Colombia: False Positives
June 2, 2008
Today’s guest editorial is a special by Gloria Gaitán, the daughter of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán whose murder in 1948 signalled the beginning of 60 years of violent conflict and civilwar in Colombiain. It appeared Spanish first in Aporrea, Rebelión on May 26, 2008.
False positives is a local term from the aftermath of 9/11 applied to totally fabricated, supposedly “terrorist”, events cooked up by the Alvaro Uribe government to help the regime by throwing up a smoke screen during times of high scandal, as has happened repeatedly throughout this governement
This week with the serious para-politics scandal, the extradition of paramilitaries to keep them quiet and the accusations by ex-congresswoman Yedis Medina – who has shown that Alvaro Uribe’s second re-election is illegitimate since it took place via bribes and criminal conspiracy – false positives have been the order of the day monopolizing the national scene.
As the whole world must know, Colombia’s Office of Public Prosecution – whose director was until recently a functionary of the President’s office – placed criminal charges against three national congress members, four foreigners and various Colombian nationals as presumed accomplices of the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces (FARC). The accusations made public relate to contacts for arranging the humanitarian agreement with the guerrillas so as to win freedom for all the hostages.
A Tool for the Laptop
May 23, 2008
There’s a south asian joke where a cuckold sighs relief at the death of his illegitimate son ‘because he looked like a dick anyway’. It would seem the father of this cretin (Ben Whitford) in the Guardian has not been afforded such satisfaction yet. However, this fellow doesn’t just look like a dick, he also acts like one. Look at this pathetic propaganda screed — this hack, to use Robert Newman’s words, has all the credulity of a 70s porn actress (‘Gee mister, you mean the time machine only works if I take off all my clothes?’). This may very well have been dictated by the US state department (and there is no reason to believe it wasn’t).
In the following, Forrest Hylton tells tells the Real News this is really about manufacturing threats. (Also check toni solo’s excellent analysis of the US-Colombian propaganda campaign)
Inspector Clouseau Meets Ocean’s 11
May 20, 2008
In today’s guest editorial, toni solo’s latest in his Globalization and Terror series, he takes a look at Colombia’s laptop fiasco.
The Pink Panther’s Inspector Clouseau has a new rival. Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble’s recent performance for Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s narco-terror regime was an autopilot sub-routine derived from Colin Powell’s 2003 UN farrago justifying the attack on Iraq. Noble has form for this genre. Back in 1998 he justified giving evasive testimony (1) to the grand jury investigating allegations against Bill Clinton. At the time, Noble was one of Clinton’s security team. British civil servants call it being “economical with the truth”.
Colombia had asked Interpol to check out some computer gadgetry allegedly recovered from Colombia’s illegal attack on Ecuadoran territory on March 1st this year. Over twenty people were murdered in the attack including members of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), four Mexican students and an Ecuadoran. The Uribe gangster regime and its US and European allies mounted a vicious propaganda campaign alleging the computer hardware contained proof of financial and material support for the FARC from Venezuela and Ecuador.
Allende Vs Chavez
May 15, 2008
James Petras on Salvador Allende and Hugo Chavez examining similarities and differences on the ‘National Road to Socialism’.
I have known and advised three left wing president including President Papandreou (Greece 1981-85), President Salvador Allende of Chile (1970-73) and President Hugo Chavez.
Both Allende and Chavez share many strategic goals and embrace policies favoring the working class, peasantry and the urban poor. They also pursued programs regaining national control over the strategic sectors of the economy, redistributing land (agrarian reform), reallocating budgetary expenditures in favor of social programs for the poor and pursuing independent anti-imperialist foreign policies.
In broad historical and sociological terms, they also share a common belief in constitutional, electoral processes, in a multi-party system, a mixed economy and independent trade unions, business and civic associations.
Read the rest of this entry »
When did the US “lose” Latin America?
May 13, 2008
“The US is promoting secessionist movements to break up countries it cannot control” Forrest Hylton
Racist Seperatism
May 8, 2008
Autonomy proponents in Santa Cruz, Bolivia claim victory as opposition boycotts referendum.
More here
The IAPA v. The People
April 29, 2008
Today’s guest commentary on the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) from my friend and media scholar Jairo Lugo. Recently, when the IAPA made some damning statements against the Venezuelan government, it was reported with much fanfare by the BBC, Guardian etc. They did not see fit to reveal however that the IAPA does not, as Jairo points out, ’represent journalists or their interests in America’.
Let me be clear: the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) does not represent journalists or their interests in America (the continent, not just the US). Indeed, the last meeting of the IAPA in Caracas concluded with several resolutions pointing the finger at the usual suspects. The meeting took place in Caracas purportedly to highlight ‘problems’ in Venezuela. The IAPA has been swift to condemned Venezuela’s government for what it considers a series of threats to the freedom of expression and the ‘security condition’ of the journalists, a concern new to the IAPA’s agenda. Important members of the IAPA such as El Mercurio of Chile and Globo of Brazil remained unfased by brutalities of the dictatorships against journalists. Indeed, El Mercurio went further, actively supporting the Pinochet regime. No apologies have been forthcoming for its silence during a time where many journalists were tortured or disappeared.
Zapatista
April 20, 2008
Another documentary by Big Noise Films this time on the Zapatistas of Chiapas Mexico. The Zapatistas (EZLN) are an armed revolutionary group that rose up on New Years day 1994 in opposition to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). They are ideologically opposed to corporate globalisation and neoliberalism – which they see as exploitative and destructive to their indigenous culture.
They’re also quite famous as the first resistance movement to garner popular global support through innovitive use of the internet. Their charismatic – and media savvy – spokesperson Marcos with his poetic philosophy and stylish image, I believe, played a large role in their success in this area.
Can I speak? Can I speak about our dead at this celebration? After all, they are the ones who made it possible. Can someone say that we are here because they are not? Is that permitted?
I have a dead brother. Is there someone here who doesn’t have a dead brother? I have a dead brother. He was killed by a bullet to his head. It was the before dawn on the 1st of January, 1994. Way before dawn the bullet that was shot. Way before dawn the death that kissed the forehead of my brother. My brother used to laugh a lot but now he doesn’t laugh any more. I couldn’t keep my brother in my pocket, but I kept the bullet that killed him. On another day before dawn I asked the bullet where it came from. It said: “From the rifle of a soldier of the government of a powerful person who serves another powerful person who serves another powerful person who serves another in the whole world. The bullet that killed my brother has no nationality.
The fight that must be fought to keep our brothers with us, rather than the bullets that have killed them, has no nationality either. For this purpose we zapatistas have many big pockets in our uniforms. Not for keeping bullets. For keeping brothers.
NATO Vs SATO
April 18, 2008
South America looks to set up its own version of NATO after Colombia destabilises the region.
Chávez & JobimThe governments of Brazil and Venezuela are leading efforts to create a NATO-style South American Defense Council, which could be formed by the end of the year.
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The regional body would coordinate defense policies, deal with internal conflicts and presumably wane Washington’s influence in its “backyard.” The idea gained traction after Colombia illegally launched a military operation in Ecuador to assassinate members of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). The governments of Ecuador and Venezuela responded by sending troops to their countries’ Colombian border, causing fear that a larger conflict could ensue.
Washington, at least in public, has supported the idea of the South American initiative.
“I not only have no problem with it, I trust Brazil’s leadership and look forward to coordination with it,” said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim reportedly told Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley that the U.S. should “watch from the outside and keep its distance.”
