Links added.So, another piece of the puzzle is indeed falling into place, and it’s a large one. This Argentine fascist, a self-styled defender and apologist of repressors from the junta, is not surprisingly a big wheel in the fascist plot against Evo. He has ample experience in fascism in Bolivia, too, as he was a liaison between the Argentine junta and its counterpart, the Bolivian military dictatorship of the era. (Recall that Bolivia was the victim of several military coups beginning in 1964, and did not regain democracy until 1982, one year before the Argentine junta fell.) It seems natural that Mones Ruiz would therefore have abiding sympathies for fascists in Bolivia, and possibly even ties stretching back to his time in country the first time around. It would not be at all hard for him–whom Página/12 also characterizes as being “nostalgic for other times” and “frankly putschist”–to cheerfully become part of an antidemocratic plot to pull Santa Cruz out of Bolivia and install an authoritarian para-government, however illegally. To him, it would be just like the “good old days” of impunity and repression both there and in Argentina!The name of Luis Enrique Baraldini has also come up here before. According to this report, Baraldini is currently in Bolivia. (He’s also wanted by Interpol for human rights violations in Argentina, so if you’ve seen him, you know who to call.) Baraldini is of the Santa Cruz horsey set; he’s a judge in equestrian events, and also currently runs a “school of equine therapy”, presumably catering to disabled children, which may well be a front for something less pleasant–or at the very least, a way of covering his multitudinous sins. He may be using his mother’s surname, Pellegri, as an alias (how macho, hiding behind Mama’s skirts). He also was decorated by the Bolivian military for his “services”–a major WTF? until you consider that he, too, was operative during the days of military dictatorship, and undoubtedly, like Mones Ruiz, was sent by the higher-ups in Buenos Aires to “help” the poor, beleaguered unpopular generals maintain their death grip on that impoverished but still fractious country! Alas, it was an epic fail. Bolivia is now democratic and ruled by an uppity Injun. How lucky for him, then, that there has been mostly impunity for Argentine repressors since the return of democracy to Bolivia in ’82 and Argentina in ’83, otherwise he’d be in a world of hurt. (Well, it’s still not too late to call Interpol if you’ve seen him. Or the Bolivian federal authorities, who I’m sure are more than a little interested in him again, though in a markedly different light, by now.)And of course, there’s that weaselly little UnAmérica thing again, too. Too bad it’s totally illegitimate, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is likely to throw out its charges with a loud belly-laugh. Unasur, not UnAmérica, holds the legal cards. The declarations of this right-wing astroturf group are therefore no more legitimate than the “autonomy” declarations of the Media Lunatics (which were so preposterous that no respectable international observer wanted to be caught dead at their illegal referendum, much less dignify it with the stamp of approval.) I don’t imagine that the smarmy Twat From Caracas and his little astroturf-roll will fare any better either; no one’s about to grant them immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony since they’re clearly in this plot up to their collective, beady eyeballs.I’ve lost count of how many points this makes for Evo’s side, but I know for sure that the oppo count is still 0. Apologists for fascism, the ball’s in your court now…but I doubt you can return THIS serve convincingly. You haven’t done all that well with any of the previous ones.“I was present in Beni (northern Bolivia) with an Argentine cell of eleven ex-carapintadas (“painted faces”, notorious paramilitaries), along with ex-militaries who had been on missions in the Balkans. The above-mentioned ‘Argentine cell’ maintained contacts with sectors of the ‘far right’, opposed to the current Bolivian government, in Santa Cruz and Cobija, department of Pando.”The information, dated May 4, received by the Argentine Chancellery from the embassy in Bolivia and which was received by Página/12, indicated that “business owners and landowners of Santa Cruz de la Sierra requested the presence of the ex-militaries with the objective of training them in self-defence in case of their eventual imprisonment by the Bolivian authorities.”The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place following an investigation into a group of suspected terrorists, led by Eduardo Rózsa Flores, “Hero of the Balkan War”, which was dismantled by the Bolivian National Police last April 16. President Evo Morales denounced the group for planning his assassination.Last April 21, we reported that the vice-president of Bolivia, Alvaro García Linera, had communicated with the Argentine ambassador in La Paz, Horacio Macedo, to ask him to collaborate in the control of the border regions “due to the presence of Argentine activists in certain regions of Bolivia”. At that time, there was mention of the travels to Bolivia of retired major Jorge Mones Ruiz, one of the “carapintadas” who between 1987 and 1991 took part in armed uprisings to demand impunity for repressors [active during the time of the Argentine military junta, 1976-83].The new report states that “Mones Ruiz had been in contact with the late suspected terrorist/mercenary Rózsa Flores and with [Luis Enrique] Baraldini“, another comrade-in-arms and fugitive-from-justice for his actions during the illegal repressions in La Pampa, and currently based in Santa Cruz under a false name. Mones Ruiz was assigned to Bolivia as an intelligence official of the Argentine army during the last dictatorship, and liked to boast of the recognition of his Bolivian comrades.The ex-carapintada was seduced by his links to the ultra-right in Latin America. In ’87, the Military Circle published his book, in which he outlined his expertise on the formation of commando groups against the revolutionary processes in Central America. This year, Mones Ruiz found anchorage in the so-called UnAmérica, an NGO claiming to be a counterweight to Unasur, the organization to which all the South American heads of state belong. Leftist governments, particularly those of Bolivia and Venezuela, were the focus of the efforts of the committee, led by the anti-Chavista Venezuelan, Alejandro Peña Esclusa.Mones Ruiz showed his notions in various formats, but with the same obsession. With another of his carapintada comrades, Breide Obeid, he formed the “Conjunto Patria” (Homeland Alliance) and began to sing his own lyrics in all kinds of encounters. More academically, he published various books, among them “Argentina–without a future?”. He studied the “new dangers” and broadcast himself on Web pages on subjects such as “misrule and institutional bankruptcy, attacks on businessses, price controls, energy crises, the ‘Papeleros’ case, citizen insecurity, corruption, ‘twisted’ justice, widening of the gap between rich and poor, ‘crooked’ legislators, social violence, forgotten military commanders, police forces with fewer rights than delinquents, etc., which are generating the conditions for structural changes that society demands.” A hyperactive man, last year he began to show up during rural meetings and stir up conflict.The violent entry of the police into the fourth floor of the Hotel Las Américas, which ended in the deaths of Rózsa Flores (Bolivian-Hungarian-Croatian), Arpád Magyarosi (Romanian of Hungarian origins) and Michael Dwyer (Irish), and the arrests of Mario Francisco Tadic Astorga (Bolivian with Croatian passport) and Elöd Tóásó (Romanian-Hungarian) exacerbated the virulence of the Bolivian opposition. President Evo Morales is looking for re-election next December 6, and read the actions of these transnational commandos as proof of a cabal with plans to assassinate him. Throughout this minefield, there are footprints of the same personages.Five days after the sting in the hotel, the Hungarian Television Network broadcast an interview by journalist Andras Kepes on September 8, 2008, in which Rózsa confirmed that he was bound for Santa Cruz de la Sierra at the request of persons who asked him to form a “self-defence group” in the region and that if there was no peaceful coexistence with the rest of the country, they would seek independence. The newspaper El Deber, of Santa Cruz, stated that “the 49-year-old assured that his mission ‘had legal backing’ because the decision to organize his militia had the authorization of the Council of Santa Cruz. The president of the Departmental Assembly, Juan Carlos Parada, assured that he knew nothing about it and that he did not know which of the councils or assemblies of Santa Cruz had sought permission. According to Rózsa, a group of political opposition members contacted him about a year and a half earlier, from Santa Cruz. His principal mission was to defend the region against supposed armed indigenous groups and militias. “We were convinced after a few months that there was no peaceful coexistence and, in the name of autonomy, decided to proclaim the independence of Santa Cruz and create a new country,” said Rózsa. Rózsa recorded the interview as a kind of last will and testament, to be distributed only in the event of his death. The strange personage who had been a militant of Opus Dei, converted to Islam and was hailed as a “Hero of the Balkan War”, ended up recruiting mercenaries to defend the Bolivian ultra-right. His participation in the Croatian war established ties with Latin American soldiers who found in these militias a sought-after niche in which to develop their competence as armed commandos.The detailed report before the Argentine chancellery tells that businessmen and landowners in Santa Cruz de la Sierra appealed to the ex-militaries “with the objective of being instructed in self-defence in case of possible imprisonment by official organisms and various affiliates, including the taking of private lands by social entities such as the MAS”–alluding to the Movement Toward Socialism party led by President Evo Morales.The “model” of Brazilian landlords who installed virtual death squads to counteract the landless peasant movements demonstrates what the reactionary secessionists of the rich regions of Bolivia had in mind. The “Human Rights Foundation of Bolivia”, under the offices of Victor Hugo Achá, was a school in the strategies and objectives of UnAmérica, according to the report.On April 30, prosecutor Marcelo Sosa announced t
hat Achá would be called upon to testify, in order to corroborate the testimonies of various detainees in the case. The president of the HRF had gone to the United States one week earlier and announced that he would no return until he received legal guarantees that he would be able to defend himself against the accusations. However, in a telephone conversation with a local channel, he admitted that he had conversed on more than three occasions with Rózsa but, obviously, denied any ties with the militia organized by the Bolivian-Hungarian-Croat.According to the daily La Prensa, of La Paz, Juan Carlos Gueder, recently arrested, declared: “There was another person with ties to the political field, to be assassinated in Bolivia, but I don’t know his name either, because there are other people who should be coming forward here. Mr. Hugo Achá should show his face.” Gueder assured that he HRF director had met with the suspected terrorist group. Gueder was given house arrest in exchange for collaborating with the judicial authorities.On May 1, the Bolivian president said that if the organization had not clarified its links with “the terrorists, it would be expelled from Bolivia, as had already occurred in Venezuela. The Comité Pro Santa Cruz, a leading light in the opposition which repeatedly tried to destabilize the Morales administration, called an assembly to decide what to do against the advances of the investigation into ties between its businessmen and the suspected terrorists killed in the Hotel Las Américas.This is how the sectors of UnAmérica act–an organization in which the Argentine paramilitary Mones Ruiz preens himself as secretary, and which says it will present a denunciation before the Inter-American Human Rights Court, accusing the Morales government of being responsible for the massacre of Pando. The objective is to counteract the report approved by Unasur which landed in prison, among others, the prefect of Pando, for racial persecution and racist murders committed by the ultra-right.
Translation mine.There WAS a firefight, and these guys were killed because they were shooting at the police. Any questions?Experts from the Institute of Forensic Investigations (IDIF) found gunpowder residues on the hands of the suspected terrorists killed on April 16 in a confrontation with an elite unit of the Bolivian federal police in the Hotel Las Américas, according to judicial sources.“The IDIF report indicates that there were gunpowder residues on the hands of Eduardo Rózsa Flores, Arpad Magyarosi and Michael Martin Dwyer,” said prosecutor Marcelo Soza, head of the investigation.[…]Soza said the IDIF findings constitute evidence that the deceased fired at the police during the confrontation in which they were killed.
First, here’s Chavecito:
He’s saying that “being rich is bad”, but not only that–he also acknowledges that there are some who will feel offended by his saying so. And then he goes on to say that Jesus said the same thing to a rich man! (Which he did, BTW.)Now, here are some oppos, saying something about Chavecito: Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, former governor of Zulia and former presidential candidate for the COPEI (Social Christian) party, doesn’t seem to grasp the concept of democracy very well. He talks on Televen about how “repression is spreading” (a lie), and also about methods of removing Chavecito from power “beyond voting”! Gee, sounds to me like he’s advocating a coup d’état, which is to say, murder. And just think, people, this man is the so-called CHRISTIAN! He lies and advocates murder. Would Jesus do that? Would he approve of it in someone who professes to be his follower?Meanwhile, Chavecito correctly quotes Christ and places him (also correctly) in the context of socialism–everyone contributing, everyone benefiting, no one with too much, and therefore no one with too little. So, who said the worst thing? You tell me, gentle readers.
Translation mine.Looks like Venezuela and Bolivia both are doing better at antidrug policing by themselves than they ever did with the DEA in the house. Now why do you suppose that is?Meanwhile, on a related note, check out THIS bit of drug-related pwnage:A rational expert shoots down a former drug czar. Heh, heh…and just for emphasis and good measure, heh.The director of the National Anti-Drug Office, Néstor Reverol, announced the confiscation of 1,981 kilograms of drugs, which were divided into 1,912 blocks, last Saturday in the early morning hours. The drugs were confiscated by the municipal police of Pedro Gual, the Bolivarian National Guard, and the CICPC. The operation also resulted in the detention of three persons, one Colombian and two Venezuelan, at a ranch called “La Guardia”, in the Panapo sector of Cúpira in the state of Miranda. The detainees are currently in the custody of the Public Ministry.A boat by the name of Ave Fénix, registered in Pampatar, was also seized. Reverol called the operation “another heavy blow” for the trafficking of drugs. “We hereby confirm the commitment of the Venezuelan state in its frontal assault on the trafficking of illicit drugs,” Reverol said.Reverol reported that in another operation, conducted on Sunday afternoon by the National Guard, 830 kilos of marijuana were seized in a truck with a false bottom. The operation took place in the Buena Vista sector of Monte Carmelo, Trujillo.“It is important to emphasize that to date, we have confiscated 18,488 kilograms of illegal drugs, and arrested 2,050 persons who are now in the custody of the Public Ministry,” Reverol said.
Two of my old faves.
I never knew this one was on a soundtrack. I only knew it from Oil and Gold, same as this one:Gorgeous, underrated stuff. Still fresh after all this time.No…REALLY? Well, duh. Remember, kiddies…protests are always peaceful as long as it’s only protesters protesting. It’s never a riot until the cops show up!
Hmm, what are the London Indymedia folks saying? Great Googly Moogly, let’s have a look-see…Aha! Paydirt:Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament’s joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.“When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, ‘There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'” Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification.Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. “He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable,” Amos said. “Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked.”Amos added: “He was pretty much inciting the crowd. He could not be called an observer. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories but this really struck me. Hopefully, a review of video evidence will clear this up.”
But that’s just a beginning. Here’s another lead, mentioned by the Indymedia report, worth reading in its entirety. It’s chock-a-block with links, some to photographic evidence. It looks as though the police and the media co-ordinated the “violent protests” so that there would be plausible reason to discredit the PEACEFUL protesters! But surely they wouldn’t do that? Surely the media are honest, and the cops are our friends…Yeah. Right. Even here in Canada, that’s often not true. Remember those three burly “anarchists” who looked suspiciously out of place at an anti-SPP demo in Quebec? The REAL anarchists, who weren’t looking to riot, weren’t fooled either. Most of them live on vegan food and can’t afford steroids, much less regular access to a gym. Don’t forget, either, the London cop who broadcast his fascistic intentions on Facebook. He was planning for violence. Perhaps he knew who the provocs were, and had reason to look forward to knockin’ some ‘eads?The watchers are being watched, and if they’re scared, they SHOULD be. It is not the protesters, but the “authorities”, the enforcers of capitalism, who are the real destructive forces out to bring society down. When the banker is exposed as a robber, and the cop and the “journalist” are his accomplices, you know that the “security” you’ve been living is a dirty, stinking lie.Meanwhile, we await the video, which should serve only as a final confirmation of what anyone who’s been paying attention will already know.When the G20 Meltdown was announced, many of us knew that the police were going to launch a “dark ops” assualt on the protest. The media was foaming at the mouth about “anarchist violence”, “killing bankers”, “mayhem”, and all the rest; they certainly didn’t want to be proved wrong. Although many knew beforehand that kettling and police agitators would be used at the protest, we also knew that to miss the festival would mean that we had given up our right to assemble peacefully in the face of the Police State (which many citizens have already resigned themselves to). Thus we were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
It’s time to plant potatoes…and pray none come out looking quite like this:
So, how do this week’s candidates rate? As dicks, taters, or both? Read on, and judge for yourselves…1. Orson Scott Fucking Card. Who is he to be blatting on about the gay-rights movement “dictating” public policy to the married when his own Mormon church is at it far more blatantly and repressively? And who is he to talk about what kind of marriage is “natural” when the Mormons were founded by a man who was not only a dictator, but a polygamist? A screaming closet case, most likely. If he wants the law to dictate what people can do in the privacy of their bedrooms, he should be aware that it can also dictate what’s done in the less-private space of churches–and maybe the very profitable Mormon cult, which also backed Prop Hate, would like to start paying taxes on its tithings, hmmm?2. The fuckhead or fuckheadess who signed him/herself “M. Maloney” at the end of this dumbest-ever letter to the editor. Perhaps you should change your name to “B. Baloney”, sir or madam, because it’s YOU who are “full of bull”, as you so quaintly put it. I would put it less quaintly: You are full of shit. I don’t believe for an instant you’ve been to Venezuela even once, much less “multiple times over the last eight years”. Why else would you claim that Hugo Chávez “was elected by the people of Venezuela, but only once, in 1996. Every ‘election’ since then has been rigged.” Funny, but not only the people themselves, but a whole raft of international observers think you’re full of shit too–and not only because the elections show NO signs of rigging, but because he was elected for the first time in 1998, not 1996. Oh, and the constitution hasn’t been “dissolved”, either; it’s been rewritten BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, which the US constitution certainly wasn’t; it was also amended to allow multiple re-election for ALL candidates, BY POPULAR VOTE. Maybe it’s B. Baloney who needs to do some homework–if only to lie more convincingly in his/her LTEs. 3. Gary Fucking Hensley. When did killing people in Afghanistan become somehow “saving” them? When this dick of a lieutenant-colonel decided it was as good as converting them to Christianity. No shit, he really said it: “The special forces guys – they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down.” And then some people wonder why fundamentalist Christianity is scaring people away? And that the Muslims of Afghanistan are not only resisting the evangelists’ efforts, but many have also sworn to put them to death for it? Yeah, I wonder too. 4. and 5. Michael Fucking “Savage” Weiner and Fred Fucking Phelps. Congratulations, your incessant demagogic hatemongering got you two shits banned from Britain. 6. Alvaro Fucking Uribe. Using public money and public defenders to protect soldiers accused of taking public money to kill innocent members of the public? Man, that’s…just…LOW. 7. and 8. Carrie Fucking Prejean’s stupid fucking parents. How did Miss Implants California become such a flaming ‘mo-hater and spokeswoman for the sacrosanct institution of Opposite Marriage? Lemme put it to you this way: She learned by imitation from two very Christian divorcees. Bonus wanker points to the ‘rental units for letting her pose topless as a teenager in skimpy pink lace panties. 9. Pat Fucking Robertson. Same-sex marriage means that child molestation, bestiality and polygamy will be legal next? Well, no doubt in Patwa’s wet dreams (and those of Mormon Orson, too). BTW, how’s that assassination plan of yours working out, Marion?10. Kiefer Fucking Sutherland. Dude, your show is fiction. FICTION. Got that? Now sober up and knock off the tough-guy shit.11. and 12. The original Dick and Tater, of course:
Nice faces! Just like those of true war criminals.And finally, anyone who comes on here accusing me of not having my facts straight. Au contraire, mes petits frères, I have them all lined up like neat little duckies in a shooting gallery. ‘Tis you, ’tis YOU who do not know squat, be it about Hungarian “Szekler” terrorists (yes, TERRORISTS–and oh boy, is THAT grist for a future entry) or those homegrown (though not indigenous) to Santa Cruz. Get your heads out of your own butts, stop being apologists for fascism, and perhaps you won’t wind up pwned with potatoes down your pants in the future. Or, as in the case of my Szekler heckler, spam-canned and BANNED (with your nasty, abusive e-mails saved in case the Hungarian federal police come calling, heh heh).Thank you, and good night.
Translation mine.Yep, Peru now has Goni-rhea in addition to a bad case of Burusas.And of course, the biggest crook-harborer of all is still…drumroll please…THE UNITED STATES. How many national disgraces from Latin America are hiding out there now, some of them with close ties to Washington? I’ve lost count. For a country that supposedly values democracy and swears it will prosecute terrorists, it’s sure not doing much to keep its own house in order.UPDATE: Mirtha Quevedo has just piped up to confirm that she is in Peru, and wants a “fair trial”. Why is she acting like she won’t get one? Answer: Because she will, and that’s just what she doesn’t want.UPDATE #2: Bolivia’s ambassador to Peru denies that there are any political persecutions going on in Bolivia. Unfortunately, the same is true not only there but in Venezuela–and the truth hasn’t stopped El Gordo from providing asylum to the scum de la scum from there, has it now?UPDATE #3: Evo has finally weighed in, basically asking the Fat One to stop harboring crooks. Evo, stop being so damn polite and just kick his ass all over the soccer pitch, already!The government of Peru granted asylum to a minister of the former president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who was facing trial by the Bolivian supreme court, according to Agence France-Presse. Two other functionaries of the Sánchez de Lozada regime are also seeking asylum in Peru.[…]The concession on the part of Lima takes place at a time when legal proceedings have opened against Sánchez de Lozada, who is accused of the killing of 67 Bolivians in the repression of a popular insurrection in the cities of El Alto and La Paz, which preceded his removal from office in October 2003.The charges, pressed by the victims’ families, will be heard by the Supreme Court on May 18. Along with Sánchez de Lozada, currently a fugitive in the United States, they involve several of his ministers: Carlos Sánchez Berzaín (Defence), Jorge Torres Obleas (Haciendas), Yerko Kukoc (Interior), Mirtha Quevedo (Popular Participation), Jorge Berindoage (Hydrocarbons) and Guido Añez (Agriculture). Sánchez Berzain is a fugitive in the United States, as are Añez and Berindoage.Kukoc is seeking asylum in Peru, and according to sources, Quevedo is also trying for asylum.The Bolivian Minister of Legal Defence, Héctor Arce, called upon the Peruvian government to reject the asylum bids of Quevedo, Torres and Kukoc, reports AFP.[…]Kukoc, who fled to Buenos Aires on the night of October 17, 2003, and returned to Bolivia a month later, when Sánchez de Lozada’s successor, vice-president Carlos Mesa, was in power, was tried for the illegal possession of nearly two million bolivianos withdrawn irregularly from the Central Bank a few days before the fall of the deposed leader.Unable to convert it to dollars, Kukoc gave the money to a friend in Santa Cruz, at the Santa Cruz airport where Sánchez de Lozada embarked, along with his family and Sánchez Berzaín, on a flight bound for the United States. […]Christian Zanabria, an activist of the Human Rights Assembly of Chuquisaca, denounced several magistrates of the Supreme Court on Friday for trying to halt the trial of Sánchez de Losada, who was also cited for inflicting economic damage on the state during his first administration, between 1993 and 1997, when he privatized most of the Bolivian state industries, including the strategic ones. Zanabria also denounced Quevedo’s defence attorney for trying to halt her trial.“We have been informed of two incidents on the part of Quevedo, who asked for annulment of responsibilities, with the justification that there were procedural flaws and that there was no meeting between the parties,” reported the activist.Zanabria warned that, with such a pretext the Supreme Court could “give the green light” to halting the trial of Sánchez de Lozada.
Translation mine. You’ll want to read what Otto has found about the Toborochi and Caballeros Del Oriente “lodges” mentioned above, which are shunned like lepers by mainstream, respectable Bolivian freemasons for reasons all too compelling. There is some extensive and damning documentation (at the moment, in Spanish only) on these two very shady secret societies. If more on them comes to light later on, I’m going to translate key bits and post them here, as I agree with Otto that they are significant–they appear to have provided cover for some serious terrorist plotting and other criminal activities as well.Meanwhile, I’m doing the old Googly-moogly on Denver Pedraza, the attorney for these two accused, who are suspected bagmen and/or weapons suppliers to the cell. Here are a few things I’ve found so far:According to a May 1 news item on a Canadian Bolivia solidarity site, Pedraza is himself under corruption charges. The charges stem back to when Pedraza was district chief of DIRCABI Santa Cruz, the district directorate of the national registry, controller and administrator of confiscated property. For this reason, according to the juridical director of the Ministry of Government, Rubén Gamarra, Pedraza “has no moral authority to summon any governmental authorities”–this in reference to his wanting to meet with Evo. Instead, he’s been asked to hand over the information to the Public Ministry to be processed according to established legal procedure. Pedraza was made district chief of DIRCABI Santa Cruz on July 21, 2006, and fired just nine months later, after Alfredo Rada, the Minister of Government, found irregularities in his management of the office. Pedraza is accused of having taken a confiscated car and then crashed it in a state of intoxication. Several bottles of wine were found inside at the scene. It wasn’t the only confiscated car he took, either–he is accused of having given two armored vehicles, a Fiat and a Citroën, worth $50,000 US apiece, to the mother of a man charged in a drug-trafficking case. He only returned one–“totally dismantled”. The other is still unaccounted for. Yet another confiscated vehicle, a Suzuki, was also “irregularly used” and involved in a traffic accident; Pedraza was found to have ordered the transfer of some persons in it, and to date has not paid for the repairs incurred as a result of the incident. He also rented out a confiscated building, on the corner of San Aurelio Avenue and Segundo Anillo in the city of Santa Cruz as a billboard for large advertisements. The renters were charged $700 US for a year’s use of the space. This money did not go to DIRCABI, but to Pedraza’s own pocket, even though he had been fired. Several pieces of confiscated jewelry were also found to be missing from the safe at DIRCABI headquarters, and Pedraza later admitted that they were in “a secure location”, and returned them after they were found in his home!Gee, he sounds like quite the character, doesn’t he? But nonetheless, he’s entirely par for the course if you’re talking about crooked bigwigs in the city of Santa Cruz, which has no shortage of those. (Why do you think so many of them are banding together in clandestine “lodges” to kill Evo? Among other things, he’s cracking down on corruption. Duh!)According to this piece in the very right-wing (and smelly) Bolivian news site El Deber, Pedraza claims there are persons in the federal government and the National Police linked to weapons trafficking. Could this be what he wanted to meet with Evo about? Or is he accusing Evo, and trying to drag him into court? This might explain why his “requests” for a “meeting” were rejected on the grounds of his lack of moral standing. Oh, and get this: Pedraza claims to be a MAS supporter (that is, of Evo’s party, the Movement Toward Socialism)! He also points the finger at Alfredo Rada (mentioned above), and Major Johnny Tapia, former federal police officer (and head of Delta Squadron) and currently chief of police in Plan 3000, a mostly-indigenous suburb of the city of Santa Cruz. Tapia of course denies it, and I have yet to see anything worth crediting pertaining to charges against Rada, either. The same piece also uncritically characterizes the far-right astroturf group, the “Human Rights Foundation”, as “apolitical”, which is the dirtiest joke I’ve heard all week. (I did say El Deber was smelly, did I not?)BTW, I’m looking for the video in which Pedraza gives the interview mentioned in the ABI article at the top of this piece. If anyone knows where I can find it, drop me a note in the comments section and I’ll post it here so you can see him for yourself and judge how trustworthy/noteworthy/whatever you find him.Denver Pedraza, the defence attorney for the Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC) members Carlos Gueder Bruno and Alcides Mendoza Masavi, implicated in the activities of a presumed terrorist cell dismantled in Santa Cruz, linked Senator Walter Guiteras to the suspected trafficking of weapons in 2006, which were to be used against the government.“Senator Guiteras, of the Podemos opposition party, was one of the persons allegedly trafficking weapons through the zone, via one of his properties,” Pedraza revealed in an interview with a local TV station.Pedraza named a family, the Farfáns, as suspected ringleaders of an organization which trafficked weapons in the department of Beni, although he did not specify a precise location of the property in question.“This terrorist event has a name and surname. As of 2006-7, a great many weapons entered Bolivia, especially in the departments of Santa Cruz and Beni,” Pedraza said.[…]Pedraza also revealed that as of 2006, when the weapons began coming into the country, and in 2007-8, “the ‘lodges’ Toborochi, Caballeros del Oriente, and a group of members who ran the companies CRE (electricity), COTAS (telecommunications) and SAGUAPAC (water) began to react [against the Morales government].”[…]Pedraza said that these “lodges” immediately organized, and that there was a hunger strike in Santa Cruz, “and then the idea arose among some people there to kill Dr. Hugo Salvatierra, who was Minister of Agriculture, and Dr. Chato Peredo.”These declarations come as the Public Ministry investigates events relating to a terrorist cell which operated in Santa Cruz, which intended to divide Bolivia and made attempts on the life of President Evo Morales. In previous declarations made last week, Pedraza had already made known that he possessed much important information relating to the terrorism case, and asked to meet with President Morales.
