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or research, and by god, can't be tempted to do any serious thinking, as, like Barbara Bush says, we shouldn't worry our beautiful minds with things like this. They can ALWAYS count on the greedy, anal a-holes among us to staunchly support any mayhem they launch on any group of poor, powerless people who are attempting to stand up for themselves against the tyrants who see them as either a constant pool of cheap labor or the guys who are going to get shoved into mass graves if they protest. This stolen pResidency doesn't believe anyone worth worrying about will see the pattern in its machinations. It's true we can't do anything about it but those of us who are learning about the tragic history of atrocities heaped upon the Latin American and Caribbean people DO see the scheming and plotting behind all of these dirty moves! ~~~~~~~~~As always, the U.S. right-wing administrations depend on the public's indifference, and ignorance of the facts, and they assume we will simply swallow any old thing they tell us. Here's a prime example of a vicious, filthy (employer of a bonafide genocidal, large scale murderer/torturer, fascist Nazi, Klaus Barbi to work in his goverment), a stinking racist, mass murderer, land thief, and U.S.-assisted (Richard M. Nixon) villain, Hugo Banzer, whose coup in the 1960's was backed, outfitted, and assisted by Nixon's U.S. forces: This was published in 1997:
Return of Bolivia's Drug-Stained Dictator
By Jerry Meldon
A Latin American ghost from Washington's Cold War past is reappearing this summer. On Aug. 6, one of South America's most notorious drug-tainted military dictators, Hugo Banzer Suarez, will don Bolivia's presidential sash. That will make him responsible for battling cocaine traffickers in one of the world's top drug-producing nations.
The 71-year-old Banzer, a long-time U.S. favorite because of his anti-communism, forged the coalition that gave him the presidency after his Accion Democratica Nacionalista party won 22 percent of the vote in the June elections. Banzer's latest ascendancy set off alarms in Washington, despite the old Cold War ties.
A State Department spokesman warned of possible diplomatic strains if Banzer appointed Bolivian officials who "in other eras have been directly involved in narco-trafficking." In Latin America, however, the U.S. statement was viewed as an indirect reference to Banzer, who could not have survived politically in the violent world of Bolivian politics without the timely intervention of South America's drug lords.
In July 1980, for instance, while most Bolivians were enjoying a rare hiatus of non-military rule, Banzer was hiding out in exile in Argentina. Bolivia's civilian government was set to indict him for human rights violations and corruption during his 1971-78 dictatorship. But Banzer saw his political life saved when a grotesque band of old-time Nazis and younger neo-fascists -- financed with drug money and aided by the Argentine military -- overthrew the government in La Paz.
The coup was spearheaded by two men whom Banzer had introduced: Roberto Suarez, Bolivia's coca king, and Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo chief of Lyons whom Banzer had protected from French war crimes prosecutors. The victorious putsch -- known as the Cocaine Coup -- established Bolivia as a kind of narco-state. Saved by this mix of drug trafficking and anti-communism, Banzer returned home to resume his political career. More: http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story40.html~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Another Bolivian Head of State, Luis Garcia Mesa)
Fugitive Bolivian Ex-Ruler Gets 30-Year Term
By NATHANIEL C. NASH
Published: April 22, 1993
The Supreme Court today sentenced Gen. Luis Garcia Mesa, a former military dictator, to 30 years in prison on charges of murder, looting the country's treasury, corruption and abuse of constitutional power during his bloody 14-month rule in 1980 and 1981.
Mr. Garcia Mesa, who was sentenced in absentia, disappeared in 1989 while his trial was going on. The Government of Jaime Paz Zamora has promised to capture Mr. Garcia Mesa before its term expires in August, but few Bolivians expect it to deliver on its promise.
Bolivian lawmakers nonetheless described the Supreme Court's decision as a landmark in the nation's fight to shake off its history of military coups and dictatorships. Coups occured about every two years until the return to democratic rule in 1985.
"This is a very important day for Bolivia since it represents not only a rejection by the people of military rule but also strong action by the court to put these people and those who cooperate with them in prison," said Ernesto Machicao, president of the committee on human rights in the House of Deputies. "I think people will think twice before they again plan to overthrow the Government by military power."
Antonio Araniver, leader of the Bolivian Movement for Freedom, a leftist party, said, "At last the country has destroyed the power of impunity."
Ending a trial that lasted more than 7 years, the high court also sentenced 46 of Mr. Garcia Mesa's aides to prison terms ranging up to 30 years. Mr. Garcia Mesa was convicted on 33 criminal counts that would have drawn a total prison term of 235 years, but under Bolivian law the maximum term is 30 years. The sentence does not allow for a pardon.
A former colonel, Luis Arce Gomez, who was Mr. Garcia Mesa's Interior Minister and, it is widely believed, carried out most of the regime's assassinations, received a 30-year sentence. In 1989 Mr. Arce Gomez was extradited to the United States and tried in Florida on drug-trafficking charges; he is serving a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.
After the sentences were read, a cheer went up from the 700 people gathered inside and outside the Supreme Court building. They sang the national anthem and family members of victims of Mr. Garcia Mesa wept and embraced each other.
As the trial was nearing completion in this picturesque colonial city, Army and police reinforcements were brought in to tighten security. Each of the 13 Supreme Court judges and the prosecuting attorney have received death threats in the last month; many believe the threats came from the "Angels of Death," an execution squad directed by Mr. Arce Gomez.
Though his term in office was brief, Luis Garcia Mesa's rule was marked by a brutal crackdown on the political opposition and an opening of Bolivia to widespread drug trafficking. More: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DC113BF931A15757C0A965958260How does Garcia Mesa connect to the present? Portrait of a Recycled Military Officer
Violence and Racism in Cochabamba: Part II
Luis A. Gómez
April 27, 2007
La Paz - There is a black and white photo that shows Bolivia ex-dictator Luis García Meza in full splendor, carrying out the governmental power he conquered in 1980. He is surrounded by most part of his cabinet, made up of military officers. And behind him, there’s a young mustached military man who, with enormous eyes, holds an oblique gaze. The photograph is a commonly exhibited document, at times used to de-legitimize Manfred Reyes Villa because many say that he was the narco-dictator’s military assistant—something that the governor of Cochabamba has never denied.
But his military career as a “patriotic officer,” as Reyes Villa himself likes to say, is not an accident. This photo, not always analyzed with care, shows something else: among those who formed part of ex-dictator’s inner circle is Defense Minister General Armando Reyes Villa—father of Cochabamba’s Governor and one of the principle conspirers of the military coup that handed García Meza power on July 17, 1980.
It is difficult to know if ex-Captain Manfred learned the democratic values that he now, as a politician, claims to defend from his father. Given what occurred on January 11th it is possible that he did. But to be more clear, we might look at a paragraph from Reyes Villa spokesman Erick Fajardo Pozo’s February 6, 2007 statement:
“According to Reyes Villa, the people that are now in the government have been sowing slander for years, splashing his credibility with absurdities and recurrent accusations demonstrating that he had been a de-facto part of past regimes but without ever having the serious intention of supporting such affirmations with any objective proof.”
In a way Fajardo Pozo is right, because the “proof” that the spokesman asks for to incriminate his boss is not always within the government’s reach. It is difficult to prove that Manfred Reyes Villa participated in de-facto regimes, because complete written records were not kept. So we can only point out some memorable points in his military career: - In the public database containing the names of enrolled students at the infamous School of the Americas (SOA), a counterinsurgency training camp for Latin American oppressors, our dear ex-Captain appears as a cadet who took a course at this military institution (Combat Arms Basic C-2) from February 20 through April 23, 1976.
- Sorry, this writer forgot to mention that cadet Reyes Villa was 21 years old when he returned from his SOA classes in Panama, where the School used to be located. Born on April 19, 1955 the current Governor had the dubious privilege of studying at the SOA as a young man during the Hugo Banzar Suarez dictatorship. Does that have something to do with the fact that his father was part of the Army’s high command at the time? Hard to say…
- Now that we’re back to Manfred’s dad, we also forgot to mention that General Armando Reyes Villa was the Chief of the Armed Forces during the democratic government of Lydia Gueiler and that, from that position, he participated in Garcia Meza’s coup against the then-President. The ex-dictator himself recalls that it was General Reyes Villa who presented Gueiler with a resignation letter that she ought to sign (according to Tomás Molina Céspedes’ book of interviews, Testimonials of a Dictator).
- Agreeing with the ex-dictator’s version, ex-President Gueiler recounts her experience with Reyes Villa as traitor in Alfonso Crespo’s biography: “Reyes Villa always showed me absolute faithfulness and I never imagined that it would end with an act of betrayal.” ( Lydia: A Woman in History. pg. 178).
- Manfred Reyes Villa’s father’s reward for being a traitor to democracy was to named Minister of Defense in Luis García Mesa’s first cabinet. Does this link the ex-Capitan, current Governor to the dictator beyond the fact that his father was his boss? Hard to say. Maybe the photograph mentioned earlier was just an accident. Maybe the young military officer with a moustache had just gone to visit daddy at the palace when he was taken by surprise by a photo catching him de-facto walking behind the president. Hard to say.
More: http://www.ubnoticias.org/en/article/portrait-of-a-recycled-military-officerhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/44285000/jpg/_44285374_071206bolivia03.jpg http://www.nacion.com.nyud.net:8090/ln_ee/2007/diciembre/11/_Img/1828135_0.jpg
Manfred Reyes Villa ~~~~~~~~~~This Cochabamba governor is discussed in reference to Bush's recalled "ambassador," Philip Goldberg: From Pristina to La Paz: Expelled US Ambassador to Bolivia had been in charge of Kosovo Secession
The Balkanisation of Bolivia
by Wilson García Mérida
George Bush sent to Bolivia his Ambassador of Ethnic Cleansing {original title translated from the Spanish}
He presented his credentials before President Evo Morales on October 13, 2006; but three months before his arrival in Bolivia, when he was still in Pristina fulfilling his role as head of the US mission in Kosovo, it was already being said that the new US ambassador designated by George Bush for this Andean country, Philip Goldberg, would come to take part in the separatist process that was being cultivated in the background to pierce the Bolivian regime.
On July 13, 2006, the journalist for El Deber of Santa Cruz, Leopoldo Vegas, published a report indicating that "in the view of three political scientists interviewed after learning about the White House's decision, the experience acquired by Goldberg in eastern Europe which produced ethnic conflict after the separation of the former Yugoslavia can be used in Bolivia, using as an opportunity the changes that the government itself is trying to introduce."
One of those interviewed by Vegas was the academic Róger Tuero, former head of the Political Science department at Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Uagrm) in Santa Cruz, who stated that characteristics of each ambassador are determined by US diplomacy. "It's not by chance that this man was moved from Kosovo to Bolivia," said Tuero.
Ambassador Goldberg today is one of the principal political and logistical supporters of still-Governor of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa, who created the worst ethnic, social, regional, and institutional crisis one can remember in the history of the Republic of Bolivia. More: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10187 |
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