May 4, 2013

A few highlights from the Rios Montt Genocide Trial (Graphic heavy)

These are just a few of the worst highlights tweeted and written about by Xeni Jardin ? @xeni ) who's been attending the trial daily and interviewing survivors. Unfortunately, I can only go as far back as April 17 for her tweets on this.

First a picture:

A 1982 photograph by Jean-Marie Simon of Otto Perez Molina; he commanded the Guatemalan Army in Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala at the time, and is now President. Nebaj is part of the region at issue in a genocide trial against former head of state Ríos Montt. The military hat in this photo indicates status as a Kaibil.

-- Harris Whitbeck Sr (see wiki), a defense witness, testified that he ran "humanitarian programs" for Montt. Both Montt and him are evangelicals. Millions of dollars in funds for Montt's "Beans and guns" (“frijoles y fusiles”) came from US lawmakers & evangelical Christian groups. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell evangelized for their friend Rios Montt. Whitbeck claims he never heard of military massacres, rapes in camps, torture, forced cutting down of crops etc. It was all good

-- One 20pg paid paper insert by Guate Anti-terrorism Fndtn linked genocide trial to intl Marxist conspiracy enabled by Catholic Church.


Paid propaganda. Sign reads "The Secretary of Peace says there was no genocide" (Otto Molina's Sec of Peace testified FOR Rios Montt and said that)

-- “They treated us like animals. They slaughtered us like animals. Now they want to pretend it didn't happen.” —V., K'iche man

April 19

-- No reports from local press of yesterday's raid against human rights offices of @UDEFEGUA in the Ixil Region in Guatemala,

-- Outside court. Massive crowd led by Ixiles. Flower & pine needle altar; copal burning. Signs demanding justice. Ixil holding red flowers.

-- This is a huge crowd outside court. Very high energy. WE ARE ALL IXIL, WE WILL CONTINUE THE FIGHT, & chants in Ixil also.



Tons of tweets about how the Ixiles are leading this, organizing the marches, leading the chants, leading everything. This is important because it's also the Ixiles who are now under martial law in those 4 municipalities where Molina said drug gangs are causing problems.

On April 19, when someone tried to keep them all out of the courtroom, they raised a huge public fuss

-- Noise outside this building is overwhelming. Crowd screaming justice, no more genocide, we have the right to know the truth. Drumming.

-- Cars on street honking in support.

-- On one hand, I’m disappointed more foreign media aren’t here covering justice system’s crisis in Guatemala. OTOH, they’d just mess it up.

-- Case in point: this report by Rachel Levin for Al Jazeera English. WTF. So many inaccuracies, so tone-deaf.

BS: “Entire areas of country where people don’t even know trial is taking place…because Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in LatAm.”

Guess what, Al Jazeera: the hundreds of indigenous people demonstrating behind you in that standup *are those same poorest people.*

The poor, marginalized indigenous in Guatemala aren’t stupid. They’re incredibly politically sophisticated.

And by my research, there’s wide awareness of trial among indigenous throughout the country (23+ Mayan ethnic groups, Ixil are but one).

Yes; way media+power works here contribute to lack of political involvement & awareness of trial. But fiercest organizers I see are poor.

Seriously, this piece sucks.

Apparently, people who watched it thought the same because the top rated comment on the Al-Jazeera piece is

No surprise that Al Jazeera's latest video on this topic allowed no comments. They are promoting propaganda in regard to this topic, in order to back the current US-backed president, Otto Perez Molina, who was about to be clearly implicated in the trial. Al Jazeera has gone into absolutely no detail about what the testimony of Allan Nairn would have been, and what the implications would have been if he would have testified. Al Jazeera is a crock of shit.

and

Get your news about this issue from Democracy Now. They cover it very well, and interview Allan Nairn, the journalist who was about to testify when the trial was shut down. Al J is simply US propaganda, as mentioned by others here also.

-- What I hate about AJ piece: this elitist logic that only ppl with $ are politically engaged, aware of HR issues. Couldn’t be less true here. Mayans organize, share info in ways outsiders may not see or grok. But it’s poor marginalized indigenous who pushed hardest for this day. They may have less financial resources to lose, but if all you have is a cornfield & your family, that’s what you have, & it’s everything.

-- An indigenous leader here was murdered just last night. Multiple anti-mining Mayan activist disappearances/killings happened recently too.

-- Worn by Mayan observers in Guatemala genocide trial court, and their supporters.

-- Every day since lower court judge Flores effectively derailed tribunal, protesters have gathered to demand trial continue. Today, the same.

-- Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Prize for Peace Winner) in front of the courthouse



22 April

-- Banner w names of civilians disappeared or assassinated during Guatemala's armed conflict Outside Const. Court, now.







-- Outside Guatemala's Constitutional Court right now. Photos from Jean-Marie Simon; a handwritten copy…



-- “What do we want? JUSTICE!” “All of us are Ixiles!” “My heart is Ixil!” Protesters chanting outside Guate Const. Court for trial to continue “We demand the genocide tribunal be allowed to continue. We will be here every day until the Constitutional Court resolves this.”

May 3, 2013

Guatemalan outlet, elPeriódico, harassed after critical reporting

elPeriódico is a Left paper. The only one that prints the truth. The other supposed-semi-Left paper is Siglo XXI (much less courageous in my opinion. Their coverage of what's going on now is nonexistent. There's nothing about these important events on their front page). After that it's tabloids and the government line.

Link elPeriódico: to http://www.elperiodico.com.gt

Cyber attacks in Guatemala... Ummmm, very few ordinary people here have computers. The average monthly wage is $200. Most people don't even have phone lines. That narrows the list of suspects considerably.

May 3, 2013

Central America struggles to unite for Obama trip

Central America struggles to unite for Obama trip

Posted: 05/03/2013 12:09:25 PM MDT
By LUIS ALONSO LUGO and ALBERTO ARCE Associated Press


SAN JOSE, Costa Rica—...

Obama earlier this week said his trip will focus on the economy and security. He will meet Friday evening with the eight-nation Central American Integration System, known by its Spanish initials SICA, which was formed to discuss regional issues.

Yet the president will also encounter the national rivalries that have often blocked cooperation.

Guatemala and Belize maintain a border dispute. Honduras and El Salvador are fighting over the use of the waters and shores of the Gulf of Fonseca, and a conflict between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has been escalating over the San Juan River border. On top of that, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua often feel excluded because Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras get the bulk of U.S. security aid, said Eric Olson, associate director of the Latin American program at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington.

...

Still, the Central American presidents have come manned to talk about security, an issue they see as directly related to drug consumption in the United States. Some Central American countries have the highest murder rates in the world, with Honduras often called the world's most dangerous country. Leaders here say they want the U.S. to take more responsibility in the fight against drug cartels.

"We need the decided support of the U.S. to attack our common enemy, drug trafficking," Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said Thursday. "Unfortunately, Honduras and the countries of the region bear the dead of a war that we didn't start and that we repudiate. It's time to renew our mutual political cooperation."

...

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23166002/central-america-struggles-unite-obama-trip

May 2, 2013

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 10 - Using Student Groups 4 Violence Denounced in Mar

The ironies of the Venezuelan opposition, part 10
March 28, 2013 — Sabina Becker



Howdy, folks. In today’s episode of VenOpIronía, we get something really interesting: an opposition deputy giving an interview not only on state TV (VTV), which allegedly “censors opposition voices”, but he reveals something the Chavistas among us have already long known or at least suspected. And it’s a source of great consternation, at least for him. So, let’s hear what he has to say:

...

I’ve added the links so you can see exactly what’s going on here. This is an old, old tactic of the State Dept., one that hasn’t changed since Dubya tried and failed to derail the Bolivarian project of Hugo Chávez in the noughties of this not-so-”American” century. It’s still trying to use the “student movement” of the Venezuelan opposition (the oligarchy, really) to generate violence, as they did in 2007, when Chavecito was re-elected to his third term. The violence is not the product of “insecurity”, as it is often presented. It is orchestrated and directed all the way from Washington, and its purpose is to derail the Bolivarian Revolution, so that all the good it has done can be undone as quickly as possible.

...

But of course, the State Dept. is tone-deaf to all this; its own actions reveal as much. It’s had to let the Venezuelan opposition import right-wing paramilitaries from Colombia in repeated efforts to destabilize Venezuela, all to no avail. The Bolivarians have not fallen to the provocations as expected. They have maintained their composure. Time and again, with and without Chavecito, they have stood their ground peacefully, and laughed as the destabilization plans, one after another, lost their wheels and veered off the road, coming to rest ignominiously in the ditch.

This one is bound to fare no differently. After all, the functional definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting the results to just miraculously change. And yet, the gringos think the Bolivarians are crazy, for repeatedly electing and re-electing a certain brown-skinned working-class campesino from the plains who used to be in the army, and getting good results out of him?

The irony of all this may be lost on the State Dept., but it isn’t lost on me.

http://www.sabinabecker.com/2013/03/the-ironies-of-the-venezuelan-opposition-part-10.html

May 2, 2013

Democracy Now interview with Rep. José Serrano (on Venezuela)

Venezuela Didn't Ask for a Florida Recount in 2000, So Why U.S. Interference in Venezuelan Vote?

Interview with Rep. José Serrano on Democracy Now! at http://owl.li/kDXJ8

The U.S. State Department pledged Wednesday to work with the newly elected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but continued its refusal to offer him formal recognition. The Obama administration greeted Maduro's win last month by backing the Venezuelan opposition's call for a recount. Democratic Rep. Rep. José Serrano of New York, one of the few lawmakers who accepted cheap Venezuelan oil for low-income communities in the United States, criticizes the U.S. stance, saying: "The Venezuelan people are smart enough and prepared enough to deal with the issue of whether the election was fair or not -- let them deal with that. We should not be making statements saying there has to be a recount. Venezuela didn't ask for a recount in Florida when Bush and Gore were going at it, and we know what happened there."

Transcript:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Congressman Serrano, I’d like to ask you about another topic: Venezuela. You have been outspoken in the past in terms of your support for some of the work of the Venezuelan government, and Hugo Chávez provided low-cost oil to the South Bronx for many years. Your reaction to the recent elections in Venezuela and to the U.S. government’s reaction to the results so far, in terms of the declaration that Nicolás Maduro, Chávez’s chosen successor, had won by a small margin?

REP. JOSÉ SERRANO: Well, you know, I’m always troubled by the fact that our country just does not—we contradict ourselves. We tell people to have elections, and then when we don’t like the winner of the election, we oppose the election and the election results. The Venezuelan people are smart enough and prepared enough to deal with the issue of whether the election was fair or not. Let them deal with that. We should not be making statements in the White House saying the election—there has to be a recount. I mean, Venezuela didn’t ask for a recount in Florida when Bush and Gore were going at it. And we know what happened there. So I’m always one for letting people work things out.

But it’s related to immigration, too. I have a theory, which is, if you don’t want people coming to this country—and I don’t have a problem with that—don’t advertise. So you tell them how bad their countries are, how bad their elections are, and then, if something breaks, where do you think they’re going to come? They’re going to come here. And then you wonder why are they here. Well, stop meddling. You know, stop advertising that you’re going to meddle in their affairs. They had an election. Let them work it out. We didn’t recognize the other six, seven, eight, nine elections that Hugo Chávez had that he won and the world accepted. Now we don’t accept this one. I don’t think we’re happy until the candidate we want to win wins the election.

AMY GOODMAN: So will you continue to get oil from Venezuela, just like your former congressmember—your colleague, Congressmember Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts, has made use of this oil to help poor people there?

REP. JOSÉ SERRANO: What happened was that we invited Hugo Chávez to the Bronx, and he spoke to a lot of folks. And he was talking to them about it, and he said, "Look, I have something I can offer you. I’m not the wealthiest country in the world, but I have home-heating oil that we don’t use in Venezuela. We’ll sell it to you at cost," with the understanding, very interesting, when we signed the documents, that any money saved by, say, the XYZ Housing Corporation from last year’s heating bill had to be used, those savings, to reinvest in, you know, boiler repairs, rent reductions. There were a couple of years there where folks in my district were getting like $25, $30, $70 rent reduction during the winter months based on this. Now, the government was upset—our government—because we were getting foreign aid from another country. We’re used to sending foreign aid. So I’m hoping that the Maduro government, or the Capriles government—I don’t care which government it is—continues to do this.

And I want to be clear about that: I’m not for what the result should be; I’m just for letting the people in Venezuela decide who their leader is.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember José Serrano, we want to thank you very much for being with us.

REP. JOSÉ SERRANO: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember from New York, from the Bronx.

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/2/rep_jos_serrano_critical_latino_vote?autostart=true

May 2, 2013

THE GRAND U.S. STRATEGY TOWARD VENEZUELA

THE GRAND U.S. STRATEGY TOWARD VENEZUELA
Why has Maduro’s victory not been recognized?

Abel González Santamaría

TO better understand the U.S. refusal to acknowledge Venezuela’s National Electoral Board official results confirming Nicolás Maduro as President, it is essential to analyze how the country’s grand strategy toward Simón Bolívar’s homeland began and evolved. The origins of this strategy toward Latin America, and in particular the land which is now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, go back to the Declaration of Independence proclaimed by representatives of the 13 British colonies in 1776, when as these founders advocated, the country began a process of territorial and economic expansion.

After 1823, the United States engaged in a "diplomatic" offensive against neighboring countries to establish the basis for future economic hegemony. It was for this purpose that the so-called Monroe Doctrine was developed, a justification for intervention in the region under the banner of "America for Americans", which actually meant "America for the United States."

...



Tactics to DOMINATE Venezuela

During the second half of the 19th century, the United States surpassed Britain as the dominant political power in Latin America, and later in economic terms. The U.S. vision of its preeminence in Latin American international relations was made clear in 1895, when a firm communiqué was sent to Britain, in regards to its dispute with Venezuela over borders with its colony Guyana, warning that "Today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its direction is law for those who are subjected to limitations on its interposition."

At the end of 1902, Venezuela’s coastline was bombed by British, German and Italian naval units, demanding payment of pending Venezuelan debts due to individuals in Europe. Although this intervention challenged the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. government justified the attack with what later became known as the "Roosevelt Corollary", which limited the application of the doctrine to cases of acquisition of territory on the continent by non-American powers, but did not rule out other interventions by countries from outside the region.

Venezuelan president Cipriano Castro filed charges against the financial backers of the invasion and blockade, and expropriated the U.S. Orinoco Steamship Company. The State Department threatened to intervene. When the Venezuelan president traveled to Europe for surgery, U.S. Secretary of State, Philander Knox, hatched a plan which culminated in Vice President Juan Vicente Gómez taking power on December 19, 1908. The battleships North Carolina, Maine and Des Moines anchored in La Guaira. White House Special Commissioner William Buchanan supported the new regime in exchange for favorable policies toward foreign investors. That was the beginning of a 27 year dictatorship.

BATTLE FOR THE CONTROL OF OIL

...

Read more: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/ouramerica-i/2may-STRATEGY.html


"… the United States appears to be destined by Fate to plague America with poverty in the name of freedom." - Simón Bolívar

May 2, 2013

Letter to Kerry from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America - Recognize Maduro

Letter to Kerry: Follow the Lead of Latin American Governments and Recognize Maduro as Venezuela's New President
by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America


April 18, 2013
John F. Kerry, Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

VIA FAX: 202-647-3344

Dear Secretary Kerry,

On behalf of the officers and members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), we are writing to urge you to recognize the election of Nicolas Maduro Moros and to take steps to engage productively with the new government of Venezuela.

Our International Affairs Director participated in monitoring the recent election. In doing so, she joined a delegation of over 130 international participants that included parliamentarians, former presidents, electoral commission members, journalists, and representatives of human rights NGOs from across the world.

The monitors spent the day of the election in various states around the country. They were free to speak to voters, election officials and political party representatives and reported calm throughout the day, an efficient process, and virtually no problems. They were impressed both by the level of democratic participation and by the sophisticated and secure electronic system confirmed by an audit of 54% of the paper ballots. Unlike the system here in the United States, which is neither uniform nor trustworthy, the voting system in Venezuela is a unitary system that incorporates some 15 audits and is approved by the competing political parties at each step. Because the Venezuelan electoral commission or CNE has been the subject of intense criticism by the opposition, we wish to review in some detail the nature of the voting process.

Prior to the election, machines are sent out from the assembly and service plant in Caracas. They are set up and tested to make sure everything functions properly. The morning of the election, each machine is once again put through its paces and, with the poll workers, party witnesses and soldiers present, it is unlocked with a code and generates a tape that indicates that no votes have yet been registered. For the rest of the day, voters follow a horseshoe shaped process: showing their credentials, then placing their finger in the fingerprint reader to generate their ID number and photo. This unlocks the voting machine, permitting the voter to continue on to the voting machine and press the picture of the candidate and party of his or her choice and then the vote key. The machine then issues a paper receipt with the name of the candidate, permitting the voter to double check that his or her vote was properly recorded. The voter places the folded receipt in a traditional ballot box. The final steps are to dip one's pinky finger in indelible ink and to sign and place a fingerprint in the registry as a final backup check.

When the polls close, 54% of the paper ballots cast are checked manually against the final tally issued by the voting machines through a "citizens audit" of polling stations that have been randomly selected, in the presence of the party witnesses The CNE waits to make its announcement of the results until the outcome was certain. This is the system that has been recognized by Jimmy Carter as "the best in the world."

Whether the remaining 46% of the paper receipts (which serve as a confirmation of the electronic system) should be counted is a matter of policy for the CNE to determine. It should be remembered that even the CNE council representative who proposed that this measure be taken, did so in terms of "confirming" the results.

With a voter registration rate of over 95% and a turnout rate of 79.17%., Ni­colas Maduro won the election with 50.75% of the vote (7,563,747 votes) to Henrique Capriles' 48.97% (7,298,491 votes). The margin of victory for Nicolas Maduro increased slightly once the complete numbers had been tallied and, while the margin is small, it is comparable to close elections in the U.S., such as the margins of victory for Kennedy in 1960 and for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

We call upon the U.S. to honor the Venezuelan election as the nations of the world have honored ours without question. It has been reported that "Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Uruguay have all sent official congratulations to Maduro for his victory. The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) also recognized Maduro as Venezuela's new president. Brazil's foreign minister Antonio Patriota called the election a 'victory for democracy.' Beyond these statements, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Haiti, Guatemala, and Mexico, all offered their congratulations to Maduro for his election as president." Most recently, Spain has recognized the election.

In April 2002, economic and military elites carried out a coup to overthrow the elected president. Hugo Chavez's enemies arrested him, forced him to resign, and declared the constitution abolished. Massive popular protests defeated the coup and returned Chavez to the presidency in just a few days. It is widely believed that the United States was deeply involved in the attempted coup.

The U.S. call for a full re-count fails to recognize the integrity of the Venezuelan electoral system and only serves to promote conflict and to further undermine the credibility of the United States. Given the sordid history of the United States in undermining democracy in Latin America, the wisest course would be to follow the lead of latin American governments that are demonstrating broad regional support for Venezuela's democratic institutions,

Sincerely,

Bruce J. Klipple President

Andrew Dinkelaker Secretary- Treasurer

Robert B. Kingsley Director of Organization


http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2013/ue180413.html

Letter available here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/136775805/Venezuela-2013-April-Statement-by-UE-on-the-Election#download

May 2, 2013

Venezuela rejects Insulza (OAS) interventionist statements

Venezuela rejects Insulza interventionist statements

2/05/13.- Venezuela rejected Thursday the excessive and interfering statements by the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, "given in clear and close coordination with the State Department spokesmen and White House" which referred to the unfortunate fracas occurred on Tuesday in the National Assembly.

In a statement, the Bolivarian government calls "absolutely cynical and immoral" the claims of the OAS and the U.S. government to "create the perception of a political crisis in Venezuela which would warrant their mediation."

Full Text:

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Press Release

The government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela roundly rejects the disproportionate and interventionist statements made by the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza, that were offered in clear and broad coordination with spokespersons of the Department of State and the White House, and through which, based on exaggerations of the lamentable brawl that occurred some days ago in the Venezuelan parliament as a result of provocations by the opposition, the attempt is made to generate the perception of a political crisis in Venezuela that would merit their mediation.

The Bolivarian government considers these attempts absolutely cynical and immoral, particularly when they come from those who have minimized or ignored the grave acts of fascist violence that occurred on April 15 of this year and in subsequent days as a consequence of the failure to recognize the electoral results by the losing candidate and his call to rage and violence after the April 14 elections.

These spokespersons have said little or nothing about the political assassinations of Venezuelan citizens, all of them supporters of the Bolivarian revolution: José Luis Ponce, Rosiris Reyes, Hender Bastardo, Luis Eduardo García, Rey David Sánchez, Johan Antonio Hernández, Henry Rangel, Keller Guevara and Johnny Alberto Pacheco. The same is true regarding the more than 70 wounded Venezuelan men and women that were the victims of political and social intolerance by opposition leadership.

It should be recalled that even deputy Julio Borges, secretary-general of the opposition party Primero Justicia, on April 15 called “to bring death to the revolution,” the consequence of that statement being the burning of seven houses of the principal democratic political party in Venezuela, which is the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Spokespersons have said little or nothing about the promotion on behalf of opposition leaders of a xenophobic policy against Cuban doctors and health professionals that offer services to the most humble people of Venezuela.

Despite this complicit and immoral silence by some governments and international organizations, Venezuela’s democratic institutions, together with the conscience and political maturity of the people developed by the eternal commander Hugo Chávez, were able to exorcise the anti-democratic and violent behavior by of the opposition, so that today we enjoy a country full of political and institutional stability with a legitimate and legal government directed by the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro Moros, which has gone out into the streets to attend to the social demands of our people.

Finally, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela firmly rejects any attempt to promote any mediations that are not required, and is willing to confront with all the force it is permitted as an independent country any intervention by those who do not possess the moral authority to speak of dialogue, democracy and peace, for they have plagued the world with war, violence and death in the 20th and 21st century.

The immense democratic majority of the Venezuelan people and the institutions of the state have the legal and moral force to guarantee the political stability, peace and independence of the nation of Simón Bolivar.

Caracas, May 2nd 2013

http://www.ciudadccs.info/?p=417987

May 2, 2013

How Mexican Tire Workers Won Ownership of Their Plant With a 3yr Strike and Are Now Running It

A must read

...

May 2, 2013

Cuba demands the closure of U.S. concentration camp at Guantanamo