Festive Left Friday Blogging: Two million and counting!

January 27, 2012 — Sabina Becker

Ahem. Make that two and a HALF million…

And now, the story from Aporrea:

At 10:06 this morning, and three months shy of his second anniversary on Twitter, President Hugo Chávez made history as the most-followed head of state on the social network, with two and a half million followers.

1394 tweets, following 21 tweeters, and found on 55,400 lists, @chavezcandanga exceeded all expectations. We can emphasize that he has more followers than @Facebook, which was created on December 7, 2009.

Here is a list of the most-followed heads of state in Latin America, as of 10:21 am:

1. @chavezcandanga (Venezuela): 2,500,038
2. @FelipeCalderon (Mexico): 1,392,980
3. @DilmaBr (Brazil): 1,044,256
4. @CFKArgentina (Argentina): 830,906
5. @SebastianPinera (Chile): 677,821
6. @JuanManSantos (Colombia): 677,294
7. @MashiRafael (Ecuador): 207,911
8. @Laura_Ch (Costa Rica): 86,812

No doubt about it, this is one more demonstration that the Bolivarian Revolution is consolidating itself in all spaces, considering that @chavezcandanga is one of the best communicators in history.

Translation mine; linkage as in original.

If the Internet is the marketplace of ideas, then it looks like a leading anticapitalist is the top seller. Outpacing even Facebook on the tweeter — how about that?

And if you think it’s just a tweetish fluke, I can assure you it’s not. His messages also appear on Facebook, and get huge numbers of “likes” in no time at all. The only one who gets “liked” faster is Cristina Fernández (a.k.a. CFKArgentina), mainly because she uses Facebook more she does Twitter. Which she does almost as much as Chavecito.

But then again, Chavecito has only to get on Facebook himself (he doesn’t seem to have a personal profile there yet, only a generic “politician” page and a whole slew of fan pages), instead of simply linking it to his Twitter account. The day he does is the day Facebook’s entire server farm crashes from all the happy Bolivarian traffic welcoming him aboard the Internet’s biggest time-suck.

Watch out, Fuckerberg!

Posted in Brazil is the Bomb!, Chile Sin Queso, Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, El NarcoPresidente, Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito, Mexican Standoffs, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!. 2 Comments »

Big news in Bogotá

January 2, 2012 — Sabina Becker

Well, who’d of thunk it? Looks like the capital of Colombia has a cool new (progressive) mayor!

Gustavo Petro was sworn in as mayor of Bogotá and presented his plan for the city for the coming years. He explained that his decree prohibiting the bearing of arms will be permanent.

“We will not prohibit the ownership of firearms, which the law authorizes. What will not be permitted is the bearing of weapons in discotheques, buses and bars, so that people end up killing each other. We want Bogotá to be a weapons-free space,” said Petro.

The police commander of Bogotá, General Luis Eduardo Martínez, will begin to apply the measure immediately.

“It’s one thing to own [guns], and another to carry. I hope the police force stands behind me on this once the decree is expedited. In a few months we’ll evaluate it statistically,” said Petro in his hour-long speech.

Petro, a 51-year-old economist, was a member of the nationalist M-19 insurgency, which disbanded in 1990. In 1991 he participated in the Constituent Assembly, which edited the current constitution of Colombia, and since then has been a parliamentarian on several occasions.

His triumph in winning the second-most-important popular election in Colombia occurs 20 years after the assassination of M-19 leader Carlos Pizarro, who was campaigning in the presidential election. This is the first time an ex-insurgent has risen to a post of such importance in Colombia, where the FARC and ELN guerrillas are still active.

Translation mine.

Gustavo Petro, you may recall, was a Colombian senator last time his name appeared here. Then, he and fellow progressive senator Piedad Córdoba helped Chavecito negotiate with the FARC for the release of several hostages, among them Ingrid Betancourt, a cause célèbre in both Colombia and France. The success of those peace talks freaked out El Narco (and no doubt his gringo handlers as well), who promptly put the kibosh to everything and drove Sen. Córdoba out of office, alleging that she had guerrilla ties. It was all a lie, of course — the only tie Piedad Córdoba maintains with the FARC is her willingness to talk with them and intercede on behalf of their political prisoners!

But back to Gustavo Petro. It’s really cool to see him take charge in Bogotá, and his anti-guncrime decree is precisely what’s needed in that city, where drug-gang wars are all too much a fact of everyday life. I have no doubt that when the stats roll in, Bogotá’s legendary high murder rates will show a marked drop. And people will be looking at leftist ex-guerrillas in a whole new light.

Qué todo va bien, alcalde. Feliz año nuevo, qué viene la paz.

Posted in El NarcoPresidente, El Predicto Speaks..., Guns, Guns, Guns, Huguito Chavecito, Law-Law Land, Morticia! You Spoke French!, The Bold and the Badass. Comments Off »

Julián Conrado: Soon to be freed?

December 23, 2011 — Sabina Becker

It’s too early to say yet whether he’ll be freed, but it looks like a certain FARC guerrilla (and folk singer) whose capture sparked a huge outcry will, at least, NOT be sent back to face the draconian justice system of his homeland:

The Public Ministry has released, in writing, its opinion with respect to the extradition request for the Colombian guerilla, Guillermo Torres Cueter, alias Julián Conrado, and considers that the extradition will not proceed.

This according to Attorney General for the Republic, Luisa Ortega Díaz, who explained the proceedings during an appearance on the program “All Venezuela”, on VTV.

Ortega stated that if the crime for which a person is wanted includes the death penalty, the person may not be extradited. She argued that the decision corresponds to the fact that in Venezuela, life and human rights are preserved, and Venezuelan law does not permit the death penalty.

Conrado was apprehended this past May, on a farm estate near Barinitas in the state of Barinas, by officers of the National Anti-Drug Office (ONA).

Regarding any possible illness the guerrilla may be suffering, the Attorney General said that the order has already been given for an investigating attorney to visit him and personally verify his condition.

Translation mine.

At the very least, it’s a good sign, and sure to be seen as an early Christmas present for Julián and his supporters. There was a lot of pressure brought to bear on the Venezuelan government shortly after the arrest, and the international community got involved to try to save Julián’s life. So, while Venezuela’s relations with Colombia continue to improve, Bolivarians and leftists everywhere have nothing to fear; Chavecito and his government will not be compromising their revolutionary principles on this one. For the time being, Julián Conrado won’t be going anywhere. And there is now a good chance that his request for asylum will be granted.

Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Huguito Chavecito, Law-Law Land. 1 Comment »

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Colombia fights back with style

September 9, 2011 — Sabina Becker

“In Locombia, even we puppets are called terrorists!”

This was taken at a demonstration in Bogotá, where at least 80,000 students and teachers protested against government cutbacks to health and education. Indignados are everywhere, but in Latin America, they make it look fun!

Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Festive Left Friday Blogging. Comments Off »

Is the LAHT a bunch of Koch-suckers?

August 15, 2011 — Sabina Becker

I’ve always had my suspicions about a certain crappy “news” outlet pretentiously calling itself the “Latin American Herald Tribune”. I never did trust it; there was something of a rightist stench about it. And today, I received this in my e-mail. I think it tells us something about who may in fact be behind them, making sure nothing but bad news gets out about Latin America’s socialist successes. You be the judge:

Now, anyone who knows even a little bit about Venezuela should be doing a facepalm over the headline alone. Venezuela is not a “communist” country in any sense of the word. That’s not merely editorializing, that’s just plain WRONG. Venezuela is democratic, and its president is duly elected, as are all its national assembly congresscritters. And some, including the president himself, are duly re-elected. And every major piece of legislation they pass is publicly ratified. Unless a surfeit of democracy is your idea of communism, Venezuela is not a communist country.

Of course, Venezuela does have an old and honorable communist party, one which was illegal under more than one military dictator (as well as quite a few of the weak-tea “democrats” of the Punto Fijo era of 1958-98). But it does not rule the roost, even though it does openly support the president, and its members often agitate for greater social reforms. They are also decidedly NOT under the control of Chávez, who criticized them not so long ago for organizing protests against the visit of El Narco Uribe. (It should be noted that public criticism, not jail, was the worst that any of them got for that show of undiplomatic independence. Chavecito is a president, not a dictator.)

And Venezuela enjoys close ties to Cuba, which is said to be communist, but is actually also surprisingly democratic at a grassroots level. Maybe it’s Cuba that the mindless drones behind that press release were thinking of? If so, they’re still in error. They wrote Venezuela.

Now, about that fertilizer company that the Koch profiteers are so hot under the collar about: Guess what, it was not “expropriated”, it was nationalized. And there’s a good reason for that: Venezuela can and should produce the overwhelming majority of its own food, and not be forced to rely on expensive imports from multinational monopolies. It was an agrarian country before oil was first discovered and commercially developed there, and when the oil runs out, it should be one again. That’s not going to happen without a lot of help from the top. And Chavecito knows this full well, which is why he’s nationalizing all these foreign-owned agro- and petro-chemical industries (with strong public approval!), and turning their output over to Venezuelan farmers instead of putting it up for foreign sale on a glutted world market. (You can’t fertilize your fields with dinero, after all.) It’s a perfectly rational and intelligent way of getting the country back to its self-sufficient agrarian roots, it’s producing high-quality local food (often by co-operative farming), and it’s helping Venezuelans to feed their families for less, too. Foreign corporations HATE that. So, of course, what better way to denigrate the reasonable measures of an elected government than to call it “communist”? And award lucrative cash “prizes” to opposition “students” who will never get themselves elected to anything?

But hey, if the Koch brothers want to make open fools of themselves suing a country whose citizenry holds them and their kind in rightful contempt (but bought them out for a fair price regardless), and the lazybums at the LAHT want to reduce themselves to just printing their shoddy press releases, maybe Venezuela’s Bolivarian government can counter-sue…for LIBEL. That money will surely come in very handy for more social missions to make the lives of ordinary Venezuelans better. Trickle-down and all that, you know.

(Thanks to Richard for sending me that screen-grab!)

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Crapaganda Whores, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), El NarcoPresidente, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Law-Law Land, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!. 7 Comments »

Anonymous hacks El Narco!

July 21, 2011 — Sabina Becker

Bit of a headache, narcopresidentes? Maybe you should start drinking coca tea, I hear it’s good for that.

The merry pranksters of the Internets have been very busy boys (and girls!) lately. It was only a matter of time before this happened…and yesterday, it did:

“Information pirates” attacked the social-media accounts of the current president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, and his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, and posted a link to a video alluding to Colombia’s independence day, in which they said that the Andean country had nothing to celebrate.

At 1:11 in the afternoon, Uribe’s account read “We are Anonymous”, and linked to a YouTube video against the independence celebrations in Colombia.

“We are not trying to devalue the actions of the liberators [...] on the 20th of July, Colombia should not be celebrating, but demanding its rights on all fronts,” said the group in the video.

This attack, on ex-president Uribe, took place on Twitter; that against the current president, Santos, took place on his Facebook profile.

“We are Legion. We do not forget, we do not forgive. Expect us,” says a short video posted on the “wall” at Juan Manuel Santos’s official Facebook page, which was created during his presidential campaign, but which has not been updated since his arrival in the presidential palace, Casa de Nariño.

On his Twitter account, Santos wrote: “I lament the interference on the Facebook page which is in my name, and the messages that have been published there.”

For his part, ex-president Uribe wrote: “Please, Twitter, help me regain my account, which has been penetrated by criminals.” Later, he added: “Terrorists have penetrated my account.”

Finally, in a lamenting tone, he wrote: “What grave criminal damage to our account[s].”

A few months ago, Anonymous hacked the official website of the presidency of Colombia, as well as that of the Ministry of the Interior and Justice.

The video linked to the accounts of Santos and Uribe is approximately one minute and 30 seconds long, and in it, in a voice with a Spanish accent, the group harshly questions the validity of the independence-day festivities.

[...]

It now appears that the ex-president has regained control of his Twitter account.

Translation mine.

Here’s the video:

And here’s my full translation of what it says:

Hello, we are Anonymous. After 201 years of supposed independence, which we celebrate with such patriotic fervor, we have to ask ourselves: Are we really free from our oppressors? Or have they only changed their names and political parties? The answer can only be found by analyzing our current society. And we question it, because:

The [civil war] violence is not over, the unemployment rate has risen over the years, the markets continue to be dominated by the few, our natural resources are still being stolen, the chance of finding good work and a decent income is minimal, the banks hold a monopoly on the money, and many other truths which can be perceived by anyone.

Anonymous is not trying to devalue the actions of the liberators, but we do wonder why we are celebrating something which we have never completely obtained, and why we are not doing something, why we have not been able to change the archaic thinking which we still have.

On July 20, Colombia should not celebrate, but demand its rights and freedoms on all fronts, because we are the many.

We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We do not Forget
We do not Forgive
Expect us!

Viva Anonymous, and viva Colombia LIBRE — whenever that finally happens for real!

Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Isn't It Ironic?, Karma 1, Dogma 0. Comments Off »

Ollanta, Evo. Evo, Ollanta.

June 22, 2011 — Sabina Becker

This is such a nice shot of Ollanta and Evo that I was tempted to save it for Friday. But the story that goes with it is too hot to sit on for three whole days, so here it is:

The president-elect of Peru, Ollanta Humala, said on Tuesday in Bolivia that he dreamed of one homeland, united, as it had been for centuries.

In a speech at a luncheon given by Bolivian president Evo Morales, along with representatives of government ministries, social organizations, the military and the diplomatic corps, the dignitary emphasized that he was talking about a single nation, a single country.

Humala also said that Latin America is changing thanks to its peoples and their new leaders — a continent, he said, with Amazonia, the largest freshwater reserve, but with unequal distribution of these and other natural resources.

In this spirit, Humala called upon Morales to work with him to create economic policies that create more integration, development, and to solve the principal problems of the sectors historically marginalized by previous governments.

Hours before returning to his country, Humala explained that the tour he had begun, which had previously taken him to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and which will take him in turn to Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and the United States, is to send a message of unity.

He said of his upcoming inauguration, slated for July 28, that he would only serve the people, and not the economic powers.

Humala criticized previous governments, who forged a state in republican days that only attended to 30 percent of the population and neglected the remaining 70 percent, who remained cut off and marginalized, mostly in rural areas.

He also praised the possibilities of Bolivia, demonstrated at that same luncheon, where indigenous dignitaries sat at the same table as uniformed officers, executive authorities, legislators and diplomats.

For his part, Bolivian president Evo Morales stated that the current successes in Bolivia were the result of the struggles of the social movements, much as would occur in Peru.

Morales wished Humala strength for the hard work ahead, above all against those who would try to derail the changes and transformations to come, as had occurred in Bolivia.

When you serve the people, the bases will defend you, Morales added, and remarked: “With the conscience of the people, we will overcome.”

Translation mine.

Well. So much for those who think Ollanta will be just more of the same for Peru. Unity with Bolivia and other Latin American countries? A more equal distribution of wealth and resources? More integration and inclusion for the marginalized indigenous? This is definitely not another Twobreakfasts García we’re talking about here, kiddies.

And I don’t think he’s going to be another Lula, as the English-language bizmedia have been trying to position him, either. Lula’s most notable failure? Improving things for the landless peasants of Brazil, who’ve been left to carry on their struggles without him (although things ARE looking up now that former guerrilla Dilma Rousseff is at the helm; sign here to help keep a certain pair of feet to the fire). Ollanta is definitely sending the message that he’s going to take his cues from his neighbor, Evo, who has succeeded at the so-called impossible.

And the parallels are hard to miss: A poor, marginalized, largely indigenous majority, set against rule by a minority which is mostly white and all of it rich? The situation of both countries was the same for a long time, until Evo broke with it. Bolivia is now on the verge of exiting the poor-country category and entering a solid middle ground. Pretty impressive for a place that had long been given up as stuck in the Third World!

But here’s no coincidence: 70% of Peruvians were marginalized. Guess what Ollanta’s current approval rating is? The exact same figure. We know who approves of him already: That same excluded majority. Their reasons for approval are varied, but I think they’d probably like it if he were more like Evo. They can’t have missed the evidence that Bolivia is pulling ahead of Peru in many respects.

I don’t believe there will be an actual dissolution of the borders between Bolivia and Peru, but if the latter can take its cues from the former, it will certainly look as if the two are one.

Posted in All About Evo, Brazil is the Bomb!, Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, El NarcoPresidente, Huguito Chavecito, Inca Dink-a-Doo, Newspeak is Nospeak, Paraguay, Uruguay, The United States of Amnesia. 1 Comment »

Manuel Zelaya returns; Honduras coup revisited

June 1, 2011 — Sabina Becker

This marks the first step in the reversal of the Honduran coup of 2009. Mel is back, and dialogue is ON, babies:

Part 1 of several; keep clicking through for the rest.

Note that Mel’s plane is one from the fleet of the Venezuelan national airline, Conviasa. Chavecito and his neighbor, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, have worked hard to broker this return. Which is, I reiterate, only a first step, and does not mark the definitive end of the coup just yet.

Don’t miss the excellent analysis from Fr. Roy Bourgeois (head of School of the Americas Watch; article by Lisa Sullivan of SOA Watch here) and Piedad Córdoba, Colombian senator and longtime progressive peace advocate, who has been supporting Zelaya and urging dialogue from the outset. Fr. Roy points out that Barack Obama’s shameful failure to condemn and reverse the coup (which was entirely within his power and rights to do) is the direct result of putschists within his own government, derailing any effort to get the US to do the right thing in Central America for a change. He doesn’t mention Lanny Davis by name, but everyone knows just how close that little snake is to the State Dept. (and Her Royal Clintoness.)

The first interview is also important; exiled progressive Hondurans are still unable to return, and this is an ongoing problem. It’s going to take a lot more than the return of Mel Zelaya to resolve this matter. 107 Honduran organizations are still protesting the coup and demanding further steps to guarantee the safety and human rights of prisoners and exiles. So far, their demands have not been met.

And let’s also not forget that Mel Zelaya is the last legitimate elected leader of Honduras, and that he was thrown out for trying to put a democratic question to his own people — namely the “Fourth Ballot”, the one that would have started the process of convoking an elected assembly to rewrite the Honduran constitution. Real democracy won’t return to Honduras until an honestly elected leader (and that’s NOT Pepe Lobo!) receives the sash from a legitimate president.

And it won’t be guaranteed until the people of Honduras have a constitution written by their own democratically elected representatives. The current constitution was written by a military dictatorship, and still contains provisions that would allow coups and illegitimate so-called régime change. Surely it’s no coincidence that those who deposed President Zelaya did so as he was moving to have it scrapped in favor of something more clearly democratic, and used its most undemocratic provisions to justify their doing so!

And finally, on a shameful note, the major English-language media remain complicit in their role as lackeys of the coup. When I googled “Honduran constitution, coup”, the overwhelming preponderance of top articles consisted of slimy, flimsy attempts to cast the coup as a “triumph of democracy”. How “democracy” can “triumph” by way of persecution, death squads and autocrats like Gorilletti, the media coup apologists won’t say. That’s not surprising either, since what’s been reigning for the past two years in Honduras is not democracy at all, but the usual, tiresome CIA/SOA-backed fascist putschism, nada más. There is no legal defence for that, and the media secretly know it. They, too, should be held accountable — but what are the odds, since crapaganda is generated by a consortium of corporatist fiefdoms in private hands, rather than anyone who is answerable to the general public? None of it surprises me, but it never fails to utterly disgust.

Mel, here’s hoping you kick some culo now that you’re back, man. Or, as the activists would say: Adelante, adelante, la lucha es constante!

Posted in Crapaganda Whores, El NarcoPresidente, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't That Illegal?, Not Hiding in Honduras, Obamarama!, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia. 6 Comments »

Festive Left Friday Blogging: A big victory for Ecuador

May 20, 2011 — Sabina Becker

Because there’s no such thing as too much Ecuadorability, this week goes to Rafael Correa, again. And I’m sure that when you read this, you’ll agree that Ecuador deserves a high-five:

On Friday, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, celebrated the decision of the Supreme Court of Colombia to declare “without juridical validity” the data from the computer alleged to have belonged to the deceased guerrilla leader, Raúl Reyes.

The president stated that the ruling demonstrates that all the documents extracted were a “tall tale”.

“I’m not surprised by the decision of the Supreme Court. Moreover, I recognize the quality of justice in Colombia, because despite the political pressures that had to come to bear (on the members of the judiciary in this instance), they acted rightly and what they are saying is what we have always known,” said Correa.

[...]

The president had been accused a few days ago by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of having asked for and received financing from the FARC for his political campaign of 2006.

Correa emphasized that only the corrupt media outlets gave echo to those accusations, along with “the planetary powers who try to damage every progressive government.”

He underlined that the archives were allegedly extracted from the computers confiscated by the Colombian army, during an illegal raid on Ecuadorian territory (in the Colombia-Ecuador border region) on March 1, 2008, in which the #2 FARC leader, Raúl Reyes, was killed.

The event generated tensions between the governments of Ecuador and Colombia.

This week, the president of the Supreme Court of Colombia, Camilo Tarquino, declared that the evidence derived from those archives was “null and illegal due to having been gathered with neither authorization nor participation of the authorities” of Ecuador.

As well, they were in document format, and were not taken from an e-mail address that might demonstrate that they had been sent and received, Tarquino added.

Translation mine.

BTW, the IISS is about as smelly a source as you can get for allegedly incriminating information about a foreign leader. Venezuelanalysis notes that they were also the source of the “dodgy dossier” that was sexed-up to incriminate Saddam Hussein. That dossier provided a pretext for the Coalition of the Killing to declare war on Iraq…illegally, as it turns out. And since they’re agitating for war on Ecuador and Venezuela (Ecuador partly for refusing to keep the Manta base open to the gringos, and partly for refusing to let ChevronToxico off the hook, Venezuela for a multitude of reasons, all stemming from her popular democratic leader), I think we can spot a dirty agenda at work here.

Happily, Colombia is no longer playing along the way it once was (rather surprisingly, considering that its current president was El Narco’s defence minister at the time the Raúl Reyes raid went down). Juan Manuel Santos is being remarkably decent to his neighbors, which must have the whole region breathing a quiet but definite sigh of relief. Ecuador has dodged a bullet here, and Venezuela no doubt will be the next country exonerated. That, surely, is worth celebrating this Festive Left Friday, no?

Posted in Ecuadorable As Can Be, El NarcoPresidente, Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito. 2 Comments »

The rumors are true!

April 10, 2011 — Sabina Becker

Anthony dropped this in the comments on my FLFB entry yesterday. Talk about unexpected! Pepe Lobo WAS in Colombia yesterday…and coincidentally (or not so), he was there when Chavecito was, too. So the three of them–Lobo, the ‘Cito, and Juan Manuel Santos–sat down together, and here’s what transpired:

Santos welcomes Lobo outdoors; scene shifts to indoors, where Chavecito greets Lobo in his customary friendly manner, and introduces him to Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolás Maduro. Some small talk, in which Chavecito makes note of Lobo’s mestizo background. (Chavecito is part Afro-indigenous himself, so this is a point of pride and common ground for him.) Nice, friendly atmosphere, just what’s needed for constructive talks.

And yes, constructive talks they were:

The president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, said on Saturday in Cartagena that his government is looking to return the country to regional organisms such as the Organization of American States (OAS).

In a short press conference, the president said that he had broached the subject in a brief meeting that day with his counterparts of Colombia and Venezuela, Juan Manuel Santos and Hugo Chávez.

According to reports, the three leaders also talked of returning the Honduran ex-president, Manuel Zelaya, to his native land.

Zelaya was deposed by a coup d’état in June 2009. These events led to the suspension of Honduras from the OAS.

Finally, Lobo thanked the host authorities for having met with him. His visit was announced unexpectedly by Santos just before the third round of conversations with Chávez in the Caribbean seaside town of Cartagena.

Translation mine.

So it maybe Mel Zelaya could be back in Tegucigalpa before too long, and with his strongest ally, Chavecito, being backed up by Juan Manuel Santos, it looks very good.

I have to say that I’m liking Santos better and better all the time, in spite of myself; he’s making a nice break from the little shit whom he had the bad luck to succeed. Still wondering when he’ll finally open up about all those “false positives”, though–perhaps El Narco put him up to it? Alvaro Uribe is certainly psychopathic enough that I wouldn’t put it past him. And his hate-on for the FARC runs deep, as do his ties with the paramilitaries and their allied drug lords. Colombia IS still a narco-state, though, and Santos has a long way to go there.

Meanwhile, on the Honduran front, there’s also this:

Xiomara Zelaya, daughter of the deposed ex-president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, revealed on Saturday in her Twitter account (@pichuzelaya) that the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, had been communicating with the former Central American leader.

According to her tweets, the Venezuelan president informed Zelaya that Venezuela and Colombia would be mediators in the Honduran situation:

“Chávez was on phone w Zelaya, he said Santos and Lobo agreed Vzla and Col would be mediators in situation H.”

[...]

The OAS suspended Honduras for not restoring President Zelaya to power after the coup of June 28, 2009.

In South America, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela refused to recognize the government of Lobo, who came to power in January 2010.

Again, translation mine.

I follow “La Pichu” Zelaya on Twitter, and she impresses me as a bright, bubbly young woman who doesn’t let her family’s exile, or the situation in Honduras, appalling as it is, get her down. Here’s the tweet in question:

So, looks like Mel has some very powerful allies on his side indeed. And even his dubious successor has to admit that yes, Chavecito is Da Man. Just as Juan Manuel Santos is doing now.

Posted in El NarcoPresidente, Huguito Chavecito, Not Hiding in Honduras. 3 Comments »
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