Festive Left Friday Blogging: Who’s afraid of a little shake?

Not Evo…his dimpled smile stayed firmly affixed as the earth was rocking in Chile yesterday:

He’s with Lugo (middle) and El Ecuadorable (right) during Sebastián Piñera’s inauguration ceremony. A magnitude 6.9 quake–believed to be an aftershock of the big one from two weeks ago, and a mighty quake in its own right–shook the presidential palace. When the hanging lamps on the ceiling started swinging like pendulums, the three of them looked up. Lugo, a priest at heart still, prayed that it wouldn’t fall on them. But they didn’t flee. According to YVKE Mundial, though, Alvaro Uribe did…running right, predictably. Aporrea joked that Alan “El Gordo” García, of Peru, had a shit-eating grin on his face, probably because he didn’t know how else to respond to the “honor” of being caught in a major quake. (The man is well known for the fact that he will say anything, however meaningless, as long as it sounds properly statesmanlike.)

The Venezuelan media have taken to calling this photo “The Latin American leftists look up”–I’m guessing it’s a reference to their courage and optimism, which seem to be basic character traits common to all three.

Meanwhile, here’s why Evo was smiling, courtesy of ABI (sorry, their site’s new format means no links to individual stories anymore):

Santiago, CHILE, 11 mar (ABI).- El presidente boliviano Evo Morales dijo haber satisfecho el jueves una curiosidad luego de vivir, en carne propia, un seísmo de 6,9 grados en la escala abierta de Ritcher, que incluso encendió alarma de tsunami y que volvió a sacudir el centro y sur de Chile en momentos en que el flamante presidente Sebastián Piñera era investido.

“Quería conocer los sismos”, regodeó el mandatario boliviano a quien las lentes de agencias extrajeras captaron en el momento en que desenfadado miraba el cielo del salón principal del Congreso de Chile, en Valparaíso, justo en el momento en que el movimiento telúrico, que desató pánico generalizado, se encontraba en su apogeo.

“Muy sorprendido, no me asusta”, agregó luego de elogiar la “seriedad del pueblo” en los momentos difíciles en que el piso de movió en todas las direciones.

El mandatario boliviano dijo haber sentido el sacudón cuando cruzaba el umbral de la puerta del Congreso y también “otro adentro cuando estábamos sentados”.

My translation:

Bolivian president Evo Morales said on Thursday that he had satisfied a curiosity after experiencing, in the flesh, an earthquake of 6.9 on the Richter scale, which also set off a tsunami alarm and shook Chile again at the time the new president, Sebastián Piñera, was being sworn in.

“I’ve always wanted to know what earthquakes were like,” said the president, who was captured by press photographers at the moment when he stared calmly up at the ceiling of the main salon of the Chilean congress, in Valparaíso, just as the earthquake hit its peak, sowing general panic.

“Surprisingly, I wasn’t afraid,” added Evo, after praising the “seriousness of the people” of Chile during those difficult moments when the ground was moving in all directions.

The Bolivian leader said he felt the shaking when he crossed the threshold of the congress building, and also “another when we were sitting down inside.”

And yet he never lost his cool, or his smile. That’s what class and cojones can do for you, kids.