Jayzus. Do we really need more proof that El Ecuadorable is one smoldering dude?
And the ‘Cito isn’t exactly chopped liver, either. But then, we already knew that.
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
Finally, Juan Forero commits something akin to journalism…
August 28, 2008 — Sabina Becker…with a lengthy piece on the parapolitical murders in Colombia.
Too bad I beat him to the punch. More than once, I might add.
And even worse, he still doesn’t connect all this to Alvaro Uribe, let alone Washington. The most he’ll say is that the paras were “often working closely with army units”. Under whose command, Juan? Spit it out. Oh come on, spit it…
Oh, fuck it. He says it’s the Colombian government exhuming the bodies. I guess that somehow makes them heroes now. As if all the language about the Uribe administration being “feted from Washington to Paris for its recent success against Marxist guerrillas” weren’t enough to give Forero’s true sympathies away.
Possums, don’t hold your breath waiting for Juan to connect any dots here. You might end up dead for real.
Meanwhile, Hugh Bronstein of Reuters gets a little closer to it, but he too shrinks away from naming Uribe’s real, much deeper connections to the drug/parapolitics scandal. At most, all he’ll mention is Uribe’s creepy-ass cousin. He has yet to peruse Virginia Vallejo’s book, I see.
Oh, and Bronstein sticks in a “Bogota-based analyst” taking dig at Venezuela there, too, claiming it has “problems with drug-trafficking and kidnapping”. Damn right it does–it sits right next to Colombia. And since the border’s not sealed and Chavecito would only take flak from Washington if he tried to control it, well…I think you can connect the dots, yes?
Venezuelan Beer Chicks for Progress
August 28, 2008 — Sabina BeckerEr, make that AGAINST READING. From Aporrea, a shocking report on the mental calibre of one of that country’s top spokesmodels for mindless alcohol consumption:
Norkis Batista, a young Venezuelan actress who played “Victoria Guanipa” in the RCTV International adaptation of “La Trepadora” by Romulo Gallegos, made these statements in an interview published in the April 2008 edition of the magazine “Waiting Room”.[...]
Waiting Room: Did you take time to read the novella by Romulo Gallegos and see how closely it resembled the adaptation by Ricardo Hernandez Anzola?
Norkis Batista: No. I don’t like to read. I only do it when there’s a script in front of me. The story by Ricardo Hernandez is distinctive. It’s modern. It’s not old, but more futuristic.
Waiting Room: Didn’t it make you curious to read it so you could learn more about your character?
Norkis Batista: Reading a book is a step back, not forward.
Translation mine.
So much for Venezuelan culture, arts and literature. Romulo Gallegos was one of that country’s greatest literary figures, but according to a woman who is not much more than a figure (with more makeup on it than clothing, especially when she’s peddling Polar beer), reading him is “backward”.
Here she is, (cough) acting in the movie mentioned above:
Apparently, YouTubers prefer her nude scenes. I guess it would be a shame to waste all that silicone.
Two “prestigious” Chavez-haters get owned by a Russky
August 28, 2008 — Sabina BeckerYes, folks, I’m talking about those two once-notable authors, Mario Vargas Llosa and Carlos Fuentes, who have both decided to keep their names in the news by turning their pens to machetes in the name of right-wing hackery.
Since it’s currently fashionable in certain circles to bash Chavecito for everything from his impoverished background to his military career to his friendship with Fidel to, yes, his nonwhiteness–well, when talent deserts you, you just gotta turn your hand to something, and why not something fashionable? It’s either that or the bottle of Victory Gin (and I wouldn’t put that past either one of these sour old boys, either. Hey, it worked out fine for Christopher Hitchens–he gets to crapagandize and drink himself insensible with the proceeds.)
Now, Russia doesn’t have a notable journalistic tradition that I’m aware of. (Mind you, Pravda may not be the best thing to go by on this one.) No more than it has a lengthy and illustrious history of parliamentary democracy. But I can see I shall have to visit Tiwy.com more often, because this is one Russia-based news site that strives to get things right.
Case in point: Nil Nikandrov’s excellent piece on the two writers-turned-crapagandists. Nikandrov definitely seems to have Vargas Llosa’s number–and on speed-dial, at that:
PetroEcuador arrives in Venezuela
August 27, 2008 — Sabina BeckerSure beats having ExxtortionMobil back, I bet…
The Ecuadorian state firm, PetroEcuador, will commence operations in Venezuela, where it will exploit crude alongside its Chilean counterpart, ENAP, according to Ecuadorian minister of Mines and Petroleum, Galo Chiriboga.Chiriboga announced that PetroEcuador and ENAP will join Venezuela’s PDVSA in joint operations in the oilfield of Ayacucho de la Faja del Orinoco, a vast region in eastern Venezuela where the government of Hugo Chavez assumed control of the petroleum operations about a year ago.
The minister said that the joint accord will be signed this Friday in Caracas, on the occasion of an official visit by president Rafael Correa to Venezuela.
The three state firms will create a joint venture to certify the reserves of the Ayacucho oilfield, which, according to information from Caracas, has 39 wells and reserves totalling 14 billion barrels.
Chiriboga pointed out that the operation in Venezuela will permit Ecuador to increase its national reserves “at times when the majority of wells in Ecuador are in decline.”
Translation mine.
You know what that means–stability in oil prices and supplies for Ecuador, great at a time when the new constitution is going to a vote and it’s very likely the Ecuadorian oligarchy will try the same shit their Venezuelan counterparts did in the winter of 2002-3. This should head ‘em off at the pass.
Gasp! More petro-solidarity in Latin America! The horror. The HORROR!!!
I guess I know what I’ll be doing for Festive Left Friday. Yup, you guessed it–blogging pics of two of my favorite smart goodlookings signing oil accords!
What? There IS a conspiracy afoot in Bolivia?
August 26, 2008 — Sabina Becker
You don’t say!…Well, actually, Bolivian news agency ABI does say, and so do I, translating:
The prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, secretly met on Monday with the US ambassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg. The meeting comes nine days after Costas’s radical speech, in which he insulted President Evo Morales and announced a series of measures that skirt the edges of the constitution.Although there was no official mention of what the two discussed, the meeting occurred amid the beginning of the measures with which Costas and his colleagues of the so-called “Media Luna” region sought to put pressure on the Morales government, which was ratified with two-thirds of the popular vote at the polls (67.4%).
According to a report by the Gigavision network, the encounter took place in the Prefectural Palace, a location where the press was barred from entering.
The TV report informed that the Costas-Goldberg meeting went on for at least an hour and 30 minutes, and proved the encounter had taken place with images taken before and after.
And here is one of those images:
Note the caption: “No details given of the meeting”.
Now, would a perfectly above-board meeting be so goshdarn secretive as to lock out the media and give no details of what was said? If you think it could, you must be drinking some bad Kool-Aid. El Duderino has already noted some of Costas’s more egregious hijinks leading up to the referendum, and following it too. Now it appears that Goldberg was not only aware of what was going to happen; for all we know, he handed Costas the playbook for the next steps at that hush-hush meeting. Why else the auspicious timing?
And besides, it’s not as if they haven’t done this sort of thing before.
AP hits Venezuela with the Stoopid Stick…AGAIN.
August 26, 2008 — Sabina BeckerAnd this time, it’s all about Teh Stoopid in Venezuela. Or at least, AP would slyly insinuate that Venezuela is the one with the stupidity problem.
Mysterious deaths among the Warao “Indians” along the Orinoco river, which just so happens to be Venezuela’s richest oilfield region. AP seems to have fingered bat rabies as the culprit, though the (US-based) medical researchers they cite only say the natives “described symptoms consistent with” the disease. Meanwhile, you really have to wonder what stupid questions the AP reporter asked of the Venezuelan health minister to get her to respond like this:
Perez said it was irresponsible to suggest there has been a lack of government help. She said officials have repeatedly visited the area this year to investigate.
Of course, the AP prefers to put the accusation of no-government-help in the mouths of “some indigenous leaders”, without naming or quoting a single one. Translation: Venezuelan government too stupid to look after those Injuns they claim to care so much about.
Then there’s this odd little snippet:
Javier Hernandez manages the small zoo at Caracas’ General Francisco de Miranda Park. He said Monday that 29-year-old Erick Arrieta violated park rules by letting the Asian python out early Saturday.The biology major was found strangled to death, with a snake bite on his left wrist.
Translation: Venezuelan students too stupid to look after Asian pythons.
And then there’re these two items about how Venezuela is supposedly “not co-operating” in the War on Drugs. Translation: Venezuelan people too stupid to stop gringos shoving Colombian coke up their noses.
Here’s a novel thought for the AP: Why isn’t the US government addressing the demand side, without which the (COLOMBIAN) supply side of this problem wouldn’t exist? Translation: AP too stupid to get onto the real story.
Yep, he’s been bought…
August 25, 2008 — Sabina BeckerOh, color me shocked, SHOCKED…at the latest from Aporrea:
On his Sunday program, ex-vice president Jose Vicente Rangel asserted that the general-in-chief, Raul Isaias Baduel, visited Bogota around the end of July, where he “met with Pedro Carmona and the Colombian defence minister, Juan Manuel Santos.”Baduel’s agenda, according to Rangel, included “a meeting with an association of retired military leaders, in which former generals Juan Salcedo Yora and Manuel Monnet were present.” According to Rangel, these men “have international arrest warrants out against them for crimes against humanity.”
Also, Rangel said, Gen. Baduel addressed a conference against the Venezuelan government at Sergio Arboleda University in Bogota, where he met with members of an NGO “which is continually taking shots at Venezuela and its national government.”
Here’s Rangel on his TV show, discussing that and more:
Baduel’s disgraceful conduct is the second item in this clip.
So, the once honorable, oh-so-constitutionalist general has been meeting with wanted criminals–in addition to receiving money from where he shouldn’t? His formerly sterling reputation doesn’t need any tarnishing from without; he’s doing a terrific job of pissing all over it himself.
At this rate, he can stop wondering why he can’t siphon off the “Bolivarian, but…” vote. Nobody votes for a traitor–least of all one who consorts with the very business dictator whom he once stood up to!
Disco that doesn’t suck
August 24, 2008 — Sabina Becker“I Wouldn’t Want To Be Like You”. The Alan Parsons Project.
Suck my gas valve, bitches!
August 24, 2008 — Sabina BeckerFrom Aporrea, another example of Evo’s cojones in action.
The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, ratified on Saturday that he would not permit the opposition prefects and “civic organizers” to close gas valves for any reason. For this reason, he instructed the Armed Forces to guarantee security to all natural-gas installations and prevent any assaults on the economy of the Bolivian state.The far right, according to President Morales, “are already meeting now in the Bolivian Chaco to try to take over the valves. That’s an assault on the Bolivian people.” He informed the hundreds of delegates meeting for the second consecutive day in the national assembly of the National Coordinator for Change (Conalcam) that he had spoken with various ministers and vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera, with whom he resolved to guarantee security for gas ducts and valves.
“This intended takeover of the valves is not an action against Evo Morales, nor the government, but against the Bolivain people,” he added. He was referring to the decision of the “civil society” directors of the Media Luna region, who had threatened to take over all oil and gas wells and initiate an indefinite blockade of the roads, starting on Monday, August 25.
The gas-producing provinces of Cordillera, Luis Calvo and Gran Chaco, in the departments of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija respectively, announced a blockade of all roads in the Bolivian Chaco region, which borders on Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The three regions contain the largest natural gas reserves in Bolivia, estimated at 1.36 trillion cubic metres.
Translation mine.
As you can see, these fascists are not only keen on cutting Evo’s throat (and that of every other indigenous person in Bolivia), they also have no problem shooting themselves in the foot. Because of course, the gas-producing provinces all border on the three countries most likely to be purchasing gas from them. So who’s this blockade going to hurt? You guessed it–the very people who are hoping to ultimately cash in on it. (Remember, Brazil and Argentina will not do business with anyone but the federal government of Bolivia when it comes to gas, and neither, I suspect, will the newly leftist, pro-poor government of Paraguay, whose stated mission is to lift its own indigenous out of the same poverty the Bolivian neighbors are now fighting.)
I guess I could further translate Evo’s remarks as a “suck this, bitches!” to the opposition.
Of course, what you get when you suck a gas valve is suicide a la Sylvia Plath. Maybe that’s what Evo was alluding to when he said the fascists are “agonizing”. Hey, if they’re in a world of hurt, I say put ‘em out of their misery. Bolivia can surely get along without them!
