El Gaviero

I’ve just been, rather belatedly, introduced to the writings of Nicholas Kozloff, a frequent contributor to the excellent Counterpunch political newsletter. Earlier this month Kozloff wrote about the connections of the Chiquita fruit company (né United Fruit) and the current political situation in Honduras. But digging deeper into his writings I came across a gem [...]

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The Indigenous Confederation of the Chaco, East, and Bolivian Amazon (CIDOP) has complained to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations that Luis Nuñez, president of the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee (the main  opposition business group), is claiming to represent the indigenous through his “Human Rights Council.” CIDOP alleges that Nuñez is engaging in an [...]

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About that 10-day ultimatum for the Brazilian embassy to throw out the rightful Honduran president, Mel Zelaya:
“Brazil will not comply with an ultimatum from a government of coup mongers,” Lula told reporters at a summit in Venezuela, adding that international law ensures the sovereignty of its embassy in Tegucigalpa. (Reuters)
So there!

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Evo Morales is set to easily win re-election this December for the presidency of Bolivia. IKN crunched the numbers and broke out Morales’s polling numbers in key constituencies. No surprise that Morales has a commanding 84 percent approval rating in the La Paz/El Alto area, his stronghold. Nor is it surprising that Morales has a [...]

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… and provoking international crises.
From the AP:
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras’ interim government on Sunday expelled personnel from the Organization of American States looking to set up a mediation effort and gave Brazil a 10-day ultimatum to decide what to do with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy.
And attempting to [...]

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Re Zelaya holing up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa:
It is an interesting sign that Lula (Brazil’s president) was willing to make this move. Had, say, the Venezuelans (or Nicaraguans, Ecuadorans, Bolivians, or, really, almost anyone else) done it, it would have been seen as a provocation that would have unleashed a torrent of [...]

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I heard this on the radio yesterday, as I was hallucinating fever dreams during what seems to have been a bout of the swine flu: Zelaya has returned to Honduras and is taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy. What is the next step? Will Micheletti try to arrest him, as he has been vowing to [...]

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This blog has been neglected for the past week and a half or so; we occasionally get work here at Gaviero headquarters and have to concentrate on other things! Apologies to all.
We’ll be playing catch-up for while, posting what we can here, and reading up elsewhere. Here are some tidbits:

IKN notes the ludicrousness of the [...]

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World War 4 Report has a great piece on buses in Peru, and the study in contrasts between the cramped, lower-end routes and tourist-bus juggernauts. There’s even a bit of political resistance, a la playing video of police abuse while being abused by the police. It’s a fun, quick read.
(H/T to the IKN network.)

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The Democracy Center’s Blog from Bolivia has an analysis of the upcoming December presidential election in Bolivia, and raises some good points, among them why the fractured opposition to Morales will doom the anti-MAS crowd to failure:
There are many reasons why opponents of Morales would wish to have a unified campaign against him in the [...]

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