New president and more dumb accusations

Today in Honduras the new elected president ‘Pepe’ Lobo has started his duties as president, swore in front of the congress and all that monkey business, meaning that from today forth, the “De facto” regime of Michelleti is finally over. But Michelleti and the top core of the Honduras military was far from being fingered as the “evil” of the country, au contraire, Michelleti was named by the congress as a “deputy for life” for his “great work in favor of his country” and Romeo Vasquez, Honduras’ military chief of  staff and all the other military high commands were subject of a “trail” (although it was more of a show than a trial) and were found innocent and in full righteousness when they decided to act against the former president Zelaya. Lobo has given Zelaya a “pass” that will give him the chance to leave the country legally to Dominican Republic as a “distinguished guest” instead of an exile, as Micheletti first approach tried to offer. All this means that Honduras seem to finally move on and forget all this drama.

On other news we have another charade. In both December and January Venezuela accused Colombia of spying them with planes. First they said that in December a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), or a plane with no pilot, flew over an army base, AT NIGHT, for over 20 minutes. They said that the soldiers SAW the plane and could guarantee it was unmanned AND was Colombian, despite the pitch black night. After such crazy accusations on January Venezuela tried again saying that this time it was a normal plane with the Colombian flag printed on its tail. They said that they requested several times for it to desist and stop invading Venezuela air space and was not shot down in order to “avoid” a crisis. Now let us understand one thing, the air space of each country is like their soil or even more important. When a unidentified air craft is caught trespassing some countries air space, such country has the right to shoot it down, no questions asked. I am not saying that if the aircraft flies by mistake over a country that gives the country the right to shoot it immediately, they must try and establish communication to decide  if it was all a mistake or if in fact it’s a spy, and once that is done, they CAN shoot it down and who ever was the handler of the craft will have to answer to the purpose of the mission.

So in the end, if they find an aircraft that is “casually” flying over a military base for over 20 minutes and even after trying to contact them by radio they don’t desist, then for Christ sake, shoot it down! AND then with the proof start pointing fingers and accusing other, not just with the pretext of “I saw it” as kids do when they swear on their lives they saw Big Foot.

All this stupidity was nothing new coming from the same simian cretins that accuses the US, with no proof whatsoever, of being responsible of causing the earthquake that destroyed Haiti with “new tech weapons”. What is a surprise is that Colombia do the same exact demented and imbecile accusations with no proof as Venezuela did. They are now saying that a heli, a Huey to be more precise, flew over a military base for over 20 minutes and was not shot down to avoid a crisis. Crisis my ass! Leave the lame excuses to kids and dumb people, but don’t go accusing others with no proof. We need to be completely disassociated with the idiotic neighbours in Venezuela, we must always show them and the world that we are different, that we DO have brains and don’t bully others just because. It really grind my gears to be compared to these people and their methods!

As a final note I just wanted to write about the OTHER insult Chavez made. I mean you can trash talk about Bolivar, after all he was Venezuelan, so use him and his legacy, prostitute him as you please for your demented goals and monkey revolution, but the worse insult is to use other figures to achieve his means . The psychotic deluded pseudo revolutionary idiot of Chavez, dare to use a Colombian citizen catch phrase, one that went into history books, a true “mass leader’s” words. Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was a Colombian popular leader who was fighting for the “people’s” rights. Was such a threat to the white collars that he was murdered, and his catch phrase was “I am not a man, I am its people and the people is greater than their leaders”. I hope he does not twist and turn in his grave knowing that his ideas and words are now being used by this maniac in pro of some reactionary goal.

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán

On hiatus

To my few readers, thank you millions for reading everyday. For the time being, meaning Christmas time I will be going on a hiatus and hopefully return on January.

Please leave any comments if you miss me (lol)

The MCB and Zelaya

First and forth most we have a new “democratic” party formed in our neighbour country Venezuela, the “Movimiento Continental Bolivariano” (Bolivian Continental Movement) or MCB from now on to make it short. It is a movement that claims will fight for freedom, the memory and struggle of Simon Bolivar (South American most renowned freedom fighter), fight against the “evil claws” of the empire as they call it (meaning US) and spread their social and political views and some other big pile of bull’s dung.

Yesterday they made a conference not only to inform the party’s creation but also to incite the people to “fight” against the empire, to tell the world that they will help, backup and support insurgent groups like the guerrilla FARC in Colombia. Their representative Yul Jabour requested Alfonso Cano, the actual FARC leader, to become the leader of the new MCB party (Cano afterwards sent a video accepting such duty). Jabour also “honoured” the memory of Luis Édgar Devia AKA ‘Raul Reyes’ (a former ringleader of FARC), who was killed during the Colombian commando operation ‘Jaque’ (Check in chess vocabulary) and Manuel Marulanda AKA ‘Tiro Fijo’ (Former leader of FARC) who died of natural causes.

Ok so that is that, we have a parade of clowns that are arguing that they will fight against the US and name them, just like Chavez, as the evil empire (Shit is like watching a Star Wars movie), and have openly declared they will support a guerrilla faction. It seems they forget who the evil doers are, they have their own name and that is clearly FARC! This insurgent group has an unknown agenda; they claim to fight for the people of Colombia and against the “aristocrats” of the country for equal rights. So they say, but they use drug dealing to sustain their war, they kidnap, they murder and massacre innocent people, blow out town, force children underage to join and kill (like in Somalia and Congo) and so many other atrocities. Their acts are so terrible that Europe, US, ONU, OEA and God knows what other countries and groups have declared them as a terrorist group. It is so outrageous that these cretins go public announcing and clearly feeling proud to support such a group and ask their leader to be their leader in their circus act called MCB that will try to begin a freak show under the political lights.

Now for my well being, to slow down my blood pressure that is now rising just writing about this miserable sewer vermin I will now declare that I was wrong. In a post that I wrote couple of days ago I said that the only way that Manuel ‘Jones’ Zelaya would ever leave the Brazilian embassy was either with handcuffs, rescued by a Venezuelan commando unit or in a body bag. Today I was proven wrong.

The Mexico government has shown pity for the former (and humiliated) president of Honduras and will arrange a plain that will take him to Mexico where he will then seek exile somewhere else (Venezuela or Brazil I am guessing). It seems he has applied or already owns a permit or a safe conduct that will allow him to leave the country. Now the how or who gave him such luxury, I have no idea.

Either the country is in such a hurry to get their act together that they are willing to ‘ignore’ the fact that he is a criminal, that has to face trial, just to get rid of him and his persona that represent a black omen for Honduras, or some obscure treaty has been signed. The fact is that his humiliation is now complete (Like the ‘circle’ when Obi Wan confronted Darth Vader), in a tacit way he has declared that he lost in every possible way and now, with his tail between his legs like a stray dog, has to flee the country. Either way, in a very street slang way of saying it, “he got served”

The beginning of the end for 2009

As far as I am concerned, real Christmas season starts on the 8th and we can all start saying “Merry Christmas to you” on the 14^th. Why? I don’t know, I just see it fit. The 8th is a good date to think that everything is turning “Christmassy” but yet too early to start “spreading the joy” and the 14th is not too late to end up the smiles previous to the goodbye with the joyous wishes.

Many things have changed this year and I hope to make a list near the end of the year, for now I just say that at least the world economical recession seems that is coming to an end.

For now the most important conference around the world is the Global Climate change conference in Copenhagen. It is hard to give any real estimates, but I am not entirely into the “we are causing a massive change in global temperature”, I mean I do agree it is changing, but how much is it due to normal earthly changes that occur over the years and how much is human doing? Hard to say, but seems for some it is easy, we are totally responsible and the game plan is to scare the shit out of everyone in order to change our “ways”. I guess for humans to really understand something is either with blood and tears or with true horror, so it is a good approach, we do need to change and care for our planet because no matter how small or big our meddling with mother earth is, it is our fault in the end and should be responsible about it. I am all for going green, saving energy and water, using the most economical car there is and if I can change it into a hybrid car with gas or water or whatever, well bring it on!

Things must transcend from words into actions, that is true wisdom and may God grant us all the wisdom we can afford.

Old dogs can’t learn new tricks?

With the finality to help end the internal conflict in Colombia, few years back the government started a plan to “demobilize” the insurgent forces at large. This means that the state has assured the members of the different outlaw forces that if they, voluntarily, surrender their weapons and leave the armed conflict they will be pardoned completely, they will be even protected by the army and police against any people with grudges. At first many demobilized guerrilla members had trouble getting back into society, just like ex-cons all around the world. If it is hard to find employment for a normal citizen, you can imagine how it is with people who broke the law with violence. That is why the government went as far as starting programs to “reinsert” the demobilized, finding them jobs or helping them out to finance their own business. All these programs were meant not only to help the new “reformed” citizens but to incite others to demobilize as well.

I truly understand how difficult and tedious can it be for a person to find a job in this country with the current economy events around the glove (that are finally starting to change for good), after all I am an unemployed myself, but without all the hindrance that an ex-outlaw has, and yet I have been without a job for over 9 months now. Things can get crazy; you have bills to pay and just waking up every morning and “breathing” costs money but the trick is never to desist, there is always a way.

This is what 3 demobilized FARC members didn’t understand, and what so many other “reformed” citizens miss. They think that they don’t have any other choice, that they don’t have any skill other that violence and delinquency and hence end up in the wrong path again. The 3 demobilized I mention are Alejandro Palacio Rengifo, AKA The cat, Edilberto Berrío Ortiz and Anderson Chamapuro Dogirama, ‘The Tiger’ that kidnapped a Cuban-American for ransom.

These men just ruin it for the guys that really want to leave the shooting and the violence behind because acts like these, the kidnapping and burglary that is common in other examples, create in the rest of the people a strong prejudice and increase discrimination against demobilized, not to mention the indirect proposal to recur in violence and criminal acts to find a way out of the hole to others like them.

When criminals, usually burglars, are questioned on the reasons for them to commit the crimes, the usual response is “I had no other way, I was desperate”. I say: ‘those responses are nothing more than excuses’, and lame ones for that matter. Many people in the same situation prefer to do whatever it takes to earn an honest living, then why can’t they do it?

Let it snow

It is Friday and December is here with (at least for some) the white snow and Christmas carols so I dedicate this great song from Dean Martin to all (or few) my readers.

And because there is no where to go, just let it snow

Zelaya and Afghanistan

Yesterday the 2nd of December, the congress in Honduras had the meeting that so many people around the globe were anxious to hear. This meeting’s goal was to decide if Manuel Zelaya was going to be reinstituted into presidential duties or not.

There was no surprise whatsoever when both the meeting and decision, which was being broadcast, reached the verdict that it is impossible to grant Zelaya his restitution due to his law infractions that lead to the coupe back in June. In theory he is an outlaw and cannot leave the Brazilian embassy or he will be arrested for the charges of abuse of power and treason to the nation, just to name a few. Again as I said, no surprise there, the congress was the one that arranged the coupe along with the national army and the congress was the one that appointed Micheletti as the de facto president so it would have been rather odd that they would just show a change of heart during this meeting. But we have to consider as well that such a meeting was agreed upon by both sides of the conflict (Zelaya and Micheletti) as the 5th article of the Tegucigalpa-San Jose agreement stated: Zelaya will be reinstituted back to power only if the congress after an extraordinary meeting decides so. So in the end Zelaya was the one that dug his own grave after signing that agreement and, I repeat myself by saying that he and his followers clearly showed how naive or dense they were by agreeing. As far as my opinion goes, there is nothing else that can be done in Honduras but to accept that Zelaya committed a crime (that was clearly not well handled and instead of doing a legal suit against him he was overthrown by force) and a new democratic president has been elected despite all the fuss and there is no chance for Zelaya to regain power. He has to face the idea that the only way he will ever leave the Brazilian embassy is with handcuffs, pulled out by a Venezuelan commando operation or in a body bag. So sad for Manuel “Indiana” Zelaya (noticed the hat? He is just missing the damn whip) that things turned out this way, but it was he who betrayed himself by signing the agreement, what a dumb sheep.

And now I will try not to extend myself too much in something that clearly I have no right to nag about: the decision of president Obama to send 30.000 more troops to Afghanistan. Many people claim that such a decision from a Nobel Peace prize winner is an outrage, that he has become a war president and that is just dumb to keep on risking the young American soldiers’ lives and the countries economy in a war that has nothing to do with the Americans nor has been asked by the Afghans. It is also said by many that nothing good comes out of a war that has extended for 7 years with no real results and claimed the life of so many soldiers.

Now I will act, I guess, as the devil’s advocate here, because I am not a US politician nor a citizen and in theory have no right in even making a opinion but I don’t really care. I will take my opinion on the “what can be seen” basis, meaning I will try not to fall into any conspiracy theory or any assumptions, I will try to stick to the facts.

In 9/11 the US was directly attacked, the responsibility after investigations was proven to be Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda that had their base of operations in Afghanistan. A war against terror was declared by President Bush and therefore a preventive war was made against Iraq who was accused of having WMD and declared an enemy of the state (ironically no weapons were found) , so the US ended up with 2 wars. The new elected president Obama promised he would focus on the important conflict (Afghanistan) and end the Iraq occupation, which he did. This year he removed the troops, an action that gave even more reasons to the Nobel committee that decided to award him with the Nobel Peace Prize.

Now not only the generals appointed to Afghanistan but also other members of NATO say that more troops will be needed in order to finish with the remaining Al Qaeda members that are hiding in the Afghan mountains. Finally, here is where my comments come:

The war was not initiated by the current president but his former equal. Bush didn’t (in theory) forced the war to start, it was a circumstantial act of terrorism that made th US retaliate, just like Pearl Harbour. When a war has ended, the troops have been called back, it happened back in WWII with Germany and Japan and the same happened this year with Iraq. Afghanistan is still to be finished and the US is not the only one in there, nor the only one that have suffered casualties. Both Clinton and Obama have insisted the Pakistani government that they are not doing their share in the conflict and that insurgents are hiding in their country and for being more active after the US insistence, they have been the target of bombs and other terrorist attacks that have killed many innocent.

With this said, if the US would instead of sending more troops, decided in just withdrawing from Afghanistan, that decision would severely damage not only their credibility but the friendship and future assistance by the NATO and other allies (like Pakistan for one), it would be another failure like Vietnam that is counted as a loss for withdrawing forces before reaching the goal and not to mention that if you have just cut the tail of the big lizard called Al Qaeda but not severed his head, the tail will grow back and it will be anxious to retaliate, what will happen if the US is again terrorized by the same group that killed over 2000 americans back in 9/11?

I admit that the US government is sending more troops to save face to the allies and half of the country, but I say it is more important to finish what they started, that lizard (Al Qaeda) is going to be even madder now that has been messed with. Besides, call me a monster for thinking of human lives as data and numbers, but it is true that in the Iraq war that lasted 7 years there were 4685 casualties* and in the Afghan war that has been going for 9 years and still goes on there has been 1533 casualties*, that is even less than half of Iraq body count. A war that I would say, was frankly less of a thread than Afghanistan is or ever was.

As a final though, this is what a person who lost his wife during 9/11 say about Afghanistan and Obama’s decision: “I just ask every person out there if it was your wife who went to work one day and never came home,” he said, “would you do anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”**

PS. And with all these problems that the US faces, do you really think they have an agenda with South America or even give a dime for Venezuela? Get real Chavez!

* Extracted from Icasualties

** Extracted from CNN

Victim of his own idea

Nearly a year back in the 14th of December of 2008, Muntazer Al Zaidi an iraqi journalist during a press conference in which the ex-president Geroge Bush was the spokesman, Zaidi threw a shoe while saying “this is for all the widows, the dead children and all the deaths in Iraq thanks to you”.

He was immediately ceased by the secret service and after being carried out of the room he got beat up pretty badly; when confronted with the judge that was about to charge him for aggression and even a count of attempt to harm a foreign president, with his face all bloody, he admitted he was not sorry or even regretful for the shoe attack because it was a demonstration of all his beliefs and hatred for Bush. He was suppose to serve some years in prison but was released 9 months after the incident and was nearly cataloged as a hero in Iraq.

All this seems just a matter of appreciation points in the matter but now the same Muntazer Al Zaidi was giving a press conference in Paris when a fellow iraqi journalist, this time a pro-american Iraqi who was forced out of his country for his support to the invasion and the american troops occupation thought that Zaidi’s resentment was not well based and was hushed pretty violently by Zaidi’s brother that were in the conference. After a few minutes the journalist stood up and as a method of protest used the same tool and plan as Muntazer Al Zaidi, he removed his show and threw it against Zaidi. For the fortune of the journalist he wasn’t beaten as badly as Munstazer, but he served the same dish as Zaidi did back in 2008 to Bush.

I just laugh at the irony of it all, in a way it was a very poor way to imitate the already “hero of Iraq” but still made the point valid, throw a shoe in the name of the opposition, you can even see him smirk afterwards while living the precinct.

Shootout ‘Cosa nostra’ style

Last Sunday in Cali, my city located in the south-west in Colombia, in the downtown and principal cemetery a big shootout, old mafia style, occurred.

I am talking it went down like it would have been done in a Godfather movie, I can just imagine as the mobsters dressed with trench coats and with big tommy guns start shooting hundred of bullets, but that is just Hollywood (I am guessing). In a summary what is known is that a family was gathered at the cemetery giving their last goodbyes to the family matron when 5 armed assassins appeared from different points and began shooting with what people described as automatic rifles. They instantly killed 6 members of the family including a 6-year-old kid, one of the deceased grandchildren. From the assassins 2 were killed during the shootout, one gunned down by the police and the other one was lynch to death by a mob of civilians (Like when whores were stoned to death Bible style). The other 3 are still at large and a ransom of $25 grand (holly crap, even more than the ransom offered for the murder of 4 cops in US) has been set for any information that can lead to the capture of the criminals.

Ok so a lot of people were saying “Oh my God, the city is so insecure that now a humble family can’t go to mourn in peace” and I say to that “stuff like that only happens when you have a debt to pay”. Up until now the news is that 2 members of the family were involved in mafia (or drug dealing) business and well, you don’t have to be a mind reader to predict that they either broke a mafia law (like rob from the boss) or was a rival group trying to get rid of the targets. I bet that if a orginized mafia, like the Italian, back in the days (or nowadays?) was the one involved in this shootout, it would have been done in a more cleaner fashion, I mean if they wanted just to kill the 2 members of the family that were in funny business a well-coordinated sniper job could have done the trick and if they wanted to teach a lesson or punish by eliminating the whole family they could have used C4, the conclusion is, a very messy job were 2 hitmen were killed, no masks were used, they left half of the family and one of the 2 targets alive meaning they didn’t complete the job whatever it was.

I am talking way above my head now but the “hitmen” in this action are by all means better suited to carry the name “sicarios” that is the word in Colombian spanish for the “profession” and the way I see it is a derrogative denomination of a hitman. I see it this way: a hitman is a pro that knows his job, knows of weapons and improvisation and by being pros they don’t let any loose ends and makes a clean job, meaning no back tracing the murder back to him or his employers and virtually acting and being a ghost (like the Jackal in that old Bruce Willis movie) while the ’sicario’ is the dude in a bike that does a bad timed drive-by “gansgta’ style” that is completely rookie and that attracts too much attention.

The winners and the sore losers

During this weekend we had the chance to see in action two winners, 2 sore losers and a good willed loser.

Firstly in Honduras, our first winner, Porfirio Lobo, presidential candidate that won elections with a tad more than 55% of votes in favour. I for one, was not font of this fellow to be the new president of Honduras, I thought the candidate Elvin Santos was better suited for the task, but unfortunately for him, his party was the same Liberal party that Zelaya was part of in his political career and who left too ma ny people yearning for a change and that change was Lobo. He will begin presidential duties on January if everything goes according to plan.

In Honduras as well, we have our first sore loser. I would guess many would think “Surely he will be speaking of Elvin Santos who lost against Lobo” but I am not. The loser I am talking about is the former president Zelaya, who said over and over that the people of Honduras was with him and to prove that fact he called for a major abstinence from the voting process, showing this way that what the people wanted was for him to regain power. Today the complete opposite was shown, a great majority of people who moved, since early hours in the morning, to vote, as many said “Hoping that by doing this the situation of the country will finally change”.  According to the international observers, that were more than 50, concluded that the process was clean and untempered. With this statement, the people have proclaimed that, despite the few Zelaya sympathisers who were trying to avoid people from voting and tried marching, the majority showed that they want a new president despite what happened with the coup. Now facing the truth and reality of the situation, understanding that he is defeated and now will surely have to face legal charges against him for treason and maybe some jail time, he has announce that he still thinks the process was bogus and illegitimate and that nothing will change until new elections are done and therefore refuses to accept the restitution on December 2nd (If the congress approves it) because that would be accepting that the voting process was legit. I think he should accept defeat, surrender to authorities and hope that his country gets back on track.

In another Latin American country we find our next winner, ‘Pepe’ Mujica the 74(?) year-old socialist, former guerrila member of the “Tupamaros” and who was incarcerated in the 70’s proved that his past is no handicap for him and has been declared winner and new president of Uruguay and who will begin duties on April. I was not very font of this candidate either thanks to his socialist tendencies and his closeness to Chavez, meaning (maybe) that Uruguay will be added as another lackey helping the near completion of Chavez’s revolution goal that is no other than to “unify” (or rule?) latin america.

In Uruguay we have the good willed loser, Luis Alberto Lacalle opposition candidate to Mujica, who accepted defeat with a speech that basically said “Thank you to those who showed support but now we must all remember that there is not one party or the other but one flag, one Uruguay and we shall follow the new president into the future”. Good speech I may say, he showed what democracy is all about, former rivals and now both citizens of the same country.

And finally our last sore loser is found in Iran. Now I would dare to say the loser itself is no other than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but seems he has a lot of followers in the cabinet (as if that would be a shocking discovery) who have agreed in a new project of building 10 more uranium enrichment plants, despite all the controversy that just one has made. “The move comes two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, passed a resolution demanding that Iran stop construction on a previously secret nuclear facility at Qom. The agency also repeated calls for Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program*”. Many countries have shown a lot of preoccupation towards the original plant and amazement and shock with the new project of 10 more, countries that now include even the former allies of Iran: Russia and China. They are asking the world to cut them off in every way and start suffering as North Korea did (Or does?) thanks to the economical barriers. I guess that is why Iran is looking for new allies like Venezuela. Now the middle eats country insists that they have the right to produce the Uranium for energy purposes, but if this were true, they would not have any problem in letting other countries (that have offered many times over) to enrich the uranium for them, showing good faith in their goals. So, after being claimed by nearly everyone, officially, to stop their nuclear program and accept defeat in their crazy scheme they have done the opposite, they have not only ignore the claim, but now is proclaiming they will go even further. I am telling you people, Ahmadinejad is pushing the country against a blockade or even a preventive invasion.

* Extracted from CNN

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad