating that Cuban president Raul Castro has sent Cuban troops to bolster Maduro's regime- although thousands of Cuban troops were reportedly stationed in Venezuela under Chavez, long before the most recent demonstrations. Even after Chavez's death, Venezuela remains a source of cheap oil for the communist island nation- a supply that could be cut off should Maduro's regime collapse.

Hugo Chavez's Successor Expropriates Venezuela Toilet Paper Factory

The logical end result of socialist economic policies:

A Venezuelan government agency has ordered the 'temporary' seizure of a paper mill that produces toilet paper in the state of Aragua in what it claims is an attempt to relieve ongoing shortages of consumer goods.

In a tweet on Thursday, Venezuela's Vice President, Jorge Arreaza, said authorities would 'not permit hoarding of essential commodities, or any faults in the production and distribution process'

'The action taken at the producer of toilet paper, sanitary napkins and disposable diapers corresponds to the obligation of the state to guarantee the normal supply of primary necessities,' price regulator Sundecop said in a statement.

President Maduro has cut dollar supplies for importers since winning election in April, creating shortages of goods including toilet paper and butter and stoking one of the world’s highest inflation rates.


Critics say the nagging shortages of products ranging from bathroom tissue to milk are a sign his socialist government's rigid price and currency controls are failing.


Annual inflation accelerated to 45.4 percent last month from 42.6 percent in July, while the scarcity index measuring the amount of goods out of stock on store shelves reached 20 percent, the central bank said.

The country devalued the official exchange rate to 6.3 bolivars per dollar from 4.3 bolivars in February.

President Nicolas Maduro and government agencies also reportedly ordered Venezuelan troops to 'safeguard' the factory during the 'temporary' takeover. Maduro was the hand-picked successor for socialist president Hugo Chavez, who passed away from cancer earlier this year.

In keeping with Chavez's 'Bolivar Revolution' theme, the government had to import more than 50 million rolls of toilet paper earlier this year to counter an ongoing shortage that was reportedly triggered by the socialist government's price controls. The controls have also led to similar shortages of basic consumer goods such as diapers, coffee, milk and butter.

Holy Smoke! White Smoke Appears Over As the Vatican Chooses New Pope

Pope Francis adresses the faithful in St Peter's Square in the Vatican on Wednesday Night

After less than two days of deliberations, prayer and voting by the College of Cardinals in the Vatican's Papal Conclave, white smoke billowed from a chimney over the Sistine Chapel announcing to the world that a new Pope had been chosen after Pope Benedict XVI stepped down at the end of February.

Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina- reportedly the runner up when a conclave was convened in 2005 after Pope John Paul II's death- was announced as the new pope on Wednesday to a jubilant crowd gathered in St Peter's square.

The appearance of white smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney had earlier electrified Rome.

Within seconds, people were running up the avenue that leads from the River Tiber to St Peter’s Square.

“They’ve chosen, they’ve chosen,” a woman told her daughter as they hurried across rain-soaked cobbles, two small figures in a river of hundreds hurrying to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.

Groups of young people sang and danced in front of television cameras and mobile phone networks crashed as tens of thousands of people called friends and relations.

They waved flags and shouted “Viva Il Papa” — without yet knowing who Il Papa was — as more people crammed into the square

There was then an agonising wait of more than an hour in the drizzle, as the crowd fizzed with speculation as to who the new pope might be.

He was picked after the cardinals cast just five votes in the conclave, held in the frescoed splendour of the Sistine Chapel.

Born in Argentina to Italian immigrants, the 76 year old Bergoglio had previously served as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the nation's capital city. Bergoglio also represents a number of firsts for the Catholic Church- the first Jesuit to be named Pope, the first-ever pontiff from the Americas and the first Pope to take the name Francis. This has led to speculation whether Bergoglio selected the name in honor of St Francis Assisi or St Francis Xavier.

In Buenos Aires, Bergoglio also earned a reputation for eschewing his own personal driver and quarters, instead taking the bus, living in a modest apartment and cooking his own meals. In recent years, the archbishop has run afoul with Argentina's left-of-center husband and wife presidential team of Nestor and Christina Fernandez de Kirchner on issues such as same sex marriage and abortion while the De Kirchners accused Bergoglio of complicity during Argentina's 'Dirty War' [of which there is ZERO evidence- NANESB!] which saw dissidents and opponents of Argentina's ruling military junta 'disappear' by the thousands in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 2007, Bergoglio also discussed denying communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Dead At Age 58

Hugo Chavez- probably smelling sulfur right now

Less than a month after his return from unsuccessfully undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba, Venezuela's government announced the death of President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday.

News of Chavez's death was met with condolences and considerable sorrow from American leftists such as actor Sean Penn, former US president Jimmy Carter and filmmakers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone. Interestingly, while much of the US Media is giving Chavez a pass on his authoritarian rule and making no mention of his dubious allies- including the late Mummar Ghdaffi- the US chapter of his fan club has already started whining about how Chavez's legacy isn't being treated fairly by the 'corporate media'.

Hated by the entrenched classes, Hugo Chavez will live forever in history. My friend, rest finally in a peace long earned. 2/2
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) March 6, 2013

Longtime ally and Bolivian president Evo Morales reportedly stopped by Caracas on his way to the United Nations to visit Chavez in late February- just days after Chavez's return from Cuba- but was turned away by medical staff.

The populist and virulently anti-American socialist president ruled Venezuela for nearly 14 years while allying himself with Russia, China, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iran's ruling Islamic clerics and socialist leaders throughout Latin America. While Chavez positioned himself as a champion of the poor and a bulwark against 'Yankee imperialsim' in Latin America, violent crime and inflation in Venezuela skyrocketed while the Chavez family used a subordinate media and state apparatuses to harass and intimidate political opponents. Venezuela's relatively small Jewish community was also subject to frequent anti-Semitic attacks in the later years of Chavez's Presidency.

As inflation in Venezuela reached as high as 30%, Chavez's family allegedly amassed a fortune worth $2 Billion and his regime seized or expropriated as many as 1168 different privately run companies throughout Venezuela. His family was particularly influential in the western state of Barinas, where both his father and elder brother served as governor and another brother was the mayor the city of Sabaneta.

Politicians once loyal to the president who have broken with him and his family here contend that Mr. Chávez’s family has amassed wealth and landholdings through a series of deals carried out by front men.

One opposition leader, Wilmer Azuaje, detailed to prosecutors and legislators what he said was more than $20 million in illegal gains by the family since the president’s father was elected governor in 1998. But in a brief review of those claims, National Assembly, under the control of Chávez loyalists, cleared the family of charges of illicit enrichment.

“In the meantime, while the family wraps itself in the rhetoric of socialism, we are descending into a neo-capitalist chaos where all that matters is money,” said Alberto Santelíz, the publisher of La Prensa, a small opposition newspaper.

More than a decade into the Chávez family’s rule in Barinas, the state remains Venezuela’s poorest, with average monthly household income of about $800, according to the National Statistics Institute. Kidnapping, once feared only by the wealthy, has spread in Barinas to include the poor. In one case this year of a 3-year-old girl kidnapped in the slum of Mi Jardín, the abductor, when told that the only thing of value owned by the girl’s mother was a refrigerator, instructed her to sell it to pay the ransom.

In addition to allying himself with socialist governments throughout Latin America, Chavez also aligned Venezuela with Islamist regimes and militias throughout the Middle East- even facilitating their presence at bases in Venezuela or allied nations such as Nicaragua.

Last year, a former Venezuelan Supreme Court Justice fled the country and was talking with the DEA on how the Chavez regime allegedly provided arms to FARC Guerrillas in neighboring Colombia and uses Venezuelan soil as a staging are for illicit cocaine flights to North America and Europe. In 2009, Chavez threatened to go to war with neighboring Colombia after a cross-border raid by the Colombian military on FARC encampments in Ecuador uncovered documents highlighting direct aid to the communist guerrillas from Caracas- a charge that Chavez had vehemently denied.

Chavez also sided with Syria's Bashr Al-Assad when he began his crackdown against anti-government demonstrators by providing the Assad regime with tankers full of diesel fuel beginning in June 2012.

Venezuelan government officials won't list the official cause of death, but it was reported in the 24 hours before his passing that Chavez was having difficulty breathing. Not to be outdone by his predecessor in the cray-cray department, Venezuela's Vice president Maduro took to the state-controlled TV network to accuse the USA of poisoning Chavez and expelled two US officials from the country.

According to Venezuela's foreign minister, a special election will be held within 30 days per Venezuela's constitution. Maduro- a former bus driver, union leader and legislator is expected to be challenged by center-right governor of Miranda Henrique Capriles. During last year's Presidential elections, Capriles was labelled a 'Zionist agent' by the state run media.

A number of the 189,000 Venezuelans living in the United States had expressed hope that Venezuela could return to free multiparty system with Chavez's death.

Ailing Hugo Chavez Reportedly Returns to Venezuela Under Cover of Darkness

After undergoing months of cancer treatment in Cuba, Venezuela's socialist president Hugo Chavez had returned to Caracas earlier this week. However, instead of the bombastic public displays or lengthy defiant speeches that have become a trademark of Chavez's cult of personality, the announcement was made via his official Twitter account, which had been silent since November.

Chavez's announced return to Caracas came less than three days after the government released the first photos of the president in more than two months, showing him looking bloated and smiling alongside his daughters. The government didn't release any additional images of Chavez upon his arrival in Caracas, and unanswered questions remain about where he stands in a difficult and prolonged struggle with an undisclosed type of pelvic cancer.

Chavez was re-elected to a new six-year term in October, and his inauguration, originally scheduled for Jan. 10, was indefinitely postponed by lawmakers in a decision that the Supreme Court upheld despite complaints by the opposition. Some speculated that with Chavez back, he could finally be sworn in.

Hemos llegado de nuevo a la Patria venezolana. Gracias Dios mío!! Gracias Pueblo amado!! Aquí continuaremos el tratamiento.

— Hugo Chávez Frías (@chavezcandanga) February 18, 2013

Chavez also reportedly returned to Venezuela in the dead of night with no press present and was immediately whisked to a military hospital in Caracas which is contrary to the bombastic and media-savvy tendencies of Chavez. Nicholas Maduro, Chavez's hand-picked vice president, had been running the day-to-day affairs of the nation in his absence.

On Thursday, something took place that cast further doubt on the official announcements from the Chavez regime. One of Chavez's longtime allies, Bolivian president Evo Morales, showed up in Caracas to visit him. However, Chavez's doctors would not allow the Bolivian president to see him, claiming that Chavez was still undergoing treatment and 'resting'.

Rebuffing Morales is starting to make me wonder if there's some sort of Weekend at Bernie's scenario going on where the innter circle of an ailing Chavez passes along good news about the to the public in order to maintain calm and then once whatever succession issues are ironed out, it will be announced that his health has taken a dramatic turn for the worse.

Horror In Brazil As Hundreds Perish in Nightclub Blaze

Reuters photo

More than 230 people are dead after a deadly fire swept through a packed nightclub in southern Brazil in the early morning hours of Sunday.

Witnesses at the Kiss nighclub in the southern college town of Santa Maria said the fire appeared to have been sparked by a the band setting off fireworks on stage and that there was only one exit. Firefighters responding to the blaze at first had trouble getting inside the Kiss nightclub because bodies partially blocked the club's entryway.

Officials at a news conference said the cause was still under investigation -- though police inspector Sandro Meinerz told the Agencia Estado news agency the band was to blame for a pyrotechnics show and that manslaughter charges could be filed.

Television images showed black smoke billowing out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and hot-pink exterior walls to free those trapped inside.

Bodies of the dead and injured were strewn in the street and panicked screams filled the air as medics tried to help. There was little to be done; officials said most of those who died were suffocated by smoke within minutes.

Within hours a community gym was a horror scene, with body after body lined up on the floor, partially covered with black plastic as family members identified kin.

Outside the gym police held up personal objects -- a black purse, a blue high-heeled shoe -- as people seeking information on loved ones looked crowded around, hoping not to recognize anything being shown them.

Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."

Teenagers sprinted from the scene after the fire began, desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms. Many of the victims were under 20 years old, including some minors.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.

Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.

"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning."

"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it.

"When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working."

He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim. He said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.

Survivors said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting the club. Brazilian bars routinely make patrons pay their entire tab at the end of the night before they are allowed to leave.

Authorities believe that most of the dead were killed by asphyxiation and stated that another 117 victims were being treated for burns and smoke inhalation in nearby hospitals. Brazilian media reports stated that there was as many as 2,000 people packed into the club at the time.

Santa Maria is a university and military town of about 250,000 in the fairly wealthy southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Sunday morning's fire was the worst fire since a 1961 circus fire in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro that killed 500- most of them children.

You Can't Spell 'Farce' Without 'FARC': Colombian Military Kills FARC Guerilla Commander

South America's oldest guerilla movement was left without a leader after their fugitive leader- sometimes known as Alfonso Cano- was killed during an assault by the Colombian military over the weekend.

“This is the biggest blow the organization has seen in its history,” President Juan Manuel Santos said at an impromptu speech in Cartagena. He also called on the FARC’s members to put down their arms. “If you don’t…you will end up in jail or in a grave.”

Pinzón said soldiers started bombing Cano’s rural camp at about 8:30 am. Friday and then landed troops in the area. Once on the ground, authorities knew they were on Cano’s trail because they found his glasses and wallet.

Soldiers managed to surround Cano and a group of his closest followers. As the day wore on, his chief of security was captured and Cano’s “sentimental partner” was killed in the operation, Pinzón said.

Authorities showed a picture of Cano’s body - uncharacteristically clean-shaven - and said it had been positively identified and taken to the city of Popayan.

Troops also recovered seven computers, some 30 memory sticks and more than $107,000 in cash.

Operation Odyssey, as it was called, is just the latest in a string of high-profile attacks on the group. The FARC’s second-in-command, Raul Reyes, was killed in 2008 during a cross-border raid on his camp in Ecuador. The FARC’s top military commander, Jorge “Mono Jojoy” Briceño, was gunned down by authorities in September 2010.

Cano took the helm of the rebel group in 2008, after FARC founder Manuel “Sure Shot” Marulanda died of heart failure.

Usually bearded and bespectacled, Cano became one of the most iconic members of the rebel group. He studied anthropology in Bogotá, and joined the FARC in the 1980s where he became one of its political and ideological leaders. He rose to prominence as he headed failed peace talks in 1991 and 1992

Alfonso Cano- whose real name is Guillermo León Sáenz- was operating out of the southern province of Cauca and had a $5 million dollar bounty on his head. According to Colombian officials, the military was acting on intelligence they received from a collaborator inside of FARC.

This is thought to be the most serious blow dealt to FARC since a 2008 cross-border raid by Colombia into Ecuador on a guerilla encampment sparked diplomatic tensions with Colombia and Ecuador as well as FARC benefactor Venezuela. Interestingly, current Colombian President Juan Santos was Minister of National Defence at the time of the Ecuador raid.

FARC has been at war with the Colombian government and military for more than 45 years and has increasingly been financing their armed campaigns through kidnappings, extortion and trafficking narcotics.

Hugo Chavez Reportedly in Critical Condition in Cuban Hospital

Miami's Spanish-language El Nuevo Herald is reporting that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez remains hospitalized in critical condition at a Cuban hospital and may be suffering from prostate cancer.

according to the report in El Nuevo Herald, Chávez finds himself in "critical condition, not grave, but critical, in a complicated situation."

The Miami newspaper cited U.S. intelligence officials who wished to remain anonymous.

Chávez silence has led to chatter and speculation in Venezuela that the socialist leader is actually suffering from prostate cancer. Intelligence officials could not confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer but Chávez family did go to Cuba in the last 72 hours, according to wire service EFE.

Chávez daughter Rosinés and his mother Marisabel Rodríguez "urgently" left the country and headed to Cuba in a Venezuelan air force plane.

Cuba's state media website, Cubadebate, released photos on June 17 that showed Chávez posing with Fidel and Raul Castro in his hospital room. Chávez smiled for the camera in a track suit, while a frail-looking Fidel clutched Chávez arm.

Before the report that Chávez was in critical condition, his brother sought to reassure Venezuela that he was recovering well.

The questions over Chavez's long term health have led to speculation about possible successors to the presidency and criticism from opposition groups over the Chavez junta governing from abroad.

A notoriously long-winded public speaker, Chavez had been remarkably quiet this month. Chavez hadn't been seen in public since June 9th and was last heard from in a phone interview with Venezuela's state TV on June 12th. A regular user of Twitter, Chavez's account was dormant for 19 days before activity resumed.

Chavez considers Cuban dictator Fidel Castro the ideological predecessor to his regional 'Bolivar revolution' and counts Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correa among his leftist allies in the region.

Volcano Eruption Prompts Evacuations in Chile, Grounds Flights in Agrentina

Francisco Negroni- AgenciaUno

Authorities on southern Chile evacuated approximately 3500 people in the Los Lagos region (approximately 600 miles South of the capital city of Santiago) after a series of earthquakes and a volcanic eruption on Sunday in the Andes along the Chilean/Argentine border.

Authorities initially said the Puyehue volcano was involved, but later said the eruption was occurring about 2 1/2 miles (four kilometers) from that peak.

A rift more than six miles (10 kilometers) long and three miles (five kilometers) across was torn in the earth's crust, officials said Saturday night.

Authorities had put the area on alert Saturday morning after a flurry of earthquakes, and the eruption began in the afternoon.

The National Emergency Office said it recorded an average of 230 tremors an hour.

About 600 people were evacuated when the first alert went up and hundreds more left their homes after the eruption began.

Reuters photo

The wind carried the plume of ash to the east and across the mountains to western Argentina. Officials on the Argentine side of the border had to close down airports in Nequen and the mountain resort town of Bariloche while advising residents to stock up on food and water before sheltering in place.

Getty Images

The eruption also prompted the closure of Chilean national Highway 215, one of the few cross border highways in the region that are paved and open to commercial vehicles. Local officials were working to clear the accumulation of ash with bulldozers and heavy equipment while Carabineros (Chile's national uniformed police) were inspecting roads and bridges in the evacuation zone for any damage.

Endgame! Rescuers Begin Bringing Trapped Chilean Miners to Surface

Man oh man...what a year for Chile. First there was that massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake, then they got their asses handed to them in the World Cup. Somehow, I think the latest news out of Copiapo more than makes up for it.

I figure it would only be a matter of time before I updated the saga of the 33 trapped Chilean miners, but as it turned out, it was a little sooner than I expected.

A metallic capsule named 'The Phoenix' was set to start bringing up the miners trapped at the San Jose mine one by one this week. The miners had been trapped since August, although supplies were being sent down to them through a hole roughly the diameter of a grapefruit as rescuers were working on a larger, parallel shaft.

It's been estimated that it may take as long as 36 hours for all the miners to be pulled up to the surface, but the capsule has successfully reached the miners and the first half dozen have made it back to the surface. Along with the head of Chile's state-run copper company, a medic from Chile's navy went down in the capsule to do a cursory examination of the men before the capsule hauled them up. Right now, all of the men have been given sunglasses- even though they were being brought up to the surface shortly after midnight- because of the glare of spotlights from the media and rescuers. The capsules are also equipped with video cameras, an intercom and oxygen masks to monitor their health on the way back up.

Once at the surface, the men were greeted by their families and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera before being sent to a triage center and hospital in Copiopo for further physical evaluation.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the miners, their families and the rescuers for their (thus far) successful rescue that has caught the world's undivided attention. All too often we hear about mining accidents on this scale with very tragic outcomes, so it it very welcoming to get some good news along these lines for a change.

[To honor the end of the miner's plight, I'm listening to this- but playing it backwards, of course...NANESB!]

UPDATE 10/13: The last of the 33 miners, 54 year old foreman Luis Urzua, has reached the surface in the Phoenix capsule tonight. Urzua and the other 32 miners are undergoing examination in nearby Copiapo, but are believed to be in overall good physical health.

In South America, A Bizzare Love Triangle With One Party 700m Underground

Trapped in a collapsed mine 700M below the surface?

Things could be worse- at least your wife hasn't found out that you're screwing around with that one chick from the training course at work a few years back....

What's that? She has....? Aw shit. Well...sucks to be you.

One of the 33 miners trapped in a Northern Chilean copper and gold mine is hoping the 4-month timeline for a possible rescue is actually a lowball estimate after his wife encountered his mistress at a vigil held by the families of the trapped workers.

Yonni Barrios' wife, Marta Salinas, and Barrios' lover, Susana Valenzuela, were both holding vigils for him outside the mine.

Salinas was stunned when she heard Valenzuela shouting his name amid a crowd of miners' loved ones.

Salinas, 56, is said to be "horrified". However, she is determined not to give up her man to her love rival.

She told friends: "Barrios is my husband. He loves me and I am his devoted wife. This woman has no legitimacy."

But Valenzuela said the 50-year-old miner, who she met on a training course five years ago, was planning to leave his wife for her.

She said: "We are in love. I'll wait for him."

Barrios has been one of the heroes of the landslide drama -- using his first-aid training to treat sick colleagues.

He also vaccinated all 33 men, including himself, against flu and pneumonia.

One has to wonder if Barrios is using anything taught at the training course he met Valenzuela at that could be applicable in his situation.

[Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool]

Chilean Miners Found Alive and Well 17 Days After Mine Collapse

33 workers missing and feared dead after an Aug. 5th mine collapse in northern Chile were discovered alive and well by rescue workers over the weekend.

At a news conference with family member of the miners outside the San Jose copper and gold mine near Copiapo, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced that the miners had been found alive and well in an underground shelter and were able to pass a note through a grapefruit-sized hole to rescuers. The note Piñera displayed during his conference simply read "All 33 of us are fine in the shelter". Rescuers were able to lower a camera through the hole, which showed many of the miners shirtless and waving at the cameras.

The news came as rescuers and loved ones were giving up hope that the trapped be would be found and was cause for celebrations throughout the country, even as the good news was tempered with warnings that it could take up to 4 months to safely extract the miners.

While rescuers are working to shore up the smaller hole with which they can use to drop food, water, medicine and microphones down, details are emerging about the trapped miners' ingenuity in which they used a bulldozer to provide a canal of fresh water and used power from a truck's engine to rig a makeshift lighting system.

A specialized drill loaned by the state-run CodelCo is expected to take 3-4 months to reach the men. Chile's mining minister Laurence Goldborne said that rescuers would have to proceed cautiously in order to avoid triggering another collapse

In the meantime, two smaller shafts will be dug to further accommodate ventilation and communication with the surface. Authorities plan on sending microphones down so the trapped miners can communicate with loved ones on the surface.

Suspect In Holloway Disappearence Arrested in Chile

I'm not normally one to pounce on top of some of these sensationalistic tabloid stories, but since one of my favorite Latin America nations is in the headlines without having large chunks of it slide into the ocean, I figured it would be worth a mention.

Do you remember Natalie Holloway- the Alabama teenager who disappered during a graduation trip to Aruba in 2005? Well, it looks as though the on-again off-again suspect, Jordan Van Der Sloot, is in trouble with the law on an unrelated matter.

21 year old Stephany Tatiana Flores was found dead in a Lima, Peru hotel room over the weekend. The room was registered under the name of none other than Jordan Van Der Sloot who was in Lima for a poker tournament at the Atlantic City Casino. A hotel guest and an empoyee at the Tac Sac Hotel in Lima told Peruvian investigators they saw Flores and Van Der Sloot head into the same room and Flores is last seen with Van Der Sloot on the casino's survaillance cameras.

Peruvian investigators names Van Der Sloot as the prime suspect and issued an international arrest warrant. The 22 year old Dutchman was reportedly spotted entering Chile at the northern border town of Arica and was arrested earlier today in a taxi on the busy highway (Ruta 68) linking the coastal cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar with capital city of Santiago. Chilean investigators plan on questioning him before extraditing him back to Peru.

The (Counter)Revolution Will Not Be Televised Tweeted: Twitter's Ascendancy in Venezuela Giving Hugo Chavez Fits

Hugo sez: "OK. This video is called 'bathtub girl'..."

Not even a year after social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook played a pivotal role in Iranian protestors bypassing state-controlled communications and media outlets, Twitter's ascendancy in Venezuela seems to be giving chunky Venezuelan conspiracy theorist President Hugo Chavez fits.

Opposition figures, including a jailed judge and the head of Globovision- an opposition TV network- have set up Twitter accounts. According to Reuters, 7 of the 10 most popular Twitter accounts in Venezuela are anti-Chavez. There are reportedly more than 200,000 active accounts in Venezuela, one of the highest per-capita rates in Latin America.

"The Internet cannot be free," he said, though days later he denied claims that his government planned to censor the Internet, pointing out that Web use by Venezuelans has expanded dramatically during his 11 years in power [emphasis mine- NANESB!]
Still, his detractors say a plan to channel all Internet traffic through the state telecom company is a strong signal of Chavez's intentions to silence online dissent.

Notice how Chavez avoids answering the question about censorship by saying that Internet usage has gone up while he was in power.....as though the two are mutually exclusive.

Frustrated by his ubiquitous presence in traditional media, where he often applies a law that forces TV and radio stations to broadcast his lengthy speeches, opponents see networking sites as a means of outwitting the populist president.

Which is all the more reason for Chavez to funnel all internet traffic through the state-run telecom. Chavez has belatedly set up his own Twitter account, but with the socialist dictator known to give speeches that go on for as long as 8 hours, I suspect he's going to find it extremely difficult to keep his 'Tweets' to a maximum of 140 charachters.

Chile Earthquake Update- Sebastian Pinera to be Sworn In; Looters Have Amnesty Before Crackdown; USAF Sends Medical Personnel; Go West?

Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean tycoon who made his fortune introducing credit cards to the South American nation, will be sworn in as Chile's newest president Thursday, replacing outgoing socialist president Michelle Bachelet less than three weeks after the nation was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The conservative Pinera won a January runoff election against center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. The 60 year old billionaire said "We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction". Pinera ran on a platform of creating jobs, reducing crime and boosting economic growth in 2009. Pinera's election win will end more than 20 years of center-left rule in Chile.

Although Bachelet has come under criticism for the government's slow initial response to the Febuary 27th earthquake, some polls show her as having an approval rating of more than 80%.

Police and military in Chile gave the looters that struck in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake an ultimatum this weekend- return the stolen items no questions asked by Sunday or face a crackdown. Items like fans, cases of liquor, Television sets, furniture, washing machines and stereos were left on the street for the soldiers and Carabineros to pick up and process. Acting on tips from residents, authorities in Concepcion had arrested 20 people in possession of looted merchandise. Police and the Army said they were ready to search house-to-house after televised images of looting shocked viewers in the normally orderly South American country.

The United States Air Force Southern Command announced in a statement on Tuesday that they were sending 84 Airmen to Chile, 63 of them medical personnel. The support team will be equipped to perform surgeries as well as dental, radiological, pharmaceutical and diagnostic work, US Military officials said. The team will relieve Chilean personnel taking part in the relief effort.

Apparently the earthquake was strong enough to move the city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west. Chile's capital of Santiago reportedly moved 11 inches to the west-southwest while on the other side of the Andes, the city of Mendoza reportedly moved significantly and Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires moved an inch to the west. Researchers and geologists were able to measure the shift by comparing GPS date from before the quake with readings taken 10 days later.

Chile Earthquake Death Toll Revised; Chile's President Meets W/Clinton, UN Secretary General Moon; More Strong Aftershocks Rock Concepcion

(Reuters/Victor R Caballero)

Authorities in Chile were revising their death toll from last weekend's 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Concepcion as the nation's military started pouring into the stricken areas to restore order and deliver food and emergency supplies.

On Thursday, Chile's Office of Emergency Management listed an estimated 200 attendees at a festival on the island of Orrego near the city of Constitucion as 'missing' instead of confirmed dead. Forensic experts are also arriving in an effort to positively identify some of the bodies pulled from the rubble.

UN Secretary General Ban Kai Moon pledged some US$10 Million from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund for Concepcion and other quake-stricken municipalities as well as emergency supplies like water filters. The Secretary General appeared with outgoing president Michelle Bachelete on a live fundraising telethon this week and will tour the devastated city of Concepcion this weekend.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had visited both president Bachelet and Chile's President-elect Pinera to assess Chile's immediate needs (generators, portable kitchens, portable kitchens). The initial supplies from the USA include at least 60 satellite phones, a mobile field hospital and emergency shelter materiels.


An aftershock registering magnitude 6.6 on the Richter scale rocked Concepcion early Friday morning, the strongest aftershock since a magnitude 6.9 temblor shortly after last week's quake. Buildings were evacuated and some patients in Concepcion's hospital were sent home as authorities feared the structure would collapse. Many residents in the region had taken to sleeping outside in the streets, concerned that a strong enough aftershock could collapse their homes.

Chile Earthquake Update- Death Toll Rising Amid Deteriorating Security Situation

(Aliosha Marquez/AP)

Chile's central government moved to position additional Army personnel and Carabineros (Chile's national uniformed police force) officers in Conepcion, Talcahuano and other municipalities close to the epicenter of Saturday's magnitude 8.8 earthquake in a bid to quell looting in those areas. Over the weekend, looters emptied supermarkets, clothing stores, gas stations, grain silos and electronics stores, burning some of them to the ground afterwards. Authorities in Concepcion had declared a curfew and police had 55 people in custody for curfew violation on Sunday.

(Natacha Pisarenko/AP)

Outgoing Chilean President Michele Bachelete promised to deliver aid to the quake-stricken regions as the death toll went past 700, with 723 dead and at least 19 missing. Firefighters in Concepcion had pulled 25 survivors and eight bodies from a collapsed apartment complex while firefighters, soldiers and urban search and rescue teams were searching for signs of life in other collapsed buildings. Many survivors had taken to sleeping outside on the sidewalks, anticipating another quake.

The price of copper saw a brief spike on international trading, as Chile is the world's largest exporter of copper. Officials say the quake and its aftermath is expected to slow, but not halt the production and export of copper.

And at this time, Not Another New England Sports Blog! would like to salute Chilean tabloid La Cuarta for not only providing images and updates on the quake's aftermath throughout the weekend, but also providing Chileans with completely gratuitous T&A in their hour of need.

Mil Gracias, La Cuarta! Como se dice 'NSFW'?

Massive Magnitude 8.8 Earthquake and Aftershocks Rock Central Chile

(La Nacion- Argentina)

(La Nacion- Argentina)

(Reuters)

(Reuters)

Buildings were toppled while electricity and telephone lines were severed after a magnitude 8.8. earthquake struck central Chile early Saturday morning. The capital city of Santiago shook for over a minute and multiple aftershocks, some as strong as 6.9, struck the region. The USGS placed the epicenter of the quake about 70 miles outside of Concepcion, Chile's second largest city with a population of 200,000.

Early reports indicate that 47 people were killed, but that figure is expected to rise. Chilean President Michele Bachelet declared a "state of catastrophe" for the central region of the country and the Pacific Tsunami Center issued a warning for the coast of Chile and Peru. Authorities in Chile will have a better chance to assess the damage once daybreak comes.

UPDATE: The death toll has been revised to at least 214 and photographs illustrating the extent of the damage are beginning to circulate online. I found some images courtesey of the online edition of Argentina's La Nacion newspaper.

A magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck a Saturday afternoon off the coast of Valparaiso, headquarters of the Chilean Navy and the nation's largest seaport. The port was ordered to shut down while it was the facilities were inspected for damage.

Tsunami warning have been issued for California, Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, Hawaii and British Columbia by NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.