Jorge Capelán, RLP, TcS.
The governments of the United States and Sweden are conniving
directly with an extreme-right wing network in Latin America in a move
to sabotage the summit meeting in Santiago de Chile of Heads of State
from the European Union (EU) and the Community of Latin American and
Caribbean States (CELAC). To do so they are working with the CIA and the
most reactionary elements of the anti-Cuban mafia in Miami.
This
week the Chilean Crónica Digital news outlet reported that the Swedish
embassy in Santiago and the extreme-right wing Centre for Openness and
Development in Latin America (CADAL), an Argentine think tank, with the
help, needless to say, of the US embassy, prepared for January 24th ,
two days before the summit begins, an event called “Promoting
International Democratic Solidarity” with the main objective of
attacking the Cuban Revolution and Cuba's President Raul Castro.
The
fundamental objectives of this event seem to be to create a problem for
Chilean President Sebastian Piñera while trying to skew the summit
climate away from any serious discussion between a European Union beset
by very serious crises of all kinds and a Latin America more and more
united and independent.
The active participation in this move of
Sweden, a country increasingly regarded as a slavish follower of the
United States, probably seeks to put pressure on those members of the
European Union more readily open to taking the summit seriously.
However, the latest condemnation in Venezuela of plans to assassinate
Vice-President Nicolás Maduro and the President of Venezuela's National
Assembly Diosdado Cabello indicate that even more sinister motives may
lie behind the organization of the CADAL event.
According to the report in Crónica Digital, the organizers of CADAL's meeting of continental reactionaries are
- Lawrence Corwin, regarded by the Cuban authorities as a US CIA official who was stationed in Cuba between 1998 and 2001;
-
the Swedish diplomat Anders Ingemar Cederberg, who dedicated himself
full time during his period in Havana to interfering in Cuba's affairs
to the point that the Cuban authorities made formal protests to the
Swedish government;
- Mijail Bonito Lovio, Secretary for International Relations of a body called Independent and Democratic Cuba (CID);
- CADAL's Program Coordinator, Micaela Hierro Dori;
- and, finally, 18 politicians of the extreme-right wing American Parliamentary Democratic Alliance (APDA).
CADAL
is an extreme-right wing network, based in Buenos Aires, from where it
works to carry out an intensive program of propaganda and political
pressure against the countries of the Bolivarian Alliance of the
Americas, led by Cuba and Venezuela.
Formed on February 27th 2003
in Buenos Aires, CADAL has counted among its members very well known
personalities and ideologues of the Latin American right wing with roots
in the fascist dictatorships that submerged the Southern Cone in
desolation during the 1970s. One notes the presence, for example, of
Danilo Arbilla, former Press Secretary of the Uruguayan dictatorship
(and also ex President of the Inter-American Press Society); Hugo
Martini, former editor of the Carta Política magazine, the ideological
organ of the Argentine dictatorship and also of General Pinochet's
former Labour Minister José Piñera, whose brother Sebastián is today the
Chilean President.
One might add to that list many other names
that would make this article far too long to read, but it is worth
mentioning too the mastermind of the plan to provoke the ethnic break-up
of Bolivia, Mark Falcoff, a member of the US Council for Foreign
Relations who has served as an expert adviser in seminars organized by
CADAL. A couple of other names also should not go unmentioned, the
Venezuelan right wing ex-presidential candidate José Manuel Rosales,
his Bolivian soul-mate Jorge ”Tuto” Quiroga and the reliable Swiss army
knife of right-wing provocateurs in Latin America, the Cuban Carlos
Alberto Montaner.
CADAL has relations with all the most
recalcitrant right wing extremist organizations in Latin America but of
special interest have been its contacts with the Directorio Democrático
Cubano and individuals like Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, and the ex-head
of the US immigration service Emilio Gutiérrez, a tireless protector of
super-terrorist Luis Posada-Carriles.
Of particular interest is
this network's relationship with Sweden. In February 2011, CADAL awarded
Swedish diplomat Anders Ingemar Cederberg the Prize for Committed
Democracy for services rendered in Cuba. In April of that same year,
CADAL brought him to Argentina to make a private report of his
destabilization activities while representing Sweden in Havana. CADAL
published a book based on that exchange, funded by the Konrad Adenauer
Foundation in which Cederberg relates with complete lack of inhibition
his “heroic” exploits as a spy with diplomatic immunity in Cuba.
However,
the love affair between CADAL and Sweden dates back much further than
Cederberg, since one of CADAL's first funders was the think tank of the
Swedish employers' organization Timbro. Furthermore, Swedish right wing
activist, former Chilean Mauricio Rojas has been one of the most loyal
advisers to CADAL over the years from his position on the organization's
“Scientific Council”.
Despite the reputation of Olof Palme, the
kingdom of Sweden has a very poor image in Nicaragua thanks to the
notorious behaviour of Sweden's last ambassador there, Eva Zetterberg,
now Sweden's representative in Chile. From supposedly progressive
concerns, Eva Zetterberg routinely intervened in the country's political
affairs as if she were simply one more politician of the centre-right
opposition Sandinista Renewal Movement. An idea of her unreconstructed
colonial attitudes, which she shares with many of her European Union
colleagues, can be gleaned from a remark that she made once in an
interview with Tortilla con Sal prior to the 2006 Presidential
elections.
She remarked that, in her opinion, the IMF and the
World Bank have to intervene in Nicaragua because Nicaraguans are
incapable of managing their own affairs. For years, this inexorable
drift in Eva Zetterberg's ideological career has been very clear. After
Managua, it took just four months for her to be assigned to the
attractive post of Sweden's ambassador to Santiago de Chile.
Now,
Eva Zetterberg and her colleagues have set to work completely
unreservedly, helping grease and shift the gears of the psychological
warfare machinery assembled over decades by the CIA and the Latin
American right wing. Zetterberg has had a disappointingly predictable
career. From being an ardent supporter of armed struggle in the 1970s,
she lapsed into eurocommunism in the 1980s, advocated non-governmental
activity in the 1990s and now languishes in the fetid ponds of the
corrupt, global right wing.
CADAL's attempt in Santiago to
sabotage the EU-CELAC summit will flop. With the peoples of Latin
America now wide awake, the relentless historical flow that has broken
open Cuba's isolation is far too strong to be stopped. To the
frustration and dismay of the US and Swedish governments and their right
wing regional allies, those currents are carrying Latin America towards
its definitive independence.
fredag 25 januari 2013
lördag 12 januari 2013
Nicaragua: 2013 - moral continuity, national renewal
toni solo y Jorge Capelán, January 10th 2013
Heading into 2013, it is natural to look back over the previous year, to try and summarize the important events and trends relevant for the immediate future. Most local journalists and writers reflecting on 2012 focused on secondary economic and political events that all turn around two transcendental events that passed completely unmentioned. Many other lesser events of note either went unremarked or received only the most cursory notice.
The first event of transcendental importance in 2012 was the inauguration in January of President Daniel Ortega for a consecutive period of office. The inauguration was the fruit of an overwhelming Sandinista electoral victory in the 2011 Presidential and legislative elections. It symbolized continuity for another 5 years of policies prioritizing the social and economic rights of the impoverished majority and a comprehensive program of renewal in all spheres of national activity.
In the regional context, the presence at the inauguration of international guests like Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the right-wing presidents of Guatemala and Haiti signalled continuity also in Nicaragua's foreign policy. Venezuela is Nicaragua's most important regional ally. Iran's presence signalled the independent South-South aspect of Nicaraguan and Venezuelan foreign relations and those of their ALBA allies, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador. While the presence of right-wing regional leaders indicated the determination of Nicaragua and Venezuela to set aside ideological differences in the search for regional unity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
All of those clear signs present in that January 2012 inauguration were confirmed by subsequent events. Nicaragua and Venezuela have supported Iran's position on its right to develop nuclear power and on NATO's proxy terrorist assault on the people of Syria. Nicaragua and Venezuela and the other ALBA countries have demonstrated unquestionable solidarity with both Guatemala and Haiti, assisting those countries, among other areas of cooperation, to cope with the effects of catastrophic natural disasters. Guatemala and Nicaragua cooperate closely in the Central American Integration System (SICA).
Almost everything that happened on the economic and political scene in Nicaragua derived from the political continuity made possible by that historically important inauguration in January 2012. The government promoted uncompromising legislation to achieve gender equality such as the law 779 against violence against women and the law stipulating that 50% of all candidates for public office have to be women. Those and similar legislative advances along with the widely acknowledged success of the government's economic policies lead to the comprehensive victory in the municipal elections in November 2012. Sandinista candidates won 134 of the country's 153 municipalities.
The extraordinary political and economic success of the Sandinista government under President Daniel Ortega in 2012 prefigures both the consolidation and the extension of existing policies through 2013. The same is true of Nicaraguan foreign policy. President Ortega's government insists on its determination to maintain cordial relations with governments of all political shades, regardless of ideology. The initial shock and consternation caused by the need for a life threatening operation on President Hugo Chávez, has given way to a huge wave of solidarity that has bound all the ALBA countries closer together in their determination to complete the definitive second independence of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The second event of transcendental importance in 2012 in Nicaragua, whose significance will endure far beyond the coming months of 2013, was the death of Comandante Tomas Borge at the age of 82. Tomás Borge was the last surviving founder of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. He lived to witness not just the return of the FSLN to government in the 21st century but also to see President Daniel Ortega continue into a consecutive term of office. Comandante Borge symbolizes the deep continuity between the founding generation of the FSLN, the sacrifices of its heroes and martyrs, and succeeding generations.
Tomás Borge remains an abiding Latin American archetype of ideological and political self-sacrifice, discipline and determination, of unswerving loyalty to the revolutionary cause. But beyond that revolutionary mystique, his combination of genuine humility and abundant talent set him very much apart in the affections of people throughout Nicaragua, even among former enemies, as was clear from the posthumous tributes paid to him in the National Assembly. For younger colleagues and for the developing generation of Sandinista youth Tomás Borge is an enduring and highly cohesive moral and political figure binding the historic struggles of the 20th Century to the very different challenges of the 21st.
One more event of transcendent importance came at the end of 2012 which also originated in the revolutionary triumph of 1979. In 1980, the then Government of National Reconstruction declared null the 1930 treaty ceding Nicaragua's territorial rights over the Caribbean island of San Andres to Colombia. From 1980 to 2012 every Nicaraguan government, regardless of ideology, pursued Nicaragua's legitimate territorial claims in the Caribbean. Only in December 2012 did the International Court of Justice finally recognize Nicaragua's rights to extensive maritime areas and their marine, mineral and hydrocarbon resources, previously usurped by Colombia.
With that judgment by the ICJ, Nicaragua recovered thousands of square kilometres of ocean in which Nicaraguan boats are now fishing. Nicaraguan scientific teams are analyzing the prospects for mineral and hydrocarbon resources and gathering data in relation to environmental concerns. Nicaraguan naval forces patrol the area as part of Nicaragua's anti-narcotics measures. This reality is omitted in corporate news media, who only report Colombia's empty gestures alleging that the Colombian authorities reject the ICJ ruling, whereas in practice, they tacitly accept it.
Those three transcendent events in 2012 are seamlessly joined historically, morally and politically. They set the scene for a long period of Sandinista government extending for the foreseeable future. That period of government will effect a true resurrection for Nicaragua, transforming for the better every aspect of national life from agriculture, industry and infrastructure of all kinds, through energy and technology to education, health care, sport and culture.
A crucial part of that renewal has been the dynamic participation of powerful and talented women in the FSLN government. The role of Rosario Murillo has been decisive in fomenting positive teamwork to carry out effectively the complex policy decisions reached under the leadership of Daniel Ortega. Supreme Court President Alba Luz Ramos, Minister of Government Ana Isabel Morales, Labour Minister Janet Chavarría, Health Minister Sonia Castro, Housing Minister Judith Silva, Education Minister Miriam Raudez and Minister of the Family Marcia Ramirez - these women and their numerous women colleagues in themselves represent irrevocable revolutionary change.
With an average of 40% of women deputies in the National Assembly, in 2012 Nicaragua placed itself at the head of Latin America and in the world vanguard in terms of women's political representation. The Inter-Parliamentary Union recognized this fact in its 2012 World Map of Women in Politics as did the World Economic Forum's report on the gender gap, which put Nicaragua fifth in the world in terms of women's political empowerment. In 2012, Nicaragua's National Assembly approved one of the most advanced laws anywhere against violence against women, recognizing all the various current forms of violence against women, including psychological abuse, patrimonial abuse and misogyny.
2012 was also a year of important advances in projects scheduled for completion many years ahead. Apart from the developing construction of the giant oil refinery in a joint-venture with Venezuela, in September, a Chinese company announced its commitment to build an inter-oceanic canal uniting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The same month another Chinese company announced a contract to build a telecommunications satellite – Central America's first – planned to enter orbit in 2016 at a cost of US$300 million.
In 2013, Nicaragua will build on the record year for tourism that it experienced in 2012, when that activity grew by over 10%, the largest rate of growth in tourism in Central America, surpassing Belize and Honduras. That achievement is the result of investment and international promotion around a strategy based largely on small scale eco-tourism. That growth in activity, along with successful activities like the World Surfing Championship, have made tourism a central part of the National Development Plan up until 2020 and beyond.
Within just five years of the Frente Sandinista returning to government in Nicaragua, the country has gone from being the second most unequal country in Latin America after Colombia to being the third least unequal after Cuba and Venezuela. It is also, after Venezuela, the country in Latin America that has most reduced social inequality. Just as in the 1980s, these tremendous achievements of the Sandinista government under President Ortega go unmentioned and unrecognized because they put to shame the record of countries loyal to the failed social and economic policies recommended by the leaders of North America and Europe
In 2013, President Ortega's government will continue to fulfill the vision of Sandino, Carlos Fonseca, Tomás Borge and the heroes and martyrs of the Sandinista Revolution. They will do so working united with former enemies within Nicaragua to ensure the country's steadily accumulating achievements endure for good. Internationally, promoting regional integration and South-South relations based on solidarity and cooperation, Nicaragua and its ALBA allies will continue building their uniquely successful economic and political model in Latin America and the Caribbean. Within another few years, that model will render completely irrelevant the already discredited Western model of corrupt corporate capitalism and bankrupt electoral oligarchy.
Heading into 2013, it is natural to look back over the previous year, to try and summarize the important events and trends relevant for the immediate future. Most local journalists and writers reflecting on 2012 focused on secondary economic and political events that all turn around two transcendental events that passed completely unmentioned. Many other lesser events of note either went unremarked or received only the most cursory notice.
The first event of transcendental importance in 2012 was the inauguration in January of President Daniel Ortega for a consecutive period of office. The inauguration was the fruit of an overwhelming Sandinista electoral victory in the 2011 Presidential and legislative elections. It symbolized continuity for another 5 years of policies prioritizing the social and economic rights of the impoverished majority and a comprehensive program of renewal in all spheres of national activity.
In the regional context, the presence at the inauguration of international guests like Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the right-wing presidents of Guatemala and Haiti signalled continuity also in Nicaragua's foreign policy. Venezuela is Nicaragua's most important regional ally. Iran's presence signalled the independent South-South aspect of Nicaraguan and Venezuelan foreign relations and those of their ALBA allies, Cuba, Bolivia and Ecuador. While the presence of right-wing regional leaders indicated the determination of Nicaragua and Venezuela to set aside ideological differences in the search for regional unity in Latin America and the Caribbean.
All of those clear signs present in that January 2012 inauguration were confirmed by subsequent events. Nicaragua and Venezuela have supported Iran's position on its right to develop nuclear power and on NATO's proxy terrorist assault on the people of Syria. Nicaragua and Venezuela and the other ALBA countries have demonstrated unquestionable solidarity with both Guatemala and Haiti, assisting those countries, among other areas of cooperation, to cope with the effects of catastrophic natural disasters. Guatemala and Nicaragua cooperate closely in the Central American Integration System (SICA).
Almost everything that happened on the economic and political scene in Nicaragua derived from the political continuity made possible by that historically important inauguration in January 2012. The government promoted uncompromising legislation to achieve gender equality such as the law 779 against violence against women and the law stipulating that 50% of all candidates for public office have to be women. Those and similar legislative advances along with the widely acknowledged success of the government's economic policies lead to the comprehensive victory in the municipal elections in November 2012. Sandinista candidates won 134 of the country's 153 municipalities.
The extraordinary political and economic success of the Sandinista government under President Daniel Ortega in 2012 prefigures both the consolidation and the extension of existing policies through 2013. The same is true of Nicaraguan foreign policy. President Ortega's government insists on its determination to maintain cordial relations with governments of all political shades, regardless of ideology. The initial shock and consternation caused by the need for a life threatening operation on President Hugo Chávez, has given way to a huge wave of solidarity that has bound all the ALBA countries closer together in their determination to complete the definitive second independence of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The second event of transcendental importance in 2012 in Nicaragua, whose significance will endure far beyond the coming months of 2013, was the death of Comandante Tomas Borge at the age of 82. Tomás Borge was the last surviving founder of the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. He lived to witness not just the return of the FSLN to government in the 21st century but also to see President Daniel Ortega continue into a consecutive term of office. Comandante Borge symbolizes the deep continuity between the founding generation of the FSLN, the sacrifices of its heroes and martyrs, and succeeding generations.
Tomás Borge remains an abiding Latin American archetype of ideological and political self-sacrifice, discipline and determination, of unswerving loyalty to the revolutionary cause. But beyond that revolutionary mystique, his combination of genuine humility and abundant talent set him very much apart in the affections of people throughout Nicaragua, even among former enemies, as was clear from the posthumous tributes paid to him in the National Assembly. For younger colleagues and for the developing generation of Sandinista youth Tomás Borge is an enduring and highly cohesive moral and political figure binding the historic struggles of the 20th Century to the very different challenges of the 21st.
One more event of transcendent importance came at the end of 2012 which also originated in the revolutionary triumph of 1979. In 1980, the then Government of National Reconstruction declared null the 1930 treaty ceding Nicaragua's territorial rights over the Caribbean island of San Andres to Colombia. From 1980 to 2012 every Nicaraguan government, regardless of ideology, pursued Nicaragua's legitimate territorial claims in the Caribbean. Only in December 2012 did the International Court of Justice finally recognize Nicaragua's rights to extensive maritime areas and their marine, mineral and hydrocarbon resources, previously usurped by Colombia.
With that judgment by the ICJ, Nicaragua recovered thousands of square kilometres of ocean in which Nicaraguan boats are now fishing. Nicaraguan scientific teams are analyzing the prospects for mineral and hydrocarbon resources and gathering data in relation to environmental concerns. Nicaraguan naval forces patrol the area as part of Nicaragua's anti-narcotics measures. This reality is omitted in corporate news media, who only report Colombia's empty gestures alleging that the Colombian authorities reject the ICJ ruling, whereas in practice, they tacitly accept it.
Those three transcendent events in 2012 are seamlessly joined historically, morally and politically. They set the scene for a long period of Sandinista government extending for the foreseeable future. That period of government will effect a true resurrection for Nicaragua, transforming for the better every aspect of national life from agriculture, industry and infrastructure of all kinds, through energy and technology to education, health care, sport and culture.
A crucial part of that renewal has been the dynamic participation of powerful and talented women in the FSLN government. The role of Rosario Murillo has been decisive in fomenting positive teamwork to carry out effectively the complex policy decisions reached under the leadership of Daniel Ortega. Supreme Court President Alba Luz Ramos, Minister of Government Ana Isabel Morales, Labour Minister Janet Chavarría, Health Minister Sonia Castro, Housing Minister Judith Silva, Education Minister Miriam Raudez and Minister of the Family Marcia Ramirez - these women and their numerous women colleagues in themselves represent irrevocable revolutionary change.
With an average of 40% of women deputies in the National Assembly, in 2012 Nicaragua placed itself at the head of Latin America and in the world vanguard in terms of women's political representation. The Inter-Parliamentary Union recognized this fact in its 2012 World Map of Women in Politics as did the World Economic Forum's report on the gender gap, which put Nicaragua fifth in the world in terms of women's political empowerment. In 2012, Nicaragua's National Assembly approved one of the most advanced laws anywhere against violence against women, recognizing all the various current forms of violence against women, including psychological abuse, patrimonial abuse and misogyny.
2012 was also a year of important advances in projects scheduled for completion many years ahead. Apart from the developing construction of the giant oil refinery in a joint-venture with Venezuela, in September, a Chinese company announced its commitment to build an inter-oceanic canal uniting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The same month another Chinese company announced a contract to build a telecommunications satellite – Central America's first – planned to enter orbit in 2016 at a cost of US$300 million.
In 2013, Nicaragua will build on the record year for tourism that it experienced in 2012, when that activity grew by over 10%, the largest rate of growth in tourism in Central America, surpassing Belize and Honduras. That achievement is the result of investment and international promotion around a strategy based largely on small scale eco-tourism. That growth in activity, along with successful activities like the World Surfing Championship, have made tourism a central part of the National Development Plan up until 2020 and beyond.
Within just five years of the Frente Sandinista returning to government in Nicaragua, the country has gone from being the second most unequal country in Latin America after Colombia to being the third least unequal after Cuba and Venezuela. It is also, after Venezuela, the country in Latin America that has most reduced social inequality. Just as in the 1980s, these tremendous achievements of the Sandinista government under President Ortega go unmentioned and unrecognized because they put to shame the record of countries loyal to the failed social and economic policies recommended by the leaders of North America and Europe
In 2013, President Ortega's government will continue to fulfill the vision of Sandino, Carlos Fonseca, Tomás Borge and the heroes and martyrs of the Sandinista Revolution. They will do so working united with former enemies within Nicaragua to ensure the country's steadily accumulating achievements endure for good. Internationally, promoting regional integration and South-South relations based on solidarity and cooperation, Nicaragua and its ALBA allies will continue building their uniquely successful economic and political model in Latin America and the Caribbean. Within another few years, that model will render completely irrelevant the already discredited Western model of corrupt corporate capitalism and bankrupt electoral oligarchy.
onsdag 9 januari 2013
Victor Jara now
Discussion of the relevance of Victor Jara and the significance of the indictment in Chile of his killers by toni solo in conversation with Jorge Capelán and internationally known interpreter of Victor's songs, Paul Baker Hernandez, with links and two videos.
Click to listen
Official campaign for Victor Jara from Chile
Campaign for Victor Jara in Nicaragua
Song by Paul Baker Hernandez
Click to listen
Official campaign for Victor Jara from Chile
Campaign for Victor Jara in Nicaragua
Song by Paul Baker Hernandez
TWO VIDEOS
Victor talking and singing in last recorded concert, Peru, July 1973
Brief interview with Victor before Peru concert
The new shark lawyer putschism in Latin America
Listening to much of the Latin American right-wing opposition these days
is somewhat of an interesting exercise in what in Swedish is called
"rättshaveri" - a sort of litigious dogmatism whereby an individual or a
small group pursues a legal cause that already has been judged beyond
any reasonable limit thus affecting the legal system itself which must
dedicate an ever increasing amount of resources in order to deal with
never ending and meaningless appeals. The term is not a neutral one of
course, but imagine the Latin American situation, with veritable hoards
of upper-class shark lawyers deploying every tool in their quasi-legal
arsenal in order to "prove" that a popular leader is a tyrant, a putsch
is a legitimate protest or a drug lord, a law-abiding entrepreneur. Imagine those shysters getting all the air time on private TV
shows and all the front pages on the private newspapers. Imagine those
thugs getting all the money and attention from NATO powers and their
media (as well as the "support" of their aircraft carriers). Such are today's
so-called "soft coups". Fortunately, that method doesn't bite anymore on
a well-known group of countries in the region.
Chavez' health and the comatose right in Venezuela
toni solo and I discuss the malevolent disinformation around the illness
of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the political implications in
both Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Click to listen
Click to listen
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)