Brazilian newspaper says NSA intercepted millions of phone calls, emails within that country

"An allegation of espionage" - Brazil's foreign ministry

Guadalajara -
O Globo, one of Brazil's most prominent newspapers, reported yesterday that "U.S. intelligence services" intercepted millions of emails and telephone calls in the huge South American country through programs such as PRISM, the existence of which was revealed in early June by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden.

Edward Snowden's petition to Nicaragua released

Guadalajara -
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's letter seeking political asylum in Nicaragua was released over the weekend by this Spanish news source. President Daniel Ortega said Friday that his country was "disposed to receive" the American fugitive. Here is the letter, dated June 30 and delivered to the Nicaraguan embassy in Moscow:

Edward Snowden: Washington's massive miscalculation

MGR's view

"Judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment" - Simón Bolívar, The Liberator of Latin America (1783-1830)

Guadalajara -
Latin America, much of it anyway, has been free for just over 200 years. And yet America and Americans - the other ones, the ones whose forefathers spoke English instead of Spanish and who sailed from the British Isles instead of the Iberian peninsula - still understand so very little about it.

If anyone doubted the proposition, the last 15 days of an international cause célèbre known as the Edward Snowden affair will provide more than adequate proof.

Snowden himself has played but a minor character role as the drama unfolded on stage. In fact, the play is no longer about Edward Snowden at all. It's about the United States, which once again has quite expertly and quite needlessly demonstrated its innate skill at portraying the bully of the schoolyard. A schoolyard where everybody is tired of being pushed around by the fair skinned kid who speaks English.

Bolivia joins the crowd: Morales offers Snowden asylum

Who next - the Pitcairn Islands?

Guadalajara -
Bolivian president Evo Morales this morning offered political asylum to former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who remains in Moscow's international airport looking for a place to call home.

Yucatecans not ready for gay marriage, says chief judge

*Updated July 17*
Mérida, Yucatán -
Mexico, like the United States, has a dual judiciary. State judges here concern themselves with garden variety civil disputes and petty offenses, while federal judges handle serious criminal cases, constitutional issues and matters which may impact the nation as a whole. As in the U.S., federal courts in Mexico are frequently at the vanguard of emerging legal notions on controversial social and political issues, such as abortion and same sex marriage. And just as frequently state courts are resistant to fundamental change, finding it less disruptive to maintain the legal status quo in all.

Venezuela offers Snowden "humanitarian asylum"

A bad week for the U.S. in Latin America

*Updated July 8*
Guadalajara -
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro today announced that his country will grant "humanitarian asylum" to former NSA security contractor Edward Snowden, who tonight remains holed up in Moscow's international airport.

Yesterday Maduro quickly rebuffed an American request to extradite Snowden should the fugitive contractor show up in Caracas. Nicolás Maduro rejects U.S. request on Snowden.

Nicaragua "disposed to accept" Edward Snowden

Compañeros of the Latin revolution, Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega

Guadalajara -
In Managua today Nicaraguan president José Daniel Ortega Saavedra said his country is ready to grant political asylum to former NSA security contractor Edward Snowden "if circumstances permit."

"We're very open to the idea, and we respect his right to seek asylum. If conditions allow us to receive Mr. Snowden, of course, we'd gladly accept him here in Nicaragua," said the president.

Evo Morales: "We will close the U.S. embassy in La Paz"

Bolivian prez says "ciao" to Washington

*Updated July 13*
Guadalajara -
Still fuming over his unbooked tour of Vienna this week, Bolivian president Evo Morales said today he will close the U.S. embassy in his country. His comments appear to leave no room for maneuvering.

Ex-Russian spy Anna Chapman proposes marriage to Edward Snowden

Their wedding march will be Midnight in Moscow

Guadalajara -
Earlier this week Russian president Vladimir Putin again ruled out any extradition of former NSA security contractor Edward Snowden to the United States, where the turnkey awaits him. Putin did acknowledge that Russia has occasionally swapped secret agents with the West. One of those was Anna Vasilyevna Kushchyenko in the summer of 2010. Putin: Snowden can stay, but no more NSA leaks.

Now comes word that on Wednesday, Anna Chapman - her married (now dissolved) name - proposed to Snowden via her Twitter account. That would not only give the harried fugitive a visa, it would entitle him to Russian citizenship as well, as the spouse of a Russkie. A Russkie who is purportedly the daughter of a former high ranking KGB officer, it should be noted.

President Putin was unavailable for immediate comment. He's busy today hunting down gay foreigners who are trying to adopt Russian kids. "Putin: I've had it with those same sex couples".

© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.

Mérida never forgets - even when it should

It's the anniversary of the Great Battle of the Glorieta

Mérida, Yucatán -
It's a strange feeling - disconcerting, really - to spend the Fourth of July sweating out a mini-revolution in a Latin country, especially when the cause is but an underpass. Yes, an ordinary underpass. But that's what I did two years ago today in the White City. Instead of a Kansas backyard barbecue with endless delicacies and plenty of cold beer, I found myself at a midtown intersection in this steamy capital, trapped between noisy protesters on one side and stern countenanced estatales on the other, trying to figure out why everybody was in such a stew.

Nicolás Maduro rejects U.S. request on Edward Snowden

¿Y que sobre el caso del prófugo Luis Posada Carriles, Señor Obama? - Nicolás Maduro, today

Guadalajara -
Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is safely back home in Caracas today, after his trip to Moscow earlier this week. He's probably thankful to have made it in less time than it took Bolivia's Evo Morales to land in La Paz.

This morning Maduro formally rejected a U.S. request to hand over former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, should the latter somehow manage to teleport himself from self-imposed confinement in the Russian capital to the Bolivarian Socialist Republic.

Putin signs Russian law prohibiting gay foreign adoption - with some nasty comments to boot

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

Guadalajara -
One week to the day after the United States Supreme Court handed down two landmark decisions further legitimizing same sex unions in the U.S., Russian president Valdimir Putin yesterday signed into law a sweeping bill which prohibits the adoption of Russian children by foreign gay couples, and even by single persons who live in nations where gay marriage is legal.

The bill easily passed both houses of Russia's parliament in late June.

241 enduring words, still a beacon 237 years later

"This Day the Congress has passed the most important Resolution that ever was taken in America" — John Adams

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Mexico solidly backs Bolivia on Evo Morales grounding

Guadalajara -
As the fallout continues from Tuesday night's forced landing in Vienna, Austria of Bolivian president Evo Morales, whom several European nations suspected of carrying former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Mexico's foreign ministry has issued a statement firmly supporting the La Paz government, calling the incident "regrettable" and suggesting poor judgment was exercised in the matter by several European countries.

U.S. likely to have more troubles with Bolivia, after aircraft carrying president Morales is forced down

Further fallout from L'affaire Snowden

Bolivia's Evo Morales with Russian president Vladimir Putin at this week's Moscow petroleum summit

*Updated July 3*
Guadalajara -
An aircraft carrying Bolivian president Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria this evening after European authorities suspected it might be carrying former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. But a search of the plane revealed that he was not aboard.