10.17.2006
Report: Bush buys Paraguay paradise
Prensa Latina reports that George W. Bush has purchased a 98,842-acre farm in northern Paraguay, between Brazil and Bolivia. In one way, it makes sense: why not retire in the land where the US military has had a visible presence for over a year and that's ruled by a pro-market, Bush friendly president? Plus, Paraguay gives foreign investors all the same protections it gives its own: for people in Bush's income bracket, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agreement Agency (MIGA) "insures investors against risks such as expropriation, currency inconvertibility and damages caused by revolution, war or civil strikes." (The cons for Bush are three-fold: Brazil's lefty president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the east, Bolivia's lefty president Evo Morales to the north, and Argentina's lefty president Nestor Kirchner to the west).
But as corruption scandals pile up in the Bush administration and legal teams are assembled in anticipation of post-2008 life, perhaps this is the most telling fact about Bush's possible retirement getaway: while the US and Paraguay have an extradition treaty, there's one glaring exemption: "political offenses."
The Guaraní Aquifer, located beneath the surface of the original four Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), is one of the world's largest aquifer systems and an important source of fresh water for its people[1]. Named after the Guaraní tribe, it covers 1,200,000 km², with a volume of about 40,000 km³, a thickness of between 50 m and 800 m and a maximum depth of about 1,800 m. It is estimated to contain about 37,000 km³ of water (arguably the largest single body of groundwater in the world), with a total recharge rate of about 166 km³/year from precipitation. It is said that that this vast underground reservoir could suppy fresh drinking water to the world for 200 years. Due to an expected shortage of fresh water on a global scale, which environmentalists suggest will become critical in under 20 years, this important natural resource is rapidly becoming politicized, and the control of the resource becomes ever more controversial.
