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http://online.wsj.com/article/AP2d85093df69045018c7eb1dcf07ff98a.html

Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts using fictitious names, including "Russian Hacker" and "Hacker Account." An undercover investigator was able to register using the name "Joe Bogus" and the address "123 Fake Main Street" in "Completely Made Up City, New York," and then conduct transactions he recorded as "ATM skimming network" and "for the cocaine."

My first visit to Nicaragua was with a friend who lives in St. Louis three years ago. We went to Jinotega from the airport by taxi to Majoreo Bus Station by bus. Stayed the first night in the Hotel Cafe, moved to the Kiuras (the Hotel Cafe had put us in a dingy bottom floor room; the room at the Kiuras was better and cheaper and the host nicer). Ran around seeing stuff with Suzanne Wopperer (my traveling companion paid her for being a guide). The Kiuras's owner drove us to the bus station for the trip to Esteli since the cabs were on strike.

Ex US Military guys have been trained to see other countries in ways that allow them to believe in their missions. Since Nicaragua was one of the countries the US considered invading in force and which did invade by proxy, people in the military were taught various things about Nicaragua which may not be true. I remember a US military officer and his wife telling my family that the Germans are suckers for strong men and would revert to following another Hitler if not watched.

I seldom eat out in Nicaragua. Where I live it is a 1 km walk for bad food or a 2 km walk for OK food. So, I tend to eat at home. My typical exception is that there is an Italian restaurant in Estelí that I like. On the other hand, I ate out a lot in the time I spent in Guatemala. That was partly for the variety and partly because I was not "in my house".

I took the legal paperwork that I'd had notarized at the US Consulate/Embassy to Fed Ex on Wednesday afternoon around 2 p.m. It was in Kannapolis, NC, this morning just before 10 a.m., delivered to my brother's door. Managua to Panama City to Memphis to Charlotte, NC, to Kannapolis which is about thirty minutes or so north of Charlotte.

Juano's post in http://www.nicaliving.com/node/21192 inspired this editorializing. I expect less people will understand why I am saying this than understood why I see the Rios Montt trial as being so important to Nicaragua and, possibly more on target, why I am the war of one here.

I have always wanted to understand "why" rather than, well, be popular. I want to connect the dots. And in probably 95% of my working life, I have had a job I wanted to do. That, in itself, is pretty unpopular from what I have seen.

The Minister of the Interior, Ana Isabel Morales, confirmed the capture of an American fugitive.

Lawrence Scott Groeser, who identified himself as Jaime Todd in Nicaragua and who posed as the son of a Nicaraguan mother.

According to the Minister of the Interior, were able to identify the subject when he was trying to negotiate a Nicaraguan passport from Immigration. After his capture, was referred to the Directorate of Legal Aid.

He will be deported to the United States in the early hours of tomorrow.

Photo:

Inspired by Juano's question in my previous blog post, I decided to do a separate post about choices of where to move to in Latin America. This is far from complete and is just my opinion but I decided to toss it out. Note that order is not significant.

Nicaragua -- Clearly, I see this as a good option and I think that is pretty well covered here. :-)

Lola spotted little Rosario with her grandmother and aunt about a block from my new house and insisted that we needed to go up to them and jump all around. I told them I was in a new house and asked them if they'd like to see it.

The idea of going from New York to San Francisco via Nicaragua doesn't sound logical, even though you could do it (and still can) by only spending 12 miles, or 20 kilometers of that journey out of a boat and on land!

The soap opera is documented in http://www.nicaliving.com/node/21137 and it really has been a soap opera. Is it all over, probably not but a lot of important things happened. What remains is:

• How this trial plugs into the other judge saying it couldn't happen.
• Reparations to the victims -- I believe the court date for that is 13 May.
• Reading the final verdict with all the details -- 17 May at 1500.

We hear a lot on this site about lawyers, here is a good story from END today.

The lawyer and notary public Fabiola Ninoska Ibarra Gonzalez admitted in a public trial to committing the offense of aggravated theft (aggravated by her position of trust) and is awaiting the verdict of the sentencing judge.

Prosecutors had accused Ibarra of taking U.S. $ 6,500 out of a total of $ 16,500 for the sale of a plot of land located in the municipality of La Trinidad.

The windows slats are fixed and the fake stone tile on the front of the house has been repaired, along with some plaster in the kitchen along the doorway. I suggested that the work guy run the floor tile up the side of the doorway since we don't have more of that strange lime green paint. (I also need to see if the paint is washable since the owner's dogs dried off on the walls and left that tell-tale stain at dog shoulder height.)

She wanted me to buy cuajada and gave me 35 cordobas. I thought it was for her and went across the street to the house that sells various dairy and coffee and found I had to add two cordobas more to get a pound of it. Shrug, I give her more than that in spare change each week.

No, the cuajada appears to be for me. Or I'm the custodian until I can figure out how to feed it back to her slowly. I was telling her (in Spanish) that I don't eat cuajada. She kept saying it was for me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22371275

Speaking at a rally in La Paz, the president said there was "no lack of US institutions which continue to conspire against our people and especially the national government, which is why we're going to take the opportunity to announce on this May Day that we've decided to expel USAID".

He then turned to his Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, and asked him to inform the US embassy of his decision.