Latin America Miscellany

A few bits and bobs of news from around Latin America;

• The US has violated Venezuelan Airspace with a military aircraft. The ambassador says he'll ask around to see if there were any "accidental incursions". Good luck.
  
  
• Free Software in Brazil is an interesting topic not often covered. They've been moving over to open source over the last few years and Marcos Mazoni, president of the state-owned data processing firm SERPRO, explains how it's going.
  
  
• In Defence of Marxism has an open letter against race laws which could lead to the racialisation of official documents. The signitories argue that the "racial quotas do not promote equality. Instead, they increase previous inequalities or produce new ones".
  
  
• There are also fears for the Brazilian rain forest as the environment minister quits saying that the government has no commitment to preserving their natural resources.
  
  
• Farc in Colombia have been facing a battering of late. This trend continues as another leader hands herself in.
  
  
• Latin America News Review takes a look at the crisis in the Colombian Congress. "Ten percent of Colombia's 268 federal lawmakers are behind bars and another 10 percent, including the Senate's president, are under investigation. And with the arrest of a cousin this week, the scandal has grown uncomfortably close to President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America."
  
  
• Paraguay's newly elected leftist President Lugo has decided to take on Brazil's Lula over revenues from a sweet heart deal over power supplies from the massive Itaipu hydroelectric dam. Getter a fair deal is extremely important to Lugo's plans for social reforms.
  
  
• Bolivia's make or break referendum is covered by the New Statesman, rather well I think.