From the Beginning

Polls for Honduras' presidential election

2009-11-11T16:39:00.003-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net A general election is scheduled, on 29 November, in order to give solution to the political crisis in Honduras. There, the main competitors are Porfirio Lobo Sosa -from the National Party- and Elvin Santos – from the Liberal Party-. According to a Gallup poll made from 13 to 19 October, 37%

The sucre and the exchange rate stability

2009-11-05T09:12:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net One theme that emerges from the ALBA proposal to establish the sucre as a common currency, is the exchange rate stability. From a macroeconomic perspective, the smallest economies are the most vulnerable to domestic and international events. In that sense, a common currency would be

Some contradictions of the radical left in Latin America

2009-10-28T10:37:00.003-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Anticapitalist, but Venezuela makes money from oil, Cuba from sugar, and the FARC from drugs. All preferably negotiated in US dollars, and at the highest price that the free market is able to pay. Anti-imperialist, but a follower of a political model imported from the Soviet Union.

Venezuelan legislative: Grassroots opinion about opposition's campaign

2009-10-24T11:39:00.004-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In Venezuela, elections will take place in the middle of next year. Therefore, in order to investigate how the opposition supporters think the campaign should be guided, we did from 15 to 20 October a series of focus group sessions consisting of grassroots typical representatives, from

Cuban oil dependency: Venezuela's importance

2009-10-22T14:52:00.003-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In another article we show that Venezuela is not a vital oil supplier to the U.S. economy. But if we want to know about a country truly in need of Venezuela's energy resources, we must direct our gaze toward Cuba. To function, the weak Cuban economy must import about 120 000 barrels of

Radical leftists more affected than the moderates in Latin America

2009-10-16T11:27:00.003-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The global economic problems have caused declines in the popularity of many leaders in Latin America. But when comparing only the recent surveys of countries led by the left, we note that the extremist governments of this trend are being evaluated in a much more negative way than the

Venezuelan medicine leads Cuban in recognition

2009-10-15T11:19:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Under the Chavez government, the replacement of Venezuelan doctors by Cuban physicians is increasingly. A substitution based on the Castrist propaganda praising the Communist health care system, but that does not take into account the higher international recognition of the Venezuelan health

Venezuelan oil myth: The vital supplier

2009-10-10T11:49:00.002-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net For decades, Venezuela has been shaping an energy ideology based on the assumption that Venezuelan oil is a strategic resource for the stability of the global economy. A notion that has been taken to extremes during the presidency of Hugo Chavez. However, with a few simple calculations, we

Did Chavez reduce poverty with hyperinflation and unemployment?

2009-10-08T10:28:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net On last Sunday, President Hugo Chavez said his government has reduced poverty by half and that within 10 years there will be no poor in Venezuela. But considering inflation and employment, two of the most important indicators for measuring poverty in a country, we realize that the

The post-financial crisis: Defiant global unemployment

2009-10-03T11:50:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Although the elements that announce the end of the recession 2008-2009 are increasing, one of the factors that still threatens the economy is the worldwide unemployment. Since the financial meltdown began, just in the U.S. and EU unemployment rates have doubled; thus, now the figures

The post-financial crisis: Oil with less risk?

2009-10-01T09:47:00.002-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In theory, oil prices should be back to higher levels with the recovery of the global economy, as happened after the US recession of 2001 and 2002. Nonetheless, in the world of post-financial crisis exists, for now, a political environment that could lead to different consequences in the

Elections in Honduras can be credible

2009-09-30T09:41:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net According to Ban Ki-Moon, UN secretary general, in Honduras there are no conditions for holding credible elections that lead to peace and security. Nonetheless, we think that in this country the citizen's vote is a viable alternative, despite the obstacles that threaten it. Comparatively,

The post-financial crisis: Dependence on the dollar

2009-09-26T12:53:00.004-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net About the dollar's status in the scenario of the post-financial crisis, another factor that would side with the U.S. currency would be the still strong dependence of the global economy on the Yankees. The United States remains the main consumer of goods and services on the planet. The

Zelaya returns to Honduras to prevent elections

2009-09-22T17:05:00.003-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Given the fact that in Honduras there will be elections in November to elect a new president, Manuel Zelaya rushed back to Honduran territory. An action that has the task of trying to disrupt the upcoming elections because it doesn't suit him from any point of view. If the November vote

What did the Juanes concert in Cuba symbolize?

2009-09-21T17:07:00.009-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net For the hard-line Latin American democratic thought, the Juanes presentation in Cuba was interpreted as a betrayal, because it saw the show as a vote of recognition to the regime. However, this event could be read from another perspective: Juanes, Miguel Bose and Olga Tañon are one of the

Honduras crisis: Foreigners hinder the electoral solution

2009-09-18T15:17:00.003-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The OAS, the EU and the US have said they will not recognize the presidential elections scheduled for November in Honduras, unless Zelaya is put back in office. Assuming a posture that will try to ignore the Honduran popular sovereignty, and hamper the only reasonable solution to the

Chavez's ineffective repression

2009-09-16T11:11:00.002-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net With the recent imprisonment of 11 Town Hall workers, a student activist and the Prefect of Caracas, Chavez is sending a message to intimidate his opponents, in an attempt to stop the countless protests witnessed daily in Venezuela. Unfortunately for Chavismo, silencing dissent through

Ecuador's draft media law

2009-09-15T10:48:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Click here to download -in Spanish- the draft organic law of communication that Ecuador's government wants to approve to censor the independent press in that country. It seems important to mention Article 48 of this project, which defines the Superintendency of Telecommunications and Media

Poll: Ignorance has been significant for Latin American leftist extremism

2009-09-12T13:43:00.003-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net During August 2009, we made the following question to the visitors of our Spanish website Morochos.org: What has been the key factor for the success of some left-wing radical movements in Latin America? We gave three options and each received the following percentage of votes: 1) Weak

Defects of Chavez's electricity policy

2009-09-10T11:10:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net During the government of President Chavez, Venezuelans have experienced the deterioration of the electrical power system. Here are the points where, in our opinion, are the principal weaknesses of the Venezuelan government in terms of national electricity policy: - It is not clear: Because

Chavez's exchange rate policy dilemma

2009-09-08T16:04:00.004-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The Chavez government has lately been showing concern about what is happening in the dollar black market. It has tried several strategies but there is no way to get people to stop buying dollars at the unofficial price, which progressively increase the gap between the legal and parallel

The post-financial crisis: The dollar's status

2009-09-04T15:17:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net With the financial crisis that began in the U.S. in 2008, the debate about "the dollar's status" in the present and future world has gained intensity. For example, for important figures such as Joseph Stiglitz the U.S. currency is losing its status. He says its role as a conservative asset

UNASUR Bariloche: Hypothesis worry more than realities

2009-08-31T17:15:00.002-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net On Friday 28 August, in the Argentine city of Bariloche, the South American Heads of States met to, primarily, address the issue of the Colombian-US military agreement. Regarding this there was talk of conflict scenarios, future implications, and the possible risks that the region would

Polls for Uruguay's presidential elections

2009-08-28T09:39:00.002-04:30

Authors:José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Uruguayans will go to the polls on October 25, 2009 to elect a new president and members of the legislature. According to the latest opinion poll, Jose Mujica is the favorite to be elected president, the candidate of the Progressive Encounter-Broad Front (EP-FA) from which the current

Why the Colombia-US military agreement

2009-08-24T17:51:00.002-04:30

Authors:Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net If the United States needs to carry out military operations in Colombia is because obviously it wants to serve a military purpose. Otherwise it would use organizations like the DEA, FBI, or any other nonmilitary agency of the U.S. government. In this sense, most military operations are