Antigovernment Protests Continue Throughout Venezuela Despite Carnival Holiday

Thousands of antigovernment demonstrators throughout Venezuela continued marches and rallies throughout the country over the weekend, many of them skipping the traditional Carnival and Holy Week holidays to take part.

The demonstrations, part of a wave of nearly month-old protests that have left 18 people dead and more than 260 injured, were called in outrage at insecurity, government repression and shortages of basic goods.

"This is the people's struggle against the inefficient government. Maduro, you have lost today the streets of Venezuela because the streets belong to the people," Central University of Venezuela student leader Juan Requesens told nearly 20,000 people gathered in Caracas.

The students called for a "genuine dialogue" with the president and for discussion on ending the standoff marred by violence.

Several hours later, a group of radical protesters armed with sticks and stones gathered in the capital's Plaza Altamira and faced off with members of the National Guard who responded with water cannons, tear gas and birdshot.

Officials said the clash left 17 wounded from birdshot or suffering from gas inhalation.

The official death toll from the clashes between the government and protestors is said to be 18- although opposition leaders claim the body count is much higher. Although the Andean college town of San Cristobal is considered the flashpoint for the most recent round of demonstrations, antigovernment rallies quickly spread to the capital city of Caracas. Since the, the protests have spread to the cities of Barquisimeto, Valencia and Puerto Ordaz.

Meanwhile, the military and supporters of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro were gathering for ceremonies to mark the one year anniversary of the death of president Hugo Chavez. An heir apparent to Chavez's socialist 'Bolivar Revolution', Maduro narrowly won a special presidential election last year. However, the food rationing, skyrocketing crime and shortages of basic consumer staples that had been endemic under Chavez continued to worsen. Just months into Maduro's rule, he declared all of Venezuela's problems were caused by external 'threats' [meaning the USA- NANESB!] and imposed strict price controls while limiting commercial profits.

During the monthlong protests, Maduro has ordered the expulsion of journalists from CNN and Colombia's NTN network as well as three US diplomats. On Tuesday, the Maduro regime announced that they were suspending all diplomatic ties with Panama after Panamianian president Ricardo Martinelli suggested the Organization of American States (OAS) monitor the ongoing situation in Venezuela and attempt to mediate between opposition and the Maduro regime.

Proposed EPA Rules on Wood Burning Stoves and Fireplaces Prompt Rural Backlash

Sheer Delight- Gil Elvgren 1948

It's not enough that the Environmental Protection Agency has launched an all-out assault on the coal industry- now the EPA has designs on homeowner's woodstoves, fireplaces or pellet stoves.

A federal proposal to clean up the smoke wafting from wood-burning stoves has sparked a backlash from some rural residents, lawmakers and manu­facturers who fear it could close the damper on one of the oldest ways of warming homes on cold winter days.

Proposed regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would significantly reduce the amount of particle pollution allowed from the smokestacks of new residential wood-powered heaters.

Wood-burning stoves are a staple in rural homes in many states, a cheap heating source for low-income residents and others wanting to lessen their reliance on gas or electric furnaces. Outdoor models often cost several thousand dollars, but indoor stoves can cost as little as a few hundred dollars and sometimes double as fashionable centerpieces in homes.

Some manufacturers contend the EPA’s proposed standards are so stringent that the higher production costs would either force them out of business or raise prices so high that many consumers could no longer afford their products.

"There’s not a stove in the United States that can pass the test right now — this is the death knell of any wood burning,” Reg Kelly, the founder of Earth Outdoor Furnaces in Mountain Grove, told Missouri lawmakers during a recent hearing.

More than three dozen Missouri lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill that would symbolically fight back against the EPA by declaring that “All Missourians have a right to heat their homes and businesses using wood-burning furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and heaters."


This past week, a Missouri House committee endorsed a revised measure that proposes to ban state environmental officials from regulating residential wood heaters unless authorized by the Legislature.

Missouri appears to be one the first states to introduce legislation in response to the proposed EPA regulations. But concerns over wood stove pollution and regulations also have been simmering in other states, including Utah and Alaska.

There are about 12 million wood stoves in U.S. homes, including about 9 million that are less than half as efficient as the newer stoves, according to the EPA. The agency’s proposed rules would not affect stoves already in homes.

Most people who own wood stoves have other means of heat, such as electric or gas furnaces. But about 2 percent U.S. homes rely on wood as their primary heating source — a figure that has been rising over the past decade.

I can speak with some firsthand experience- if there's a prolonged, days-long blackout with freezing temperatures, an old fashioned woodstove or fireplace can seem like a godsend. With the eastern US getting walloped by waves of massive winter storms that have knocked down trees and power lines only a few weeks into 2014, a fireplace or woodstove along with a supply of firewood pays dividends.

There is no public hearings on the EPA's proposed revision of regulations for woodstoves and fireplaces, although the agency is accepting public comments through 90 days after their Jan 3rd publication.

Manufacturers have expressed concern that the new EPA regulations would drive up prices and make woodstoves unaffordable for most consumers.

Watson is president of Jotul North America, a wood stove manufacturer founded in Maine in 1980. Its 70 employees manufacture hundreds of cast-iron stoves each year at its facility in Gorham, where it has been located since 2005. Jotul’s stoves already far exceed the current emission standards, which were established by the EPA in 1988, Watson said.

Watson estimates it will cost the company $1 million to re-engineer its product lines and update its testing capabilities to meet the new standard, which because of variability in stove testing he thinks will result in a “statistically insignificant” change in the emissions compared to Jotul’s current stoves.

That cost will be passed onto stove dealers and consumers, resulting in prices for new Jotul stoves to increase by as much as 25 percent, or an additional $300-$500 per stove depending on the model, Watson estimates. Based on this economy and his understanding of supply and demand, he said he’d expect to see his sales fall as a result. Overall, there were roughly 4,500 wood stoves sold in Maine in 2012, according to industry figures cited by Watson.

“When you’re a manufacturer, to cough up $1 million and increase the cost of your stoves’ retail prices by 25 percent — that payback is going to be really tough to digest if sales of wood stoves go down because of that increased cost,” he told the Bangor Daily News on Friday.

That will end up having the opposite effect of what the EPA wants, which is more people to adopt new, cleaner-burning stoves.

Critics also point out that regardless of what sport of new regulations the EPA passes, stoves would still have inappropriate fuel such as garbage or wood from younger trees that would cause even more pollution that what the EPA seeks to abate with these new rules. Even pellet stoves, which have been touted as more versatile and efficient than woodstoves, are suffering from a shortage of fuel in northern New England.

So Long Sochi Sports Chowdah Update- Finn-ishing Strong, Sweden Shut Out By Team Canada as Suomi Bests USA for Bronze; Derek Jeter to Call it a Career

WINTER OLYMPICS- The 2014 Winter Olympiad at Sochi has come to an end, and despite the torrid start, Team USA's men's hockey team had no medal to show for it.

The much anticipated USA-Canada hockey game ended with Canada advancing to face Sweden in the gold medal game thanks to a goal from winger Jamie Benn. Despite Jonathan Quick turning aside 36 shots, Team Canada would go on to shut out the USA 1-0. This set up a USA vs Finland matchup in the bronze medal consolation game....which actually went much worse for the USA than the semifinal against Canada.

Tukka Rask turned aside all 27 shots he faced while veteran NHLer and Olympian Teemu Selanne had two goals in what was his final Olympic game as Finland cruised to the bronze medal with a 5-0 shutout of the USA. After beating the Czech Republic and Russia, the USA men's hockey team limped into a disappointing 4th place finish, losing their final two games by a combined 6-0.

Canada, on the other hand, hardly missed a beat and picked up where they left off against Sweden in the gold medal game. Canada got on the board thanks to a Johnathan Toews tally before Sweden netminder Hendrik Lunqvist gave up a one-on-one breakaway shot from Canada's Sidney Crosby to make it a 2-0 game. Team Canada's Chris Kunitz would score in the 3rd to make it a 3-0 game and put things out of reach for the Swedes.

Not only does the win over Sweden give Canada their second consecutive hockey gold medal for the second consecutive Olympiad, Team Canada swept the hockey gold with the women's come-from-behind OT win against Team USA in the gold medal game.

As the game concluded, both the NHL and IOC will deliberate over whether or not the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea will use players for the NHL. Once again, with the Winter Olympiad taking place a hemisphere away, the NHL would need to once again suspend its schedule for several weeks to accommodate players from the league to represent their respective nations in the Olympics. Prior to the Sochi Olympics, there had been talk circulating that this could be the final Olympics to feature professional hockey players.

OTHER OLYMPICS NEWS- South Korean figure skater Kim Yu Na announced that the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics would be the end of her competitive career.

Yu Na, who gained notoriety with a James Bond-inspired routine during the 2010 Vancouver garnered a gold medal for her performance. South Korean Olympic officials were hoping that Yu Na would continue skating and compete in the 2018 Winter Olympiad in Pyeongchang, essentially becoming the face of the host nation- plus she could automatically qualify as a representative of the host country in 2018.

In Sochi, Yu Na finished second to Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova, garnering the silver medal while Italy's Carolina Kostner won the bronze.

OLYMPIC MEDAL COUNT- Host nation Russia won the overall medal count- altho Gateway Pundit helpfully points out that US and South Korean 'ringers' in snowboarding and short track speed skating accounted for five of Russia's thirteen gold medals. The Russians also had 11 silver and nine bronze medals for Sochi. Like the men's hockey team, the USA came in a disappointing 4th place with nine gold medals, seven silver and a dozen bronze medals- finishing behind Norway and Canada.

MLB- After nineteen seasons with the Bronx Bombers, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter announced that the 2014 season would be his final MLB season. The Yankees captain made the announcement via Facebook on February 12th. In November, Jeter and the Yankees had agreed to a 1-year, $12 million contract. During the 2013 season, Jeter played in less than 20 games and had a batting average of less than .200.

Heading into Spring training of his final season, Jeter has a career .312 batting average with 256 homers and 1,261 runs batted in. In addition to five World Series titles, the Yankees shortstop and thirteen time All Star was also named MVP of the 2000 World Series and awarded five golden gloves. In 2009, Jeter surpassed Lou Gerhig's club record for all-time hits. Two years later, Jeter recorded career hit #3000- a home run off of Tampa Bay starter David Price in July 2011.

Heading into the 2014 season, Jeter is the last remaining Yankee player from the team's glory days of the late 1990s. Catcher Jorge Posada retired after the 2011 season while closer Mariano Rivera called it a career after the 2013 season.

RED SOX- The Red Sox and free agent Chris Capuano have agreed to terms on a one year, $2.25 million contract.

The former Dodger and W. Srpingfield, MA native went 4-7 and had an ERA of 4.26 with the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. The signing was made shortly starter Ryan Dempster announced to Red Sox management that he would not be playing during the 2014 season.

Deposed Ukrainian President Yunukovych Reportedly Flees Ukraine as Masked Gunmen Take Parliament, Airport in Crimean Region

Less than a week after the closing ceremony of the Sochi winter games and Ukrainian president Yanukovych's exodus from Kiev, Russian news agency RIA Novosti is reporting that the deposed Ukrainian leader has fled the volatile Crimean peninsula to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Thursday night. Yanukovych's flight reportedly received fighter escort to the southern Russian city once inside of Russian airspace.

Meanwhile, the nominally autonomous Crimean peninsula has become the new flashpoint in the Ukraine as ethnic Russians clashed with Ukrainian nationalists in Simferopol. The strategically situated peninsula is majority Russian but still considered part of the Ukraine since the 1992 breakup of the Soviet Union. During the breakup, Russia and the newly-independent Ukraine reached an agreement to partition the Soviet Navy's Black Sea Fleet in exchange for ongoing use of the Crimean port of Simferopol.

Shortly after the 2008 Russian incursion into the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Yanukovych's predecessor- Viktor Yushchenko- announced that the lease on the Sevastopol naval base would not be leased past 2017. However, Yanukovych reversed course on Yushchenko's decision and agreed to extend to lease on the Sevastopol facility in exchange for discounted natural gas from Russia in 2010.

In the early morning hours on Thursday, dozens of masked, heavily armed gunmen seized the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol and raised a Russian flag on the roof. Later in the day, masked men in fatigues but with no insignias took up positions in Simferopol's airport- the main air hub in the region. Eyewitnesses say the men arrived in trucks adorned with the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet insignia and the road leading to the airport was now ringed with checkpoints manned by armed men in plainclothes with a Russian flag raised at each one. The takeovers come shortly after Russian President Vladmir Putin ordered troops to mobilize on the Ukraine's doorstep. Ukraine's interim president- who the Kremlin does not recognize as the Ukraine's legitimate government- has called the 'mystery troops' occupying the parliament building and airport in Simferopol a 'Russian incursion'.

Crimea's parliament had voted to oust the region's premier on Thursday and a referendum on greater autonomy from Kiev is set to take place on May, around the same time as the rescheduled Ukrainian presidential elections are slated to take place.

Meanwhile, Israel has expressed concerns that the makeup of the opposition groups and demonstrators that ousted Yanukovych includes ultranationalist, anti-Semitic and pro-fascist parties such as Svoboda. Op-ed pieces in Israeli media are calling for the Ukraine's 65,000 or so Jews to 'come home' to Israel amid concerns that racist and anti-Semitic groups could take advantage of the turmoil on the Ukraine to step up attacks on Jews and other minority groups. On Monday, a newly built Chabad facility in the southeastern Ukrainian town of Zaporozheye was firebombed- although Chabad officials say the damage was 'mostly cosmetic and the arsonists were caught on camera.

Anti-Semitism is nothing new in the Ukraine- there have been vicious pogroms and purges directed at the Jews in Kiev since medieval times. In the 20th century, the Soviet Union shut down Jewish groups and synagogues, exiling many Jews in other Soviet republics thousands of miles away. During World War II, the occupying Nazis exterminated Jews and other Ukrainians- the most infamous incident was the Babi Yar massacre in which SS Officers- aided by Ukrainian collaborators- massacred more than 30,000 Ukrainian Jews in a ravine outside of Kiev over two days in September 1941.

Towards later years of the Soviet Union, many Jews in the Ukraine and elsewhere in the USSR began to take advantage of Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glastnost and peristroika to move overseas to the USA or Israel.

UPDATE 2/28- Moscow has admitted the troops with no insignia that took up positions at the Simferopol Airport are in fact Russian. The troops that initially set up positions in Crimea's parliament and the airport came from the Russian naval base on the Crimea while additional troops from Russia were flown in.

Today's Train of Thought- Orange and Ore, February 26th, 2014

Today's Train of Thought takes us to a western Pennsylvania carrier that is sort of the odd man out in the Canadian National system that started out life as an outlet for Andrew Carnegie's US Steel to reach the Great Lakes and the rest of the American Railroad network.

Almost an afterthought in Canadian National's 2004 acquisition of Great Lakes Transportation, the Bessemer & Lake Erie has operated largely unchanged since the CN takeover and still primarily operates as a conveyor belt for ore arriving from the docks at Lake Erie in Conneaut, OH to the steel mills around Pittsburgh, PA. Odds are pretty good that the ore originates along other former US Steel railroads- primarily the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range The line also brings in coal and coke from surrounding areas to fire up the furnaces and occasionally handles aggregates, frac sand and scrap metal. Although some B&LE power has found its way to other parts of the CN system, motive power from other CN line seems to only occasionally make its way to the Bessemer Line.

Here, railpictures.net contributor J Alex Lang caught snow-encrusted B&LE SD40T-2 #902 leading a southbound train of stockpiled ore under Pennsylvania Route 8 in Meharg, PA on the last day of January 2009 with symbol freight 902 S.

At Least 59 Boarding School Students Killed in Nothern Nigeria Islamic Terrorist Attack

Attackers from the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram stormed into a government school in the northern state of Yobe in the overnight hours on Monday, shooting and burning 59 students according to government officials and a hospital in the state capital of Damaturu. The death toll was revised upwards from earlier reports of 29 after further bodies were discovered in the brush outside the school where the attack took place.

Survivors said that the assailants arrived on the campus of the Federal Government College of Buni Yadi in 11 Toyota Hilux pickups, a government-run secondary school similar to others that Islamist group Boko Haram has targeted in the past.

All the victims were teenage boys and 11 others were seriously injured. Most of the school was burned to the ground.

Teachers at the school in Buni Yadi said the gunmen gathered the female students together before telling them to go away and get married and to abandon their education.

Earlier this month, gunmen from Boko Haram surrounded a Christian village in Borno province along the border of Cameroon and opened fire before moving through the village and torching homes. That attack on Izge village was believed to have killed 90 people.

Boko Haram has carried out terrorist attacks near Nigeria's capital, including a January 2012 series of bombings on police stations and government offices in the northern Nigerian city of Kano that killed more than 160 people in 2012. The terrorist group has also carried out intermittent bombings and jailbreaks in the country's interior and capital city of Abuja.

Despite launching a military counteroffensive against Boko Haram strongholds in northern Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan has come under criticism for his government's inability to quell the frequent Boko Haram attacks against civilians. The stated purpose of Boko Haram [who's name roughly translates to 'Western Education is Forbidden'- NANESB!] is to overthrow the secular government seated in the predominantly Christian center of the nation and impose Islamic shari'a law throughout the country.

Ukrainian President Yanukovych Flees Kiev as Demonstrators Overrun Presidential Compound, Topple Lenin Statues

As anti-government Maidan protestors gained increasing control over parts of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, President Yanukovych fled his presidential compound to the majority-Russian Crimean port of Sevastopol on Friday.

While Russia denounced the ousters of Kremlin-allied Yanukovych as 'Kalashnikov-toting people in black masks', Ukraine's parliament voted to strip Yanukovych of office and issue a warrant for his arrest in the death of dozens of Maidan protestors in clashes with police last week.

Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchinov was named the interim president of the Ukraine while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was released from prison and flown to Kiev to address the victorious pro-Western Maidan demonstrators.

Tymoshenko, 53, was freed from prison Saturday after two-and-a-half years, most of them spent in a detention hospital.

Dressed in black, she later emerged at Kiev's Independence Square in a wheel chair. Cheers erupted.

Tearfully, she hailed the sea of protesters, who listened and occasionally waved.

"Today, Ukraine has finished with this terrible dictator," she said, referring to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

She then passed on a not-so-subtle message.

"There'll be no Ukraine but the Ukraine you want," she said. "And I'm the guarantor of that Ukraine."

The polarizing former Prime Minister has a complicated relationship with Yanukovych

Both have dominated the nation's politics for years. Both have a rivalry that dates years.

Her international popularity soared a decade ago as a result of her ardent speeches that helped overturn Yanukovych's presidential win in 2004. She's considered a hero of the country's 2004 Orange Revolution, a wave of peaceful protests that swept her and Viktor Yushchenko into power as Prime Minister and President, respectively.

The same revolution successfully overturned what many believed was a largely false presidential win by Yanukovych.

But the promise of the revolution soon turned sour. The two feuded publicly, prompting Yushchenko to fire her a few months into her term.

In 2007, Tymoshenko was back as Prime Minister. But she was dogged by accusations of irregularities and overlooking the nation's economic problems.

Her tense working relation with Yushchenko did not help their case. Analysts say it was one of the reasons she lost to Yanukovych in the 2010 presidential elections.

After Yanukovych won that election, Tymoshenko, was forced out of office and into the courtroom. In 2011, she was on trial over a costly natural gas agreement that she signed with Russia while she was Prime Minister.

In October of that year, a Ukrainian court found her guilty of abuse of authority for signing overpriced gas contracts with Russia and sentenced her to seven years in prison.

The prosecutor said the gas deals inflicted damage to the country amounting to more than 1.5 billion hryvnias (almost $190 million at the exchange rate at the time). In addition to the sentence, the court ruled she must repay the money.

Amnesty International slammed the verdict as "politically motivated" and called for the release of Tymoshenko, who was Prime Minister from January to September 2005, and December 2007 to March 2010.

The case against her was widely considered politically motivated, and the United States and other Western nations called her "a political prisoner."

Both Tymoshenko and Yankukovych have been accused of being oligarchs who have consolidated their power and used the presidential office for personal gain. On Saturday, Maidan demonstrators made their way to Yanukovych's hastily-abandoned presidential mansion. According to watchdog website opendemocracy.net, Yanukovych's presidential salary as the equivalent of US $25,000 per year- yet Yanukovych's mansion in Mezhyhirya is worth an estimated US $75 million and features a private zoo, antique car collection and life-size mock galleon and marina.



Meanwhile, the nationalist Svoboda Party used the collapse of the government to start tearing down statues built to honor Vladmir Lenin that date back to the Cold War- some statues in the eastern and central part of the Ukraine were never torn down with the collapse of the USSR either due to the high Russian population or lingering nostalgia for the old Soviet union by die-hard communists.

Meanwhile, Luxembourg-based steelmaker Arcelor-Mittal [NYSE- MT] announced that they would be removing a Lenin statue and temporarily relocating foreign workers on the grounds of their facility in the Ukraine.

The next round of presidential elections were scheduled to take place in February 2014, but with the ousting of Yanukovych the parliament has now moved election day up to May 25th, 2014.

Russia has said they do not recognize the interim government and there are concerns that the turmoil in the Ukraine will provide Russia with the pretext to change previously negotiated prices for natural gas imported from Russia. Although the Ukraine has sought to diversify its imports of natural gas- as well as exploit their own shale reserves- due to previous disputes with Russia- by early 2014 Energy and Coal minister Eduard Stavytsky said that the Ukraine was importing natural gas almost exclusively from Russia due to a clear price advantage.

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.

Tennesee VW Workers Vote to Reject UAW Representation

The United Auto Workers designs on expanding their reach into southern Right to Work states was dealt a blow last week when workers at Volkswagen's Chattanooga, TN plant decided to reject UAW representation in a close vote.

What made this vote unusual was that Volkswagen didn't oppose the UAW's efforts to organize, allowing the union to distribute flyers and talk to workers inside the factory while locking out groups opposed to the UAW setting up shop in the Volunteer state. The final vote tally was 712 against and 626 in favor.

The UAW's attempt to set up shop in Chattanooga was opposed by Republican officials like governor Bill Haslam and US Senator Bob Corker- a former Chattanooga mayor who was in office when VW opened up the Tennessee facility. A number of right-to-work groups set up billboards on highways adjacent to the plant reminding workers in the predominantly Republican state that the UAW funnels union dues into the campaign coffers of liberal politicians who support 0bamacare, gun control and abortion.

Meanwhile, the UAW has accused Corker, Haslam and groups like the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation of influencing the decision with public comments opposing UAW expansion before the vote. However, a number of the anti-union activists who hosted townhall meetings and Q&A sessions offsite included current and former employees of the VW Chattanooga plant.

Republican officials and right to work supporters were concerned that a UAW local in Chattanooga would be used as a beachhead to unionize additional foreign automaker's facilities in the predominantly Right to Work southeast. Other right-to-work proponents point to Detroit and US automakers' declining fortunes that the UAW played a role in as well as widespread corruption within the United Auto Workers itself. A recent Associated Press reports that although membership in the UAW is slightly up, dues have declined sharply- making the union's attempts at expansion out of its traditional rust-belt stronghold a financial necessity. This reportedly has US automakers worried- setting up a 'devil you don't know' since a declining UAW could end up being absorbed by a more hostile labor union.

German corporate management practices includes something called 'co-determination', which allows employee representation a seat on the board of directors through the labor union. This explains in part why VW didn't object to UAW's attempt to organize in Chattanooga and why the UAW has been concentrating their efforts on German automakers in the south such as the Mercedes Benz plant in Vance, AL or the BMW facility in Spartanburg, SC.

While the UAW has taken their accusations of political meddling to the NLRB, Bernd Osterloh- Volkswagen's top labor representative- implied that the outcome of last week's UAW vote would adversely affect the company's decision to expand operations in the US Southeast. Osterloh himself had openly expressed support for unionization in a 2013 visit to the Chattanooga facility.

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.