News of the Restless

Nope.

Backed by national guard troops and cheering crowds, government representatives moved in on three Cemex plants at the stroke of midnight Monday, the end of a 60-day deadline set by President Hugo Chavez for imposing state control over Venezuela's largest cement maker.

Chavez has long criticized Venezuela's private-sector cement makers for high prices and tight supplies that he says have hampered government efforts to build housing for the poor. Pro-nationalization supporters who had gathered outside a Cemex facility in eastern Venezuela sang the national anthem while fireworks exploded overhead, according to news reports.

Of course, this being reported in the Denver Post, someone still felt duty-bound to note for the sake of "fairness and balance":

But Mexico's ambassador to Venezuela, Mario Chacon, made his displeasure clear. Chavez's hard line with Cemex, one of Mexico's most admired companies, has irritated the conservative administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"As a government, we respect Venezuela's decision, but we are obligated to look out for the interests of our companies," Chacon said. "We believe there has been discriminatory treatment against Cemex, and we don't understand why."

Good job, D-Post. Now go back to sleep. You've got a Dem convention coming up to report on. And you need your beauty rest, especially since you got scooped on the secret prisons in your city, built specially for the occasion.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:52 PM | Permalink |

What century is this again?

Rev. Sergio G. Roman sounded the alarm against miniskirts in an online publication to prepare Catholics for a church family-values forum next year in Mexico City.

"When we show our body without prudence, without modesty, we are prostituting ourselves," wrote Roman, a Mexico City priest.

Continue reading "Yep, that Catholic church is sure progressing..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 06:58 PM | Permalink |

Found something interesting and curious at Aporrea and just had to translate:

"For 60 years, we of GMV have been working with Venezuela and its people; it's our fundamental job to think of this organization as a great human team, which has the right to exercise its functions to contribute to the well-being of the country, of business, of its families, and ourselves." (El Nacional, Page 1-21, Sunday, August 17, 2008)

Some older workers will recall that during the first administration of Rafael Caldera, General Motors had an assembly plant in La Yaguara, Caracas--surrounded by high electric fences and watchtowers with reflectors, in order to defend itself against guerrilla attacks.

A rebellious worker, detained by company security and the National Guard, was incarcerated and tortured for several days in a dungeon on the premises, before being handed over to the DIGEPOL, the infamous political police of those days. When he was finally freed, the worker took his case to the Ministry of Labor whose head, Tarre Murzi, ordered an inspection of the GM plant.

The Ministry inspectors weren't allowed to enter, on the grounds that GM was a US business, so the Ministry had no jurisdiction over it. The minister, indignant, called a press conference to which, strangely, no one came. When a second such conference was similarly boycotted by the official and private media, Tarre Murzi took up the embarrassing matter with President Caldera--who, true to his "principles", fired the minister.

Continue reading "What's good for GM ain't so good for Venezuela" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:35 AM | Permalink |

...I think you dropped something. Namely, all mention of a tyrannical Latin American president--in PERU!

In view of the protests of 60 ethnic groups from the Amazonian jungle against official decrees, the Peruvian government declared three provinces and one municipality in state of emergency on Monday.

According to a resolution published in the official journal El Peruano, the state of emergency was declared to keep the peace after at least nine people were injured during some encounters between the police and the natives.

The measure provides the suspension of constitutional rights which prevents the exercise of certain rights like the freedom of assembly and movement, and gives the police authority to arrest and carry out raids without a warrant.

The state of emergency comprises the provinces of Bagua and Utcubamba, the north of the Amazon and Datem del Marañon, Loreto in the west, and the municipality of Echarate in the southern region of Cuzco.

Well, looky there. Alan Garcia ruling by decree--and not within limitations of constitutionality and basic human decency like Chavecito, either. He's tyrannizing over the indigenous, in particular.

Now: For the entire last 18 months, when Chavecito had power to legislate by decree, there was not a single state of emergency in Venezuela, despite lashings of violence from the opposition which could, legitimately, have resulted in a crackdown. Contrast that with the situation in Peru, where people routinely get their heads busted open for simply protesting!

But will the major media mention it, let alone in the context of tyranny in Peru, the way they often do Chavecito, who has not a scrap of actual tyranny to his name? Noooooo. At most, they only cite this approvingly as an example of his "law and order" program at work. (And get this: they make out like it's the "Indians" who are at fault.) No mention of the suppression of constitutionality. Not a peep from Andres Oppenheimer, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Simon Romero or any other crapaganda-cranker about tyranny. Couldn't be because Peru's tyrant, like Colombia's, passes muster with Big Crapital, while Venezuela's democrat doesn't...could it?

Nahhhhhhhh...of course not.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:23 AM | Permalink |

If you ever wanted to know about US mercenaries and just how low they can go, this is the guy who wrote the book. It's called Blackwater, and it's not pretty, but it's one compelling read. It will wake you right up to the dangers of privatizing everything--including the worst of the worst, namely war. So far, Blackwater and all its false fronts have been immune from prosecution, but that could all change if the government of Iraq manages to cut enough of its puppet strings.

Let's hope so!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 03:53 PM | Permalink |

A few weeks ago, El Duderino had this little snippet of film up on his blog about the Fighting Cholitas of La Paz, Bolivia. A little later, he posted a link to the Guardian article profiling some of them. Today, I open my mailbox to find...the latest National Geographic. And in it, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a report on those selfsame cholitas, their skirts and braids flying as they pulverize the baddies and take on sexism and poverty singlehanded?

And if you doubt whether Aymara women in billowy skirts and bowler hats can rassle, you should see the trailer. These badass Bolivianas could crack Hulk Hogan's nuts and spook the shit out of Jesse Ventura.

No doubt about it--between the cholitas, the beautiful Altiplano, and of course Evo, Bolivia has definitely arrived.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 03:26 PM | Permalink |

Of all the odd places for God to show his celestial wrath, this one in Venezuela has to take the cosmic cake:

Jesús Martinez was walking in the rain by the Plaza del Obrero, in Punto Fijo, Falcón, when he saw lightning strike the cathedral, according to the daily Ultimas Noticias' Sunday business edition.

The stroke, according to the report, fell on the church steeple and shattered the head of the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which had kept watch over the city for more than 50 years. It was three o'clock in the afternoon and it had been raining in the city for over an hour, amid strong winds and electrical discharges.

"It's nothing to be afraid of, these are things of nature. Now we have to evaluate the damage and rebuild the statue," said priest Eladio Bedoya of the parish church of Our Lady of Coromoto, Cathedral of Punto Fijo.

Translation mine. Picture of the church at the link, probably taken before the lightning strike.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:05 AM | Permalink |

How else to explain these Peruvian poll numbers?

Or the success of Evo in Bolivia, which just seems to keep on growin'?

Or the fact that El Ecuadorable has now come out as a socialist?

Or the big celebration as Fernando Lugo of Paraguay becomes the latest leftist teddybear to join the South American picnic?

Yep, it can only be the doing of the usual big red-shirted suspect. After all, Hurricane Hugo has sucked in pretty much any part of Latin America that isn't nailed down by Washington. Or at least, so you'd think to read what all the crapaganda whores are saying. They seem to be having tremendous difficulties with the concept of popular will, no?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:19 AM | Permalink |

First, they made an attempt on the life of the president of Ecuador:

Continue reading "Oh, those "pro-life" Catholics!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:26 PM | Permalink |

Looks like the "new" Conservative federal government up here is getting old awful fast. They're a minority, but they bully like they're the only game in town, and a Globe & Mail editorial calls them on it:

Last year, the governing Conservatives prepared a secret handbook on how to disrupt parliamentary committees and create chaos. No mere pamphlet, the book ran to 200 pages.

It instructed committee chairmen to select blatantly biased witnesses and tutor them in advance. It gave the chairmen pointers on how to obstruct parliamentary business, to storm out of meetings if necessary.

Team Harper never expected its opus to be made public. But the media got hold and the headlines poured forth - "Tories blasted for handbook on paralyzing Parliament" and the like.

Liberal Ralph Goodale noted how it was rather peculiar to see the government getting its knickers in a knot over a dysfunctional, chaotic Parliament when, in fact, "the government's deliberate plan is to cause a dysfunctional, chaotic Parliament."

We thought the Grits were bad, chimed in the New Democrat, Libby Davies. But these guys, she said, were taking the gutter stuff to a new level. "They've codified it."

Continue reading "And this is why I call them SupposiTories" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:58 PM | Permalink |

I'll give you a hint: It's some Venezuelan opposition types, showing their true colors: brown, brown and BROWN. And stinky.

From YVKE Mundial, some choice video:

Some young hooligans protested the final legal decision to disqualify some deserving candidates by dumping cow manure all over the sidewalk outside the Comptroller General's offices in Caracas on Wednesday.

Yes, you read that right: They threw bullshit all over the place.

Somehow, that just so describes them to a tee, no matter how they protest, no?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:29 PM | Permalink |

Damn, Evo...those are sure some dimples you got there. Wonder what made 'em pop. Surely it's not the fact that you've got an over two-thirds majority in your referendum now, and still counting? Or maybe the fact that the Media Luna-tics can't face defeat, even when it's staring them in the face?

Perhaps our cheeky cholito is just laughing over the thought of having to lend them a Jaws of Life so they can pry their buttocks apart and extricate their heads. I know that would have me in stitches, were I in his shoes...

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:39 AM | Permalink |

Alan Garcia finally takes his doctor's advice and starts his new aerobics program. Maybe he'll finally lose some of that weight.

Crikey, what is up with the president of Peru? Dancing around like a marionette while Pisco is still in such rough shape? And the LatAm president who's actually done something helpful there is not himself but evil, wicked Chavecito--who, if Reuters says true (and you can never be too sure with English-language wires these days), is only doing it to prop up the chances of his Peruvian pal, Ollanta Humala?

At this rate, the Peruvians probably wish they had voted for Ollanta in the first place. At least he wouldn't look so ridiculous trying to dance.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:37 AM | Permalink |

Jayzuz. What is it with all these right-wing shit disturbers? They get people all riled up, and then they don't even show up to their own demonstrations? Case in point: Two rather prominent Venezuelan business leaders who keep trying to topple an elected president. From Aporrea, a parliamentary moment of truth:

Dario Vivas, PSUV deputy of the National Assembly, denounced Miguel Henrique Otero, owner of the newspaper El Nacional and spokesman of the "2D Movement" for having left the country for Puerto Rico after having called for demonstrations against the Enabling Laws and in support of disqualified candidates.

Vivas showed a video of Otero abandoning the country from Maiquetia airport, and said that the departure took place the day before the demonstration which Otero had called for in a furious manner, causing indignation in those who had seen him leaving the country after having called on citizens to "take the streets" and "not recognize the Enabling Laws" in the name of the "2D Movement, a supposed group of opposition intellectuals.

Vivas denounced Miguel Henrique Otero for publishing a call to mobilize "for the Fatherland, for the disqualified, and against the 26 Enabling Laws" in his his own newspaper. But then "he caught a plane, boarded on Saturday, and headed for San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the company of a young woman named Antonieta." Apparently, Otero returned a few days later.

Deputy Vivas compared the behavior of Otero to that of Carlos Fernandez, who was president of Fedecamaras in 2002 during the oil lockout headed by the opposition. Fernandez called for a demonstration on the last day of the year against the government--at the same time as he was celebrating New Year's Eve in Aruba.

Translation mine. Video at the site.

Fat chance that we'll ever see an Otero or a Fernandez on the frontlines along with the "students", taking a bullet from their own side in the name of "the fatherland". These guys are more than content to call the shots from a safe distance--like oh, say, as far away as Aruba or San Juan, Puerto Rico. What sort of person does that make them?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 05:40 PM | Permalink |

"Armando Valladares: from false invalid poet to business speculator".

According to Aporrea, this video got yanked from YouTube on the grounds that it is "false and defamatory". I watched it and can't for the life of me see what would be false or defamatory about it. If anyone's false and defamatory here, it would be Valladares; after all, why would a former policeman under Batista, anti-Castro bomb-planter in Havana, and later darling of the freedom-loving Reagan administration, lie?

Sheesh. Most disabled people I know tend to stay that way, especially if their problem is a pair of bad legs that lands them in a wheelchair, as Valladares insists happened to him (which, according to a book he wrote for the US Information Agency, resulted from malnutrition and mistreatment after his imprisonment for, get this, dissent. Yeah, that's right, bombing Havana for Batista is just "free speech".)

In all current pictures of him, Valladares looks remarkably hale. He is still able to stand and walk. A miracle of non-socialized medicine, no doubt. Either that, or Fidel must be the Second Coming of Christ, because so far's I know, Jesus was the only guy ever to tell a paralytic to get up and walk, and actually get results. Because, you see, the main condition of Valladares' release was that he walk onto the plane that carried him out of Cuba. Apparently, he managed to summon up the ability right in time!

BTW, in case you're wondering, the video was ordered yanked by the so-called Human Rights Foundation--that organization run by ex-Venezuelan no-'count Thor Halvorsen, whose sole purpose seems to be the defamation of Cuba and Venezuela. Certainly it hasn't upheld human rights worth shit, or the Iraqis might now be free of occupation, and Afghanistan ditto. But then again, I guess Iraqis and Afghans aren't human, so they don't have rights. Problem solved!

Oh, and apparently Vcrisis nutjob Alek Boyd is in on the yankage, too. He's now decided to join forces with the un-thundergodly Thor. Surprise, surprise.

Jeez, what is it with all these bogus "human rights activists"? Are they all trying to out-Kissinger each other in their quest for a Nobel peace prize, or what?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:46 AM | Permalink |

Strange things dead paramilitaries write...and stranger things they reveal. From Aporrea, a little note that will make you believe that there IS life after death, especially for crime and scandal in Colombia:

The ex-colonel of Colombian police, Danilo Gonzalez, who was assassinated in 2004, ordered the murder of former presidential candidaate Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, and the kidnapping of Venezuelan businessman Richard Boulton.

This, according to a letter from the late paramilitary chief Carlos Castaño, which was revealed today.

The letter from Castaño, also killed four years ago, and published by the weekly magazine Semana, also accuses Colonel Gonzalez of planning the kidnap of architect Juan Carlos Gaviria, brother of the former Colombian president and ex-secretary of the Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria.

Continue reading "Letters from the Evil Dead" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:51 AM | Permalink |

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, commenting has been turned off until further notice. According to my best friend, who's also my geek support, the comments function in my software has developed a glitch (or been victim of a hack?) that causes mysterious, empty "core" files to appear and clog up the server when the commenting is turned on. We'll be upgrading to a new version of Movable Type soon, which we hope will fix the matter. In the meantime, all comments are off. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:22 PM | Permalink |

He's got massive support--not only from the majority of Bolivia, but also from Venezuela (which lent Bolivia oil-drilling equipment), from Bolivians living/working in Spain, and from the indigenous peoples of Ecuador, who are watching Bolivian events with great hope for similar developments at home:

On the other hand, the opposition are getting desperate, and violent--so much so that they broke into and robbed a MAS party office:

Some of them don't even know what they're marching for, only that they're marching against "that shitty Indian". Yet they call all this "peaceful and democratic". Pathetic!

These fascists are clearly people who couldn't find their own asses with both hands and a flashlight. If they ever manage to extricate their heads from there, will someone please let me know?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:22 AM | Permalink |

Soccer skills come in handy in other fields, too. Here's Evo, honing his ass-kicking technique on the pitch:

Come Sunday, he's going to be putting it to good use. That's when our high-stepping hero shows the prefects of the Media Luna how to hold a real referendum--legal and legitimate--and win it, too.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:46 AM | Permalink |

Poor Yon Goicoechea. Such a cute young guy, such high hopes attached...and what are they coming to? A few months ago, the Cato Institute paid him half a million dollars to spread neoliberal/neocon/neofascist crapaganda and astroturf all over Venezuela. Playboy's Venezuelan edition also obligingly gave him huge fanfare (between pictures of silicone-stuffed bunnies, natch.) Do you think they're getting their money's worth? Aporrea doesn't:

Yon Goicoechea, opposition youth leader and student at Andres Bello Catholic University, said on Wednesday during an opposition demonstration that the movement he heads is disposed toward "setting this city on fire" if the State doesn't backtrack on the decision of the Comptroller General to uphold the disqualifications of some 270 would-be political candidates on the grounds of irregularities in the exercise of their duties.

Draped with a Venezuelan flag like a superhero's cape, Goicoechea declared on Globovision that "this Chavismo, which is filling our city with trash, deaths and blood, is impossible to sustain. People need to solve their problems by way of votes. They want to solve their problems the peaceful way. They want to solve their problems by way of justice.

"What are they looking for? That the people set this city on fire?" he continued. "What are they looking for? They're looking for violence! If they don't catch on and let Venezuelans express themselves freely at the polls...if they don't let us demonstrate our enormous non-conformity with the government by way of regular channels, then they must be looking for us to burn up this city. What's the matter with the government? Don't they care that the disqualified candidates are suffering human rights violations?"

Continue reading "Yon-Yon's big yawn-yawn" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:48 PM | Permalink |