(Image from Honduras Resists via HondurasOye)
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Update: I missed this. Rodolfo Pastor Fasquelle has a piece, The joke and the jokers: Old Hawk Diplomacy and Multilateralism, in which he speaks frankly.

He calls out the game that the US has played:

Someone has to say it to the American people. The people of Honduras feel betrayed by the United States government and resent the bad joke played by American diplomats at its expense. We were led to believe first that the US government sympathized with our plight, only to discover gradually that it is willing to back and whitewash the dictatorship imposed on us. It is not a personal impression; the jokers have names and faces, which we will take note of and remember. Nor is it a matter only of declarations. The facts that speak for themselves, and are of, as yet, unknown but almost certainly terrible consequences

Radio Globo: A soldier died in a truck accident. Military established a cordon around Gijuatepeque (sp?) (El Paraiso?) searching for election materials and arms. They invaded the center of a resistance group. They didn’t present an order, so it was illegal.

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Radio Globo has a long interview with a colonel regarding youths who were injured, but I’m pretty busy and can’t follow it well. Popular groups from El Salvador and Guatemala (Aguacaliente) have seized the highway and customs posts to block traffic to or from their countries in sympathy with the resistance. Luis Galdamez: the bloodbath at the checkpoint is a “verguenza” for the people. Three youths who didn’t respond to the police order to stop have been injured and are in the Hospital Escuela (the first report was of deaths) in the Sector Sor (?). Zelaya says the society has reverted to the law of the jungle, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and that the resistance must not stain its hands by supporting the dictatorship by voting. Zelaya mentions a letter by British politicians urging the US not to recognize the elections. The people must stay in state. Then the interview moves over to STIBYS (the Beverage Workers). Now an Amnesty International Report by Javier Zuniga: There are people dead, people wounded, and people jailed. But there are other violations: Freedom expression, movement, association.Threats and menacing. The atmosphere is not propitious for an election. We have had access to some official documents showing purchases of gas grenades and have seen the grenades. They can cause death at short range. Tanks which dispense high pressure water can injure people. The announcer says that that the “observers” are from the Chamber of Commerce and private enterprise, but no observers from governments.

Serra Pelada gold mine, Brazil (Photo by Sebastiao Salgado).

In chapter two, one of the most powerful and persuasive, Robinson charts the crisis of developmental capitalism, or import-substitution industrialization, in the 1960s and 1970s, and then shifts to neoliberalism, or export-led development, in the 1980s and 1990s across Latin America. Drawing on the historical materialist categories of proletarianization and primitive accumulation, he examines the contours of the new economic model through a focused exploration of nontraditional exports and services. He offers a penetrating look at the cut flowers industry in Ecuador and Colombia, the explosive growth of the fruits and wines sector in Chile, soy production in Argentina and the rest of the Southern Cone, and winter fruits and vegetable production in Central America. He demonstrates how there has been an “accelerated replacement of noncapitalist by capitalist forms of agricultural development” and a “concomitant displacement of the peasantry and its conversion into a rural proletariat. This has occurred along with an increase in rural to urban and transnational migration”; promotion of “flexible…work in the new agro-export platforms”; a move to “predominance of female workers in these platforms”; and “the articulation of local agricultural systems…to global agricultural and industrial food production and distribution chains.”

Serra Pelada gold mine, Brazil (Photo by Sebastiao Salgado).

Jeffery R. Webber, of University of Regina, reviews the book Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective by William I. Robinson in the October edition of the Monthly Review:

In chapter two, one of the most powerful and persuasive, Robinson charts the crisis of developmental capitalism, or import-substitution industrialization, in the 1960s and 1970s, and then shifts to neoliberalism, or export-led development, in the 1980s and 1990s across Latin America. Drawing on the historical materialist categories of proletarianization and primitive accumulation, he examines the contours of the new economic model through a focused exploration of nontraditional exports and services. He offers a penetrating look at the cut flowers industry in Ecuador and Colombia, the explosive growth of the fruits and wines sector in Chile, soy production in Argentina and the rest of the Southern Cone, and winter fruits and vegetable production in Central America. He demonstrates how there has been an “accelerated replacement of noncapitalist by capitalist forms of agricultural development” and a “concomitant displacement of the peasantry and its conversion into a rural proletariat. This has occurred along with an increase in rural to urban and transnational migration”; promotion of “flexible…work in the new agro-export platforms”; a move to “predominance of female workers in these platforms”; and “the articulation of local agricultural systems…to global agricultural and industrial food production and distribution chains.”

The main weakness in this otherwise compelling portrait of the political economy of the Latin American countryside today is the one-sided structural power allotted to capital. Opportunities for increases in agricultural workers’ bargaining power under certain conditions, such as those examined by Ben Selwyn in his important study of export grape production in North East Brazil, are elided.

MERCADOS MEXICANOS-¿Qué dicen los analistas? 27 de noviembre

via MERCADOS MEXICANOS-¿Qué dicen los analistas? 27 de noviembre | Titulares | Reuters.

A very telling photo that Brother John brought to attention:

(Image is from Wall Street Journal. Notice the woman’s heavily bruised leg ).  
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Update2: RadioGlobo is now off the air, as is Channel 36.

Tracy Wilkinson has a good article in the LAT (via HondurasCoup2009)

Amnesty reports that:

Luis Galdámez, a male journalist freelancing for an independent radio
station in Honduras, has been receiving death threats as a result of his
broadcasting work and comments in support of the country’s ousted
president, Manuel Zelaya.

The pro-coup El Heraldo says that the Millennium Challenge Corp is eager to start spending again. (via HondurasCoup2009)
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Update: Costa Rica is apparently going to recognize the dictatorship “if the vote is fair”

Bloomberg:

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s backing of an election in Honduras widely seen by Latin American allies as illegitimate leaves the U.S. isolated regionally and has increased tensions with Brazil.

Most countries in Latin America, except Panama and Costa Rica, have said deposed President Manuel Zelaya must be returned to office before a vote and have cited Zelaya’s restoration as a prerequisite for their recognition of the election results.

In the past three weeks, the U.S. backed off that demand, prompting warnings from Zelaya and analysts that the tolerance of his removal may invite coups elsewhere.

“The clumsy handling of this issue when they had the backing of the entire hemisphere is simply an embarrassment,” said Robert White, a former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador under President Jimmy Carter who heads the Center for International Policy in Washington.

Tamar Sharabi has a new article on holding elections under repression.

Radio Globo is up. Channel 36 is broadcasting an SOS: a Communication that it has been hindered from broadcasting and subjected to terroristic attacks since the coup. Back to Globo: Zelaya is on. I’ve never heard it so clear. I guess the dictatorship pulled its electronic measures from the embassy. But the announcer says that there’s interference in Tegucigalpa. Now talking with a lawyer. They are threatening government employees with losing their jobs if their fingers aren’t stained to prove they voted. But the Constitution says the vote is secret. People are getting paid 1000 lempiras ($20) to vote

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Ian Kelly on tape loop:

The United States remains committed to help restore the democratic and constitutional order in Honduras in the wake of the June 28 coup d’état that removed President Zelaya and led to the suspension of Honduras from the Organization of American States. As part of that effort, we expect the parties in Honduras to implement the measures they agreed to in the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord, including steps toward national reconciliation and the December 2 Congressional consideration of President Zelaya’s restitution. We look forward to the Congressional deliberations getting underway as announced.

The November 29 national elections are another critical step in the restoration of the democratic and constitutional order in Honduras. The electoral process — launched well before June 28 and involving legitimate candidates representing parties with longstanding democratic traditions from a broad ideological spectrum — is conducted under the stewardship of the multi-party and autonomous Supreme Electoral Tribunal, which was also selected before the coup [actually, they're being held under martial law, i.e., under the stewardship of the multi-branch and autonomous Honduran military]. The electoral renewal of presidential, congressional and mayoral mandates, enshrined in the Honduran constitution, is an inalienable expression of the sovereign will of the citizens of Honduras. We wish the Honduran people well as they choose their new leaders on Sunday, and we urge all sides to exercise their rights peacefully.

The holding of a free, fair and transparent election is necessary but not sufficient for Honduras to reestablish the democratic and constitutional order. In order to help achieve that objective, we will continue, along with others in the Americas, to support the step-by-step implementation of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord as a democratic way forward for the Honduran people. The president-elect who emerges from an election deemed free and fair will have a unique opportunity to promote that vital mission.

Two concerts is what separates Costa Rican representative Eduardo Aguirre from the Latin American Idol grand finale.

The young man from Esparza, advanced to the group of five semi-finalists and he will sing two songs in order to fight to keep his place among public’s favorites.

“I’m Proud of the support from my country and what I have shown.  I am going to sing a ballad by Juan Luis Guerra.  If I move on to the seventh concert, I will sing two pop songs, but none by Cristian Castro,” he said.

Aguirre noted that the hardest part is coming and he does not care if the judges sometimes tell others that they are among their favorites.

“I put the pressure on myself.  We all have our minute and a half on stage.  All I need is a little push to reach the final.  I only ask people to continue believing in me and the will hopefully be satisfied with the effort,” he said.

The Chilean, Ruben Alvarez and the Dominican, Martha Heredia, two of his strongest rivals on the show, also made their predictions.

“I am very happy with what I’ve been doing.  People have seemed receptive, but now we five are starting from scratch.  I’ve shown a lot of dancing and now I will offer a more romantic mood,” said the Chilean.

The Caribbean said she is preparing vocally and emotionally.  She denies being overconfident, as the jury told her not long ago.

“Sometimes I seem arrogant, but I am really very simple.  What happens is that the I transform myself when I sing.  I am really preparing myself,” said the brunette, who calls Ruben her strongest rival.

The reprimand that the Costa Rican representative received during “Cantando por un sueño” (Singing for a Dream) where he was told by music producer Fabian Zolo that he must go from being  a puppy to being a man was not in vain.

The producer sees him as being more mature, but there are things he must still improve.  “Without fear of being wrong, I can say that he can get to the finals…but only if he changes his strategy. He has to take more risks, take over the stage.  He is in a comfort zone and he must come out of it.”

Zolo said that the young man has already demonstrated that he can sing, but he must now show himself, show more nuance and be the artist who wants to be the show.  Maria Jose Castillo, a finalist last year, said that she sees the young man from Esparza in the finals against Martha or Ruben.

“He is among the best, no doubt.  He should continue with ballads and vary a little with pop.  We need to see him in that genre to show different facets.  He’s doing a good job and he is paying attention to what the judges say, but I think Mediavilla (Oscar) is a little obnoxious when he makes his comments.”

But even when things seem to be all right, we must support our representative from Costa Rica.  We are asking for your votes so that he can reach the final.

Thanksgiving: A Native American View

Calvin Tucker has a useful comment piece on Comment is Free about the fraudulent elections of Honduras’ coup regime and the role of the United States.

Calvin writes:

So Sunday’s election goes ahead with the blessing of the US, but not of the Honduran people or their president. With the rest of the world refusing to recognise the legitimacy of the outcome, the forces inside and outside the US administration that conspired to wreck Obama’s vision of a new era in regional relations still have to contend with popular opposition to the coup.

Meanwhile, the Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH – the InterAmerican Commission for Human Rights) has condemned the crackdown on freedom of expression under the coup regime and the harrassment of journalists by the authorities. Read an article (in Spanish) about the CIDH report here.

UPDATE, 27 NOVEMBER: A letter to the Guardian today demonstrates the broad range of opposition within the British political spectrum to the elections taking place under the coup regime. Read the letter.

On Nov 25 Salvadoran federal police intelligence reported that no fewer than 40 gang members from several countries in Central America  were  recently trained at a Zetas training camp alongside Laguna  El Tigre  in Guatemala across the border from Tabasco. A dozen were members of Mara Salvatrucha  (MS 13) cliques from  several municipalities in El Salvador–a new wrinkle as most Maras working for the Zetas have been from southern Mexico and Guatemala.

According to these police sources the young gangsters were being skilled in light weapons tactics by former Kaibiles, the notorious Guatemalan special forces counterpart to the Mexican GAFE which produced the original Los Zetas cadre.

This shouldn’t be much of a surprise considering the longterm alliance between rogue Kaibiles and the Zetas, one that dates back to the late 90s when they were being schooled together in advanced special operations skills at Ft Bragg, Ft Huachuca and Ft Benning. See June posting-Blowback from Bragg.

Since being arrested  in July 2006 three mid-level Zetas–”Mateo”, “Rafael” and “Karen”–have been secreted  in the witness protection program of the  Procuraduria General de La Republica (PGR) (the  Mexican Attorney General’s office) .  Over the past three years the three have provided  lengthy insiders’ reports on the Zetas La Compania.. “Comandente Mateo” was a member of Los Tangos, the Gulf cartel security and assassination squad.

MERCADOS MEXICANOS-¿Qué dicen los analistas? 26 de noviembre

via MERCADOS MEXICANOS-¿Qué dicen los analistas? 26 de noviembre | Titulares | Reuters.

Update:

Honduras Resists: 7am – Thurs 11/26 – University students have taken over the National Autonomous University and reached an agreement with the rector for there to be no more classes. The University was to be a center for voting and is now under control of the Resistance.
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In my long campaign of arguing with God over the terrible things that happen in this world, I am engaging in a partial fast for Thanksgiving.

The weapon on the left is a Colt 5.56 mm Sub-Compact. The young lady, presumably a “camisa blanca” (coup supporter) is from a photo at La Jornada.

The coup has declared that ballpoint pens are lethal weapons, and is forbidding their entry into the Brazilian embassy. Books, paper, fruit: very dangerous. Ironically, the Rottweiler they were using to sniff food died of stress, presumably from the sound weapon.

(Via a commenter at Narconews) The New Yorker has an article about Honduras. It’s behind a paywall, and there’s nothing much that MR readers don’t already know. It was written before the agreement fell apart. But it has some interesting confirmations. It says that the closest the resistance came to violence was over the burning of Popeye’s, which the resistance claims was done by the regime. This is an important point. Coup supporters claim that the resistance is responsible for the violence. But I cannot find the slightest evidence for this claim. Most of the non-regime sponsored violence seems top be drug- and crime-related, not to mention personal vendettas.

Radio Globo is up, but parts are impossible to follow. Congresswoman Sylvia Ayala. The Supreme Court has Marcelo Chimirri of Hondutel on trial for abuse of office and fraud. He is the nephew of Manuel Zelaya. The police are confiscating everything from machetes to scissors as weapons?! Ambassador to the OAS from Honduras Carlos Sosa Coello has returned to Honduras (see EFE). The Carter Center will not send observers for the election. Italy is not taking a position on the elections (meaning that they will probably recognize them)

Via Adrienne, the Latin American Working Group:

Basic conditions do not exist for free, fair, and transparent elections in Honduras. A cloud
of intimidation and restrictions on assembly and free speech affect the climate in which
these elections take place.

Also from Adrienne, Oscar says:

The campaign of terror carried out by the dictatorship agaist the popular sectors is going forth just as Andrés Pavón, president of CODEH, stated it would a couple weeks ago. The attack perpetrated using military arms against the politician and businessman from Olancho, Ulisis Sarmiento, was just the beginning.

Today the body of professor Gradis Espinal, teacher with the resistance, is buried in the south of the country. His body was discovered yesterday, hands bound and executed…

In the city of El Progreso, the police carried out intensive operations in the houses of the Resistance leaders and claim to have found a small arsenal of weapons … Among the weapons confiscated were various pounds of nails that according to the spokesman can be used to make “miguelitos” or traps that can be laid down on a road to puncture the tires…

In the city of Danlí, several youths were kidnapped by the army …

Tonight Milton Jimenes Puerto, close collaborator, ex-minister and friend of Zelaya’s who has been in hiding since June 28th, was arrested….

…(the regime announces with pleasure the arrival of the insignificant association [Phyllis Schlafly!] Concerned Women of America which comes, together with the “State” of Taiwan, as observers and witnesses …

…. the journey to national liberation, toward the refounding of Honduras, has begun.

HondurasOye reminds me of an important interview of Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, which I will be writing about.

Also via HondurasOye, the UN will not be involved in the Honduras elections.

Sarah Stephens, Director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas says that the US should not recognize the elections:

It’s within this atmosphere of murder, fear, reprisals and recrimination that the de facto government is readying for elections on Sunday…. I am concerned about what type of precedent the United States government would set if it recognizes the winner of an election designed, in part, to erase a bloody and unjust military coup. If our government blesses this election, and the majority of governments in our hemisphere do not, we will be divided from our allies and our credibility as advocates for democracy will be compromised once again.

The Empire strikes back!

Artigo de  Arturo Rosales in Caracas Axis of Logic, Aug 9, 2009

U.S. military presence in Latin America

The waning influence of the US in Latin America in the last decade can be attributed primarily to the influence and regional foreign policy of President Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian revolution. Left leaning leaders were elected in all countries, even in Central America, with the notable exceptions of Colombia, Peru, Mexico and Costa Rica. That trend showed one sign of reversal when Panamanians elected millionaire businessman Ricardo Martinelli as President on May 3rd 2009.

Return of the military coup d’état

Reports indicated that the US threw millions of dollars into Martinelli’s election campaign via USAID and NED and achieved the desired result. However, almost two months later, with the kidnapping and ouster of Manual Zelaya from the Honduran presidency, tactics would appear to have been changed. They have been transformed into the time-proven military coup d’état to install a regime “friendly to US interests and ideology”.

Despite unanimous condemnation of the Honduran coup and installation of de facto president Roberto Micheletti, by the OAS, UN and EU, the new regime has held on to power in the face of a crumbling economy and massive popular protest. Those  demonstrations by Hondurans continue to demand the return of Zelaya, the constitutional president. Could the “success” of this coup, sustained by gross violations of human rights, be a harbinger for the future of other democratically elected left wing Presidents in Latin America?

This is an open question but shortly after the coup against Zelaya many commentators and even regional Presidents saw this coup as an example to be followed. Right wing opposition parties in neighboring countries closely allied with the U.S. and traditional bourgeois interests certainly pricked up their ears. Both, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa have been mentioned in the same counter-revolutionary breath, as well as Alvaro Colom, Guatemala’s President.

New threat to Paraguay

Last night on Telesur news, there was a report covering unrest and military oppression against left wing popular movements in Paraguay, with the inference that these may be building up for a military coup against President Fernando Lugo. The Paraguayan Congress also appears to be working against Lugo and this attitude is a carbon copy of the institutional problems faced by Zelaya before he was illegally kidnapped and flown out of the country on June 28th.

 It is interesting to note that there is a US military base in Paraguay, the Mariscal Estigarribia air base, just as there is in Honduras. The U.S. military has been operating at the Mariscal Estigarribia base beginning in 2005 when they were training of 65 Paraguayan air force officers. Note that the Soto Cano air base in Honduras, which did nothing to help uphold the constitutional and democratic order, was a key installation for the contras under then president Ronald Reagan who terrorized Nicaragua in the 1980’s.

Colombia is the beach head

Coming hard on the heels of the incipient threat to other presidents in the region, Colombia’s government announced the construction of seven new US military bases throughout the country purportedly to combat the guerrilla movements and drug trafficking. It goes without saying that all US personnel, military contractors and advisers would have total immunity from prosecution in Colombia, as demanded by the US when its troops are sent abroad.

Such bases represent a military threat to Venezuela and its oil supplies and places the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela on guard. Colombia has not backed down and looks unlikely to rescind its military agreement with the US. President Chávez’s response was to suspend trade relations with the Uribe regime in order to create internal pressure from Colombian exporters who might well lose their second biggest trading partner, Venezuela, and US$6 billion of exports.

Uribe’s response was to make a snap tour to neighboring countries, including the continental powerhouse, Brazil, in order to explain his actions which clash directly with the Regional Security Council of Unasur. In fact, the next Unasur meeting is due to take place in Quito, Ecuador next week and Uribe has said that he would not attend.

** “Smart Power” for arms, oil and turf

With US troops being pulled out of Iraq and redeployed mainly to Afghanistan and Pakistan, one interpretation of the decision to set up U.S. bases in Colombia is that it is a tacit admission that the Iraq adventure to plunder its oil has failed. Now is the time to put pressure on Venezuela due to its strategic importance and huge oil reserves, now officially classified as the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia.

Whatever Obama’s election promises concerning the development of alternative energy sources to offset the US dependence on foreign oil imports, economically the US needs all the oil it can get, by fair means or foul to continue its agenda. The seven proposed bases in Colombia appear destined to achieve that goal.

One consequence of the policy adopted by Uribe, will be an arms build-up in the region, and more specifically in Venezuela to defend its sovereignty against any possible aggression from its bellicose neighbor.

The Empire, using what is being called “smart power” to achieve its foreign policy aims, has not changed one iota except in the style and silver tongued words of its young President.

The bases, when constructed, will turn Colombia into the Israel of Latin America and be a beach head for subversion throughout the region, especially in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela, all of which have common borders with Colombia

Media war

The world’s corporate media has embarked on an accelerated offensive against the Venezuelan government and in particular President Chávez in the last two months.

Chávez is being accused of trafficking drugs, supplying armaments for the FARC, allowing Hezbollah training camps in La Guajira region near the Colombian border and endangering the freedom of speech in Venezuela. He was also attacked along these lines by Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who recently did a tour of Latin America. Lieberman himself is currently under threat of indictment on charges of fraud, bribery, money laundering and obstruction of justice.

Israel in Latin America

Currently, Israeli arms and operatives are present in Colombia and other Latin American countries. Many ask why Israel is interfering in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. Lieberman is said to have offered Mossad training to Colombia to complement existing CIA activities. This will probably take place at the proposed bases, with the purpose of training graduates of the School of the America’s (S.O.A. – School of Assassins) who are operating in the region. Using a surrogate such as Israel to promote terror in the region is a “smart” move by Clinton and Obama, both avid supporters of Israel as evidenced in their respective election campaigns and following rhetoric and policies.

At this point in time, the obvious problem of U.S. military bases in Colombia lies in the hands of the Colombian people. They have an opportunity to save their sovereignty, culture and lives from decimation by the imperialists. Their revolutionary actions could also provide an example for other Latin American nations and force the region’s threats of military coup to recede.

Military bases, Israel’s involvement in Colombia and the U.S. demand for oil will bring armed conflict ever nearer in Latin America. A few wealthy opposition leaders would welcome a return of the U.S. to Venezuela, thinking they or their offspring may return to their pre-1998 throne. But the followers of the right wing opposition in Venezuela would do well to reflect on its silence about this issue. If a conflict does occur, it will not just be the people in the barrios who will suffer as some seem to think, but the bourgeoisie and their families will simply be classified as “collateral damage”.

Fonte http://images.google.com.br/imgres?imgurl=http://axisoflogic.com/artman/uploads/1/us-bases-latin_america.jpg&imgrefurl=http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_56597.shtml&usg=__Krhtpgdllq7-lVQS0XDqG1DAf4A=&h=405&w=500&sz=61&hl=pt-BR&start=29&um=1&tbnid=_gIsutya-u71zM:&tbnh=105&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dimage%2BUS%2Blatin%2Bamerica%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Dpt-BR%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1

Postado por

Luiz Albuquerque

Since the World Cup was announced Brazil property portals have announced a massive increase in traffic numbers, and agents are also reporting increased activity and enquiries.

However, this is not turning into a similar increase in sales, because people do not realise that Rio de Janeiro property prices are among the highest in the world.

The northeast of the country is where all the bargains are to be found, and where the highest yielding capital investments are being made.

However, with Brazil, like almost everywhere in the world, capital investments should only be made over the mid to long term.

Over the next 10 – 20 years it is a fairly safe bet that beachfront property in the northeast of Brazil will grow in value by 100% almost certainly, by 150% quite likely and possibly even more, up to 200%.

This is because property prices in the northeast of Brazil are currently very low, tourism is rising massively, and the economy is growing rapidly. This cocktail will see prices rising because of natural price inflation increasing the cost of building, because of increasing demand, and because of increasing rental yields.

Already there are properties available with guaranteed rental yields of 8% and upwards in places like Fortaleza. For example the Jangada das Dunas development, which offers 1 bedroom apartments in Fortaleza on the Porto das Dunas beach for £55k, with a guaranteed rental yield of 12%.

The best known Brazilian town, which also offers bargain property and good investment opportunities is Natal. You can currently buy a luxury 2 bedroom apartment on the Laguna Beach for £72k. The good thing about Natal is that it will also benefit from World Cup fever in 2016.

That said, by far the most profitable arm of Brazil property investment is in low density housing for the growing Brazilian middle class. The demand for such properties is set to grow exponentially year on year between now and at least 2020, and onwards until 2050, with the potential for annual capital growth of 10% over those periods, and reliable rental yields of between 4% and 6% without too much work.

Find out more about investing in Brazil property from Azure Overseas

Honduras has been a lot of turmoil in the last few months.  In June the President, Manuel Zelaya, was forced out of office at gunpoint.  I wrote about it at the time, here and here.  And I still don’t know exactly what happened or why, but then I read pieces like this one from Sarah Stephens who is the executive director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas and she has visited Honduras at least twice since the coup.  And the picture she paints is not very pretty at all.

And now we have elections come up on Sunday.  It is hard to argue that an election held in Honduras today could be considered free and fair.  So I have to agree with Ms. Stephens when she argues that the US must not recognize the election’s winner until the situation improves.

An exerpt from her piece on Huffington Post:

“The de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, the former head of the Honduran Congress who the military installed as president, has issued various decrees restricting freedom of assembly and authorizing the military and police to shut down opposition media outlets and, in one instance, to confiscate their equipment. The opposition media is back on the air, but regular interruptions of television and radio transmissions continue. Meanwhile the threat of another shutdown looms due to a recent decree that prohibits any statement by the press that threatens ‘national security.’”