» Schadenfreude News of the Restless

Dear Reuters: Is this enough proof for you?

April 26, 2013 — Sabina Becker

timothy-hallet

Dear Reuters: You fail so hard at journalism…

Venezuela has detained an American citizen it says was financing opposition student demonstrations after this month’s disputed presidential election, the latest in a flurry of accusations over last week’s post-vote violence.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said Timothy Hallet Tracy had been seeking to destabilize the country on behalf of an unnamed U.S. intelligence agency after President Nicolas Maduro’s narrow presidential victory.

“We detected the presence of an American who began developing close relations with these (students),” said Rodriguez in a press conference. “His actions clearly show training as an intelligence agent, there can be no doubt about it. He knows how to work in clandestine operations.”

Rodriguez said Tracy, 35, from Michigan, had received financing from a foreign non-profit organization and had redirected those funds toward student organizations. The ultimate aim was to provoke “civil war,” he said.

A U.S. embassy official had no immediate comment.

The government has given scant evidence for a flurry of headline-grabbing accusations ranging from an assassination plot against Maduro to alleged sabotage of the electricity grid.

…because this is the real story, and your version is laughable even on the surface of it:

The minister for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, informed on Thursday of the capture of a US citizen, Timothy Hallett Tracy, linked to a conspiracy of the far-right against Venezuelan democracy.

The actions of Timothy Hallett Tracy are related to groups of the far right who are attempting to destabilize the country with attacks in the street following the presidential elections of April 14.

The minister stated that the objective of the plan is to generate chaos throughout the country with the creation of a violent post-election scenario in order to make it ungovernable.

“it is important to inform the people over situations which are occurring; we will show the motivations and connections they have in order to develop a series of events which we have been living through ever since the night after the elections of April 14,” said Rodríguez Torres, in a press conference.

The minister stated that as of October, November and December of 2012, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) had been conducting investigations into an operation called “April Connection”.

“All the indicators we have been gathering indicated that we would arrive at election day with complete normality, but following the release of the results by the National Electoral Council (CNE), there was to be a non-recognition on the part of the right-wing candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski,” Rodríguez Torres explained.

He added that during the investigations they managed to detect a person of US origin, who had formed close relations with right-wing youth who were members of the so-called “Operation Sovereignty”.

“When we detected this relationship, we began to conduct surveillance and stakeouts, and we saw how this man was able to infiltrate revolutionary groups to gain their protection, but had intimate relations with the extreme right wing,” Rodríguez Torres said. He commented that it is presumed that this US citizen belonged to an intelligence organization, and had received financing from various foreign NGOs.

Rodríguez Torres explained that the objective of Operation April Connection was to generate mobilizations following the release of the results of the presidential vote, and to conduct a civil war.

“Their objective was that, to lead us into a civil war, and we have the documents proving that they exchanged [information] amongst themselves by way of some [computer] chips, which a messenger brought from the Plaza La Castellana to the home of the ‘gringo’,” Rodríguez Torres said.

He informed that, according to this right-wing sector, the idea was to launch a civil war in Venezuela and thus immediately provoke intervention from a foreign power.

“These were their desired ends, and they continue to be. We have more than 500 videos which we seized during a raid. We asked ourselves: Do the ordinary householders who voted for the opposition want a civil war, or do the Venezuelan taxi drivers want that? We are sure that nobody in this land, independent of their position, wants that, except these extremist groups, directed by extremists of the parties of the right who do want civil war,” he added.

During his press conference, the minister showed a video in which it is evident that retired general Antonio Rivero is passing instructions to guarimberos [insurrectionary right-wing demonstrators, presumably "students"] in the upper class district of Altamira, telling them how to create disturbances.

All the proofs seized during the raid, which took place on Wednesday night, were brought to the appropriate authorities.

Rodríguez Torres said that, thanks to the work of intelligence agents, the national government was able to act in time to continue to guarantee peace for the people of Venezuela.

“The President of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, has emphasized that in this country, we will always go the way of peace and coexistence. That has to be an effort made by all Venezuelans, independent of their ideological and political posture. We must reject and isolate these fascist factors who live among us, and who are trying to get us Venezuelans to hate and kill one another. We cannot allow that,” he insisted.

Translation mine.

BTW, O Reuters gurus, I have your “scant evidence” right here. And, spoiler alert, it ain’t so “scant”:

You’ll have to wait till the 6:50 mark or thereabouts, but yeah, the proof is there, and yeah, it’s substantial. Video evidence that Tim Tracy has been meeting with the druggy, drinky, dollar-hungry JAVU punks (whose terrorist manifesto I’ve already translated and discussed here.) That’s one of 500 videos shot by the perps themselves, all taken into custody by the SEBIN agents as evidence of their plot. JAVU and Tracy are, in short, thoroughly fucked. As is a certain ex-general who also appears in the video, advising the punks on how to organize:

Ah yes, the peaceful, democratic Venezuelan opposition. So credible. And their gringo spook candy-man. So innocent. Meanwhile, there’s about 500 videos, all shot by themselves, to attest the opposite.

Yeah, that’s “scant” evidence, all right.

Hey, Reuters? Maybe you should learn some Spanish. And maybe learn journalism too, while you’re at it. At the very least, try learning how not to sleep through a fucking press conference. Okay?

Note: This entry has been amended following release of a longer, better version of last night’s Aporrea story.

Posted in Crapaganda Whores, Fascism Without Swastikas, Fine Young Cannibals, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Newspeak is Nospeak, Schadenfreude, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia. 6 Comments »

Things not so lulzy for LulzSec lately

April 24, 2013 — Sabina Becker

maduro-hacked

Well, isn’t this awkward. Looks like the Australian police have busted a phony Peruvian for hacking the tweeter of a rather famous former bus driver:

As is well known, in recent days, the Twitter account of then-candidate and now President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) were hacked on election day, April 14, by info-pirates for a few hours.

The attack was attributed to LulzSec Peru, and this was published on the President Maduro’s Twitter account, as can be seen in the image above.

According to the AFP news agency, a young man, 24 years old, was arrested yesterday in the suburb of Gosford Point Clare.

He is charged with the unauthorized modification of data to cause damage, and unauthorized access to a restricted information system.

The presumed leader of the group LulzSec has assumed responsibility on various occasions for high-level cyberattacks, among them one on the web page of the CIA.

The targets of the Anonymous-offshoot group also include the Japanese corporation Sony, the website of the British anti-organized crime association (SOCA), the National Health Service of the United Kingdom, the Arizona state police, and the media group, News International.

LulzSec dissolved in July 2011 and its leaders were arrested in March of this year. Since the FBI declared the group “decapitated”, last April the group apparently reappeared as “LulzSec Reborn”.

Translation mine.

No word yet on who the hacker is, but I’m sure the hackee is very relieved to know he’s in custody. You can mess with Sony, you can mess with the Arizona State Police, but you would be well advised not to fuck with Maduro. Not only because he’s one of the world’s good guys, but because he can fold you up and stick you in his shirt pocket.

Posted in Huguito Chavecito, Inca Dink-a-Doo, Isn't That Illegal?, Oceania, Schadenfreude. Comments Off »

Headline Howler: The blame in Spain falls mainly on the…Egyptians?

April 19, 2013 — Sabina Becker

spanish-bad-reporter

Spanish crap-media outlet ABC.es has failed again in its efforts to smear Bolivarianism. This time, their Venezuela “correspondent” (read: HACK) has tried to pass off a rather famous picture of an Egyptian woman being abused by soldiers in Cairo as a brawl in Venezuela. And captioned it, very punnily…and of course, got it all wrong. Not surprisingly, the page is now down. Too bad the blush on the crap reporter’s cheeks has yet to fade.

(And really, she’s a fine one to talk about “pure fascism”, coming as she does from a country which, to its great detriment, has an unelected monarch and a fascist prime minister who routinely sends the police and the army out to suppress protests. Projection appears to be a universal trait on the far right and among its lousy “journalists”, no matter where they’re from.)

Posted in Crapaganda Whores, EuroPeons, Fascism Without Swastikas, Headline Howlers, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Rivers in Egypt, Schadenfreude, Under the Name of Spain. Comments Off »

One more reason to piss on Thatcher’s grave

April 15, 2013 — Sabina Becker

respect-the-dead

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.

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Chile Sin Queso, Economics for Dummies, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't That Illegal?, Merry Old England, Schadenfreude, Spooks. 2 Comments »

Compare and Contrast: Nicolás Maduro vs. El Narco

March 31, 2013 — Sabina Becker

Who’s the crass ass, and who’s got sass and class? Aporrea has the story:

The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, responded on Saturday night to the ex-president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe Vélez, who called him a “cynic” on Twitter.

“Maduro’s cynicism knows no limits. He raised the tone and called the opposition ‘Hitler’s heirs’,” wrote @AlvaroUribeVel. To which the president and candidate in the April 14 elections replied: “Your heirs — better?”

The Colombian ex-president has made various meddlesome declarations about Venezuelan politics. There have also been denunciations of the opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles Radonski, for having visited Colombia to meet with Uribe and receive his advice.

Translation mine.

This is all true, by the way. El Narco is not only a supporter of the fascist Venezuelan right in words, but in deeds. He is closely tied to the vicious right-wing paramilitaries of Colombia, who have murdered Colombian campesinos and dressed their bodies in fake FARC guerrilla uniforms. And he is well known to have sent the same paramilitaries into Venezuela, via the western border region, to kill campesinos there and to try to smear Chavecito (unsuccessfully) as a FARC supporter. Not to mention to help stir up chaos on repeated occasions by way of a putsch.

And when a FARC guerrilla named Rodrigo Granda turned up in Caracas a few years ago, El Narco didn’t bother to ask for extradition like a proper president, he just sent agents in to kidnap Granda and drag him back to Colombia…which, as a gross violation of sovereignty, was a source of great outrage in Venezuela and led to a break in diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Now that he’s out of power AND no longer has Chavecito to kick around, the spiteful little turd has to lash out at somebody, and guess who that is. But Maduro (who is not only big enough to fold El Narco up and stick him in his pocket, but is also as mature as his surname would suggest) turns it back on him very succinctly and with great humor.

And in 140 characters or less, too.

Posted in Compare and Contrast, El NarcoPresidente, Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Schadenfreude. Comments Off »

Iraq, ten years later: Rumsfeld edition

March 20, 2013 — Sabina Becker

I don’t know if Rummy tweeted this himself, or if he had a flunkie do it for him. But I rather hope he did it himself, just to see the outpouring of, er, AFFECTION that followed:

rummy-10-yrs-later

Posted in BushCo Death Watch, Men Who Just Don't Get It, Not So Compassionate Conservatism, Schadenfreude, The United States of Amnesia, The War on Terra. Comments Off »

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 1

March 13, 2013 — Sabina Becker

capriles-radonski

Well, hi there, Majunche Capriles Radonsky! So nice to see you looking so perky. Bet you think you’ve got an easy victory ahead of you now that your true rival is in his coffin. And you’re no doubt grinning because you’ve got all of Washington and Miami and all the appropriate CIA stations behind you, too. Well, don’t get too smug, little Majunche. I’m gonna translate some things that will show people in the English-speaking parts of the world a thing or two they wouldn’t see otherwise. Namely, just what hollowness and ugliness is behind that cute little monkey grin of yours. And a few of the ironies of your soon-to-be-failed rerun of your presidential campaign, too. Get ready, Majunche, because here comes the first:

On Twitter, as well as by way of the opposition media, such as Noticias24.com, the organizers of the campaign of Henrique Capriles Radonski, candidate for the presidency of Venezuela on behalf of the régime of Barack Obama and the “Democratic Unity Table” (MUD), announced Tuesday that the command of their campaign will be called “Comando Simón Bolívar”.

Not only the name of the command has been inspired by ideas derived from and driven by Chavismo, but the director himself is an old “Chavista” and the current governor of Lara state, Henry Falcón.

The idea may have been conceived in the US during the recent trip there by Capriles, who was there to meet with authorities of the Obama régime and plan a possible “régime change” in Venezuela.

The name of the command surprised many, given the fact that the opposition removed from the presidential office in Miraflores Palace a portrait of the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, shortly after executing the coup d’état against Hugo Chávez on April 11, 2002.

One of the first measures taken by the opposition supported by Capriles, on April 12, 2002, was to remove the word “Bolivarian” from the name of the Republic.

Also, unanimously, the leaders rejected the placement of the eighth star on the national flag, which the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, himself had solicited.

Following the Washington line on how to touch the sensibilities of Chávez’s followers, the director of the opposition campaign, Henry Falcón, said today that “the best tribute to the memory of Hugo Chávez is to act with truthfulness and respect.”

The original program of the government of Washington’s candidate announced a supposed continuation of all the social missions created by the late president, Hugo Chávez.

The function of the command was equally inspired by North American ideas. Just like the US, where every state has its own laws and functions independently, “this will be a completely decentralized campaign,” announced Falcón.

Isn’t that funny, Majunche? You and your chef de mission, Henry Falsón, as he’s come to be known for reasons good, just can’t seem to beat Bolivarianism. So you have to JOIN it. After 14-odd years of rejecting Bolívar, suddenly you’re kneeling at his feet like a couple of penitents seeking absolution. Chavecito is having a good laugh at you from the grave, and he’s not even buried yet! Meanwhile, here’s how you and your “commando” treated their namesake 11 years ago, when you pulled that coup:

bolivar-bathroom

I always wanted a portrait of Bolívar for in the john, myself.

And that’s not all. Yesterday I found that Globomojón is up for sale. Guess it’s lost its sense of purpose now that the object of all its hate is no longer there for it to kick around. You’d think that the triumph of the forces of evil, sorry, CAPITALISM would be celebrating this victory with a huge upsurge in stock prices and profits and all that crap. But no, the air’s all gone out of that particular bubble, with nothing left to go pop:

The private channel, Globovisión, “did everything” so that the opposition would win the presidential election of October 7, 2012, which was won by the revolutionary (and now deceased) candidate, Hugo Chávez.

So said the president of the channel, Guillermo Zuloaga, in a letter sent to all the workers of the television enterprise, to inform them that there is an offer to buy the channel.

“Last year, I took the decision to do everything in our power, at the risk of the capital of the shareholders and aware of the implications this attitude could carry, to ensure that the opposition would win the elections in October,” wrote Zuloaga in the missive, published by the channel’s website.

“At Globovisión we did everything extraordinarily well, and we almost succeeded; but the opposition lost,” wrote Zuloaga. (Could it be that they are not of the opposition?)

Zuloaga, a fugitive from Venezuelan justice, said that Globovisión had become “an inviable business”. (Undoubtedly the business is inviable wherever one looks, above all when it comes to ethical solvency.)

Zuloaga said that in this situation, “they have oblliged me to seek possible solutions to our dilemma. I’ve met with various persons and groups, without success, and three weeks ago, I was contacted by Dr. Juan Domingo Cordero.”

Zuloaga writes that Cordero made him “a proposition, which while not what the shareholders would have hoped for, I am obliged to accept since it permits a solution so that Globovisión will stay on the air and be able to maintain our payroll of nearly 500 persons.”

He indicated that the negotiation is ready to close this week, but before the announcement that there would be a presidential election on April 14, “I took the decision to make the firm and irrevocable condition that the turnover would take place after the election.”

Zuloaga is wanted by the authorities for usury and criminal conspiracy, following a finding by police on May 21, 2009, that there were several vehicles at his home whose presence there could not be justified.

Some backgrounder is necessary here. Besides being president of Venezuela’s equivalent of FUX Snooze, Guillermo Zuloaga is also the country’s sole importer for Toyota, and the owner of several Toyota sales concerns. The “usury” in question refers to his illegal storage of dozens of Toyotas in his home garage, where they were being hidden so that the few sitting for sale on his car lots would become artificially expensive. It’s a cheesy form of speculation, basically. And it’s something that I’m sure the Japanese owners of the Toyota corporation must be frowning on, as it keeps their merchandise from selling in a timely manner and in that sense, is holding up the production line. Not to mention the profits it’s costing them. If I were sitting in Toyota’s head office right now, and this came across my desk, I’d be on the horn to Venezuela this minute, and what I’d have to say would be unprintable. What major automotive corporation wants a crook heading up the local importer, after all? That shit’s bad for business. Especially since Chavecito’s Venezuela is one where more people can afford cars now that the oil wealth has finally begun to trickle down in earnest. Who’s gonna buy Toyotas if it’s known that Venezuela’s importer of that make is a crook and a putschist?

And therein lies another of the ironies of the opposition. Socialism has been good for their business, but rather than just count the money, shrug and be glad, they’re actively cutting off their noses to spite their faces. And all because they don’t own the country outright, to ruin as they please, and then fuck off to Miami when it gets truly unbearable in Caracas, Maracaibo, or wherever they squat. Anything but admit that Chavecito was right, and that his reign was very, VERY good for Venezuela.

Well, if you want to go on being wrong, guys, have at it. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just gonna sit here totting up the ironies as they cross my line of sight, and grinning, and waiting for the 14th, when President Maduro (whom I will have to give a good nickname) takes office in earnest…and drives his campaign bus right over the backs of Zuloaga, Majunche and anyone else who tries to get in the way.

Posted in Barreling Right Along, Crapaganda Whores, Economics for Dummies, Fascism Without Swastikas, Filthy Stinking Rich, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Karma 1, Dogma 0, Obamarama!, Schadenfreude, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!, Spooks, The United States of Amnesia, Turning Japanese. Comments Off »

Globomojón is in trouble!

March 12, 2013 — Sabina Becker

Well. THIS is a shocker. From Venezuelanalysis, news you won’t hear every day in the crapaganda media (to which Globomojón belongs):

Globovision, an opposition news television station, announced yesterday that it has accepted a buyout offer, to be carried out after the 14 April presidential elections.

Various Globovision spokespeople attributed the sale to supposed operational and profitability issues, on which they blamed the Venezuelan government.

According to Globovision’s majority owner, Guillermo Zuloaga, the group buying the channel is headed by Juan Domingo Cordero, who also runs an insurance company, Vitalicia. According to El Nacional, Cordero has also been on the executive boards of the stock exchange, another insurance company, and a small bank.

“We are economically unviable, because our revenues no longer cover our cash needs… we are politically unfeasible, because we are in a totally polarised country and against a powerful government that wants to see us fail,” Zuloaga said in a statement.

Further, the host of Globovision’s program ‘Alo Ciudadano’ – a program that aimed to counter Chavez’s Sunday show ‘Alo Presidente’, Leopoldo Castillo, discussed the sale yesterday. He claimed the reasons for it include requiring technology, being judicially unviable, the priority of “saving the workers” and “many difficult years, it has become more and more difficult to satisfy the needs …of the personnel of Globovision”.

Translation:

Ahem. Sorry. That just slipped out, as the truth has a funny way of doing. And speaking of truths that slip out in funny ways, poor José Miguel Vivanco is gonna shit a brick when he hears this:

However Zuloaga’s own statement says, “Since we began [20 years ago] we have had problems with the government, which is natural for an information channel. With the last government of Rafael Caldera… they didn’t want to give us access to official sources”.

He then mentions the “attacks getting stronger” under the current government, and that last year, he decided to “do everything in our power…to make sure the opposition won the [presidential] elections in October…but the opposition lost”.

Blatantly partisan putschism…a Globomojón specialty. Remember April 2002? Yeah, they were part of THAT. You don’t suppose all that agitating for political losers could be what’s costing the channel so much money, so many viewers, and credibility…do you?

Nahhhhh…couldn’t be.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sorry, that just slipped out. Go read the rest, it’s a wicked pissah.

Posted in Crapaganda Whores, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Schadenfreude. Comments Off »

Economics for Dummies: Why higher wages are GOOD for the economy

March 4, 2013 — Sabina Becker

In a nutshell, this is it:

be-excited

Of course, you can never overestimate the power of Stoopid in capitalist economies. That’s why you’ll find people working not two, but three or even four jobs and still being unable to make ends meet. They’re not the stupid ones for taking those jobs; their employers are, for cheaping out and banking on a high employee turnover rate commensurate with job-seekers’ desperation. They won’t end up with more loyal customers, only disgruntled ex-employees.

Whenever I was fired without cause or forced to quit (yes, that happens!), I never went back to buy from that particular place. I’d diligently put in hours and loyalty and, in return, got paid poorly and treated like shit. Creativity was never rewarded in those places; even conformity was no guarantee of anything. You could do your job to the letter and still lose it the next day to a gum-snapping kid who’d do it poorly, but who would no doubt do it for less. The quality of the goods was just as terrible as was working there. And at least one of those businesses is now OUT of business.

I’m sure all of that is no coincidence.

Posted in Confessions of a Bad German, Economics for Dummies, Isn't It Ironic?, Schadenfreude, Socialism is Good for Capitalism!, The "Well, DUH!" Files. Comments Off »

Politest ass-kicking EVER.

February 26, 2013 — Sabina Becker

pinera-evo

Did I not say a little while back that Evo was pissed at Sebastián Piñera for making promises he had no intention of keeping? And that he got on better with Ollanta Humala? Why yes, I did. And lo and behold, there has been some fallout…much to Chile’s detriment and Peru’s gain:

President Evo Morales confirmed the exclusion of Chile from the inter-oceanic highway project which will begin in Brazil. Yesterday, he stated that he would inaugurate the cross-continental highway in San José de Chiquitos, along with the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff. He also announced that the special guest for the occasion would be the president of Peru, Ollanta Humala.

The announcement comes in the midst of a climate of tension between Bolivia and Chile, following the detention of three Bolivian soldiers and over the maritime claim being pressed by the Morales government in international courts.

“We will meet with the sister president of Brazil and talk about a topic that is important to us. We have agreed that on April 5, I hope I’m not mistaken, we will inaugurate the cross-continental highway. Initially, we agreed that this joint ceremony will happen in San José de Chiquitos,” said Morales during a press conference yesterday in Palacio Quemado, La Paz.

In December 2007, President Morales met in La Paz with former presidents Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil. During this meeting they agreed to to complete, by 2009, a highway of 6,100 kilometres with an investment of $604 million US, to connect the three countries, uniting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Three years later, President Morales announced that the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, would come to Santa Cruz to inaugurate the highway, along with Dilma Rousseff. But now there is no intention of including Chile in the project, since the Chilean ports initially chosen as endpoints of the highway have been bypassed in favor of those of southern Peru.

After ruling Chile out of the project, Morales said that the special invited guest would be Ollanta Humala, since it was decided that the corridor, and the inter-oceanic railroad, would end in Peru’s ports. “Our special guest will be the president of Peru, Ollanta Humala, so that we will go on seeking integration for the benefit of the peoples of this region and especially of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru.”

The government already has a project to reorient the highway, as well as the railroad. Since until now, the corridor stretched from the port of Santo, Brazil, on the Atlantic, to the Chilean ports of Arica and Iquique, they will soon be diverted toward the Peruvian ports of Matarani and Ilo, as announced by vice-president Alvaro García.

Peru granted port facilities and free transit for its exports via the port of Ilo. Evo Morales and [then-president] Alan García signed the accord in 2010.

Along with the international leadership of the government of Evo Morales, social movements in favor of the government decided to go to the United Nations (UN) and the Organization of American States (OAS) to deounce Chile over the situation of the three detained soldiers.

“We’re going to mobilize, not only in our country but at an international level, we are going to appeal directly to the United Nations and the Organization of American States. This case shows the arrogance of Chile and we cannot accept that,” declared Ever Choquehuanca, executive of the Confederation of Interculturals.

The director announced that he would call a meeting of the Unity Pact to decide when to send a delegation to the international organizations.

Juanita Ancieta, executive of the Bartolinas, and Julián Jala, campesino director, backed the decision to go to international organizations to denounce the detention of the soldiers in Chile. The ruling MAS party, in Cochabamba, criticized the “injustice” on the part of the Chilean government.

Translation mine.

You really have to admire the politeness and restraint Evo showed while dealing Tatán such a tremendous ass-kicking. That’s vintage Evo there. The man’s a Scorpio, after all. You cross those guys at your peril. They can put the mother of all beatdowns on you with exquisite good manners, but by gawd, you will FEEL it in the morning.

And thanks to the stupidity and arrogance of their no-good-very-bad president, the Chilean people are feeling it now. The goodwill of the bilateral relations Bolivia and Chile enjoyed when Michelle Bachelet was president of the latter has all been squandered by Tatán and his mafia of assholes and incompetents. The trade and tourism they’re losing by this is going to cost them billions. And it’s not like they couldn’t use the money. Contrary to anything the bizmedia may tell you, Chile’s “economic miracle” is not merely hollow, it’s bogus. The average Chilean is hurting, and Tatán’s mismanagement has only made the pain worse.

And now this.

But hey, there’s no great loss somewhere without a commensurate gain elsewhere, and sure enough, Peru is the gainer. Ollanta and Evo get along very well indeed. And the port cities of southern Peru stand to benefit hugely by it.

It’s an object lesson in how to do bilateralism: You be nice to the other guy, and the other guy will be nice to you. It’s a no-brainer. And thanks to his lack of brains, Tatán Piñera is finding it out the hard way. I feel very sorry for the people of Chile, but not a bit for him. If only he would suffer for it the way they will. That’s the only thing standing between me and a massive cackle of Schadenfreude right now.