Hambre: La Tormenta Perfecta.

¿Se cumplirán algun día las profesías malthusianas sobre el hambre?

'Perfect storm' looms for world's food supplies

by Richard Ingham Richard Ingham Tue May 31, 5:22 am ET

El mapa mundial del hambre.

PARIS (AFP) – Oxfam called on Tuesday for an overhaul of the world's food system, warning that in a couple of decades, millions more people would be gripped by hunger due to population growth and climate-hit harvests.
A "broken food system" means that the price of some staples will more than double by 2030, battering the world's poorest people, who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food, the British-based aid group predicted.

La Paradoja Mejicana.

The Mexican Paradox
Why is a supposed 'failed state' prospering?

BY BRET STEPHENS

Last week, gun battles between warring drug cartels in the central Mexican state of Michoacán lasted three days, brought down a police helicopter, caused a small flood of refugees, and took an as-yet undetermined toll in lives.

It's almost a surprise the story made the news at all. "The conflict was slow to get out because local media in states like Michoacán have largely stopped covering the carnage on orders from drug gangs," reported The Journal's David Luhnow and José de Córdoba on Friday. More than 20 reporters have been killed in Mexico since the drug wars began in earnest in 2006. Last year, Mexico tied Iraq, and was second only to Pakistan, in journalist fatalities.

El Narcotráfico se Diversifica III.

Primero fue la extracción de oro, luego el robo de hidrocaburos. Ahora es el turno de la música y las películas.

Mexican drug cartels muscle in on lucrative movie and music piracy business

By William Booth, Published: May 29

Anuncio para denunciar piratería de DVDs.

MEXICO CITY — When hundreds of Mexican police crashed through the doors into a warren of mysterious warehouses and humming laboratories, they uncovered one of the largest illegal manufacturing centers of pirated movies and music ever found in Latin America.
The pre-dawn raids last month netted 12 tons of movie disks and more than 1,000 DVD burners, enough machinery to produce a staggering 500,000 counterfeit copies of “Kung Fu Panda 2” a day, if the factories were running at capacity.

LOS ARGENTINOS, LOS BRASILEÑOS Y LA BOMBA

El "war room" de la película Dr. Insólito.

                                                                                                                                por Lucio Falcone

¿Un Dr. Insólito brasilero?[1]

Informaciones periodísticas recientes dan cuentan de los deseos de la Republica Federativa de Brasil de avanzar en el uso militar de la energía nuclear mediante dos viejos proyectos: la construcción de un submarino nuclear y la fabricación de una bomba atómica. Así dicho suena casi lógico, especialmente si lo contrastamos con informaciones más antiguas, pero igualmente persistentes provenientes del Palácio do Itamarati, cual es su deseo de llegar a ser un miembro permanente del Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU. ¿No son acaso, también, los cinco grandes: EE.UU., Rusia, Gran Bretaña, China y Francia miembros del exclusivo club nuclear? Parecería ser que el derecho de admisión pasara por la posibilidad de poseer armas que puedan mandar a un eventual contendiente a la Edad de Piedra. Hasta aquí todo bien. 

Pakistán y su Arsenal Nuclear.

¿Cuáles son las razones que pueden impulsar a un país sumido en una compleja situación política y económica a desarrollar y mantener un costoso arsenal nuclear?

 

 

Understanding Pakistan's Nuclear Rationale

26 May 2011

  Three factors shed light on why Pakistan is rapidly increasing its nuclear weapons capabilities: India's fissile material stock; preference signaling; and the concept of moral hazard.

By Yogesh Joshi for ISN Insights

---

Misil de crucero "Babu" con carga nuclear táctica.

"Pak producing n-arms faster than anyone else", read one of the notes sent home by the US embassy in Islamabad as leaked by WikiLeaks. A recent study in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists on fissile material and nuclear weapons' inventory points in the same direction. Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than India, and its weapons-usable fissile material inventories are larger than those of its bigger neighbor. In fact, Pakistan today possesses the fourth largest inventory of nuclear weapons in the world. The increasing nuclear capabilities of a country mired in internal conflict and considered to be a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism is alarming.
Three factors shed light on why Pakistan is increasing its nuclear weapons' capabilities: India's fissile material stock; preference signaling; and the concept of moral hazard.

 

BREVES - MAYO 2011.

•  La Unión de Emiratos Arabes será huesped de la 12da edición de ejercicios militares entre los Estados que componen el Consejo de Cooperación del Golfo y el Comando Central de los EEUU. Los mismos tendrán una duración de dos semanas y tendrán por finalidad mejorar la coordinación para operaciones antiterroristas.

T-50 "Golden Eagle".

• Indonesia firmó el contrato por la compra de 16 aviones T-50 "Golden Eagle" a Corea del Sur. El valor del mismo asciende a 400 millones de U$S. El avión coreano resultó vencedor de un concurso en el que particiaparon, además de Corea, Rusia y la República Checa.
• La Unión Europea enviará €1.700 millones adicionales, a los ya acordados 5.700 millones acordados para mejorar la situación social de Estados limítrofes sureños y orientales. Se aclaró que tendrán prefeencia, especialmente, aquellos que se encuentren afectados por el fenómeno de la denominada "primavera árabe".

• Brasil invertirá U$S 2.900 millones para mejorar la

  

  Ponta da Madeira.

operatividad del puerto Ponta da Madeira. Su objetivo es que éste pueda movilizar hasta 150 millones de toneladas/año antes de fines del 2012. Con ello pasará a ser uno de los de mayor movimiento de la región.

• Tanto la India como 15 naciones africanas han solicitado un inmediato cese al fuego en la campaña aérea contra Libia. Además, han requerido que la ONU diseñe un "mapa para la paz" a fin de lograr una salida negociada para ese conflicto.

Viktor Yanukovych.

• El presidente ucraniano, Viktor Yanukovych, ha sostenido que su intención es la de formalizar el ingreso de su país a la Unión Europea. Declaraciones anteriores y en el mismo sentido, no avnazaron, más allá de lo declamativo, por presiones ejercidas por Rusia.

• El ministro de defensa de la India, A.K. Antony, descartó de plano que su país pudiera llegar a integrar cuaquier tipo de alianza militar multilateral que no cuente con un mandato expreso de la ONU. Dándo por tierra con ciertas especulaciones que veían a la Armada India uniéndose a una flota regional de los EEUU, bajo el concepto de "One Thousand Ship Navy".

• El comandante naval chino, Almirante Wu Shengli se reunió con su contraparte israelì, el Vicealmirante Eleizer Maron. El tema central de la reunión fue la regulación de la transferencia de tecnología naval. Ya que los EEUU objetaron que este proceso incluyera material de origen norteamericano.

A los lectores interesados en ampliar esta información le pedimos que nos envíen un mail.

Los Ganadores de la Guerra en Irak.

Las paradojas son comunes en la estrategia. Al parecer, en Irak está cerca de que ocurra una más: que Irán termine siendo el principal beneficiario de la intervención de los EEUU.

Thousands of Sadr supporters rally against U.S. in Baghdad

By Tim Craig, 26 May

Las disciplinadas fuerzas de
 Mustafá Sadr marchan en Bagdad.

BAGHDAD — In a defiant warning to U.S. and Iraqi officials, thousands of young men marched through Baghdad’s Sadr City on Thursday to prove they could restart the insurgency if American troops do not leave the country by the end of the year. The militia men wore new uniforms featuring the colors of the Iraqi flag, bearing a signal from Sadr that he hopes to remain part of Iraq’s governing coalition and political process.

But the parade included an overwhelming tenor of anti-American hostility.
Squad leaders for each cluster carried signs stating “No, No for America” and “No, No for Israel.”
In front of the main viewing stand, filled with high-ranking Sadrist officials but not Sadr himself, the parade would stop periodically and participants would burn American and Israeli flags.

Brasil y el Amazonas.

 

Brazil eases rules on conserving Amazon rainforest

 

Brazil's Chamber of Deputies has voted to ease restrictions on the amount of land farmers must preserve as forest.

The amended law also grants some amnesties for previous deforestation.
Supporters say Brazil needs land to boost agricultural production, while environmentalists say destruction of the Amazon rainforest will increase.
Wrangling over the final bill is likely, as Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff indicated she would veto any bill that contained an amnesty.
After months of at times acrimonious debate, the Chamber of Deputies voted to overhaul the Forest Code, as the legislation is known.

ALERTA - Libia 2.

France 'to deploy helicopters in Libya'

2011-05-23 14:15

El FS Tonnerre.

Paris - France plans to deploy attack helicopters in Libya, the first to be used in the coalition against Muammar Gaddafi's forces, a French newspaper reported on Monday.

Twelve helicopters were shipped out to Libya on French battleship Tonnerre on May 17, daily Le Figaro reported, to help break a military stalemate three months into an uprising against Gaddafi's four-decade rule.

"Using helicopters from the Tonnerre is a way of getting closer to the ground," the newspaper said, citing a source close to the matter.

An Armed Forces spokesperson declined to confirm the report, but said the ship in question could carry helicopters.

French planes were the first to bomb Gaddafi's forces in March after the United Nations voted to allow intervention to protect civilians.

The air strikes, now led by Nato, were launched as Gaddafi's troops advanced on Benghazi after the Libyan leader vowed "no mercy, no pity".

Many Nato members refuse to go beyond enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone to attack Gaddafi's forces, despite the urging of France, Britain and the United States, which all want to see Gaddafi removed from power.

The Nato campaign has crippled Tripoli's ability to attack rebels, but rebel advances have also stalled.

According to Le Figaro's source, French special forces, who have been operating in Libya to help identify targets for Nato planes since the start of air strikes, could now be reinforced and deployed to guide helicopter attacks.

Analysts say Nato may have no choice but to escalate its Libyan war effort and use helicopters or naval gunfire to end bloodshed particularly in the besieged city of Misrata and break the military deadlock.

- Reuters

La Suerte de las Minorías en el Islam.

Siendo el Islam la única religión en crecimiento en un mundo crecientemente secularizado. El autor se interroga sobre que lugar ocuparán las minorías en sus sociedades.

The Fate of Minorities in the Arab Spring

Primera sura del Corán.

PARIS, May 19 (IPS) - From the shores of the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, women and men in many Arab-Muslim countries are demanding that their rulers democratise, and that dictators monopolising power and national wealth for their own profit step down.
Many observers have long underestimated and some even denied the great aspiration of the Arab people for democracy. But the ongoing extraordinary turmoil demonstrates the universality of the demand for human rights, and that adherence to Islam does not preclude desire for democracy.

So far, despite some fears, Arab revolutions have led to neither xenophobia nor anti-Western demonstrations, nor a significant breakthrough for Islamists.

Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution" and the mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt shared demands for the end of dictatorial regimes. The uprisings also raised the implicit challenge of political Islamism.

But demonstrators did not cite the Sharia or the wish for a theocratic state based on a fundamentalist Islam while defying batons and bullets. They demanded, and won promises for, what people in other Arab states are also now seeking - a multiparty system, freedom of the press, and the prospect of genuine democratic pluralist elections.

BREVES - Mayo II.

EL CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS ESTRATÉGICOS DE LA DEFENSA SE REALIZA UNA CONFERENCIA INTERNACIONAL.

 BUENOS AIRES (20 MAY 11 El ministro de Defensa, Arturo Puricelli, disertará en la sesión inaugural del Centro de Estudios Estratégicos de la Defensa (CEED) que se desarrollará el jueves próximo en el Edificio Libertador, sede de la cartera. Este centro constituye la primera instancia de carácter permanente instituida por un órgano de la Unasur con representantes de todos los ministerios de Defensa de los países miembros. Durante dos jornadas en el marco de la conferencia internacional: “El Posicionamiento Estratégico de Suramérica en el Siglo XXI” se debatirá con los principales ministros de Defensa y representantes de la región. El CEED del Consejo de Defensa Suramericano, cuya sede funciona en Buenos Aires, fue creado a partir de la necesidad de consolidar una identidad suramericana en materia de Defensa y tiene como finalidad la construcción de una visión propia, orientada desde las necesidades específicas y el interés común de los países de la región.

Luego de la disertación del ministro Puricelli el jueves próximo a las 14, harán lo propio Alfredo Forti, director del CEED (además de Secretario de Estrategia y Asuntos Militares del Ministerio de Defensa); Álvaro García Linera, vicepresidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia; y María Emma Mejía, secretaria general de Unasur. A las 16 comenzará el primer panel, del que participarán: Samuel Pinheiro Guimaraes, representante general del MERCOSUR; Raúl Rivera Andueza, presidente de la Fundación Foro Innovación, Chile; y el analista internacional Juan Gabriel Tokatlian. Al término de estas ponencias, ministros e invitados especiales reflexionarán sobre la temática.

El viernes comenzará a la 10 el segundo panel, en el que intervendrán: los ministros de Defensa de Brasil, Nelson Jobim; de Ecuador, Javier Ponce; de Perú, Jaime Thorne León; y el director del Centro de Estudios Nacionales e Internacionales (CENI), Luis Nicanor Bareiro Spaini.A las 12.30 se desarrollará una mesa redonda con los ministros de Defensa de los países de Unasur moderada por Germán Montenegro (director de la Escuela de Defensa Nacional) de la que se sacarán conclusiones y lineamientos para el CEED.

Finalmente a las 13.30 el ministro Puricelli clausurará la conferencia internacional que inaugura oficialmente el CEED.

Fuente: Ministerio de Defensa.

¿España no es Egipto?

La Puerta del Sol ya es un «microestado»

La toma de la plaza se ha convertido en una superestructura horizontal en la que los comités votan cada una de las medidas

U.PÉREZ / MADRID . Día 19/05/2011 - 19.01h

El comité de Infraestructura durante la asamblea  del Sol no tiene líder, ni portavoz fijo, ni color predominante. El kilómetro cero de Madrid se está organizando como si de un mini Estado se tratase. Pasadas las 14.30 daba comienzo la asamblea. Cada comité se dirigió al lugar de la plaza especificado en el mapa colgado en la estatua de Carlos III. Desde el pasado 15 de mayo, primer día de acampada, el movimiento se ha ido estructurando por medio de comités. Los integrantes de cada uno de ellos deciden en cada reunión nuevas propuestas o fijan posibles medidas a seguir. ABC les ha acompañado en uno de estos encuentros.

¿Estado grande o pequeño?

¿Cuáles son los límites para la intervención estatal? Una pregunta que conservadores y populistas contestan en forma diferente. El articulista lo hace tomando como ejemplo a la sociedad británica.

The Big Society

By DAVID BROOKS

Una calle al gusto de Jane Jacobs.

London: Fifty years ago, Jane Jacobs published a book called “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” The book was not only an indictment of contemporary urban development; it offered a vision for a healthy community. Jacobs described a streetscape as an organic ballet, as the comings and goings of shop owners, office workers, cops and parents. She described the complex interplay of many different types of people on one city block.
Here in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is trying to foster that sort of society. Until Cameron, Britain — like the U.S. — had one party that spoke on behalf of the market (the Conservatives) and one party that spoke on behalf of the state (Labour). But Cameron is initiating a series of policies, under the rubric “Big Society,” that seek to nurture community bonds, civic activism and social capital.

Los Límites del Poder Militar.

Decían los teóricos de la PGM: "la Artillería destruye, la Infantería ocupa". Una verdad, que salvando las distancias, parece seguir siendo válida.

May 18, 2011

The Limits of Military Force

By CHRISTOPHER M. SCHNAUBELT



Cuando las bombas inteligentes no bastan.

 As the third month of military operations begins, the NATO-led efforts to protect civilians in Libya are subject to a vast array of questions. The most important is whether political leaders are fully cognizant of the inherent limits of military force in achieving humanitarian goals. Whether it is called “kinetic military action” or “war,” all combat is subject to fog and friction in a contest of wills — even when the ultimate purpose is defending innocent bystanders.
One of the paradoxes of using military force to achieve humanitarian goals is that when less than vital national interests are involved, the avoidance of friendly military casualties becomes an imperative.

Un Amenaza Real: los Cyberataques.

Un interesante informe de un reconocido think tank de los EEUU sobre las posibilidades, cada vez más reales, de que un cyber-ataque tenga consecuencias serias.

Time for America to Get Cyber-Serious

Published on May 16, 2011 by Paul Rosenzweig and James Carafano, Ph.D. America at Risk Memo 

 The online threats facing America read like an ever-expanding encyclopedia of dangers to the freedoms, prosperity, and security of all Americans. Cybersecurity has become a crucial component of national security. Responses to cyber threats, however, have largely lagged because of a focus on technologies rather than the people behind the technologies.

Cyber competition is just one instrument that America’s enemies are using to undermine the common defense. To meet these challenges, the United States and its allies need to get cyber-serious.

Anécdotas de Guerra II.

Hace 200 años, La Albuera.

Del blog de Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Patente de Corso.

El comandante inglés a punto de ser desmontado por un ulano polaco.

Hace tiempo que no cuento una de esas historias de navegaciones y batallitas que me gusta recordar de vez en cuando. También llevo años sin mentarle la madre a la pérfida Albión; que, como saben los veteranos de esta página, siempre fue mi enemiga histórica favorita. Si como lector disfruto con los libros que cuentan episodios navales o terrestres, disfruto mucho más cuando quienes palman son ingleses. Como español -cada cual nace donde puede, no donde quiere- estoy harto de que todos los historiadores y novelistas británicos, barriendo para casa, describan a los marinos y soldados de aquí como chusma incompetente y cobarde que olía a ajo. Por eso, cuando tengo ocasión de recordar algún lance donde a los súbditos de Su Graciosa les rompieran los cuernos, disfruto como gorrino en bancal de zanahorias. A otros les gusta el fútbol.

El Espacio como Area de Interés Estratégico.

Ya nadie duda que el espacio exterior es un campo de batalla. Uno en el que tendrán lugar, tanto para acciones físicas como virtuales.

Managing the Space Domain




La International Space Station, un emprendimiento
 ruso-norteamericano

 
Eric Sterner | 17 May 2011

Debates over space policy typically concern three themes: national security, civil space and commercial space. National security discussions have historically focused on threats to space systems and the proper steps to either preclude, or respond to, those threats. Over the past several years, however, those discussions have grown more sophisticated, moving on to the broader issue of U.S. dependence on and use of space to enhance its military, economic and political power. In civil space, policy discussions address questions of resources and priorities: how much to spend and what to spend it on. Roughly every decade, civil space programs experience a soul-searching examination of their raison d'être, most notably in the United States. In commercial space, American debates typically start with the premise that commercial space activity is desirable and then proceed to discussions over what the government can, or should, do to enhance it.

La Geopolítica de los Alimentos.

La gran pregunta de valor estratégico es cómo la suba en los precios de los alimentos puede generar conflictos. Y como los mismos nos pueden afectar. Siendo como somos un gran productor de alimentos.

The New Geopolitics of Food

 Welcome to the 21st-century food wars.

BY LESTER R. BROWN | MAY/JUNE 2011

In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in the world price of wheat actually means that the wheat you carry home from the market to hand-grind into flour for chapatis costs twice as much. And the same is true with rice. If the world price of rice doubles, so does the price of rice in your neighborhood market in Jakarta. And so does the cost of the bowl of boiled rice on an Indonesian family's dinner table.
Welcome to the new food economics of 2011: Prices are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally. For Americans, who spend less than one-tenth of their income in the supermarket, the soaring food prices we've seen so far this year are an annoyance, not a calamity. But for the planet's poorest 2 billion people, who spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food, these soaring prices may mean going from two meals a day to one. Those who are barely hanging on to the lower rungs of the global economic ladder risk losing their grip entirely. This can contribute -- and it has -- to revolutions and upheaval.

Already in 2011, the U.N. Food Price Index has eclipsed its previous all-time global high; as of March it had climbed for eight consecutive months. With this year's harvest predicted to fall short, with governments in the Middle East and Africa teetering as a result of the price spikes, and with anxious markets sustaining one shock after another, food has quickly become the hidden driver of world politics. And crises like these are going to become increasingly common. The new geopolitics of food looks a whole lot more volatile -- and a whole lot more contentious -- than it used to. Scarcity is the new norm.
Until recently, sudden price surges just didn't matter as much, as they were quickly followed by a return to the relatively low food prices that helped shape the political stability of the late 20th century across much of the globe. But now both the causes and consequences are ominously different.

Anuncian más Recortes en la Defensa Británica.

PRENSA LATINA

 HMS Illustrious.  Londres, 16 may (PL) El Ministerio de Defensa británico reducirá más personal y equipos militares como parte de un plan de ajuste nacional, implementado por la coalición gubernamental, informaron hoy fuentes oficiales.   De acuerdo con un programa que se aplicará a partir de 2012, la Fuerza Aérea y la Marina perderán cinco mil miembros cada una, mientras el Ejército quedará sin siete mil efectivos, entre soldados y civiles. Esa reducción se suma a la efectuada en octubre de 2009, cuando quedaron cesantes 42 mil empleados del sistema defensivo nacional. En esa fecha, una revisión estratégica de Defensa y Seguridad condujo también a la desactivación del buque HMS Ark Royal y a la flota de aviones Harrier.  HMS Ocean  Un grupo de militares británicos retirados calificó de "financieramente perversos" los recortes aplicados en el Ministerio de Defensa del país. Los exoficiales advirtieron que la disminución de las partidas presupuestarias en el sector dejaría a la nación ante una situación vulnerable en caso de alguna agresión a sus posiciones, incluidas las de ultramar. En carta enviada al periódico The Times, los exmarinos criticaron el desmantelamiento del portaaviones Ark Royal y de la flota de aviones Harrier. Como resultado del ajuste, las fuerzas británicas no podrán volver a operar aviones de combate desde portaviones antes de 2019. De acuerdo con la misiva, el primer ministro, David Cameron, fue mal asesorado sobre la decisión de eliminar los Harrier y el Ark Royal y de depender enteramente de la flota de aviones Tornado. El Tesoro británico pidió al Ministerio de Defensa disminuir en 10 por ciento su presupuesto anual, que asciende a 37 mil millones de libras esterlinas, unos 43 mil millones de euros.

Emiratos Arabes Privatiza un Batallón.

 

UAE prince hires Blackwater founder to set up foreign force

By Reuters, Published: May 15



Antiguo y nuevo logo de Blackwater.

 The crown prince of Abu Dhabi has hired the founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide to set up an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the United Arab Emirates, the New York Times reported Sunday.
The Times said it obtained documents that showed that the unit being formed by Erik Prince’s new company, Reflex Responses, with $529 million from the UAE would be used to thwart internal revolt, conduct special operations and defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from attacks.
The newspaper said the UAE’s decision to hire the contingent of foreign troops was taken before a wave of popular unrest spread across the Arab world in recent months, including to neighboring Bahrain and Oman.

Las Opciones ante una Larga Guerra.

El artículo explora las cuatro alternativas que tienen los EEUU para terminar sus interveciones militares en desarrollo.

The New Rules: Four Options for Redefining the Long War



El nuevo ejército de Afganistán marchando.


Thomas P.M. Barnett | 16 May 2011

There is a profound sense of completion to be found in America's elimination of Osama bin Laden, and the circumstances surrounding his death certainly fit this frontier nation's historical habit of mounting major military operations to capture or kill super-empowered bad actors. Operation Geronimo, like most notable U.S. overseas interventions of the past quarter-century, boiled down to eliminating the one man we absolutely felt we needed to get to declare victory. Now we have the opportunity to redefine this "long war" to America's most immediate advantage. I spot four basic options, each with their own attractions and distractions.

ALERTA - Guatemala.

27 CAMPESINOS MUERTOS EN LA FRONTERA ENTRE GUATEMALA Y MEXICO.

Domingo 15 May 11, 2215 hrs

Policías guatemaltecos retiran un cuerpo tras la masacre.

GUATEMALA (Reuters) – Al menos 27 personas fueron encontradas muertas en una aldea guatemalteca cerca de la frontera con México el Domingo por la mañana. El sangriento incidente, al parecer, empezó con una incursión contra el pueblo La Bomba, a unos 300 km al norte de la capital. Entre las víctimas figuran dos mujeres. La mayor parte de los cuerpos estaban decapitados afirmó el jefe de policía local, Donald Gonzalez. Quien agregó que se presume que los asesinatos están vinculados a la muerte el sábado anterior de Haroldo Waldemar León (56 años), hermano de un poderoso traficante de drogas,  Juan José Leon, quien fue baleado en un area rural próxima al caserío.
POr su parte, José León era buscado por la DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration) cuando fue muerto en 2008 en un ataque contra su casa, en el que participaron 30 personas armadas. La policía de Guatemala vincula a los León con el poderoso cartel mejicano conocido como los "Zetas".
(Reporte de Mike McDonald; Edición de Peter Cooney y Todd Eastham).

CHOQUE ENTRE FUERZAS ISRAELIES Y MANIFESTANTES PALESTINOS.

Un palestino sobre una barricada de autos.

                                                        Una movilización masiva de palestinos y actos de violencia sin precedentes dejaron este domingo al menos 21 muertos y 130 heridos en Gaza y Cisjordania, en la frontera entre Líbano e Israel, y en el Golán, durante la conmemoración de “Al-Nakba” (“La Catástrofe”), como se denomina al período iniciado en 1948 con el éxodo de 700 mil pobladores palestinos de las tierras que más tarde formarían el Estado de Israel. Se trata de uno de los incidentes fronterizos más graves entre ambos países desde la guerra árabe-israelí de 1973.

En los territorios palestinos de Gaza y Cisjordania, centenares de manifestantes se congregaron en los puntos de acceso a Israel para reclamar la devolución de las fronteras de 1967, antes de la Guerra de los Seis Días. “He ordenado al Ejército actuar con máxima contención para evitar cualquier infiltración a nuestras fronteras”, subrayó el primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Porta-aviones ¿Grandes o Pequeños?

¿Grandes porta-aviones o porta-aeronaves más pequeños y económicos? Una pregunta que solo puede contestarse a la luz de las ambiciones políticas de cada Estado.

Over the Horizon: Symbol and Utility in the Great Carrier Debate

Robert Farley | 11 May 2011

La mole de 100.000 T del "USS Gerald Ford".



Driven in part by a recent article in Proceedings, the magazine of the United States Naval Institute, the debate over the nature and utility of aircraft carriers has once again erupted between naval analysts. In "Twilight of the $uperflous Carrier," Capt. Henry J. Hendrix of the U.S. Navy and retired Lt. Col. J. Noel Williams of the U.S. Marine Corps argue that modern supercarriers are simply too expensive and too vulnerable to be usable weapons of war. They contend that the era of the supercarrier has come to an end, and that the future of naval power resides in warships like the USS America, a big-deck amphibious assault ship that will eventually be capable of operating the F-35B Lightning II VSTOL fighter jet. Bryan McGrath of Information Dissemination disputes several key assumptions of the article, including the relative vulnerability of supercarriers and big amphibious ships, and the role that UAVs will play in the future of carrier aviation. has argued that Shi Lang's importance is primarily "symbolic."

It is worth unpacking the idea that aircraft carriers play a "symbolic" role, because as Phil Ewing argues, U.S. carriers are also expected to have "symbolic" importance. Typically, the term "symbolic" is understood to be in tension with "utility." So when Willard suggests that Shi Lang will be symbolic, he is essentially arguing that the Chinese ship will not be very militarily useful in and of itself.

Un Nuevo Satélite Argentino.

Argentina's UNLP joins satellite building project

Published: May 12, 2011 at 2:48 PM




Satélite SAC-D/ Aquarius.

BUENOS AIRES, May 12 (UPI) -- Argentina's National University of La Plata is joining hands with NASA and Dassault Systems Solutions in a project that will see the Argentine engineering and aeronautics experts collaborating in the building of a climate change monitoring satellite.
The partnership was hailed as the first collaboration of its kind, mainly because of NASA's decision to outsource some of the key work.
Dassault Systemes, a major player in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management solutions and the Argentine university unveiled their key contributions to Project Aquaries-SAC-D, a satellite mission that uses scientific applications that help predict climatic changes accurately.

El Referendúm en Ecuador.

Ecuador's constitutional referendum

A close count

The balance of powers hangs in the balance

May 12th 2011 | QUITO | from the print edition

Rafael Correa, Presidente de Ecuador.

LAST September Ecuador’s police staged an ugly mutiny to protest against a cut in their benefits. During the uprising Rafael Correa, the president, was trapped for hours in a police hospital. Although there is no proven evidence that anyone involved sought to oust him, he has called the event an attempted coup. In an effort to shore up his power, he then scheduled a referendum to reform the constitution he inspired in 2008, following in the footsteps of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. To rally support, he distributed sheep to indigenous farmers and raised salaries for the army and bureaucracy.
On May 7th Ecuadoreans voted on a 4,000-word package of ten amendments, phrased in

Brasil Considera Arrendar Tierras a Extranjeros.

Brazil considering leasing farm land to foreigners to circumvent sales restrictions

Brazil may start leasing farm land to foreigners to find a way around new legal restrictions on land sales and attract more foreign investment, the agriculture minister said.



Wagner Rossi, Ministro de Agricultura
de Brasil.



 Last year, foreigners seeking to buy large plots of land began running into legal roadblocks, after the attorney general's office reinterpreted real estate law amid concern over property speculation by overseas investors.

But President Dilma Rousseff, who took office in January, is looking for ways to ease the restrictions on foreign investment in the farm sector. Rousseff, who seems more pragmatic than her predecessor Lula da Silva, wants to encourage productive foreign investment while still fending off speculators.
“It's important that they come and make these investments,” Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said, citing the paper and cellulose industry as one among many which would benefit from new investment and know-how.