Conference Call with Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) Ranking Member of the House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommitee on the Western Hemisphere Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL) Connie Mack was elected to his third term in the United States Congress in November of 2008 to represent Florida's 14th Congressional District. He currently serves on three committees -- Transportation and Infrastructure; Foreign Affairs; and Budget -- allowing him to effectively represent the needs of Southwest...

Conference Call with Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) Chairman of the House of Representatives, Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Rep. Eliot Engel Congressman Engel serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee including the Subcommittees on Health, and Energy and the Environment. He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, as well as serving on the Subcommittee on Europe, and the Subcommittee on the...

Nuclear: Bolivia has publicly supported Iran’s nuclear power program with statements from various government officials. In September 2008, Bolivia’s president, Juan Evo Morales, told Iran’s Press TV that Bolivia “rejected the intervention of the United Nations Security Council in Iran's nuclear program, saying it ‘lacks any legal or technical justification.’” In June 2008, Gonzalo Lazcano Murillo, a member of Bolivia’s parliament, claimed that...

US President Barack Obama underestimates the threat Iran poses to global security. Were this not the case, he would not have sent CIA Director Leon Panetta to Israel ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House. Panetta was reportedly dispatched here to read the government the riot act. Israel, he reportedly told his interlocutors, must not attack Iran without first receiving permission from Washington. Moreover, Israel should keep its mouth shut about attacking Iran....

Following the recently concluded Summit of the Americas held April 17-19, in Trinidad and Tobago, President Barack Obama claimed that the U.S. defense budget was 600 times greater than that of Venezuela. While it is true that, in conventional warfare, a Venezuelan victory over this country is totally beyond any credulity, the question remains regarding how much relative military strength does Venezuela actually project. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is widely acknowledged as...

Iran’s leader will not be visiting Latin America this week after all. The Iranian press reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a last-minute decision to indefinitely postpone his trip indefinitely in advance of his country’s elections. Still, the prospect of his visit to Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela has raised questions about Tehran’s influence in Latin America. During a May 1 Town Hall meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Iran’s inroads...

On 2-3 April 2009, Hugo Chávez paid his seventh official visit to Iran since he came to power. Both countries are strongly committed to creating a bilateral alliance based on common oil interests, military cooperation, ideological affinities between the presidents and open hostility against the United States and its allies. According to the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, “Cooperation between Iran and Venezuela can be a model for anti-imperialist campaigns.” 2 Iran...

Dear President Lula, Why? Why would such a respected world leader welcome an international outcast like Iranian President Ahmadinejad to Brasilia on May 6? Why would you confer your considerable international legitimacy on such an individual - within weeks, no less, of a walkout by dozens of nations during Ahmadinejad's hate-filled speech in the halls of the UN in Geneva? Why would your nation, which has admirably forsworn nuclear weapons, seek at this moment expanded ties with Iran, which...

Background (Preamble): The democratic vocation and tenacity of the Bolivian people is being nowadays assaulted by an international network of fascist mercenaries. These hired guns have already shown their destructive capacity in the now sad war of balkanizing Yugoslavia. Their violent means of destruction is being now used to destroy and balkanize one of the poorest countries of the Western hemisphere (yet, incredible rich in natural resources): Bolivia. Petition: The First Republic of...

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America. Although there are no official statistics, the Muslim population in Brazil is estimated to be approximately 1 million people, with a total population of more than 170 million. This number includes converts to Islam, Arab immigrants and their descendants. Brazilian converts make up for no more than 1% of this number, about 10,000 people. Therefore, within a population of over 170 million, the small number that make up Brazilian converts to Islam...