RIO: Painter Michael D’Antuono, created this depiction of Barack Obama posed as Jesus Christ.

The painting is a powerful statement about America, as it is the U.S.’s sins Obama is dying for.

Article from O Globo: Pintor retrata Barack Obama como Jesus Cristo
More discussion at Painter depicts Barack Obama as Jesus Christ

Marc is a writer and improviser in Chicago. Check out his improv work at Octavarius.com>

BRAZIL: A 9 year-old girl was raped and impregnated by her step-father and got an abortion. Disgusted by the abortion, the Catholic church excommunicated everyone involved except the rapist. However, the case has focused new attention on the sexual abuse of children in Brazil.

This story was barely covered in the US while the case was happening. There is an old Magellan post about it in reference to an El Tempo article. Now the story has made it to the New York Times.

New York Times article: Amid Abuse in Brazil, Abortion Debate Flares

BRAZIL: A Brazilian Archbishop accused the Jews of owning the worlds advertising and said that more Catholics than Jews died in the holocaust. The article is in Spanish, but if you can read it, it is very interesting. The Catholic Church is very powerful in Brazil.

El Tmpo article: Arzobispo brasileño acusa a judíos de ocultar hechos del Holocausto

PERU: There are only two buses that go through the mountain hamlet of Tunal and they both leave Piura from the Terminal Terrestre de Castillo at six in the morning. After six and a half hours down third world unpaved roads in the mountains, crossing streams without bridges and nearly falling into the abyss at least a half dozen times, you arrive in the village of Tunal. From where the bus drops you off, you can see the delegated municipality, the church, the town hostel, the health center, and that’s just about everything there is to see. There are around 1,000 people, a lot of trees and a concrete step where, if you stretch high enough, you can sometimes get cell phone signal.

Around 8pm, loudspeakers broke Tunal’s isolation with a distinctly Chavista newscast. The news program was about the Israeli invasion of Gaza, the crimes committed by Israel and Chavez’s fierce opposition to it. The coverage was unbalanced, focusing only on the carnage and on dear leader’s heroic actions to help the suffering. I would expect Chavista media in a small town in Venezuela, but I was surprised to hear this kind of news playing in a small town in the mountains of Peru. However, Tunal’s newscast is but one example of the Venezuelan leader’s publicity efforts in Latin America.

Hugo Chávez dreams of a unified Latin America that will use socialism to end American imperialism and he employs various techniques to unite Latin Americans under his vision. In the realm of television, Venezuela created Telesur, a TV station that broadcasts in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba, with the support of their left-wing governments. In addition to traditional media, Chávez works with leftists to create ALBA houses that do public works and promote his agenda. To the supporters of the ALBA houses, these institutions provide necessary community and medical services. For instance, ALBA houses facilitate access to the ever-popular Misión Milagro, in which Venezuelan money helps Cuban doctors remove cataracts so that the blind may see again. However, critics view the ALBA houses as a foreign intrusion on the internal affairs of their countries. I don’t think that Chavez’s public diplomacy efforts are any more extensive than American attempts have been, but I do wonder whether Uncle Sam ever made it to Tunal.

EL SALVADOR: Former TV reporter and talk show host Mauricio Funes was elected President in one of the most polarized campaigns since the 12 year El Salvador civil war that claimed more than 75,000 lives. Funes, a moderate, was chosen from outside the ranks of the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. The party, once rebels during the civil war, is the latest leftist group to rise to power in Lain America.

Funes is stoked, saying:

“This is the happiest night of my life, and I want it to be the night of El Salvador’s greatest hope,” Funes said. “I want to thank all the people who voted for me and chose that path of hope and change.”

Hope and change rhetoric has been popular lately. Around the world people are holding their breath, waiting to see how Obama will react. The US’s history with left leaning Latin American governments is sketchy to say the least, but Funes hopes that Obama will honor the people’s choice.

The previous conservative government did inspire growth, but at a cost. There is still terrible inequity among the people of El Salvador, and tensions linger from the civil war. Funes plans to crack down on big business, which has enjoyed little government regulation for years.

China Post article: Salvadoran ex-rebels win presidency for first time

RECIFE, BRAZIL: Abortion is illegal in Brazil, a strongly Catholic country, except in very rare cases. One such case got media attention recently, when a 9 year old girl was found to be pregnant with twins after being repeatedly raped by her stepfather. The doctors determined that the girl was not physically incapable of bringing two children to term at her age. They received permission and performed the abortion.

Their local archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, condemned the act, and excommunicated the girl, her mother, and every doctor involved in the proceedure. As far as I’ve heard, the stepfather was not excommunicated.

“The law of God is above any human law,” the archbishop told the Globo newspaper on Thursday.

Al Jazeera article: Brazil abortion case sparks row

Photo by Center for American Progress

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA: Uribe, President of Colombia, defended his countries progress in protecting union leaders and announces a publicity campaign in the US to improve Colombia’s image so that the FTA will pass.

Colombia spent nearly $40 million last year to protect union leaders and high profile workers. The measures have not been entirely successful, but they are definitely a step in the right direction. When union leader killings hit American news, US politicians stalled the Free Trade Agreement. Uribe is hoping the new image boosting campaign will help push past what he views as exaggerated attention on the problem.

It’s not that union leaders being killed is good, but that the US shouldn’t be giving people advice when they’re only half listening.

English article from Colombia Reports: We do not need the US to tell us we must protect workers: Uribe

Spanish article from El Tempo: “No necesitamos que E.U. ni ningún país nos exijan proteger a nuestros trabajadores”: Uribe