"If we want to build the country, maintain our dignity and solve economic problems, we need the culture of martyrdom." That's the latest from Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. AFP reports that in a speech on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad described martyrdom as a "quick and shortcut way to reach the summit of salvation." Though he did not explain exactly how dying for one's religious beliefs would help the Iranian economy.
Perhaps Ahmadinejad's alternative plan isto continue pursuingenergy development with his ally Hugo Chavez. As UPI reports : "Energy officials from Iran said they were ready to make good on promises to bolster energy ties with Venezuela by establishing a joint Tehran-Caracas oil company, a concept considered far-fetched by some considering the rash of projects proposed by the two nations that have yet to come to fruition." Read more on Chavez's oil ambitions and Venezuela's economy in "The Powder Keg That Is Venezuela."
Indeed, with ties between Tehran and Caracasgrowing everstronger, it may be less of a coincidence that Venezuela's Chavez reportedly offered $100-$150 million to acquire up to 30% of a company called ImageSatInternational NV . The company, according to its website, offers " exclusive use of EROS satellites through the unique SOP and EPOD programs, Customers acquire a completely autonomous, secret, regional very high-resolution imaging capability." As the Miami Herald noted earlier this week, the company's Eros B satellite was " launched in 2006 by Israel, reportedly to spy on Iran's nuclear program." See details here .
In other Latin America news, Paraguay has a new president- Fernando Lugo, a Roman Catholic bishop turned Socialist politician. You may have missed it because most of the media did. Bridget Johnson, a columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News included these interesting tidbits in a piece posted at pajamasmedia.com:
"Reports feted Lugo - a Roman Catholic bishop suspended by the Vatican for his political aspirations (his 2006 resignation request was denied) resting on Marxist "liberation theology" - as turning power away from conservatives for the first time in more than six decades, and reiterated his reputation as a man of the poor in a country where 32 percent of residents live below the poverty line."
"But the real story was captured on the Web site of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, where a bold headline led the home page: ‘President Chavez congratulates the new president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo.' Since Hugo Chavez doesn't offer such warm tidings to everyone - he likely wishes leprosy upon presidents Alvaro Uribe of Colombia or Felipe Calderon of Mexico, for instance - one immediately pays attention."
"‘The triumph of comrade Fernando Lugo is ... yet another stone in the foundation of this new Latin America that is just, sovereign, independent - and why not, socialist,'" Rafael Correa said as Argentina's leftist President Cristina Fernandez visited. Fernandez, the wife of the last leftist Argentine leader, Nestor Kirchner, got off to her own socialist start by decreeing dramatic increases in export taxes for soya beans - and got a crippling farmers' strike in return."
The opinion elite in Great Britain are no better. While a majority pays little attention, Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the European Parliament, calls what's happening in South America a "scarlet tsunami."
"Lugo's victory completes the triumph of the radical Left in South America. Only Colombia's high plateaus rise above the floodwater. The shift, though sudden and dramatic, has been largely unremarked," writing for London's Daily Telegraph .
"Few British commentators are interested in Latin America, with the exception of the committed socialists: Ken Livingstone, Richard Gott, Tariq Ali and various BBC sandalistas who spent their gap years on Nicaraguan coffee collectives."
