Paraguay

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Enki
Posts: 5052
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 6:04 pm

Paraguay

Post by Enki »

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HH03Aa01.html
Pepe Escobar wrote:CIUDAD DEL ESTE, at the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - This is the way savage globalization ends - at least 20,000 shops, stalls, tin shacks and mini-malls crammed into 15 blocks selling everything under the (tropical) sun. There's Little Asia - thousands of Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Koreans. But above all there are some 20,000 Arabs of Syrian and mostly Lebanese descent (another 12,000 live in the Brazilian resort of Foz do Iguacu, across the Friendship Bridge).

Welcome to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, population 200,000, free-trade cesspit and World Trade Organization wet dream, realm of sacoleiros (bag carriers) crossing the bridge every day and



dreaming of the ultimate knockoff, but mostly realm of money changers, prehistoric armored cars, gun-and-coke dealers, dodgy pharmacists and stolen Mercedes with tinted windows.

The border is virtually non-existent, as Paraguay is a Mercosur member (along with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela). Airspace is free - virtually no radar. Cocaine comes by plane or truck from the Bolivian Andes. Brazilian weapons are everywhere - not to mention real and fake Kalashnikovs. Tons of laundered money whirl in free flow. The whole thing is a dizzying black void of billions of dollars in contraband, narco-trafficking, weapons smuggling, money laundering, car theft, piracy and corruption of public officials.

And it gets worse: it's crammed with terrorists.
This is going to be the fun part about getting involved in Syria.
Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.
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Doc
Posts: 12561
Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:10 pm

Re: Paraguay

Post by Doc »

Enki wrote:http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HH03Aa01.html
Pepe Escobar wrote:CIUDAD DEL ESTE, at the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay - This is the way savage globalization ends - at least 20,000 shops, stalls, tin shacks and mini-malls crammed into 15 blocks selling everything under the (tropical) sun. There's Little Asia - thousands of Taiwanese, mainland Chinese and Koreans. But above all there are some 20,000 Arabs of Syrian and mostly Lebanese descent (another 12,000 live in the Brazilian resort of Foz do Iguacu, across the Friendship Bridge).

Welcome to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, population 200,000, free-trade cesspit and World Trade Organization wet dream, realm of sacoleiros (bag carriers) crossing the bridge every day and



dreaming of the ultimate knockoff, but mostly realm of money changers, prehistoric armored cars, gun-and-coke dealers, dodgy pharmacists and stolen Mercedes with tinted windows.

The border is virtually non-existent, as Paraguay is a Mercosur member (along with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela). Airspace is free - virtually no radar. Cocaine comes by plane or truck from the Bolivian Andes. Brazilian weapons are everywhere - not to mention real and fake Kalashnikovs. Tons of laundered money whirl in free flow. The whole thing is a dizzying black void of billions of dollars in contraband, narco-trafficking, weapons smuggling, money laundering, car theft, piracy and corruption of public officials.

And it gets worse: it's crammed with terrorists.
This is going to be the fun part about getting involved in Syria.
I have been to Ciudad del Este. It is like the wild west. I crossed from Brasil (Brasilians don't need a passport), but didn't bother to tell the border guards I was an American. I guess I was a illegal Alien in Paraguay. There are shops everywhere including on the side walks so deep it seemed like a great place to get mugged or kidnapped.

The "sacoleiros (bag carriers)" are motorcycle riders and if you walk across the bridge look carefully before crossing the street. My wife almost got run over there by the almost constant stream of motorcycles crossing the bridge. She start to set out across from between a couple of minivans. .
"I fancied myself as some kind of god....It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out.” -- George Soros
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