That’s why. Much more there than just a strip of land to plunk an oil pipeline, kiddies.
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 23
May 6, 2013 — Sabina Becker
“They caught me!”
Well, well, well, well, well. Who have we here? Why, it’s our old friend MariCori! You may recall how, the other day, she was wearing a whiplash collar and complaining of no fewer than four nasal fractures, allegedly sustained at the hands of some Chavista rabble. And how she travelled to Colombia a short time later, to kvetch to the usual fascist sympathizers (and, no doubt, collect a huge cash infusion from the usual gringo bagmen.)
Well, somehow, on the way to Bogotá, MariCori experienced what can only be called a miracle cure:
As is well known by the right-wing press and the putschist channel Globovisión, parliamentary deputy María Corina Machado was the target of a supposed aggression. Strangely, no one knows who dealt her the particular blow that caused four fractures to her nasal bones, and in spite of the “seriousness” of the injury, she didn’t have even a little black eye, as one normally would in such a case.
A few hours after the “incident”, the deputy flew to the capital of Colombia. But in mid-flight, an amateur photographer, one of those who abound everywhere thanks to cellphones, captured the moment of a “miraculous recovery”, which has rarely been seen documented photographically: María Corina freed herself of the “therapeutic collar”, and her little nose was as straight and white as ever.
Even so, the parliamentarian took advantage of the occasion to indulge in some cosmetic surgery which she had already put off for several years, due to her “hard work” as opponent of the Bolivarian government.
Translation mine.
Gee, maybe I should ask MariCori what saints she prays to. It’s obvious that she has much more of a direct line to God than the rest of us mere mortals. (Or at least, to Washington…)
Meanwhile, MariCori’s co-religionist, Julio Borges, got enough of a black eye for both of them:
“I demand a recount of the beatings!”
PS: Here is what MariCori would look like with an actual broken nose (and corrective surgery):
As you can see above (and in last week’s entry), she looks nowhere near as bad as that.
Statement from HIJOS Paraguay on the sham election
April 22, 2013 — Sabina Becker
From my Facebook feed this morning, a link of interest to those following the Paraguayan coup and sham election. It’s from HIJOS Paraguay, the Paraguayan equivalent of a similarly named group from Argentina comprised of the children of persons disappeared by the dictatorship of that land. As you may have guessed, the Stroessner era in Paraguay produced similar phenomena, and surviving victims of that time have spoken out against yesterday’s election result:
For hours, we couldn’t speak. For hours, as at the moment our parents were kidnapped, we lost our breath.
The most infinite pain; the consecration of Forgetting and Impunity. We have always said that “A People who Forget come back to Repeat their History”. And today — again — we have come back as a people to repeat it.
The Colorado Party stained our land with blood; our soil; our lives. Their president, the General GENOCIDE, Alfredo Stroessner Matiauda, headed the longest dictatorship of the region. It was the Colorado Party which presided from civil power over the Genocide in which 450,000 PERSONS were deprived of freedom. Hundreds of thousands of them today remain “disappeared”.
One by one our homes were surrounded by the Armed Forces. One by one, they were clouded by absences. But now it looks like Our Own People Forget what we lived; what they themselves also lived; what we all lived, let us recall a bit. With the strength that we still have left. With eyes filled with tears; with soaked handkerchiefs.
On May 4, 1954, there was a Coup d’état, the FIRST IN THE SOUTHERN CONE, the beginning of the end. The Colorado Party — the one they voted for today — took over all the powers, and with the help of the Armed Forces, it prohibited ALL POLITICAL PARTIES; it PROHIBITED ALL SOCIAL OR COMMUNIST ORGANIZATION; it interfered with the Judicial Power; it interfered with all public institutions; it only permitted voting for the Colorado Party affiliate, and it only allowed voting for the National Republican Association (Colorado Party). If you got married, you had to join. If you graduated from university, you had to join. If not, they took your diploma, and you would be persecuted.
By Decree of the Dictatorship they prohibited our dialect; Guaraní was prohibited as a Language in all institutions. Indigenous communities were persecuted, such as the Mbya Guaraní and the Aché tribe. Entire communities were exterminated because for the Stronista Genocide, they represented a “cultural backwater”.
Likewise, under the orders of Stroessner’s Colorado Party: peasants, employees, studets, professionals, housewives; adults, youths and even adolescents began to join the “List of the Disappeared”.
Nobody knew about them. The Jails did not contain them. Nobody set foot in a police station, nor did a judge receive a missing persons report; the families kept quiet about the kidnappings for fear of future reprisals, and Society answered the horror with Forgetting and more Silence.
Hundreds of Girls were torn from their families and villages for Sexual Exploitation in the more than 689 Clandestine Detention Centres. Girls with no politics, most of them with no schooling at all, were selected by emissaries of the Colorado Party and brought to these houses of horror from which the majority Never Again returned.
In 1959, as a result of the morality imposed by the Colorado Party and its relationship with the Catholic Church and the Archbishop of Asunción, they began to single out, persecute, kidnap and kill hundreds of homosexuals. In the words of journalist Bernardo Aranda, it was a crime of passion: Killed for Being Free. In 1982, under the same concept of “National Morality”, they persecuted and killed more than 600 persons: Detained — Disappeared for Being Free.
During the Stronista Genocide they created 689 CLANDESTINE DETENTION, TORTURE AND EXTERMINATION CENTRES. In 1959, the first “Death Flights” of the region took place. More than 500 Children were “disappeared” from their homes, hundreds of them not even born yet but still in their mothers’ bellies at the time.
From the beginning of the Genocide, the Colorado Party was financed by its Civilian Accomplices. They are: the Coca-Cola company; MARTEL; Pepsi-Cola; CAPSA; Monsanto; the Carrizosa family and their DIESA (Miguel Carrizosa was a defeated political candidate); the Zucolillo family and their media monopoly, ABC; the Rubin family and their Radio Ñanduty; Toyota; Bi-National Itaipú; Yaireta Paraguay; the Alberzzoni family and their PILAR S.A.; ANDE; ANTE; FRISA S.A.; Cornelius Walde; BITTAR; YBAGA; Bosch Sugar Co.; LA AMERICANA S.A.; Pompa Beer; Hoekle Sugar Co.; Grupo Godoy; MADIMPA; Estancias Englewart; the Riquelme family and their flour mills; the Guanes family and their Grupos Consultores Alto Paraná; the Industrial Union of Paraguay (UIP); APAL; the Fioritto family of Villarrica and the Collante family of Caaguazú; Hotel Guaraní; and many more.
It was the the Colorado Party, under the Washington Consensus, that betrayed Alfredo Stroessner himself and, in 1989, under another coup d’état, installed General Andrés Rodríguez. After 35 YEARS OF GENOCIDE, the Colorado Party installed more than 60 YEARS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND DEPENDENCE OF PARAGUAY UPON THE UNITED STATES.
With the years, our people were transformed into a representation of the interests of the north against their brothers of the south. The Stronista Senate prohibited the entry of Venezuela to MERCOSUR. By law, it permitted the intervention of the United States under the Financing Laws, by USAID and by “Acción Colaboracionista” of the Armed Forces.
The Pantheon of Heroes was stained with the blood of the “Paraguayan March”; 300 campesinos were imprisoned for Political Reasons and another 450 were put on trial for fighting. Under their “democracy” they killed 796 campesinos and social activists.
Little by little, the “Walls of Silence” rose. There was never a prisoner of GENOCIDE, never a Judged and Condemned.
We HIJOS were told we shouldn’t fight. That we should forget. That we should forgive. That we should keep silence; that we should shut up.
But in 2009, because blood was thicker than water, than this damned social mandate, we sought each other out. We looked each other in the face. We got to know each other. We met and identified ourselves. We began to learn our histories. We were no longer alone. We began to look for solutions; to talk of the dreams of our parents; to take the experiences of other brothers and other countries, and we saw that it wasn’t impossible. We began to organize; we began to see that we could do it, and we did do it. And we created work teams and went to look for our people. And we went out for Justice and Punishment. For the Truth against Forgetting and Silence.
And our sister countries received us and started their cases against the Genocides and their Civil Accomplices. Every writing, every day, seemed like a new victory. The impossible was real.
In 2012 we received four blows. A coup d’état crushed us again. Federico Franco, of the most Stronista branch of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party, deposed Fernando Lugo; he deposed the will of a people. The Civil Accomplices infiltrated our organism and took advantage of the disorientation caused by the coup. They stole our archives. As a result of that coup, our comrade José Zelarrayan died, and as a parallel consequence of the coup, our comrade ambassador Gabriel Enciso López also died.
They beat us. We fell. Once we were on the ground, the defamation campaigns against members of our organization began. They began to injure comrades from allied organizations, and our brothers all over the world.
But, because our blood is stubborn, we got back up again.
And we called out the Genocidal Putschists from Yesterday and Today: Lilian Samaniego, Miguel Carrizosa, Osvaldo Fioritto, Domingo Laino, Efraín Alegre. We will publish the truth about the Elected Putschist President, Horacio Cartes, and ALL THE CANDIDATES!
We will file suit against their Civil Accomplices. Just as we did with some of the genocides, we will do with them and bring them before the Argentine Judiciary. For the theft of our archives; for the falsification of documents; for the injuries and calumnies; they were and are Culpable: María Rosa Oviedo (embezzler of the NGO, “Busquedas”); Vanina Elizabeth Arce (embezzler of the NGO “Busquedas”); Gisela Di Vincenzo (embezzler of the NGO “Busquedas”); Joel González (member of the PLRA, genocide and activist of the “Movimiento 138″); Víctor Osmar Martínez Mendoza (accomplice of the Illicit Association); Julio Marcelo Talavera (in whose case the EAAF and various Argentine human rights organizations intervened).
We will pay tribute to Our Comrades and regroup ourselves.
Yesterday, in the National Elections, we received another big blow. The biggest blow; the one that proved that our people forget, forgive, and silence.
Since the night before the day of the election, some of those accused of stealing our archives and of illicit association restarted their defamatory campaigns. As always, we embrace all our brothers and sisters who gave their bodies day by day for Memory, Truth and Justice. Far from being quiet, we went out to repudiate them, and name them again and again. The desperate electoralist strategies of certain sectors appeared not to have limits, until the end of the day.
Horacio Cartes won. He is the new President of Our Country.
Horacio Cartes won. He is the new Civil Genocide of Our People.As HIJOS, tomorrow we pick up the fight again. We will keep going, laughing and singing. We will keep lifting the banners of our parents and their comrades.
From right here, we say to the Colorado Party that:
YOU HAVE NOT CONQUERED US!
NOT ONE STEP BACK! NOW MORE THAN EVER!!
JUSTICE AND PUNISHMENT FOR THE GENOCIDES, THEIR ACCOMPLICES, BENEFICIARIES AND INSTIGATORS!!!
FOR THE TRUTH OF OUR PEOPLE; STRONISM WAS A GENOCIDE!
MEMORY — TRUTH — JUSTICE — IDENTITY
WE DO NOT FORGET. WE DO NOT FORGIVE. WE WILL NOT RECONCILE.[signed]
Hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio (HIJOS), Paraguay.
Translation mine.
So, there you have it. I said as much, this morning, when I described Horacio Cartes as the new boss, same as the old boss (Stroessner). Thanks to the HIJOS of Paraguay, we now also see the connections between big business, USAID, the CIA, and the local bottom-feeders of the old Paraguayan oligarchy. We also see how those local bottom-feeders hamstrung the only decent, elected president Paraguay ever had — Fernando Lugo — and slowed down (but could not stop) the ingress of Venezuela to MERCOSUR.
We also see the connections between all that, and the ugly words of Federico Franco following the death of Chavecito, which the fucking bastard called a “miracle”, and claimed that Bolivarian ideas had no place in Paraguay. Maybe not in the farcical “Paraguay” of Stroessner’s heirs, Franco and the oligarchy, but if the HIJOS are any indicators, Bolivarian ideas and ideals are alive and well among the persecuted common folk. And such ideas and ideals have a funny way of persisting for centuries, becoming stronger over time.
The oligarchy’s days are numbered, and they just don’t realize it yet.
Compare and Contrast: Spain vs. Venezuela
April 21, 2013 — Sabina Becker
My translation:
More than 400,000 families have been thrown out of their homes in Spain since 2008.
VENEZUELA: Misión Vivienda (Mission Housing) has benefited 223,374 families since 2011.
Didn’t you say that the communists were coming to take away your house?
Actually, Venezuela’s not even communist. It’s Bolivarian. Teh Horrorz!
But yeah…this is exactly the lie the oppos told their supporters from the beginning. And to date, not a single opposition family has been thrown out of their homes. Unless you count the rich bitches who fucked off to Miami in terror…of being made to pay taxes.
Understanding the Venezuelan election: Two vital perspectives
April 19, 2013 — Sabina Becker
“Don’t worry, Nicolás, don’t worry, Venezuela — we already know where the coups come from.”
The commentariat at Aporrea is full of theories and denunciations about how the hell Henrique “Majunche” Capriles Radonski could have picked up, or picked off, so many votes in such a short time, despite the commanding lead Nicolás Maduro had going in. I’ve found a couple of articles that resonated especially with me. Here’s the first, from Antonio Aponte’s regular column, Un Grano de Maíz (A Kernel of Corn):
Keys to Understanding What’s Going On
The reality, already difficult in itself to decipher, is becoming all the more so through the work of the media who, far from being a means of communication, have transformed themselves into veritable cannons in this war that our country is now suffering.
The first key: The oligarchy has a weak leadership. Capriles, we all know, as it has been proven, does not defend the votes; he is afraid of getting deeply involved. They received the orders of the gringo embassy to “not recognize” the result and they have not been able to justify the pretension. It is evident that the ballot-box thing is an excuse, and now they dare to ask for a new election. If the CNE audits all the ballots, they will look for another alibi to continue with their destabilization plans.
Second key: The counterrevolution is not homogeneous. Several different tendencies are united by foreign orders and allowances, by hatred of Chavismo, and a deep disdain for the lowly. They show descrepancies over how to truncate the Revolution, never in the necessity for doing so. They diverge over the timing of aggression, not over aggression itself.
Third key: The Caprilistas have a great contradiction. They want to sail the seas of sensitivity and at the same time they are splashing around in the miasmas of fascist aggression. If Nicolás [Maduro] stands up to them, they’ll run in terror seeking shelter in the Constitution; if they see a sign of weakness in us, they’ll advance.
The most decided ones want to crush us; they have been working for years to stimulate hatred and fear in their base, which is now demanding violent measures. Whoever doesn’t feed the fascist beast with violence runs the risk of losing their lead.
Fourth key: Amid the counterrevolution there is a fight going on for the leadership, which will be decided in the hours to come. The currents are slyly measuring themselves in practice. The destiny of each is in the pots they bang, and in the marches they are able to convoke.
Another key: While this is happening, the social contradictions are continuing to tighten, and the unreality created by the oligarchic media is trying to substitute itself for society.
The TV screen functions as intermediary between the directors and the people. The organization presents itself as an instrument of true communication, so that the masses hypnotized by the screen substitute for organized society, the basis of true human communication: looking each other in the eyes, speaking face to face, receiving a message directly from the leaders. Technology seeks to substitute itself for the genuine communication of the soul.
Social organization is important: Every organism, however small, must be a centre of human coexistence which communicates with other organisms in a manner which transmits and receives information without technological mediation. Communication is a human phenomenon, and technology must only be its supporter.
Now the true communication is confined to small groups. We have returned to tribal communication. Only in an organized society, in socialism, can there be communication.
Translation mine.
And here’s another, called “How they stole two million of our votes”, by Andrea Coa:
In spite of the surveys, which have been demonstrated to be scientifically exact, giving Maduro a victory with a reasonable margin, we have seen that there exists the certain possibility of a bourgeois candidate overriding the government, starting a bloody repression against the revolutionary Bolivarian Chavista movement.
It was between 2:00 and 4:00 in the afternoon on the 14th when, in the electoral system, the element which made the difference was activated, in order to produce a fraudulent bourgeois victory which would leave the people, who had voted mainly for their legitimate candidate, Nicolás Maduro, with their mouths hanging open and the bitter taste which we who have been victims of a scam know all too well.
If anyone had said, a few days earlier, that the most powerful enemy was the smallest, and that it would be at work inside the voting machines, nobody would have believed me, but in this moment, it is the answer to the question which the people have been asking:
“How could they do it?”
Between two and four in the afternoon, the charge began — or the activation of a virus in the voting machine system, which took votes away from Maduro in an imperceptible manner, and transferred them to the bourgeois candidate [Capriles], in the same way that some computer “worms” steal money from the banks penny by penny, accumulating great fortunes before being found out. The plan was that the bourgeois would win the elections by surprise, with eight million votes. They calculated that he would keep the six million he won in October, and would not need more, since the electoral rolls would be the same as they were then. But the denunciations of fraud that the right uttered affect their own voters, and many of them abstained, so that Capriles only legitimately obtained a little more than five million votes, while we Chavistas remained loyal, and Maduro kept the votes that had gone to Chávez. The final result was the triumph of Maduro by a slim margin, which surprised those who had hatched and applied a “perfect” plan.
Our blind confidence in our automated system is a weakness, because imperialism counts on technological means to injure it, and yesterday, they proved it.
He whose family bought him the presidency of the national congress had the security of knowing that the empire had prepared for him a triumph forged by the hands of unscrupulous hackers, by way of the technology of the moment, directed at elements which were, until now, impenetrable: the system of voting machines; meanwhile the armed forces and Bolivarian intelligence were busy with the guarimbas and the threats. The cyber-attack on the Twitter accounts of President Maduro and other high-ranking personages of the government were an element of distraction (the imperial hackers could not resist the temptation to sign their work) while the plan of altering the election results was under way. It was conceived by the empire in order to take control of our natural resources with minimal cost, relying on a puppet government which would hand it all over on a silver platter. From there, as well, came the attack on CANTV [Venezuela's national telephone service], probably from a satellite.
The love of the people for Chávez, the awareness that our survival as a nation is at stake, and the future of our descendants, made certain that we all went to vote, so that the right, many of whom thought there would be fraud, abstained. [...] The vote margin was as predicted in the polls, and this difference was so great that even with two million votes subtracted, Nicolás Maduro still won. [...]
The empire killed Chávez, precisely to set in motion the second part of the plan, which was a fraudulent triumph, which would be achieved while disqualifying the CNE [...]
Should this plan fail, there would still be Plan B: crying “fraud”.
The proposal that the vote be audited 100% was made believing that it would not be accepted, but the empire never makes a stitch without a thimble. It is almost certain that the “mission impossible” of connecting what is in the boxes with the altered results could already have been completed. Imperial “intelligence” has the resources for that. However, revolutionary hackers can, if allowed to examine the software in minute detail, determine the manner in which the attack occurred. And the digital fingerprints on the ballots in favor of the bourgeois which are in the boxes, could be a surprise in that many do not correspond to the voters. The right wing don’t want everything examined in minute detail, so even though the plan seems perfect, there are always chinks in the armor.
Even though Plan A did not succeed, since the people kept their promise to Chávez and Maduro won in spite of the cyber-attack against our elections, which robbed us of two million votes, Plan B remains in play. The non-recognition of the electoral result is part of the destabilization plan, aimed at justifying on an international level the climate of violence which they have set in motion, with the aim of converting Venezuela into a Syria, or a Libya, which they want to sack via a massacre already planned, against the heads of the revolution and the organized people.
The menace which hangs over us is more dangerous than ever, the hyena is wounded and is not about to lose the prey. Now, the job is for the Bolivarian government’s intelligence service. The people understand, and for that reason the psychic environment on Monday following the victory was one of alertness and not of euphoria. The people know that the direct confrontation is about to begin, and must be stopped.
At this moment the head of the Revolution, embodied in Nicolás Maduro, must remain serene and trust his intuition. He is protected by God, but he is not immortal, and at this moment, he is the target of the most powerful, unscrupulous and lethal empire known to Earth. However, this empire is not invincible, and is in the midst of an internal crisis which has weakened it. [...]
The empire likes direct, violent confrontation, because that’s where they have experience and greater strength. But we prefer to build in peace, with all the peace we can get, this pilot plan for the future of humanity [...]
Taking a moment to recognize the reality and trusting intuition to mark the correct path is the first piece of advice; the second is to maintain the unity of the collective government, which must be well armored, even though for this to happen, we will have to dispense with anyone who could be vacillating.
The third recommendation is to keep the election promises, which won’t be easy because the boycott will grow in an effort to impede it.
The people will continue to do their part.
Again, translation mine.
So now we have a clearer picture of what’s going on. It’s much the same as what happened 11 years ago, almost to the day, with the exception that the president the oligarchy and its imperial overlords tried to topple then, is now physically gone (due to “natural” causes, or something plausibly deniable as such), and the circumstance to be shrouded in chaos and confusion is an election, rather than an anti-government protest come to a bloody and sudden head. But the players, with a few exceptions are the same: We have the putschist Capriles, then mayor of Baruta, now governor of Miranda, who stormed the Cuban embassy then, and is storming the electoral authority now. In both instances, he’s claiming that the Cubans are hiding some illegitimacy or other on the part of the Bolivarian government; then, it was Chavista officials, now, allegedly, it’s ballot boxes full of evidence of supposed fraud. The fact that there is no illegitimacy and no fraud is being obscured by hacking, by violence, and by murder.
The excuse, then as now, is that the opposition members who are committing the crimes, have been “driven” to it by an illegitimate defeat. Of course, that’s a lie. And while the opposition keeps shifting the goalposts, the ball has a funny way of still finding its own way in. The people know what happened; they know who they voted for, and it’s not the Majunche. They know full well what his real plan is, and all his tap-dancing and pretending to be more Chavista than Chávez, more Bolivarian than Bolívar, can’t hide the fact that he is an arch-conservative privatizer, an imperial puppet, and a corporatist stooge. He will not do what the people want; he will do what foreign capital wants.
Not for nothing do a lot of Chavistas refer to him as CAPriles, alluding to CAP (Carlos Andrés Pérez), who was elected in the late 1980s to kick the IMF to the curb, and who instead turned right around and kissed its boots. And got kicked to the curb himself, as a final result, after Chávez and friends led a failed uprising against him. Even as Chavecito was cooling his army boots in jail, the people and the process were at work, and the result spoke for itself: CAP was impeached, Chavecito pardoned and freed, and a few years later, there was an overwhelming electoral victory for the Bolivarians, with Chávez at the helm.
That same electoral victory has been repeated time and again, with only one small setback since then. And last Sunday it was repeated once more, this time with his “son”, Maduro, standing in for the great leader. It’s as though Chavecito never died, and indeed, he never did. The fact that the same villains are still using the same tricks they tried on him (and failed) proves that he’s as much a force to be reckoned with as ever; more so, in fact, since now, a hacking of the election computers was necessary in order to create the appearance of a much narrower margin of victory (and a correspondingly greater semblance of a possible fraud) than the last time around.
The empire thought that with Chávez out of the way, it would be easy sailing, but Maduro proved that to be bullshit. Loyalty is rock-solid among Chavistas, and it is highly unlikely that any of them would have voluntarily turncoated to the same man their beloved president called a coward, a majunche and a pig just a few months ago. I call bullshit on any analysis that claims he ran a strong campaign. His campaign was weak sauce. He could not win their votes by pretending to suddenly be a better Chavista than Chávez himself, or a better Bolivarian than Bolívar. So he relied, predictably, on the tools of empire, and they came through, partway.
Two million stolen votes is a lot, but it still wasn’t enough to defeat Maduro. And dozens of countries have signalled that they will not be falling for the lie either. It doesn’t matter a damn what the State Dept. says. The world knows the truth, and major leaders from all over the region, as well as overseas, are on their way to Caracas as I write. And the CNE? They have just announced that they will audit the vote 100%. Don’t be too surprised if they find evidence of fraud along the way…on the part of Capriles & Co.
And in the meantime, among the people, the cordura counselled by Aponte and Coa will prevail. The provocations, as severe and murderous as they are, will not budge the Bolivarians. They’ve been through it all before, many times, and they know the pattern as well as any schoolchild knows a fire drill. Even the growing pile of martyrs from this latest assault — eight, so far — will only serve to strengthen their resolve. They may seem poor, but they are many…and they are seasoned fighters, intelligent and loyal. If anyone in the oligarchy, the international corporatocracy, or the imperial State Dept. thinks that they can steamroll the will of these people, they are in for one hell of a shock.
Headline Howler: It’s always opposite day at The Economist
April 17, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Ugh, how disgraceful. Don’t you people hire fact-checkers anymore? It’s not like you don’t have the cash…although at this rate, you may soon lose so much readership that you end up in serious financial trouble. Here, let me fix that for you:
Much better!
One more reason to piss on Thatcher’s grave
April 15, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Just in case you needed one, here you go: The evil old bat was also part of putschist plans against Venezuela. I was alerted to this story by a piece on Aporrea yesterday, which is basically an abbreviated translation of this Guardian piece. Here are the “money” bits about ol’ Maggie and her equally rotten son, “Sir” Mark, who also tried (and failed) to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea, another oil-rich nation with a disobedient leader, in 2004:
Details of the meetings between [former SAS officer Simon] Mann and Baroness Thatcher, held in the lead-up to the attempted coup, were originally due to be published in Mann’s memoir, Cry Havoc, which came out in 2011. This section was removed on the advice of the publisher, John Blake. However, an early manuscript of the book has been obtained by the Observer and its full claims can be revealed for the first time.
Thatcher’s mental capacity was already on the wane in 2003 – the year her husband, Denis, died – when the conversations are said to have occurred. Their content will prove embarrassing for her son as he prepares for his mother’s funeral on Wednesday.
Mann had known Thatcher for a number of years by this time: the two were introduced by Sir Mark, who was a neighbour of his in Cape Town. Recording a meeting that took place in the first-floor sitting room of Thatcher’s home in Chester Square, in London’s Belgravia, in autumn 2003, Mann says it became clear that the former Tory leader knew and approved of the plans for the Equatorial Guinea coup, describing them as “jolly good”.
He writes: “Maggie asks me how ‘their’ money is being handled. I reassure her that it is going through an air ambulance joint venture, separate to any other investment. Maggie talks about the Docklands redevelopment in London. How everything had to be razed to the ground first.”
In a later conversation in South Africa, Thatcher is said to have commented: “I do hope you’ll be getting on with this job of yours soon, Simon. We mustn’t let anyone down, must we?”
Thatcher is also said to have asked whether Mann had yet met a group, led by a man called Sanchos, who were seeking to remove Chávez from Venezuela. Mann writes: “No – I hadn’t: but, Mark says, we are seeing him next day, in Eaton Place, just next door.”
He continues with Thatcher’s reply: “‘Good. Well, I hope that goes well too.’ She looked at me with her imperial gaze. ‘We must always look after our friends, Simon … as I’m sure you know.’”
That sounds like her, all right. In fact, it sounds totally in character for the greedy, conniving, frankly evil “Iron Lady” who defended Pinochet, even when she knew full well what he was doing to political dissidents (read: LEFTISTS) in Chile. That “scorched earth” approach is vintage Shock Doctrine crapitalism, and it characterizes literally everything she did. Rip it up, tear it down, build shoddy glittering gimcracks where docklands — or entire sovereign nations — used to be.
And yeah, I can see how that embarrassing passage was removed. Maybe now, that chickenshit publisher will finally locate his spine and gonads and reinstate the incriminating bits. And reissue the book unabridged; it deserves a wider readership. Let the world know what mercenaries, terrorists and imperialists REALLY do. And let the chips fall wherever they may. If that means some Tory (and “New” Labour) heads rolling in the British Houses of Parliament, so much the better.
And maybe Mark Fucking Thatcher will finally get some well-deserved prison time. A “mere investor” indeed! When someone financially backs a coup against not one but two presidents, in the name of oil, he’s not a “mere” anything. He is looking to get his money back with more interest than is conscionable even by the lax rules of modern casino capitalism. He is a putschist, plain and simple. He belongs locked up for the rest of his miserable unnatural life.
And so did his horrid mother, for whom justice will only come in the form of unkind histories now.
Pity.
Chilean copper miners go on 24-hour strike
April 9, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Remember how, a few years ago, Sebastián Piñera was hailed by a gullible world media as a hero for the rescue of a group of miners who were, in fact, rescued by their own resourceful comrades? Well, today we see hard evidence of just how much of a miners’ hero Piñochetera ain’t. This is major, folks:
Workers from the National Copper Corporation (CODELCO) and private mining companies in Chile have decreed a 24-hour strike for today, to reclaim workers’ benefits and what they call the “renationalization” of the industry.
The strike was called by the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), and the Miners’ Federation of Chile (FMC), a work-stoppage that they consider historical, in that it synchronizes the actions of one of the unions at CODELCO and the syndicate active in the private industries.
On March 15, the FTC announced that the national strike would be carried out in all of CODELCO’s facilities, in rejection of a process of “covert privatization”, among other reasons.
According to the union, the 24-hour work stoppage was decided “as a result of weariness over the arrogance, high-handedness and blatant inefficiency of the executives towards the workers and the country.”
The call to strike was announced after the closing of an extraordinary congress of the syndicate, which made the determination in order to repudiate and demand changes and rectifications to a conjuncture of situations which affect the workers of CODELCO.
“When they don’t respect you or the collective agreement you signed, when there are problems with the governance of the business that affect workers, there is no doubt that measures must be taken,” said Raimundo Espinoza, president of the FTC, a union consisting of 16,000 workers.
The syndicate opposes the continued out-contracting of CODELCO functions, a process considered to be a covert privatization of the activities of the state company.
In contrast to that dynamic, the union considers it necessary to make substantial changes to the mining politics of the land, a process they call renationalization.
For their part, the Copper Workers (CTC) expressed solidarity with the FTC strike, after deeming it necessary to hold a large short-term nationwide strike in the copper sector.
Cristian Cuevas, the president of the CTC, announced that the union, which brings together more than 30,000 contract workers for the state company and another 10,000 from the private sector, shares the demands of the FTC, and the call to mobilize, even though they have their own agenda.
The minister of Mining, Hernán de Solminihac, issued a call to dialogue, and noted that the contribution of the mining sector to the national budget is considerable.
With the pressure on CODELCO, which is the largest copper producer in the world with some 5.6 million tonnes per year, one-third of the world’s copper supply is now at stake.
Along with the work-stoppage in the state company, the strike includes the Minera Escondida, operated by the Anglo-Australian corporation BHP BIlliton; Collahuasi and Anglo American Sur, administrated by the Anglo American corporation; and the Chilean company, Antofagasta Minerals, among others.
Translation mine.
Copper is to Chile what oil is to Venezuela, but Chileans haven’t seen the benefits trickle down because, thanks to Pinochet and the Chicago Boys and their ironically named “miracle”, the government has seen fit to slash the public sector to the point where, like the average working-class Chilean, it’s all but dead. Education and healthcare and even pensions are privatized, and unless one is awfully rich to begin with (with an inherited copper mine to one’s name, perhaps), they are all terrible. It’s not just the Chilean miners who are on strike; the Chilean students have been striking for years already for a better education system, a public one which is free and of good quality (as opposed to the expensive, shitty private system they have now.)
It’s not hard to see, given that Chile produces one third of the world’s total copper, how a proper nationalization of the industry, with proceeds going toward social programs as oil money does in Venezuela, would make all the difference…and work a REAL economic miracle. I hope these workers are ready to bunker down, though, because it’s going to take much more than just a one-day strike to make real changes in this ghastly situation.
Short ‘n’ Stubby: Ms. Manx takes on oil spills
April 4, 2013 — Sabina Becker
Listen! Do you hear that loud and urgent meowing? It means Ms. Manx is back from a longer than usual hiatus with her latest catch. No, not mice. She’s got links to share. And this time, the Stumpy Cat has come back with sticky black goo on her paws. She’s going to need help getting that off! Good thing I’ve got some Dawn dish soap, eh kitty?
And it’s a good thing these beavers in Utah got rescued by some kind wildlife folks who also stock up on the stuff just in case. Can you believe they built a dam that helped contain the diesel oil spill? That’s what beavers do best. They do a better job building dams than the humans do building pipelines, says Ms. Manx, cattily.
And while we’re on the subject of humans who build crappy pipelines, ExxonMobil just got off on the most technical of technicalities. The Stumpy Cat thinks that’s not right. She also thinks that if they won’t pay into a cleanup fund, why, they should just pay for the clean-up all on their own, which will cost them a lot more. And which, frankly, they can afford to pay…and indeed, DESERVE to pay.
And speaking of those who deserve to pay, our cyberkitty would also like to draw your attention to the Canadian Imperialist Bank of Commerce. These wanking banksters, unlike the average Canadian, stand to gain from the building of a tar sands pipeline. And they’re whining and boohoo-ing about how much they’re losing every day that that pipeline isn’t being built and its bituminous contents aren’t being spilt. It all sounds very impressive and persuasive…until you realize that they just pulled those numbers out of the same orifice banksters usually pull their projections from.
BTW, for those who are trying to keep track of all the oil spills from this week alone, they are:
and of course, the no-fly zone that is Mayflower, Arkansas. Guess that shocking aerial footage was getting in the way of Exxon getting off easy, eh?
And finally, Ms Manx really likes this Lee Camp dude, who sums up the problem with oil pipelines so succinctly:
RED ALERT: International fascists to meet in Argentina
March 22, 2013 — Sabina Becker
From Aporrea, a denunciation of what are sure to be nasty things to come:
Our editorial desk has received a denunciation and alert regarding a no-good meeting which will take place in two Argentine cities, and which will involve the most reactionary right-wingers from this zone and from Spain. The alert reads as follows:
MEETING OF REACTIONARIES AND PUTSCHISTS
Between April 8 and 12, the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires will once again receive visitors who are personae non gratae to those of us who think, work and yearn for the emancipation of the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The oft-repeated names of the international right-wing, which will reunite the biggest exponents of anti-Cuban and anti-Bolivarian discourse, will come together in our land to attack the Media Law, Latin American unity, and the popular political experiences taking place in the region.
The Peruvians, Mario and Alvaro Vargas Llosa (publicists of neoliberalism and fierce opponents of every form of popular power); the Spaniards, José María Aznar (ex-president, supporter of the invasion of Iraq and the coup d’état against Chávez in April 2002) and Esperanza Aguirre (president of the fascist Partido Popular in Madrid); the Chileans, Joaquín Lavín (Pinochet’s dauphin) and Cristian Larroulet (secretary-general to Sebastián Piñera); the Uruguayan, Luis Alberto Lacalle (ex-president); the Bolivian, Jorge Quiroga (ex-president, accused of narcotrafficking and violations of human rights, opponent of Evo Morales); the Venezuelans, Marcel Granier (president of the TV channel RCTV, supported and pushed for the coup against Chávez in 2002, which was the reason why five years later he did not receive a licence renewal for the station) and María Corina Machado (deputy of the Venezuelan national assembly, opposition putschist); Carlos Alberto Montaner (Cuban-American writer, linked for decades to the CIA), as well as the Cuban, Yoani Sánchez, agent recruited to serve the interests of the United states under the guise of an innocent blogger, whom Wikileaks has singled out for her close relations with US diplomats in Cuba, as well as being regional vice-president of the IAPA (an organization of newspaper owners with headquarters in Miami). All of these sinister personages have been convoked by the Freedom Foundation (created in Rosario in 1988 by a group of businessmen, professionals and intellectuals, all fierce defenders of neoliberalism), the Fundación Pensar (“Idea factory of the PRO”, as the Macri supporters call it) and FAES (created in 1989 and closely linked to the right-wing Partido Popular of Spain.)
These undesirable visitors will come to vomit their fiercely McCarthyite discourse, support the criminal blockade against the people of Cuba, defame once more the revolutionary and dignified trajectory of the recently deceased Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías, plot against the governments who belong to the ALBA, denounce the “politicization” of UNASUR and CELAC, and go on recommending the neoliberal economic formulae dictated by the IMF, which are starving our people and leading Europe off a cliff, and justifying the political, economic and military offensive which imperialism continues to develop all over the continent.
Regarding Argentina, they will not miss the opportunity to rail against the Media Law, in defence of the corporate policies and postulates of the press owners’ syndicate which is the IAPA, and to support the proposals of the right-wing oligarchy headed by the Rural Society and their partners of the PRO.
Joining these sordid visitors and their continent-destabilizing preachments, is a star of conspiratory entrapment, launched by the US State Department and the CIA for their media operations against Cuba, the blogger Yoani Sánchez. With her and her defamatory discourse on Cuban reality and the incontestable achievements of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, they will try to close the circle of lies, insults, provocations and threats thrown by these discredited prophets of intolerance.
In the face of this meeting of the international right wing and their local hosts from the Argentine right wing, we the undersigned:
– Repudiate the presence of these lugubrious messengers of capitalism and their destructive politics against the people and nations of Latin America and the Caribbean
– Denounce the campaign of siege and destabilization which this group of individuals and the entities they represent (and who finance them) come to visit with impunity upon the governments and peoples of the continent who have opted for an independent, progressive and confrontational course against the interventionist politics of the United States and their European allies
– Extend our solidarity to those who, for having denounced terrorist plans against Cuba organized by the mafias of Miami, are today unjustly imprisoned in the United States, as is the case with the five Cuban patriots, political prisoners in the US for more than 14 years
– Advocate for a deeper integration of Latin America, and for extending emancipatory proposals to all the countries of the continent
– Call upon the citizenry to close ranks in order to prevent the campaigns we have denounced here from developing with impunity. For this, the best recourse the people have is their mobilization and organzation, along with their growing awareness, to head off at the pass those who are trying to drag us back to the hell of neoliberalism and submission to the dictates of North American imperialism.
Translation mine.
The denunciation comes courtesy of an Argentine committee in support of the Cuban Five, who are no doubt following all of these lugubrious (I love that word!) imperialists. Watch this space come April 8-12, kiddies, I’ll be following them too.
