At Last! Washington Post Finds Answer to US-Cuba Problemz

Have you noticed that relations between Cuba and the United States have been sort of crap for the past 50 years? Well GOOD NEWS because it's all going to change now, forever!

Get this: Cuba has discovered massive underwater reserves of the good stuff (oil), enough to turn the island into the Abuja Kirkuk "Qatar of the Caribbean." Our relationship will now improve, dramatically, forever, b/c what could possibly go wrong? Nobels & Pulitzers 4 everyone, hooray!

From Bolivarian Revolution

Ignacio Villa Vargas, the key witness against the Santa Cruz Bolivian mercenary terrorists, blows the lid off the story

5/18/09

Today in Bolivian daily 'Cambio' there are a dozen or so pages devoted to the story of the Santa Cruz terrorist cell taken down by Bolivian police and the aftermath of the whole episode. The main event in today's paper is an official, published Q&A with Ignacio Villa Vargas, the Bolivian national who was the group's Mr. Fixit, chauffeur and gopher.

In the very extensive interview he basically blows the lid off the whole affair, directly implicating Branko Marinkovic, Ruben Costas and other Santa Cruz bigwigs with Eduardo Rozsa Flores, Michael Dwyer and the others in the terrorist cell. He also testifies that the group was out to kill Evo Morales, Veep Alvaro Garcia Linares, their Cabinet Minister Juan Ramon Quintana and the Bolivian Cardinal Terrazas whose house was bombed. Here is the first part of the confession.

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Question: Please tell what you want to inform the Interior Ministry regarding the latest events occurred in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, specifically regarding the attack on the house of Cardenal Julio Terrazas and other aspects.

Ignacio Villa Vargas answers: First I would like to say the I was President of the Santa Cruz Youth Union (the far right wing Unión Juvenil Cruceñista, or UJC) for seven years in the 1970s. This is why I am well-known in the city of Santa Cruz and also in Cotoca. Because of this the ex-President of the UJC, 'Negro' Cejas, came to find me, because I was his advisor. He told me that they were putting together a "real group" and I should get in contact with a person who answered to the name of Germán. The gentleman called me on my cellphone and we arranged to meet at the COTAS stand inside the trade fair show site for our first meeting, to which I drove my vehicle. This must have been on a date in or around October 2008.

When I arrived at the meeting Germán was in a group with Branko (Marinkovic) and other gringos that I didn't know. Also present were Estaban Mauricio Roca, Pedro Yovió and Guido Nayar. There must have been eight people there and it was 1pm, the time the meeting was to start.

Branko Marinko­vic talked to me and offered me a series of economic offers and other deals. We were talking and they also linked me by phone to the Prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, who offered me a house and some land. I asked what would have to be done and they answered that we had to finish what had been started. They were definitely referring to the attacks that were going to happen in the city soon as a demonstration of serious intent. They attacked the radio of Guido Guardia two months later, they made the attack on Saúl Ávalos by localizing him as target. Sometimes they would ask me to take them on a tour of the streets before the attacks. I saw that they were looking for escape or emergency routes. Regarding the attack on the Cardenal, Germán (Rózsa) and the Irishman (Dwyer) were there that day. They asked me to pick them up from the Hotel Santa Cruz at around 10pm and asked me to drive around several times close to Seminario Street in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood (where the Cardenal lived).

Later I found out that a terrorist event occurred which repulsed me because I am Catholic. While laughing Germán commented that they had got out the car and placed the explosive that I saw them holding into a rubbish bin. He also said that he lit the fuse, got back in the car and drove forward half a block and waited for the explosion, then had to go back three times until Germán verified that the fuse had taken. He said with a smile that it was a pity we hadn't killed the priest and that involved with the explosion were the driver and in the back seats were Germán and Michael Dwyer, who was armed with a pistol with the instruction to open fire and kill if somebody saw them.

I can co-operate with the information about the other vehicle hat participated in the attack, a white 1997 Toyota Corola driven by a certin Alberto Mendoza (I know know if he is the owner) and they had paid 200 Bolivares to use it for two hours. they told him it was to do some business."

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More excerpts

Question: Please tell us who is Germán, noting his general characteristics

Answer: Germán is Eduar­do Rózsa Flores. He also called himself as well as Germán by the last name Villaroel. I met him at the Expoferia meeting. He was semi bald with a scar on his face by his left cheekbone, a robust body and the leader of the group, the one shown dead in the police intervention.

Question: What was the objective of Germán?

Answer: His objective was to kill Evo (Morales), Linera (his VP) and Quintana (his cabinet minister). He talked about his constantly. He said there was somebody who was going to give him more than U$100,000 to kill Quintana.


Question: How was he thinking of carrying out the attacks if the seat of government is in La Paz?

Answer: It was going to happen in Santa Cruz. They even talked about buying a rocket launcher that cost more than U$120,000. The money was going to come from the owner of the Bimodal terminal named Daré, with whom I even talked by telephone and said that Germán had to pick up part of the money to do the job. They also wanted a radar to locate the aircraft that transported Quintana to Pando and then to use the rocket.


Question: How often did they meet and where was the place of meeting with the "bosses", as you call them, and who were they?

Answer: They met every 15 or 20 days. The safest place was the trade fair grounds because it had a security perimeter where only authorized people could enter. When I attended the meetings there were present Monseñor Rivero Alejandro Melgar, Branko Marinkovic, Rubén Costas, Hugo Achá and others. Generally they met when Germán called a meeting. Sometimes he would also be present at the meeting. Soemtimes I could see that Alejandro Melgar went with Germán and I to pick up the money (nobody else, not even the gringos) from the Melgar office, in the Oriente Building 5th floor first office on the left. There are three offices all together and they met there and sometimes I was present. They only talked about financing questions.

Question: Tell us who provided the firearms and how contact was made with these people.

Answer: Only by telephone. I don't have it (the number) now but I can get it later. I once went to a purchase of a mini Uzi with silencer for U$1,500. We bought it in "the fourth ring" (neighbourhood of Santa Cruz). Germán did the deal which had been previously agreed with the vendor.

Question: Who financed these operations?

Answer: Everyone knows that they funded the group but nobody will report the financing. CRE, Cotas, Saguapac and other Santa Cruz institutions funded German's group or the UJC.

Question: How many attacks took place in Santa Cruz or in other departments of Bolivia?

Answer: In Santa Cruz only three, in the interior I don't know. The three in Santa Cruz were those I've mentioned; the radio of Guido Guardia, the house of Ávalos and the Cardinal's house. There were only three.

Question: Where did you stay when the attacks took place?

Answer. For the first attack we were staying in Branko Marinkovic's house at Km4 of the northern highway. For the Ávalos attack we were in the Hotel Asturias and for the Cardinal's attack in Hotel Las Americas. For the three attacks Germán was always the leader. Security and gunman was Michael Dwyer and his driver, always in the same place.

Question: What was going to be the next attack to be made that you know of?

Answer: I heard that they were going to take a car laden with explosives to the Prefecture. It was going to be in the day time and cause the maximum amount of damage possible to the people at the place, for the simple reason of damaging the Prefect.

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And it continues and continues. The whole Spanish version is very long and has dozens of questions and answers. None of it is good for the bigwigs in Santa Cruz, that I promise you.

From Inca Kola News

Bolivia terror plot: A new ringleader fingered, plus more members come to light

Just like a bad penny, some nasties (like the Szekler Legion, screengrabbed above) keep coming back...and yes, there are Irish and Corrib project crests on that page. Hmm, whatever could it mean?

I've been meaning to translate this item for a few days, and just now got around to it:

A Hungarian, Tibor Revesz, has been fingered as head of the suspected terrorist cell broken up last month in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Revesz is believed to have had more power than the Bolivian-Croatian-Hungarian Eduardo Rózsa Flores, according to revelations by an opposition deputy, Bernardo Montenegro, of the Podemos party.

"According to the information we have, Tibor Revesz was the head and organizer of this group. Not only here, but in his own country, he had knowledge of the organization of irregular groups," Montenegro told the Special Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, which is investigating the case.

Montenegro revealed that this new element came from the declarations of the Bolivian, Mario Tadic, and the Hungarian, Elöd Tóásó, survivors of the police operation that killed three other assassins last April 16 in the Hotel Las Américas in Santa Cruz. The two prisoners are currently incarcerated in La Paz.

The congressman said that Revesz had been in Bolivia throughout the first stage of the formation of the irregular group, and that for some as yet unknown reason he left the country and left behind five persons, three of them later killed: Eduardo Rózsa, Michael Martin Dwyer (of Ireland), and Arpád Magyarosi (of Hungary), as well as the two detainees, Tadic and Tóásó.

"There definitely were not only these five persons in this irregular group. There were other persons who came to Bolivia, such as the Hungarians Revesz, Gabor Dudog, and a man named [Daniel] Gaspar. Tadic said that at one time, he heard someone say to Mr. Rózsa that it was cheaper to buy two bullets than to pay for travel tickets," said Montenegro.

According to Montenegro, Revesz is in Hungary, for which reason Tóásó fears for his family. Revesz has an extensive criminal record when it comes to forming irregular (i.e. terrorist) groups.

"He is a person very much connected to irregular groups. He is believed to have been the mentor to various irregular movements and apparently came to Bolivia and began to form this group. One of the hypotheses is that he was in charge of this cell, above Rózsa," Montenegro said.

I've done the Googly Moogly on Tibor Revesz, and here's what I found:

* He was with Mike Dwyer in Ireland, and is suspected of having recruited him when both worked as security goons for I-RMS, the private-security contractor for Shell Oil. They worked together on the controversial Corrib gas line project. He is now suspected of having been the unnamed "mutual friend" who hooked Dwyer up with Rózsa and travelled with Dwyer from Ireland to Bolivia, only to return later on.

* Revesz is also known as "Photosniper" and is believed to be a member of the infamous Szekler Legion. His résumé is chock-a-block with "security" activities that would also be of benefit to a would-be mercenary...or terrorist. His profile definitely matches that of the unnamed "32-year-old Hungarian" who travelled with Dwyer to Bolivia.

* This Hungarian blogger has heard reports that Revesz was arrested. So far, I haven't found further details. I would welcome more, if anyone knows.

The other "new" Hungarian name on this blog's radar, Gabor Dudog, also worked "since January" for a security company in Ireland. Hmmm, also for Shell? His mother, predictably, claims he "didn't do anything wrong". Now, where have we heard that before? BTW, Indymedia Ireland is doing terrific research on this case, check it out.

According to the Hungarian ambassador to Bolivia, Dudog and Daniel Gaspar (the other "new" name) have already left the country. No explanation, but if they have ties to this unsavory bunch, none is really needed. They are wanted for questioning (at the very least) by Bolivian authorities, so I foresee an extradition hearing. Play nice, Hungary!

Meanwhile, there's a real effort to paint Elöd Tóásó as a poor suffering innocent, here. There's also a "defense fund" and petition, which I hope won't find many contributors. I don't buy any of this "oh, but he's innocent and a hero" crap--I've blogged the cellphone video indicating him as being involved in the conspiracy up to his eyeballs. Not to mention I have the pic of him with the big fat sniper rifle. Innocent, my ass--and if he's suffering now, GOOD. He ought to, for what he tried to do. Foreign intrigue is not fun and games, people. If he's co-operating with the authorities and singing like a canary, fine--but he does not deserve freedom. He knew what he was involved in, and his moral sense didn't dissuade him. I hereby remind anyone coming here to troll on his behalf that he faces charges of terrorism and attempted multiple murder, and that this is not some set-up on the part of the Bolivian government, as some people appear to think.

Now, on to the next piece of translation, in which more names are named:

According to today's edition of the state newspaper Cambio, three names were found in the pocket of the Bolivian-Croat cell leader, Eduardo Rózsa Flores, who died resisting arrest.

One of the implicated is Juan Líder Paz, an engineer by profession, who, according to the inquiry, financed the extremists. Paz is a fugitive from justice as of Thursday, but yesterday his attorney presented a request establishing legal residence on his behalf before the prosecutor in charge of the case, Marcelo Sosa.

The other implicated man is Héctor Renato Laguna, also an engineer, in charge of recruiting youths to the so-called Bolivian Socialist Falange ['Bina's note: a known fascist organization] in order to commit separatist and seditious acts.

According to Cambio, the third man is Enrique Vaca, member of the directorate of Fexpocruz, the agricultural fair of Santa Cruz. He is believed to have supplied [fake] credentials to Rózsa. At the present time, Vaca is also a fugitive from justice.

The commission also took statements yesterday from the Bolivian citizen Ignacio Villa Paz, nicknamed "El Viejo" (the Old Man), who is considered a key witness for the prosecution. Villa was one of the closest persons to Rózsa, for which reason his statements are of relevance to the clarification of the international network's activities.

In the statements of "El Viejo", several names of opposition authorities and members of the business sector of Santa Cruz recur. According to Villa, departmental prefect Rubén Costas and businessmen Branko Marinkovic, Mauricio Roca and Guido Nayar also aided the extremist group.

According to the information obtained so far, the group intended to perpetrate separatist actions and had plans to assassinate president Evo Morales and various members of his cabinet.

More on these new guys later, I'm sure. Meanwhile, enjoy this pic I found of Mike Dwyer and Eduardo Rózsa Flores in shorts...

Somehow, neither looked quite as good in them as Evo, eh?

UPDATE: Otto has a nice, incriminating partial translation of the Cambio piece mentioned in the Prensa Latina article above. Check it out. Among other things, it totally blows to smithereens the notion that Mike Dwyer was in Bolivia on some "bodyguarding" course. He was clearly under shoot-to-kill instructions from Eduardo Rózsa Flores, as the incident of the night of the bombing of Cardinal Terrazas' house indicates. And he seemed very keen to do the job, too. (As though all those guns down his pants would indicate anything else.) BTW, the article also blows to shit any notions that there was a legal basis for what Rózsa was doing (as he indicated in his interview with Andras Kepes in Hungary). The man was a terrorist, as was everyone else in his band. Any questions?

From News of the Restless

Maracaibo goes to hell, in true paramilitary style

Ever since Manuel Rosales fucked off to Peru, falsely claiming he was being "persecuted", the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela, has been effectively without a mayor. But even when Burusas was still in the city, he was apparently either grossly incompetent or flat-out criminal, if this story is any indication:

"Commando-type men arrived, armed to the teeth, and shoved us against the wall. They told us that if they saw us talking on the corner again, they would fuck us."

So says Francisco (name altered to protect the privacy of the 17-year-old), who was threatened with death along with six other young people by a suspected "death squad" in the Lomitas del Zulia sector of the Francisco Eugenio Bustamante parish, population 93,967, on April 24 at 8:00 pm.

A total of 11 sectors are alarmed at the presence of a violent group that is trying to take the law into its own hands.

Francisco says that days before the men came to the neighborhood, the residents of Calle 60B-1 in Lomitas del Zulia were shocked to find a leaflet stuck in the doors of their houses, warning of a "social cleansing" due to the rise in juvenile delinquency in Maracaibo.

Panic took hold in the zone as people recalled the threats of the "death pamphlets" which circulated in the city and other muncipalities over the last two months.

Francisco recalls that the six armed men got out of a grey Ford Fiesta Power and corralled him when he was conversing with a group of other boys. "One of them wanted to leave on his bicycle, but they pointed a pistol at him and frisked him to see if he was armed."

A neighbor intervened, and assured that the boys were all right and asked that they be left alone. "Then they went away. But if we see them again in the street, we won't respond," said one of the boys, in a hoarse voice.

From then on, the residents changed their routine. They live in fear of the men who threatened them with death.

The same thing happened a week before, in the Libertador neighborhood of the same parish, when several hooded men shouted at passersby that they would kill "delinquents and drug traffickers", according to Adolfo Jacobo, a Maracaibo taxi driver.

"20 days ago, a friend showed me a flyer that some guys were throwing around in the streets, saying they would kill criminals, never mind if it took the lives of any innocent people," said a resident of Avenida 95 in the same neighborhood, who declined to be identified. He added that as of that moment, the neighbors all locked themselves indoors after 7:00 pm, for fear of "being caught in a shooting."

"We are worried about the lack of (police) patrols. Now we can't even stand in front of our houses because of the insecurity and the threatening pamphlets," said Eduardo Rincón, an electrician from Lomitas del Zulia in eastern Maracaibo.

His version coincides with that of Commissioner Jotny Márquez, chief of the CICPC-Maracaibo, who questions the crime-prevention work of the regional police because crime rates have risen.

In the José Antonio Páez neighborhood, near Lomitas del Zulia, people are also alarmed by the appearance of the pamphlets.

Aura Medina, a 47-year-old housewife, said that after the leaflets were distributed, several suspicious cars were seen passing through the neighborhood during the night. "We're afraid that they will do what they did to those young guys, and take people from their houses and kill them," said Medina, referring to a case of some young people who were taken from the La Chinita neighborhood, in the southern part of the city, last April 18.

Families of the victims have joined the CICPC and the Ombudsman's office in calling for justice for their loved ones. "Right now, we know that they called several municipal police officers to testify who were involved, and we hope they will clarify what happened," said Aída Rodríguez, mother of Jender Soto, who was killed by gunfire.

A spokesman for the CICPC informed that five members of the Maracaibo police were called to give statements about the occurrences. However, a tribunal source denied, for the time being, that the officials were directly involved in the murders.

The pamphlets found in Maracaibo were of the same content as those which circulated in Colombia in 2008.

Translation mine. (Sabina's)

It seems pretty clear what's going on. Colombian paramilitaries have been a problem in western Venezuela for years, because that region borders on Colombia. And right-wing politicians, too, have been western Venezuela's bane for the same amount of time. It seems only logical to suspect that the two are somehow connected; the paras "provide security" to the rich, corrupt right-wingers, and do so by menacing the poor. They also seem to have had some collaborators among the Maracaibo police, and this even when Giancarlo Di Martino, a member of the PSUV (Chavecito's party) was mayor of Maracaibo and trying to get a handle on the situation. Do the PoliMaracaibo respect no authority unless it's that of a fascist enabler? Sure smells that way.

It doesn't hurt, either, to recall that Colombian paramilitaries have been found to be involved in several failed coup plots against Chavecito--always hired at the behest of those same right-wing political figures who pose as heads of "civil society" and NGOs, and who are constantly screeching about political persecution when the law starts catching up to them.

So, when will the Dissociated Press, the Old Grey Whore and the WaHoPo write about the truly persecuted in Venezuela--the residents of neighborhoods terrorized by these right-wing commandos, operating illegally at the behest of poor, persecuted Manuel Rosales? Don't hold your breath, kiddies, they're still busy painting Chavecito as the villain on whose shoulders all of this somehow must fall.

From News of the Restless

Breaking News

No Joe, I’m not mad.

YELTSIN

They said there would be hurdles

The Real Enemy in Iraq

By RS Janes


From BartBlog

How To Read A Juan Forero Story In Three Easy Steps

...if you think you're ready to try these tips out for yourself, proceed.

From Bolivarian Revolution

‘Daily Show’ on the one line America will not cross

But Only Because the American Nazi Party Was Taken

By RS Janes

Today’s GOP — moving from the ridiculously stupid to the space-cadet silly

“A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the ‘Democrat Socialist Party.’”
— Roger Simon, “GOP, RNC to Rebrand Democrats as ‘Socialists,’” Politico.com, May 13, 2009.

That’s fine, the Republicans should go ahead and do that, as long as they accept this appropriate title as well:

“Things for the Republicans are bad, very bad. It is worse than just about any Republican wants to admit.” [...]
“…But the big picture is clear for all to see: Under Republican rule, government got bigger and more intrusive.
“Which brings us to personal freedoms: From the legislating of morality (Schiavo as the prime example), to the various conservative-led state bans on gay marriage, the Republicans did very little to expand personal freedoms and if anything looked like the party trying to take freedoms away.” [...]
“No one is stepping up and accepting any responsibility. The public only sees a bunch of cowards afraid to take responsibility.”
— Chuck Todd, “Yes, It’s That Bad for the GOP,” NBC News, May 14, 2009.

From BartBlog

Meet Zulema Jattin! Senator, Terrorist, Drama Queen

[Sorry, most links in Spanish. Shockingly, the U.S. press hasn't picked up any of this.]

Zulema Jattin is the kinda-sexy close ally of President Uribe, and one of four Colombian congresspeeps, recently charged for their political, financial and murderin' relationships with the paramilitaries. She reacted to her arrest by accusing the Supreme Court of "kidnapping" her and being "poisoned by hate and personal resentments" against the "friends of the President." And then she conveniently, hilariously suffered from "heart palpitations" at her Court hearing, resulting in a postponement of her testimony.

A little background on our little drama queen - She won her dad's former seat representing the paramilitary-laden Cordoba Department in the lower house in 1998 (5 of Cordoba's 6 Senators are now under "parapolitica investigation"). He had lost it due to his involvement in the drug money election scandal that rocked the presidency of Ernesto Samper.

Weirdly, in 2002 she was actually kidnapped by the paramilitaries for 20 days. But she's more forgive-y than Jesus, apparently, as she subsequently ran for Senate in 2006 with the paramilitary boss, "Comandante Andres" as her running mate in the lower house.

Zulema is a member of the Partido de la U, the unofficial party of Uribe, whose leaders have reacted to her arrest by calling for a return of Congressional immunity. And if that isn't sketchy enough for you, some of the evidence against her is found in the iPod of renowned terrorist kingpin Salvatore Mancuso, currently on trial in the U.S.

This all bodes pretty badly for Uribe, which is the immediate reason why the Congressional vote on his reelection was suspended yesterday. But you wouldn't know that from reading this AP article, which only mentions the other four explosive death-scandals Alvaro is currently dealing with. Best. Ally. Ever.

From Bolivarian Revolution

Zen and the Art Alaska Politics

Accuracy Fever: Catch It!

Here are some terrible truths that somehow managed to appear "in the news" this week. Aliens have kidnapped all the editors, maybe? Take a screen capture of this page b/c this shall never be repeated again, jobs will be lost, etc. etc.:

* Evo Morales is Popular: Don't let John Enders' Heart of Darkness reportage fool you. Most Bolivians love their corner kicking cocalero. Polls show his approval ratings on the ups.

* Hugo Chavez is Really Popular: Opposition polling firm Datanalysis had Chavez' ratings at 59% (the same as Obama's, suck it Davidow) in March. But then they refused to release the results b/c they were so high. But then they leaked, ha ha.

* Venezuela Makes Big Drug Busts: Yes the US is perennially "concerned" about Chavez' "cooperation" on drug interdiction, but the Venezuelans are actually seizing more blow these days than when the DEA was running (over) the country. Another two-ton bust last weekend.

* Ecuador Makes Really Big Drug Busts: What does 17 tons of coke even look like? Crimany.

* Venezuela's Economy Grew: The global economy is collapsing, but Venezuela's managed to actually grow in the first quarter '09. Which means that the IMF is even wrong-er than usual (Take the bet!).

Your mind is blown, I know.

From Bolivarian Revolution

Capitalism's Greatest Hits

by Stephen Pizzo Page 1 of 2 page(s)

As Americans we've have had it drilled into our heads that there are only three kinds of economic models:

Capitalism: Which we've been been Pavlovianly conditioned to accept as “the best, most productive and most democratic economic system ever devised. (The current meltdown we are assured is the simply that exception that proves this rule.)

Communism: Which has repeatedly proven itself the least inefficient and least productive economic system ever devised by man,

Socialism: Which fans of unfettered capitalism assure us is simply communism in a dress.


I only bring this up because today the Republican National Committee, meeting in a spider hole somewhere where they will, in the next few days, demand that the Democratic Party rename itself the, Democrat-Socialist Party.

Well, most of Europe is run by “Social Democrats;” and they seem to doing okay. I mean, no one is doing great these days, but at least Europeans don't have to worry about being unemployed AND uninsured.

But if the RNC wants to make it's case against the Democrats socialist tendencies, they first have to make a better case for their unfettered capitalist tendencies. Is pure capitalism really all that efficient? And if so, at what human costs are these “efficiencies” attained?

Fortunately history provides report card on American capitalism. And, if it were, say a bus, that broke down every 20 miles or so and left its passengers to hoof it into town, I suspect we'd of replaced this thing with something more efficient a long time ago. Here's that report card:

October 12, 1837 - The Panic of 1837 (sparked by over-extended credit/defaults.) The House sanctioned the use of Treasury notes for a bailout, provided that they didn't exceed $10 million; Congress's efforts to stabilize the nation's currency failed to lift the depression which lasted seven years.

August 24, 1857 – Panic spared by the failure of New York branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company which had loaned $5 million to railroad builders, had been swindled out of millions by the manager of its New York branch and was unable to pay extensive debt to Eastern bankers.

September 24, 1869 - "Black Friday" crash of gold prices as Grant administration foiled attempts by financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk try to corner the gold market. Several brokerage firms went bankrupt; national economy was severely disrupted for months.

September 18, 1873 – The Panic of 1873 began with collapse of Jay Cooke and Co., one of the country's most reputable brokerage houses of it's time, known as the "financier of the Civil War.” The Panic of 1873 exposed over-speculation which continued to wreak havoc on the nation's economy for months. The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days to wait out the worst of the crisis. The secretary of the Treasury pumped $26 million of new currency into the economy, swelled the amount of paper money in circulation to $382 million. Panic did not subside, economy continued its slump through the end of the decade.

May 5, 1893 – Panic was once again sparked due to reckless speculation and over-leveraging. Panic swept the New York Stock Exchange and the stock market crashed; by year's end the country was in a severe depression.

November 9, 1903 - Panic of 1903 (known as the "Rich Man's Panic") reached its low; Dow dropped to 42.15; stocks of industrial companies fell to single-digit prices; fiscal crisis dragged on for the rest of the year, took severe toll on banks, many steel and iron producers.

October 1, 1907 - The nation plunged into the Panic of 1907 which lasted for a year – sparked by a run on Knickerbocker Trust in New York, which lacked resources to pay out to the demanding public, ultimately toppled the economy; President Roosevelt enlisted the aid of his one-time enemy, financier J.P. Morgan, who capitalized on his considerable reputation to borrow $1 million in gold from European countries. Outside U. S. Subtreasury building at Wall and Broad St. in October 1907

October 24, 1929 - "Black Thursday:' stock prices plummeted, a record 12,894,650 shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange Followed by "Black Tuesday" the markets tanked. Thousands of investors were wiped out as America's Great Depression began; 1932 - stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929; 1933, nearly half of America's banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce.

1985-89 - The Savings and Loan collapse... $167 billion in federal bailouts required.

October 19, 1987 - The stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value - its biggest-ever percentage drop; inflation and rising interest rates, the announcement of a surprisingly steep trade deficit and news of an American attack against Iran were both blamed for Wall Street's woes.

1998 – The Long-Term Capital Management failure. The Fed had to intervene to avoid sparking a worldwide panic over the condition of giant hedge fund companies like LTCM.

2000 – The Dot.com bubble crash

2007 – The housing bubble crash

2008 – The “Toxic Assets, Market Crash
Anyway, that's what the history books say. I don't cook it, I just serve it.

One final thing. If you want a taste of just how bizarre the RNC's demand the DNC change it's name really is, just watch this short video.

Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a (more...)

From OpEdNews

POT

Álvaro Uribe is definitely not a democrat

Tuesday, 12 May 2009 16:11

After the interview that Colombia's president Álvaro Uribe gave to the BBC it is hard to deny: Alvaro Uribe is not a democrat.

For quite a long time I have been thinking that perhaps I was wrong, that perhaps my liberal tendencies were my bias towards a president with whom I often disagree.

I have always been thinking that as a journalist I have to keep a distance in the Colombian political spectrum, which is so heated, and I think I still have to. But this is no matter of sympathies or left and right. This is a matter of democratic principles.

Uribe tried silencing BBC's reporter Julián Miglierini in the boldest way. He called him "friend" and disqualifying his question about Uribe's aspirations for a third term by reminding the interviewer of the history of his own country Argentina and telling the reporter to leave the Colombian democracy alone. There is very little left for Uribe than to be deeply ashamed of himself and his behavior.

I admit that journalists behave very bold at times as well, but that cannot be said of mr. Miglierini. He simply asked what millions of people want to know: does Uribe want to run for the presidency for the third time?

This apparently was too much for the president.

The ordeal confirms what the Colombian president has always shown and which he seems to empathize more and more. Uribe does not want to be questioned, let alone be contradicted. Doing either one is a mortal sin.

The president is convinced that everybody who doesn't agree with him is wrong. And thus he has visited European countries and the Washington Post - just to give some examples - to teach them how things really are. No matter what the subject is, Free Trade Treaty, the FARC, drugs policy. He doesn't seem to realize that these 'pedagogical rounds' are completely arrogant and ridiculous.

Perhaps the president thought he won the battle in his interview with the BBC reporter, but that would be a simple demonstration of his complete lack of self reflection. Uribe's image to those who still thought he was a decent man was shattered.

If he wants to be a democrat, it really is time he should refrain from authoritarian behavior like he has been displaying, he should reconsider calling his opponents and NGO's supporters of the FARC. It is time he stops accusing Piedad Córdoba and her Colombians for Peace of wanting to make a show of the liberation of hostages. The one who wants to make the biggest (one-man) show is Álvaro Uribe.

When Álvaro Uribe explained his policy of democratic security seven years ago I was surprised about this formulation, let's say about the fact that he added 'democratic' to security. Why should you say that so explicitly if you are already and obviously have been chosen democratically in a democratic country?

More and more I am sure that this 'democratic' has no meaning. Worse, it is a lie. This policy should be named 'security'. That will do.

Author Wies Ubags is a Dutch freelance journalist in Bogotá, works for media in her country and has her own weblog

From Colombia Reports Editorials

Expat community rocked by scandal

INVESTMENT COLLAPSE
05-14-2009 | MARIJULIA PUJOL LLOYD

While a case against a former Canadian lawyer drags its way through the system a local community is split

Panama Star PANAMA. The case of the London Asset Management Inc. property of the Canadian Mary Kathleen Sloane has taken another twist in a legal saga that has been in the hands of the Panamanian courts for more than 17 months.
Apparently, Mrs Sloane has been accused of allegedly running a ponzi scheme involving foreign exchange money in Penonome, Cocle province by some disgruntled investors, but the authorities have not yet taken any actions against her.
According to an article published by Eric Jackson in his blog, Panama News, Mary Sloane resigned from the British Columbia Law Society, after it was proven that she misappropriated client’s money, misled the client and the Law Society.
The Discipline Digest of the British Columbia Law Society, volume 2 of August 1992, said that in early November 1990, Mrs Sloane received $15,000 in trust from a client with instructions to send $5,000 to another party’s lawyer in trust and the remaining $10,000 to stay in the member’s law firm trust account.
The publication continues to explain how on November 23 Mrs Sloane sent an invoice for $7,500 using stationery not from her firm but her partner’s business company T.F. Corporation. She then directed the transfer of those funds, without the authorization of the client, to the general account. The misappropriated funds were used to pay for her law firm expenses and to make payments to T.F. Corporation.
On November 26 the client asked for his money back. She wrote a check for $15,000 in favor of the client, but stopped it before he could cash it.
On December 2, Sloane wrote a trust check for $7,500 in favor of the client promising that her partner woulf pay the rest of the money.
Eventually when the case was taken before the Law Society, the client received the rest of his money and Sloane admitted that she misrepresented herself and handed in her resignation.
Jackson’s article said that Sloane came to Panama and took an active role within the ex-pat community, becoming an integral part of it.
On August 16, 2006 Mrs Sloane registered London Asset Management for the purpose of playing the foreign exchange market.
Several people invested in the company. Until one of them accused her of allegedly running a scam and got the Panamanian authorities involved to investigate the operations.

THE EXPAT COMMUNITY

Foreigners living abroad tend to get together forming tight communities in order to find their way around in new surroundings and forge friendships.
In Panama there are several social organizations exclusively formed by expats and their families. They have social events, orientation classes and the chance to talk to compatriots about their countries of origin.
For many foreigners these clubs are a safe-havens in which they can speak their own language, eat their own food and find like minded people.
It is not easy to make a new life away from your own country, where everything is new and strange. The expat community could be safety net for many, but these clubs are also the hunting grounds of con artists looking for gullible victims

MARIJULIA PUJOL LLOYD

FACTS

In early November 1990 Mary Sloane received $15,000 in trust from a client.
On November 23 Sloane transferred her client’s money to her law firm general accounts.
She was brought before the BC Law Society and after an investigation tendered her resignation.

From La Estrella de Panama

The GM Quarterly Report 2009

By RS Janes


From BartBlog

Panama Votes "Right Way," Is Allowed to Keep President as Reward

Congratulations, right wing crazies. You have finally achieved an important electoral victory in Latin America, as the free daily Washington Examiner tabloid-paper was thrilled to point out today:

"After seven defeats in eight presidential elections across Latin America, the right results were finally achieved in Panama. The doubters, naysayers and chavistas were wrong: Despite freedom-lover fears, a free market democrat roundly defeated his ultra leftist opponent."

Of course on the downside, this glorious victory took place in Satan's Isthmus itself, scenic "Panama," proving again that all it takes is little free-market messaging and a brutal hundred-year history of invading, overthrowing, propping up, overthrowing again and pretty much just cold running this "key conduit of maritime trade," and you too can win over an important regional ally, through democracy!

Update: Let's all celebrate by setting up a tax shelter there. It's so easy that it's literally scary.

From Bolivarian Revolution

Swinging from the Right: Correa and Social Movements in Ecuador

Written by Jennifer Moore
Wednesday, 13 May 2009

On April 26, President Rafael Correa became the first Ecuadorian president in thirty years to win a new mandate after only one round of elections. A day later, the popular leader announced that he will accelerate his so-called Citizen's Revolution and prioritize change for the poor. However, prominent civil society organizations say that Correa's 21st Century Socialism favors powerful economic groups and bodes poorly for Ecuador's most-excluded.

“From the point of view of the social movements and the indigenous movement in particular,” says Marlon Santi, President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), “Correa's socialism is not socialism at all...He waves the flag of socialism, but he does other things.”

During his first two years in power, Correa made key decisions reflecting social movement demands, such as not to renew the contract for the U.S. military base in the coastal city of Manta, to declare a large part of the country's external debt illegitimate, and to create a National Constituent Assembly to rewrite the political constitution which was overwhelmingly approved last September. The 2008 constitution declared water a human right, gave rights to nature, and made Ecuador the second country after Bolivia to be declared a plurinational state—a central proposal of the indigenous movement for decades.

But since then, new laws pertaining to mining and food sovereignty, combined with open insults and threats against organizations such as the CONAIE and Quito-based environmental organization Acción Ecológica (Environmental Action), have led these organizations to conclude that Correa is governing from the right while squeezing their ability to participate on their own terms.

Acción Ecológica President Ivonne Ramos refers to the new food sovereignty law as evidence of how Correa's policies concentrate economic power. The legislation finalized after a presidential veto in April, she says, promotes agro-industry and favours powerful economic groups who will benefit from new subsidies. It also opens the door to Terminator seeds, agro-fuels and legalization of shrimp farming in coastal manglar forests.

Even the solidarity vouchers provided to the poor are tied with monopolistic economic groups who she says control nearly the entire national food chain.

“When the people receive their vouchers,” she explains, “they can buy products in the big supermarkets at a reduced price. So the benefit is ultimately channeled to these powerful economic groups.”

She also points out a new wave of criminalization affecting environmental and human rights defenders at the local level. Many of those now facing charges are from the hundreds previously granted amnesty by the National Constituent Assembly in March 2008. In particular, community leaders affiliated with the National Coordinator for Life and Sovereignty who are opposed to large scale metal mining have been targetted. Various members face charges of organized terrorism.

Overall, Ramos foresees a much more “restrictive” environment for groups like hers in the coming period.

Accion's Closure, a Red Flag

Acción Ecológica first drew international attention to tighter restrictions for NGOs and grassroots organizations when it sought solidarity for what it called “a clear act of censorship” in March. The Health Minister, under whose ministry the organization is registered, closed its doors by withdrawing its legal status saying that the organization had not fulfilled the objectives for which it was created.

Acción attributed the move to its recent participation in protests against the new mining law, which favors Canadian-financed transnational mining companies which are well-positioned to develop gold and copper mines along the Western Andes and in the Southern Amazon. Such projects have generated great controversy, especially within affected communities.

A tremendous outpouring of support for the 23-year-old environmental organization resulted in a quick retraction of the minister's initial statement. The Minister denied possible political persecution and explained the decision as part of an administrative procedure in order that Acción Ecológica become registered under the Ministry of the Environment, which did not exist when it was founded.1

However, although their legal status has been temporarily reinstated and Ramos is confident that a definitive decision will be made in their favour later this month, she is still worried about how the government is reorganizing NGOs and grassroots organizations.

New conditions include that organizations should orient their actions and programs according to the National Development Plan which is in the hands of the National Secretariat for Planning and Development (SENPLADES). She calls this “terrible,” saying, “we might differ with the National Development Plan.”

She further adds that President Correa has mentioned several times that organizations like hers should not carry out any political activity. But, she challenges, “We are political beings and we view working in the interests of nature and the common good as a political act.”

“However,” she affirms, “we have never engaged in party politics and we are not at all interested in holding positions of power. Rather, we believe that there is a power that exists outside of this: freedom of speech and freedom of action to defend what we consider worth defending.”

They are energized by the support they received in March which made them realize that they have what Ramos calls an “irreproachable reputation” upon which to continue working.

Plurinationality, Only on Paper

However, prior to the closure of Acción Ecológica, indigenous institutions were also being threatened, coupled with regular insults that the CONAIE leadership were nothing but “a few good-for-nothings.”

The indigenous movement first arose as an important political force in the early 1990s and has led key mobilizations against neoliberal policies such as US free trade agreement negotiations, while resisting expansion of extractive industries at the regional level, especially in the south and south-central Amazon.

The rift with Correa first developed a year ago for various reasons including Correa's emphatic opposition to the inclusion of free prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples over activities taking place on their territories in the new constitution.2 More than half a dozen indigenous nationalities could be affected by planned oil and mining expansion.

More recently, in late January, on the heels of indigenous-led protests against the new mining law, President Correa surprised indigenous leaders when he announced during one of his Saturday radio programs that the Development Council of the Indigenous Nationalities and Peoples of Ecuador (CODENPE) would be closed. He alleged that the Executive Secretary was misusing funds in favor of her home province. Several days prior, the Minister of Economy stopped CODENPE's funds.

CODENPE was established through implementation of the 1998 constitution which recognized the right of indigenous peoples in Ecuador to participate in decision making and to determine their own development priorities.

The decision led Monica Chuji, former Assembly Member and past Communications Secretary for Correa, to write that it is hardly a coincidence that the decision would take place following the mining law protests. She concluded that “like all neoliberal governments, for Correa, we indians represent 'an obstacle to development'.” She indicated that this was also a message to other social movements “to be advised: no protests or dissidence against the neoliberal politics of the Government of Rafael Correa—or else.”3

But this was only the beginning. A month later, President Correa issued a decree retracting the autonomy of the National Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education (DINEIB), placing it under control of the Ministry of Education. More recently in the lead up to the April election, the indigenous justice system has come under heavy criticism.

CONAIE President Marlon Santi says “In the preamble of the new constitution, it says that this is a plurinational state, but the government does not really want to recognize this.” Plurinationality is the recognition of multiple nationalities coexisting within the same state. The concept also encompasses proposals such as autonomous control of health care, education, and justice.

Santi sees what is taking place as a racist process of “disaccreditation,” such that “the movement loses representation and participation in whatever agenda or economic process are taking place through the state.”

Funding and operations at Codenpe have begun again, but the CONAIE now has several cases before the Constitutional Court as a result of these decisions, and another that it is preparing against the President's Office to be presented before the Inter American Human Rights Commission.

An Extension of World Bank Policies

Economist Pablo Dávalos, a professor and former advisor to the CONAIE, was critical of Correa even before he was first elected in November 2006. He says the distance between social movements and Correa is comparable to the relationship between the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil and President Lula.

Dávalos is concerned about the growing concentration of power and growing state influence over social organizations, especially the CONAIE, as part of efforts to advance the government's economic program.

He comments that Correa is building upon accumulated efforts to weaken the CONAIE, which is still recovering from a failed alliance with the government of Colonel Lucio Gutierrez (2003-2005), who came to power with the help of the indigenous movement and then quickly proved itself a closer friend of former US President George W. Bush. However, he suggests that Correa's approach is closer to “intervention strategies developed by the World Bank toward social movements in the 1990s through projects geared at specific groups including women, peasant farmers, youth and indigenous.”

From Dávalos’ perspective, particularly with regard to the CONAIE, the goal is “to neutralize the ability of the indigenous movement to mobilize and to destroy it as a historic social actor.”

Although much has been made of the new 2008 political constitution—and notwithstanding social organizations including the CONAIE that are actively defending their constitutional rights as they were voted upon last September—Dávalos says that in contrast with the constitution of 1998 “the new political system is more vertical, more heirarchcal, and more dependent on the president than before.”

He adds that while certain rights have been obtained, “such as the right to water, the untouchability of indigenous territories and some collective rights, economic planning prevails over these rights. So if a right comes into tension with the planning process, then planning will come first. So the rights are there, but they are neutralized at the same time.”

Change from Below

Dávalos says the first step for social movements, before rebuilding capacity to mobilize and developing strategic alliances, is to “take back the [socialist, revolutionary] discourse because it permits resistance and locates the government with respect to social groups. But right now this has been kidnapped and assimilated into the government.”

Lastly, he says, “an international lobby needs to be developed to indicate that this government is far from a leftist government and corresponds more closely to the interests of powerful groups that are emerging with the new mining and agro-fuels sectors.”

From the perspective of the CONAIE's Marlon Santi, it is all part of a lengthy process for inclusion that the indigenous movement has been fighting for decades and living through for centuries.

“We have been in this process as an indigenous organization through left wing governments and right wing governments. Neither really suits us because the left does not take into count of the full dimension of every sector...That is why the CONAIE has life plans strategically developed to last for twenty years.

Stressing that it has been as a result of their past struggles rather than state programs by which they have achieved their currently recognized rights, “about 0.2%” of what they are aiming for, Santi says, he considers that change will continue to come from below despite Correa's discourse.“Our challenge is to develop public policies from us for the government to meet the needs and requirements of the most abandoned sectors."

Ideally for Santi, their involvement will be a 21st Century priority: “We are in the century in which we as human beings with our range of races, customs, cultures, and ways of thinking, have to respect these various differences that we have.”

Under the current conditions, however, this will be difficult.

Notes
1. Daniel Denvir, 16 March 09 “Ecuadorian government shuts down leading environmental group” http://www.grist.org/article/ecuadorian-government-shuts-down-leading/
2. Daniel Denvir, 16 May 2008 “CONAIE indigenous movement condemns President Correa” http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1288/49/
3. Monica Chuji, 27 January 2009, “El cierre del CODENPE: Otro ejemplo del racismo y autoritarismo del presidente Correa” http://www.llacta.org/notic/2009/not0127a.htm

From Upside Down World

Noam Chomsky Talks About US Imperialism Among Other Things

Compañero Obama? Obama Mends Fences with Latin America

Written by Benjamin Dangl
Tuesday, 12 May 2009

Source: Alternet

When George W. Bush went to Latin America, Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona called him "human trash," and protesters flooded the streets.

Now, when Barack Obama visited, leftist Venezuela President Hugo Chavez wanted to shake his hand, the right-wing president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, asked for his autograph and the anti-imperialist book Open Veins of Latin America made an unlikely journey to the White House.

What does the April Summit of the Americas say about the past and future of U.S.-Latin American relations?

"While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms," Obama told 34 of the hemisphere's presidents at the summit. "But I pledge to you that we seek an equal partnership … There is no senior partner and junior partner in our relations; there is simply engagement based on mutual respect and common interests and shared values."

Such intentions were perhaps most clearly represented in the now-famous handshake between Obama and Chavez. At the start of the summit, Obama strode across the room to initiate a warm greeting with Chavez -- much to the chagrin of right-wing pundits and politicians in Washington.

Dick Cheney found the handshake "disturbing," and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said, "I think it was irresponsible for the president to be seen kind of laughing and joking with Hugo Chavez."

Obama responded to critics by explaining, "Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States'. They own Citgo. It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States."

The encounters between Obama and Chavez were followed up with concrete plans to improve relations. Both countries agreed to restore the ambassadors in each nation; the diplomats had been pulled last September when oppression of supporters of Bolivian President Evo Morales was linked to U.S. funding and support.

Obama later said at the summit, "We recognize that our military power is just one arm of our power, and that we have to use our diplomatic and development aid in more intelligent ways."

Such rhetoric comes at a time when the region is clearly breaking free of Washington's grasp. Across Latin America, leftist leaders have been elected on anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal platforms. On April 26, left-leaning Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa was re-elected with 51.7 percent of the votes, showing that the leader is one of the most popular in Ecuador's recent history; it was the first election since 1979 that did not necessitate a run-off vote.

Statistics also show that many Latin American leaders' socialistic policies -- and independence from Washington -- are improving the lives of their citizens.

Inés Bustillo, director of the Washington office of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, a United Nations agency, recently told the Christian Science Monitor that in Latin America, "Between 2003 and 2008, we had average annual growth of 4.5 percent -- growth we had not seen since the late 1960s … That growth, and some really sound fiscal policies and expanded social initiatives, led to a 9 percent drop in the poverty rate -- 40 million people moving above the poverty line."

Obama Has a Fan in Colombia

Obama has previously criticized the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia, citing the assassination of labor leaders and violations of human rights as reasons for not supporting the deal. Yet Obama has since made an about-face on the topic. The day after the summit, the Obama administration announced that it will not renegotiate any part of the North American Free Trade Agreement and will continue pushing for the application of FTAs with Panama and Colombia.

Colombia's Uribe was in on Obama's plan at the summit, hence his giddiness when he approached the U.S. president to ask for his autograph. Obama complied, writing, "To President Uribe, with admiration."

Uribe joked of the note to reporters: "Barack Obama signed this little letter for me ... I'm going to send this to get framed."

But is Uribe really the kind of fan Obama needs? The Colombian leader has been regularly linked to violent right-wing paramilitary groups, implicated in gross human rights violations. Just recently, Diego Murillo, a former paramilitary and drug lord in Colombia, said in a U.S. court that he helped fund Uribe's 2002 election campaign.

And on April 29, Britain quietly announced they would end all military support to the Uribe regime due to his government's extensive human-rights violations and links to violent paramilitary groups. The military aid had been going on for almost a decade.

In a written statement, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said his government "shares the concern … that there are officers and soldiers of the Colombian armed forces who have been involved in, or allowed, abuses … Our bilateral human-rights projects with the Colombian ministry of defense will cease."

According to The Guardian, "Investigators are looking into 1,296 cases since 2002 of reported executions of civilians by army soldiers who dressed the victims in rebel uniforms and planted weapons on them to present them as legitimate guerrilla casualties."

Open Veins in the White House

At the summit, Obama also said that he "didn't come to debate the past, I came to speak about the future." Yet the past crept up at every turn. First, Chavez handed Obama a copy of Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano's 1971 anti-imperialist book, The Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, "to learn about our history, [because] it is on the basis of this history that we have to rebuild."

Perhaps Chavez handed Obama the book in part because he knew that Jeffrey Davidow, the U.S. coordinator for Obama's summit meeting, was also the U.S. ambassador to Chile from 1971 to '74, during the U.S.-backed military coup against the democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende. The U.S.' funding and support for the violent reign of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet is well documented.

At the summit, Davidow commented, possibly because of this bloody past, that the more right-leaning governments of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Colombia are "forward-looking, not backward-looking" and that the regional call for lifting the embargo against Cuba is "part of the historical baggage that Latin America carried with it and is almost a reflexive suspicion or anti-Americanism."

In a recent column, Tom Hayden wrote of a declassified document from 1974 in which Davidow communicated with Chilean officials regarding a "conspiracy on the part of the enemies of Chile to paint the junta in the worst possible terms."

This violent dictatorship casts a shadow across each page of Galeano's now-classic book -- which, after Chavez handed it to Obama, shot to No. 2 on the Amazon best-seller list. One can only hope that Obama will read this book and improve U.S.-Latin American relations in the post-Bush era, relations that could be marked by camaraderie rather than blood and bullets.

In the afterword to Open Veins, Galeano writes about the stories of where his book ended up after its publication:

The most heartening response came not from the book pages in the press but from real incidents in the streets. The girl who was quietly reading Open Veins to her companion in a bus in Bogotá, and finally stood up and read it aloud to all the passengers. The woman who fled from Santiago in the days of the Chilean bloodbath with this book wrapped inside her baby's diapers. The student who went from one bookstore to another for a week in Buenos Aires ' Calle Corrientes, reading bits of it in each store because he hadn’t the money to buy it. And the most-favorable reviews came not from any prestigious critic but from the military dictatorships that praised the book by banning it.

Now, with the unlikely arrival of this book in the White House, the journey of Open Veins continues, and the story of U.S.-Latin American relations enters a new chapter.

Benjamin Dangl is the author of The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007). He is also the editor of Toward Freedom, a progressive perspective on world events, and Upside Down World, a news Web site uncovering activism and politics in Latin America. Email bendangl@gmail.com .

From Upside Down World

Bits and Pieces

May 13th, 2009

* Remember that terrorist cell in Santa Cruz–the one with murky connections to the ultra-right-wing Argentine carapintada group? An Argentine daily reports that there were 11 more of the painted faces in Beni department (also an oppo area, natch), according to ABI. These guys were also apparently involved at some point in the Balkan conflict in the 90s, which neatly ties in to head terror dude Eduardo Rosza Flores, who was a Balkan war junkie and alleged murderer of journalists.
* Alcides Mendoza, who is tied to the terror group by Bolivian investigators, denied fingering ex-Pro-Santa Cruz Committee leader Branko Marinkovic as the terror-group funder; could it be because he is now being held in Santa Cruz, and little too close to his ex-comrades in the UJC?
* Bina points to another ABI article, which says that the terror-cell dead had gunpowder residue on their fingers; cambas are now clamoring to prove that one can get this residue from paintball (the Irish, I suppose, will claim that it’s a naturally occurring substance found on clovers).
* Evo makes a plea to Peruvian president Alan “Twobreakfasts” Garcia: “Vulgar comrade Alan Garcia, I’m asking you with great respect to expel these criminals who are escaping to Peru.” Garcia has granted asylum to a former minister of ex-Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (”Goni,” who is also wanted by Bolivian authorities, but who’s cuddled up to Clinton and Obama officials up north and is pretty damn safe and comfortable), and is considering granting asylum to two more Goni goons–this on the back of granting asylum to Manuel Rosales, who’s not only wanted by Venezuelan authorities, but by Interpol, too! (Could Bush Jr. and Cheney be eying asylum for themselves in Peru, too?)
* On February 14, 1879, the Bolivian government seized the Chilean-owned Antofagasta Nitrate & Railway Company, claiming an earlier agreement with the company over tax revenues on saltpeter exports was illegal, having never been ratified by congress. Chile, in turn, invaded Antofagasta, the capital of Bolivia’s Litoral region, on the Pacific coast. Neighboring Peru, bound by a secret treaty with Bolivia, tried to mediate the dispute peacefully at first, but Chile pre-empted negotiations by declaring war on both countries, on April 5, after learning of the treaty. Thus began the War of the Pacific–also known as the Saltpeter War–which raged for four years, caused Bolivia to lose its sea access, and had the capital of Peru, Lima, temporarily occupied by Chilean troops. Bolivians still mourn the loss of their ocean-side land.

Since then, Bolivia has periodically tried to negotiate with the Chilean government over access to the Pacific, to no avail. But according to Los Tiempos (Spanish), there is now a proposal floating in Chile over a 150-kilometer-long tunnel that could connect the Bolivian town of Andes Charaña with a man-made island off Arica, Chile. (Incidentally, I just talked with Brazil-nut farmers in Pando department who are forced to truck their product to Arica for export to Europe–this would save them time and money.) The proposal is in its nascent stages, with neither the Chilean nor the Bolivian governments discussing it formally yet. There’s also a question of Peru’s claims to the territory, too. The tunnel sounds like an expensive pipe dream, but it’s damn interesting. (Here’s a less-detailed article on the tunnel in English; H/T to BoRev for the Tiempos article.)
* Late addition: Via Otto, an AP story about cocaine, the Shining Path, and the poverty- and violence-stricken Peru way off the tourist path.

Soldiers shot and killed four people in one village in September, says Norberto Lanilla, a lawyer representing the victims’ relatives.
“They called us terrorists and collaborators. After the killings we had a week to grab what we could and leave,” Rojas said of the soldiers.
Defense Minister Antero Florez defended the soldiers, saying anyone living in the rebel-dominated mountains should be considered an insurgent.
Rojas and other refugees deny they are collaborators. But they say it’s best to avoid contact with the military.
“The soldiers try to use you quickly, for information, as guides. But if you guide, ‘Los Tios’ don’t forgive. They kill,” Rojas says. The [Shining Path] rebels are known as “Los Tios,” Spanish for the uncles.

Nasty.

From El Gaviero

World hide and seek

Perhaps I shall

It’s called a microphone, Joe.