Category Archives: South America

May 18, 2013

Brazil Looks To Build A 10,000-Mile Virtual Fence

Posted on May 18, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Brazil’s rapidly expanding economy has made the country a magnet for illegal immigration, and other illicit activities, and now the country has announced its own border protection program.


A drug-sniffing dog checks bags at a Brazilian border crossing with Bolivia on April 3. With an increase in illegal immigration and drug smuggling, Brazil is planning to build a virtual fence along its 10,000-mile border.

Brazil’s borders are so vast, and the terrain so inhospitable, that attempting to secure them has seemed a virtually impossible task.

But Brazil’s rapidly expanding economy has made the country a magnet for illegal immigration, and other illicit activities, and now the country has announced its own border protection program.

Called the Sistema Integrado de Monitoramento de Fronteiras and known by its Portuguese acronym, Sisfron, it is intended to act as a virtual border shield along a frontier that stretches more than 10,000 miles and is shared with 10 other countries.

The sheer size of the terrain that will be covered makes this one of the most ambitious defense programs ever put in place in Brazil. Brazil is now picking supplies for the vast project, which is expected to take up to 10 years to finish, according to UPI. Dozens of companies are involved in getting the project up and running; it is expected to cost $13 billion.

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Posted in Drugs and Cartels, Immigration, South America

March 8, 2013

Ted Nugent on Hugo Chavez Death: GOOD RIDDANCE!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

A devout socialist and outspoken anti-American dictator who clashed frequently with the U.S., Chavez pretty much embodied everything Ted Nugent hates.

Ted Nugent, not surprisingly, was not a fan of the late Hugo Chavez.

The rocker issued a candid assessment of his death last night.

Three words will sum it up. Those words are “ADIOS MO FO.”

Sort of two words broken into three, but you get the idea here.

“All dictators, tyrants, slave-drivers and despots should die ASAP. Let freedom ring!” Nugent proudly told TMZ after Hugo Chavez died at the age of 58.

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Posted in Democrats/Progressives, Radicals, South America, Ted Nugent

February 20, 2013

Ecuadorean Election Solidifies Red Trend in Latin America

Posted on February 20, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Correa’s PAIS Alliance is ready-made for Soviet-style repression, composed as it is of the Communist Party of Ecuador, the Ecuadorian Socialist Party, and other Marxist parties. Correa’s vice president, Lenin Moreno, named after communist Bolshevik dictator Vladimir Lenin, also provides another clue (if more were needed) as to the direction the Correa “Citizen Revolution” is going.

The sweeping reelection victory of Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa (pictured, with arms raised) on Sunday provides the radical economist with a new opportunity to further his “socialist revolution,” which he launched soon after assuming office in 2007. Correa was assisted by the fact that his opposition was splintered among seven parties. “With about three-quarters of the ballots counted on Sunday evening,” the New York Times reported, “Mr. Correa had received 56 percent of the votes cast. Guillermo Lasso, a banker, the closest of his seven opponents, had 23 percent.”

Correa’s victory raises his stature as a key leader in the Marxist-Leninist revolution that is overtaking most of Latin America. He is often tagged as the logical successor to Venezuela’s ailing Hugo Chavez as the most outspoken U.S. antagonist in the region, in much the same way that Chavez has succeeded Fidel Castro in that role.

However, Correa has plenty of allies and competitors vying for the honor of top “anti-Yankee/anti-capitalist” firebrand. Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) announced on January 18 that the São Paulo Forum, a powerful coalition of Latin American communist and socialist parties and terrorist groups, had endorsed Correa at a meeting in Quito, Ecuador.

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Posted in Cultural Marxism, Democrats/Progressives, Radicals, South America

February 17, 2013

Elite police units deployed in restive southern Brazil

Posted on February 17, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The prison-based crime rings reportedly unleashed the crime wave to pressure authorities to provide better living conditions for inmates. Press reports have blamed a gang called the First Group of the Capital, similar to a Sao Paulo-based prison syndicate known as the PCC, or First Command of the Capital.

Elite police commando units fanned out on streets of southern Brazil Saturday, in an effort to contain a wave of violent attacks over the past two weeks, authorities said.

The attacks — allegedly ordered by criminal gangs from within Brazil’s prisons — have seen buses and private passenger cars torched and police fired upon in some 30 cities in the state of Santa Catarina since January 30.

“With the support of the National Police Force, we have launched Operation Secure Santa Catarina, Joao Carlos Neves, spokesman for the state’s military police force.

Reinforcements began arriving on Friday from elite federal police units to help contain the violence that has overrun the region.

Authorities said the police already have made scores of arrests, and said prison officials also have transferred some inmates believed responsible for the mayhem to other facilities.

The prison-based crime rings reportedly unleashed the crime wave to pressure authorities to provide better living conditions for inmates.

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Posted in Crime, Gangs, Law & Courts, South America

February 3, 2013

Communist Cuban Tyrant Raul Castro to Lead Latin American Bloc

Posted on February 3, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Ironically, or Orwellian to the extreme, depending on how one views the developments, CELAC’s founding charter claims that “democracy,” “human rights,” and the “rule of law” are among the supranational entity’s foundational principles. In reality, with very few exceptions, its membership roster is dominated by socialist and communist strongmen like Castro, Chavez, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, “former” communist guerilla and current Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and other, lesser known but equally despotic rulers.

In an ironic but predictable development that has establishment analysts scratching their heads and human-rights organizations up in arms, brutal Communist dictator Raul Castro of Cuba just assumed the rotating presidency of a regional “integration” body that touts itself as being in favor of “democracy.” Upon assuming his new role, the Marxist tyrant, who leads one of the most oppressive regimes in the world and will now be charged with running the supranational CELAC bloc, celebrated what he called “a common vision for the Latin American and Caribbean homeland.”

The controversial regional entity, heavily backed by the Communist Party tyrants ruling over mainland China and other subversive forces, is known officially as the “Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.” It brings together 33 national governments and dictatorships in the Western hemisphere under the pretext of advancing “integration,” “human rights,” and more — the United States and Canada, however, were not invited to participate.

Socialist strongmen responsible for the recently created alliance say it is meant to serve as a sort of counter-balance to U.S. influence in the region. In truth, however, like other similar blocs in the region, it is aimed at advancing the march of tyranny and socialism throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, according to analysts and anti-communist leaders.

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Posted in Democrats/Progressives, Government, Radicals, South America

January 1, 2013

A Portrait of Epidemic Cocaine Addiction in Brazil’s ‘Crack Lands’

Posted on January 1, 2013 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Brazil today is the world’s largest consumer of both cocaine and its crack derivative, according to the Federal University of Sao Paolo.


This is Bobo.

Bobo has a method: Cocaine gets him through the day, when he cruises with a wheelbarrow around a slum on Rio’s west side, sorting through trash for recyclables to sell. At night, he turns the day’s profit into crack.

“Sometimes I don’t sleep at all; I’m up 24 hours,” says Bobo, a former soldier who doesn’t use his given name for safety reasons. “I work to support my addiction, but I only use crack at night. That drug takes my mind away. I lose all notion of what I’m doing.”

Bobo says balancing crack with cocaine keeps him working and sane. On the shantytown’s streets, life can be hell: Addicts unable to strike Bobo’s precarious balance use crack day and night, begging, stealing, prostituting themselves, and picking through trash to make enough for the next hit. For them, there’s no going home, no job, nothing but the drug.

With a boom in crack use over the past decade, Brazilian authorities are struggling to stop the drug’s spread, sparking a debate over the legality and efficiency of forcibly interning users. Brazil today is the world’s largest consumer of both cocaine and its crack derivative, according to the Federal University of Sao Paolo. About 6 million adults, or 3 percent of Brazilians, have tried cocaine in some form.

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Posted in Drugs and Cartels, South America

December 12, 2012

Argentine mom rescues hundreds of sex slaves during long, failed hunt for kidnapped daughter

Posted on December 12, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Argentina outlawed human trafficking in 2008, thanks in large part to the foundation’s work. A new force dedicated to combating human trafficking has liberated nearly 3,000 more victims in two years, said Security Minister Nilda Garre, who wrote a newspaper commentary saying the trial’s verdict should set an example.


Susana Trimarco

Susana Trimarco was a housewife who fussed over her family and paid scant attention to the news until her daughter left for a doctor’s appointment and never came back.

After getting little help from police, Trimarco launched her own investigation into a tip that the 23-year-old was abducted and forced into sex slavery. Soon, Trimarco was visiting brothels seeking clues about her daughter and the search took an additional goal: rescuing sex slaves and helping them start new lives.

What began as a one-woman campaign a decade ago developed into a movement and Trimarco today is a hero to hundreds of women she’s rescued from Argentine prostitution rings. She’s been honored with the “Women of Courage” award by the U.S. State Department and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on Nov. 28. Sunday night, President Cristina Fernandez gave her a human rights award before hundreds of thousands of people in the Plaza de Mayo.

But years of exploring the decadent criminal underground haven’t led Trimarco to her daughter, Maria de los Angeles “Marita” Veron, who was 23 in 2002 when she disappeared from their hometown in provincial Tucuman, leaving behind her own 3-year-old daughter Micaela.

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Posted in Human Trafficking, Kidnapping, Law & Courts, Sex Crimes, Slavery, South America

November 25, 2012

Ethnic dispute marks Bolivia census

Posted on November 25, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The government wants to put on display an indigenous country, and if ‘mestizo’ turned out to be the majority identity its entire indigenous routine gets sunk,” said Victor Hugo Cardenas, a former vice president and, like Morales, an ethnic Aymara.

A dispute over ethnicity marked census-taking day in Bolivia as the landlocked Andean nation’s population submitted Wednesday to its first national head count in 11 years.

The controversy revolved around a decision by the government of President Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, not to include “mestizo” as a category.

It might not have been an issue — “mestizo” never appeared as an option on previous censuses — had not Bolivians been given the option Wednesday of declaring themselves members of one of 40 ethnic groups, including Afro-Bolivians.

Critics of Morales say he is afraid people would check “mestizo,” or mixed-race, so as not to identify themselves with a particular indigenous group, thus delegitimizing the government.

“I’m not Aymara. I’m not Quechua. I’m a mestizo,” read graffiti painted on walls around La Paz, the capital.

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Posted in Multiculturalism, Population, South America

November 20, 2012

Brazil gang’s slaughter of police sparks fightback

Posted on November 20, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The number of homicides in Sao Paulo has jumped to almost 1,000 so far this year, largely concentrated in favelas or slums. For January to October 2011 there were 869 homicides, according to Sao Paulo government figures. Some police are also being investigated for execution-style murders.


Military police stand on a hill overlooking Brasilandia — a shantytown in northern Sao Paulo, Brazil — during an anti-gang raid.

Marta Umbelina pulled up in front of her house with her 11-year-old daughter. When she stepped out of the car, she was shot 10 times in the back.

Umbelina was an office worker at Sao Paulo’s Military Police Northern Command — and she is one of nearly 100 cops murdered in Sao Paulo this year, roughly 50 percent higher than 2011.

Most were ambushed while off duty, part of a deadly battle between police and Brazil’s biggest criminal gang, the First Command of the Capital or PCC by its Portuguese acronym.

“Marta was my friend, my colleague, she knew everything about me,” said Simone Mello, a police officer who worked with Marta at a desk job.

“Why her? Why Marta? We’re just very sad,” she said.

In a bid to rein in the PCC, Sao Paulo launched Operation Saturation at the end of October.

The government sent at least 500 police troops into the city’s biggest shantytown Paraisopolis, or Paradise City.

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Posted in Crime, Gangs, Law & Courts, Murder, South America

November 11, 2012

Wave of killings sweeps Brazil’s biggest city

Posted on November 11, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The department’s website says 982 homicides took place in Sao Paulo between through the first nine months of the year. The victims included 90 police officers, most of them gunned down while off duty.

At least 140 people have been murdered in South America’s biggest city over the past two weeks in a rising wave of violence, Sao Paulo’s Public Safety Department says.

Killings in Sao Paulo began sharply increasing in September, a month in which 144 people were killed, the department’s website says. It says a total of 982 homicides took place in the city during the first nine months of the year.

The victims included 90 police officers, most of them gunned down while off duty.

A Public Safety Department official said Saturday that the killings of police have been ordered by imprisoned leaders of an organized crime group called the First Capital Command in reprisal for a crackdown on the drug trade. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The First Capital Command is one of Brazil’s most notorious organized crime groups. Based in Sao Paulo state prisons, the group allegedly was behind several waves of attacks on police, government buildings, banks and public buses in 2006. Those assaults and counterattacks by police in the slums killed more than 200 people.

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Posted in Crime, Law & Courts, Murder, South America