The Ecuador default Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your links included, please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

This week's big news: Ecuador defaults on its foreign debt, basically because it doesn't want to:

And while developing world economies have taken a sharp turn for the worse in recent months, Ecuador is ceasing payments not because the oil-rich country cannot afford to pay but because it has made a political decision not to.

The default is Ecuador’s second in a decade and seventh in its 178-year history. More links and posts below.

LATIN AMERICA
The Real Latin-American Left: One We Can Work With

Caracas Russians, Managua Misrule

Latin American Democrats Need U.S. Support
Free trade is one way to help prevent the resurgence of autocracy in the region.

ARGENTINA
Economic Storm Batters Argentina's Breadbasket
Sharp Price Drop Brings Sudden End To Good Times

BOLIVIA
Observatorio de Medios de Bolivia reveló que suman 245 los ataques a periodistas en el último año; alarmante crecimiento desde septiembre de 2008

Evo admite que la Unasur no es plenamente legal

Via American Digest, “Coca Si, Cocaina No”. Let’s hope Aldana Cohen is better informed about his topic than he is about Coca Cola. Coca Cola hasn’t contained any cocaine since 1929.

BRAZIL
Israel's El Al plans direct flights to Brazil

CHILE
A heroic pooch

COLOMBIA
Alleged Colombian coke kingpin in U.S.

Reputed one-time Colombian cocaine kingpin Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez is in Florida after being extradited from his South American homeland, U.S. officials say.

Known as "Don Diego," Montoya Sanchez allegedly once commanded the North Valley cartel, a narco-trafficking empire that exported at least 1.2 million pounds of cocaine to the United States. But Friday he was sitting in a tiny federal jail cell in Miami, The Miami Herald reported.

U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said the Colombian's extradition marked a historic point in efforts by the United States to smash the vast cartel, saying Montoya Sanchez's arrest was the most significant since the convictions of brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela, the 1980s leaders of Colombia's Cali cartel.

CUBA
Allegations of Biological Weapons Research in Cuba Need Clearing Up

Guantanamo’s Jihad: The Show Begins…

Elián González marks his 15th birthday

¿Cumpleaños o aniversario?

Obama Should Put the Castros in Their Place

Vladimir Alejo Miranda, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 12/14/08

Buques rusos atracarán en Cuba por primera vez desde caída de URSS Russian ships landing in Cuba for the first time since the fall of the USSR. Russian navy: Russian warships to visit Cuba

ECUADOR
The return of the 1980s?

Ecuador decides to stiff creditors

ECUADOR DEFAULTS ON FOREIGN DEBT

Ecuador Default May Hit ‘True Monsters’ Harder Than Argentina

What Did the U.S. Congress Do With Correa's Propagandists and Ministra Viteri?

HAITI
Nutritional value of World Food Program rice distributed in Haiti questioned

MEXICO
Arrested: Suspected Killers of Sheriff’s Deputy. But Was It Ordered by the Mexican Mafia?

Mexico: Growing Terror and Close to Collapse

NICARAGUA
More backyard fun

PARAGUAY
Urgent prayer request

PERU
Innocents Die in the Drug War

PUERTO RICO
Who let the big cat out of the bag? Puerto Rico searches for panther prowling suburbs

Wildlife officials patrolled streets and undeveloped lots in a sort of suburban safari Sunday, searching for a nocturnal predator that has mauled a sheep, ripped apart chickens and dominated newspaper headlines in the tropical U.S. territory since last week.

I didn't know there were any sheep or chickens in Rio Piedras, either.

VENEZUELA
Miguel Octavio was part of a Round Table discussion at the White House on Human Rights Day

Systematic abuse and compulsive lies

A great Venezuelan gets an award

The ultimate idiotic conspiracy theory: The US created credit crisis to get back at Hugo and other revolutionaries

Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape

Venezuela Debt Rating Outlook Cut to Negative by S&P

Black-Out Blights Venezuela for the 4th Time This Year
Power Outage in Caracas Brings Out Social Traits

Via Brazilian Neocon, Jaime Bayly on Chavez's Alo Presidente's diarrhea program, part 1 (in Spanish)


Part 2


AMERICAN POLITICS
Texas Hispanics upset with Democrats

ENTERTAINMENT
Killer Chic: Hollywood’s sick love affair with Che Guevara

Che what

Special thanks to Ada, Baron B., Eneas, Larwyn and Maggie.

This week's podcasts and posts
Obama makes it to the Nativity scene
Soderbergh’s Chegasm





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Hope and Che

Via Sam,


Click on photo for the article. As if Che ever gave any thought to the pain of all his victims.



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Che's children want "respect, not money". Yeah, right.

Via Instapundit,
'Che' Brand Irks Guevara's Children
Che's children tired of the use of revolutionary's image for corporate profit

Two of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's children said Thursday they were tired of seeing their father's image used to sell everything from T-shirts to vodka, calling the growth of the revolutionary as a global super-brand "embarrassing."

Aleida Guevara, the eldest of Guevara's four children by his second wife, Cuban revolutionary Aleida March, said the commercialization of her father's image contributed to tension between rich and poor in some countries.
...
"We don't want money, we demand respect," wrote [Aleida] Guevara.

This reminds me of a guy I once knew who hated the girl he wanted but couldn't have.

We'll see whether Aleida changes her tune once she can legally get paid royalties in Cuba, where she now lives - or in Argentina, where she procured citizenship for her children.



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Benicio wins the Cannes' Best Actor award...

...for glorifying a psychopath mass murderer: Benicio Del Toro, 'Latino Brad Pitt', wins Cannes award as 'Che'

"I'd like to dedicate this to the man himself, Che Guevara," said the actor, after accepting his second big award under the US director's helmsmanship.

"I wouldn't be here without Che Guevera, and through all the awards the movie gets you'll have to pay your respects to the man."

As if there was anything to respect about Che Guevara.

The article continues,

Some critics slammed the film shot in Spanish for its length and meticulous documentary-style presentation, as well as for failing to focus on the politically controversial aspects of the Cuban revolution.

Soderbergh needed to tighten it for average movie-goers, they said.

Benicio has his share of the blame for this aberration:

Del Toro, who has a quiet but immensely strong presence, was involved from the start on the "Che" film, which took nine years of research and 60 million dollars to complete.

Too bad he couldn't spare fifteen minutes in the Cuba Archive.

I fully expect Benicio will get an Oscar for this movie. For now, he also got a Come Mierda Of the Week Award

Prior post: Benicio's Che vs reality's Che.



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Benicio's Che vs reality's Che

Maria sent me the link to the NYT's review of the Cannes Film Festival review of the unfinished "saga" on the most romanticized serial murderer in the world, Che. (Erik skipped that one. It was a bore.)

There's a couple of interesting things about this film review:

First, the title of the article: Soderbergh and Che, Provocateurs, which summarizes Soderbergh's intention. Provocateur, being edgy, rhapsodizing about the revolution, and worshipping the idol of the bien pensant around the world. For that he is regarded as

one of the most protean and interesting of American filmmakers, exploring an astonishing range of genres and styles with consistent skill, intelligence and audacity

Protean indeed.
Soderbergh wasn't audacious enough to show the names of the hundreds of people Che personally killed.

Then there's the photo in the article,

Benicio in full Che drag, pistol in hand, being the very picture of the heroic bandido of popular lore.

And third, the reviewer, who gets paid to sit through the "four-and-a-half-hour exploration", at least has the delicacy to mention that

There is a lot, however, that the audience will not learn from this big movie, which has some big problems as well as major virtues. In between the two periods covered in "Che," Guevara was an important player in the Castro government, but his brutal role in turning a revolutionary movement into a dictatorship goes virtually unmentioned. This, along with Benicio Del Toro’s soulful and charismatic performance, allows Mr. Soderbergh to preserve the romantic notion of Guevara as a martyr and an iconic figure, an idealistic champion of the poor and oppressed. By now, though, this image seems at best naïve and incomplete, at worst sentimental and dishonest.

This is bad, not because preserving a romantic image of a mass murderer, but because "it is not very interesting."

Now let's examine the real Che as depicted by another interesting, skilled and intelligent man who I had the pleasure of meeting a few months ago, Carlos Eire. Carlos writes about Che the homophobe:

He thinks about that cruel ritual he has witnessed so many times, when the guards strip all the prisoners naked and parade the most handsome in front of the newly arrived inmates to find out who among them is gay. He thinks about how anyone who gets aroused is taken away for a special mandatory "rehabilitation" program that includes the application of electrical currents to the genitals.

The NYT photo from the movie gives you the impression that Che was heroic in battle, when instead

The "acrid odor of gunpowder and blood" never reached Guevara's nostril from actual combat. It always came from the close-range murder of bound, gagged and blindfolded men. He was a true Chekist: "Always interrogate your prisoners at night," Che commanded his prosecutorial goons. "A man is easier to cow at night, his mental resistance is always lower."

Humberto Fontova writes about Che's specialty:

Che specialized in psychological torture. Many prisoners were yanked out of their cells, bound, blindfolded and stood against The Wall. The seconds ticked off. The condemned could hear the rifle bolts snapping ..... finally – FUEGO!!

BLAM!! But the shots were blanks. In his book, "Tocayo," Cuban freedom fighter Tony Navarro describes how he watched a man returned to his cell after such an ordeal. He'd left bravely, grim-faced as he shook hands with his fellow condemned. He came back mentally shattered, curling up in a corner of the squalid cell for days.

And the NYT article doesn't show the firing squads of Cuban revolution:


No, the NYT writes up an unfinished movie. The same NYT which, to this day, won't bother reviewing Carlos Eire's book Waiting For Snow In Havana, even when the book won the National Book Award.

It's all a matter of priorities.

UPDATE, Monday 26 May
Benicio wins Cannes best actor award...



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Obama {hearts} Che

At NewsBusters

Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama already has an issue with wearing American Flag lapel pins, and even with putting his hand over his heart when the American National Anthem is playing. It will be interesting to see how he'll react (if at all) to the flag hanging in one of his new campaign offices in Houston, Texas.

Yep, that's right -- that is the national flag of Cuba hanging on the wall with none other than Che Guevara superimposed on it.

Check out the video here.

(h/t Kate)

Ed Morrissey points out that John Cole sees nothing wrong with a presidential campaign office hanging the picture of a mass murderer who created the Cuban concentration camp system, because, after all, Ed's a party flack.

John needs to catch up on his reading.

Val has more.

Tonight on Blog Talk Radio, Humberto Fontova at Political Vindication

Tonight at 9PM Eastern Political Vindication will have as a podcast guest Humberto Fontova, author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara, and Fidel, Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant. I'll be calling in.

The second Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Welcome! This week's posts on Latin America and the Caribbean are:

On Latin America in general:
Wealth and Nations, via Dr Sanity

Latin American Report

SOS: Truth Telling Deeply Needed for Latin America (link now corrected)

ARGENTINA:
Via Eneas of the Hispanic American Center for Economic Research, Corruption in Argentinian election - 28-October-2007 [video]

Via Siggy, Don't Cry For Me, Argentina: Jewish community welcomes new president, who has taken a strong position against terrorism and the Dirty War.

BOLIVIA:
Learning English through avatars

CUBA
Poster relates Che's dark side

"The Victims of Che Guevera" poster, produced by the Young America's Foundation, centers on a collage that uses tiny photos of those killed by Cuba's communist regime to compose the face of the Marxist guerrilla, who has become a popular T-shirt icon.

Via Larwyn, WaPo Writer Waxes Poetic for Castro Regime Control Mechanism

Castro's Cuba

Son: [Oscar Elias] Biscet is "an inspiration"; The unyielding ones

ECUADOR
The Vatican Denounces Chavez-Correa anti-Freedom Constitutional Epidemic

HAITI
Again... UN Troops Involved In Another Child Sex Scandal

MEXICO
Chucha Libre

NICARAGUA
Nica news for Nov 2

VENEZUELA
Venezuela's Constitutional Reform continues the item-by-item review

The New York Times Does PDVSA: The Perils of Petrocracy

EXPOSING THE CHAVEZ NIGHTMARE IN LATIN AMERICA

When Hugo Met Naomi

Troops Attack Venezuelan Protesters - Again

Venezuela Congress OKs ending Chavez term limits; Via Larwyn, Venezuela Circling the Drain

OTHERS LINKING THE CARNIVAL:
A colombo-americana's perspective
Babalu
Dr. Sanity
ECrisis
Heading to Retirement
The Washington Times





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Che's dead & his monument's shot

Via Maria,

Glass Monument to Che in Venezuela Shot

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government.
Images of the 8-foot-tall glass plate bearing Guevara's image, now toppled and shattered, were shown Friday on state television, which said the entire country "repudiated" the vandalism.

The monument on an Andean mountain highway near the city of Merida was unveiled Oct. 8 by Vice President Jorge Rodriguez and Cuba's ambassador to Venezuela to mark the 40th anniversary of Guevara's death.

Will the locals turn in whoever did it? I doubt it. Notice who inagurated the monument.

Che gets a bullet between the eyes.


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Iran is not your friend: Putin and Che's daughter get a taste of Iranian hospitality

SPECIAL PODCAST TONIGHT
Is Iran a proxy for Russia?
Putin finally made it to Tehran today after some hesitation due to an assasination threat.

The official word is

"Of course I am going to Iran," he said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "If I always listened to all the various threats and the recommendations of the special services I would never leave home."

The remark played into the carefully crafted image of a fearless leader that Putin has cultivated, and also appeared aimed at emphasizing that he is in control - not under undue influence from security officials - as he maneuvers to maintain influence after his presidential term ends next year.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini dismissed reports about the purported assassination plot as disinformation spread by adversaries hoping to spoil good relations between Russia and Iran.

While Russia's fearless leader (who is the first Russian leader to visit Iran since Stalin) and the Iranian spokesman want to put lipstick on that pig of a visit, it sounds to me like the intelligence services from both countries do not mutually trust each other well enough to have kept the purported threat from becoming public. The source for the news appears to have come from Putin's own staff:

Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the BBC that such reports were "very serious".

It's one thing when threats like that are revealed in open societies. It's another thing altogether when both countries involved are not.

Of course, Putin's fearlessness has a lot to do with that nuclear plant ("for peaceful purposes") Russia's building the Iranians, and with a heck of a lot of Caspian Sea oil that would allow Putin to tighten a stranglehold on the EU's fuel supply.

So far, the Iranians aren't paying Russia the bills on the power plant, but the Iranians still have much to gain,

Iranian media also emphasized the importance of Putin's trip. "Iran can use the visit to lobby for getting our nuclear dossier out of the U.N. Security Council and Russia can strengthen its opposition to the U.S. through boosting ties with Tehran," the hard-line newspaper Resalat said in an editorial.

Which brings me to the next story, by Amir Taheri at the NY Post, TEHRAN'S PRICE FOR 'SOLIDARITY'
MULLAHS SEEK USEFUL MARXIST IDIOTS

ANXIOUS to create what they call "a global progressive front," Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela are sponsoring projects to underline "the ideological kinship of the left and revolutionary Islam."

The theme - hammered in by Ahmadinejad during his recent visit to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia - inspired a four-day seminar organized by his supporters at Tehran University last week (partly financed by Chavez).

This, of course, is part of the PR campaign against the USA, as was Ahmadinejad's visit to the three stooges last month. But it's a lot easier being the host and having the stooges come visit you:

The conference title was "Che Like Chamran," a play on words designed to emphasize "the common goals" of Marxism and Islamism. It honored Mostafa Chamran on the 26th anniversary of his death, which coincided with the 40th anniversary of the death of the Cuban-Argentine guerrilla icon Che Guevara.

Interestingly, Che and Chamran died at strategic points in their countries' histories, too:

Chamran was a Khomeinist militant of Iranian origin who became a U.S. citizen in the '60s before traveling to Lebanon, where he founded the Amal guerrilla group. He entered Iran in 1979 and helped the mullahs seize power. Appointed defense minister by Khomeini in '81, he died in a car crash a few months later.

The conference had three guests of honor: Mahdi Chamran, a brother of Mostafa and an Ahmadinejad associate, and Che's daughter Aleida and son Camilo.

Aleida, a pediatrician who lives in Havana, wore the mandatory Khomeinist hijab, while her brother had grown designer stubble to please the hosts. Also attending were an array of aging European and Latin American "Guevaristas" and Lebanese Hezbollah cadres.

Things were going along swimmingly until Aleida Guevara, who must have found time to travel to Tehran after trying to get Argentinian citizenship for her Cuban children, demanded the right to speak.

Oopsie.

Not only that, she publicly contradicted the keynote speaker, who claimed that Che was "a truly religious man who believed in God and hated communism and the Soviet Union."

Ha!

Demanding the right to respond, Aleida Guevara told the conference that Qassemi's claim might be based on a bad translation: "My father never mentioned God," she said as the hall sighed in chagrined disbelief. "He never met God."

The remarks caused a commotion amid which Aleida and her brother were whisked away, led into a car and driven to their hotel under escort.

But the poop didn't hit the fan until later in the evening, by the end of which both Aleida and her brother Camilo "had become nonpersons", in Taheri's words, and the Iranians had forgetten that Che was a Marxist.

I'm willing to bet Vlad's not hitting the mosques on this trip, but I am sure there'll be some discussion regarding that UN Security Council seat.

Related reading: Connecting Dots On The Axis Of Evil

Iran is already active in Syria, but it's also active much closer to home. Through small starter projects such as the manufacture of tractors and small-arms cooperatives, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has set up joint projects with Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who supports Iran's nuclear program and seeks one of his own.

Last month, Iran's leader announced a $1 billion investment in Bolivia for projects that could include Iranian mining for Bolivian uranium. Such cooperation may have political rather than economic purposes. The countries seek to disguise their aims just as the higher powers of the axis seek to deceive about theirs. It may not be a threat today, but it's certain to be a problem on the horizon tomorrow if the axis is not acknowledged.

We'll continue to keep an eye on these actors.
SPECIAL PODCAST TONIGHTIs Iran a proxy for Russia?
In tonight's special podcast, Siggy and I will discuss if Iran is a proxy for Russia.
We'll also have live chat during the podcast. Join us!




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The Beeb {hearts} Che

Last week I predicted

expect another fellational report soon since "the island prepares for commemorations to mark Che Guevara's death 40 years ago."

I didn't have a long wait:
On Friday: Che: The icon and the ad

Today: Hero. Rebel. Revolutionary. These are words one often hears in association with Ernesto Che Guevara. And, of course, reporting about the compulsory attendance rallies as if they were voluntary: Cuba pays tribute to Che Guevara

Other commemorations are being held in Bolivia and Venezuela, countries where the Argentine-born hero was active.

In today's video, which must have been narrated while the worshipful reporter was kneeling down: Forty years after the death of Che Guevara some of the people who fought alongside him have paid tribute. Starting with the opening words,

The Argentine revolutionary, Ernesto Che Guevara, a visionary, a man of ideas

But the reporter doesn't stop there:

the Argentine doctor... after the victorious revolution in Cuba... he is still remembered in Bolivia with affection by those who fought alongside him... but the poverty and injustice he fought against have not gone away

Wait - there's more:

If you go to the Spanish BBC page, the Beeb actually has a video of testimonials to go with the Remembering Che memorial page, complete with flash quotes from their beloved:
"Hay que endurecerse sin jamas perder la ternura" (We must toughen up without losing tenderness);
"Seamos realistas y hagamos lo imposible" (Let's be realistic and do the impossible);
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado" (I'd rather die standing than live on my knees);
"El conocimento nos hace responsables" (Knowledge makes us responsible);
"Si no hay cafe para todos no habra para nadie" (If there's not enough coffee for all, there won't be any for anyone).

The Beeb forgot this words, also from Che: "We don't need proof to execute a man. We only need proof that it's necessary to execute him. A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate."

The Beeb buried in a corner a link to El Che, el déspota which talks about Che's executions, glossed over by saying that Che wasn't perfect because he was only human.

The Beeb has paid tribute indeed, as does the Tehran Times

Not one name of the 216 documented victims of Che Guevara in Cuba in 1957-1959 (PDF file).

Not a word about Che's homophobia:

He thinks about that cruel ritual he has witnessed so many times, when the guards strip all the prisoners naked and parade the most handsome in front of the newly arrived inmates to find out who among them is gay. He thinks about how anyone who gets aroused is taken away for a special mandatory "rehabilitation" program that includes the application of electrical currents to the genitals.

(From Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana, page 256).

Then there's Che's specialty:

Che specialized in psychological torture. Many prisoners were yanked out of their cells, bound, blindfolded and stood against The Wall. The seconds ticked off. The condemned could hear the rifle bolts snapping ..... finally – FUEGO!!

BLAM!! But the shots were blanks. In his book, "Tocayo," Cuban freedom fighter Tony Navarro describes how he watched a man returned to his cell after such an ordeal. He'd left bravely, grim-faced as he shook hands with his fellow condemned. He came back mentally shattered, curling up in a corner of the squalid cell for days.

While the Beeb shows plenty of photos, it doesn't show this one:

Humberto Fontova speaks on Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Watch his entire lecture - all forty-five minutes.

And by the way, Che didn't have a medical degree. Fontova has documented that on the last day of his life Che admitted he was not a doctor.

The Monkey Tennis Centre has more on The BBC’s vile infatuation with Che Guevara. Blue Crab Boulevard is posting. Babalu has more. Don't miss Marc Masferrer's essay on Che Guevara's bloody legacy.

As Paul Berman said, The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara is an episode in the moral callousness of our time.



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"US Cuba embargo lasts 45 years"; Beeb shills for Castro all along

Most mornings I watch the BBCA news at 6AM Eastern. It never ceases to provide blogging material.

Today they had reporter Michael Voss, who sounds a lot like Monty Python's Eric Idle, reporting on the 45th year old "embargo". He's repeating the same-old same-old, decades-old, Cuban communist party soudbites those of us who follow Caribbean news have been hearing ad nauseam.

They even show Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque saying "El bloqueo es una guerra economica a escala parlamentaria" (The blockade is economic warfare on a parliamentary scale), which the Beeb promptly mistranslates as "The embargo is economic warfare on a global scale."

Then we have the same-old same-old shots of ancient American cars and decrepit Russian vehicles puttering down the sad streets of Havana. Eric Idle's sound-alike forgets to mention what is "Martha Beatriz"'s last name (it's Martha Beatriz Roque, Michael, and she was arrested last week) but points out that the press conference where she spoke took place at the home of the US envoy.

The Ladies in White fared better than Ms Roque, since Miriam Leiva states that the Cuban government has been using the embargo as a pretext for opression.

Voss ignores two things:
1. Over one hundred countries in the world are free to trade with Cuba and in fact 20% Cuba's agricultural products came from the U.S. in 2002 and U.S. farmers and agribusiness total half a billion dollars' trade since 2001
2. The reason Cuba is broke is because COMMUNISM DOESN'T WORKBut today the Beeb's worshipful stance doesn't end there. They have - yes, you guessed it - an article about Cuba's free, government-provided healtchare: Cuban doctors working in Bolivia have saved the sight of the man who executed revolutionary leader Che Guevara in 1967.

And where did the Beeb get the story from? Cuban official media. Which of course makes it true:

But Cuban media took up the story at the weekend as the island prepares for commemorations to mark Che Guevara's death 40 years ago.

Outsiders who have been observing for decades the media reporting from Cuba are well aware that reporters who don't toe the propaganda line and who don't go to bed with the Party get thrown out of the island prison.

I predict the BBC will stay safely ensconced in Cuba, at least for as long as the Party is pleased. And pleased they are.

In the short term, however, expect another fellational report soon since "the island prepares for commemorations to mark Che Guevara's death 40 years ago."

Michael's going to be on the front row center seat for that.
UPDATE, Monday 6 October: Sure enough, the Beeb does a Che tribute like no other.



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Les enfants du paradis communiste

The title refers to an old French movie but the post has to do with the current propaganda trend in central New Jersey, which implies that the viewer should take it all in, in an attitude of child-like innocence.

First we had the Princeton "Human Rights" Film Festival, now there's the Che show at the Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick (emphasis on gross), gloriously promoted in the local paper as,

The continued power of Che Guevara as a symbol of hope and opposition across cultures is examined at Mason Gross Galleries.

I'll give you some data on the "symbol of hope and opposition": here's a list of 216 documented victims of Che Guevara in Cuba, 1957-1959 (pdf file). Here's another list compiled by Dr. Armando Lago for his book,

EXECUTED BY CHE IN THE SIERRA MAESTRA MOUNTAINS
ARUSTIDIO
MANUEL CAPITAN
JUAN CHANG
EUTIMIO GUERRA
DIONISIO LEBRIGIO
JUAN LEBRIGIO
EL NEGRO NAPOLES
CHICHO OSORIO
DOS "NO-IDENTIFICADOS'' EN EL 04/57

EXECUTED BY CHE IN SANTA CLARA CITY
RAMON ALBA
JOSE BARROSO
JOAQUIN CASILLAS
FELIX CRUZ
HECTOR MIRABAL
J. MIRABAL
FELIX MONTANO
CORNELIO ROJAS
ALEJANDRO GARCIA OLAYON
ALEJANDRO ROJAS
VILALLA

EXECUTED BY CHE AT LA CABA�A PRISON IN HAVANA
VILAU ABREU
HUMBERTO AGUIAR
GERMAN AGUIRRE
PELAYO ALAYON
JOSE LUIS ALFARO
PEDRO ALFARO
MARIANO ALONSO
JOSE ALVARO
ANIELLA
MARIO ARES POLO
JOSE RAMON BACALLAO
CEVERINO BARRIOS
EUGENIO BECKER
FRANCISCO BECKER
RAMON BISCET
ROBERTO CALZADILLA
EUFEMIO CANO
JUAN CAPOTE FIALLO
ANTONIO CARRALERO
GERTRUDIS CASTELLANOS
JOSE CASTA�O QUEVEDO
RAUL CASTA�O
EUFEMIO CHALA
JOSE CHAMACE
JOSE CHAMIZO
RAUL CLAUSELL
ANGEL CLAUSELL
DEMETRIO CLAUSELL
JOSE CLAUSELL
ELOY CONTRERAS
ROBERTO CORBO
EMILIO CRUZ
JUAN FELIPE CRUZ
ORESTES CRUZ
HUMBERTO CUEVAS
CUNY
ANTONIO DE BECHE
MATEO DELGADO
ARMANDO DELGADO
RAMON DESPAIGNE
JOSE DIAZ CABEZAS
ANTONIO DUARTE
RAMON FERNANDEZ OJEDA
RUDY FERNANDEZ
FERRAN ALFONSO
SALVADOR FERRERO
VICTOR FIGUEREDO
EDUARDO FORTE
UGARDE GALAN
RAFAEL GARCIA MU�IZ
ADALBERTO GARCIA
ALBERTO GARCIA
JACINTO GARCIA
EVELIO GASPAR
ARMADA GIL
JOSE GONZALEZ MALAGON
EVARISTO GONZALEZ
EZEQUIEL GONZALEZ
SECUNDINO GONZALEZ
RICARDO GRAO
BONIFACIO GRASSO
RICARDO GRAU
OSCAR GUERRA
JULIAN HERNANDEZ
FRANCISCO HERNANDEZ LEYVA (father of Pepe Hernandez)
ANTONIO HERNANDEZ
GERARDO HERNANDEZ
OLEGARIO HERNANDEZ
SECUNDINO HERNANDEZ
JESUS INSUA
ENRIQUE IZQUIERDO
OSMIN JORRIN
SILVINO JUNCO
ENRIQUE LAROSA
IGNACIO LAAAPARRA
JESUS LAZO
ARIEL LIMA LAGO
RAUL LOPEZ VIDAL
ARMANDO MAS
ENERLIO MATA
ELPIDIO MEDEROS
JOSE MEDINAS
JOSE MESA
FIDEL MESQUIA
JUAN MILIAN
FRANCISCO MIRABAL
LUIS MIRABAL
ERNESTO MORALES
PEDRO MOREJON
DR. CARLOS MUI�O
CESAR NECOLARDES ROJAS
VICTOR NECOLARDES ROJAS
JOSE NU�EZ
VITERBO O'RREILLY
FELIX OVIEDO
MANUEL PANEQUE
PEDRO PEDROSO
RAFAEL PEDROSO
DIEGO PEREZ CUESTA
JUAN PEREZ
DIEGO PEREZ CRELA
JOSE POZO
EMILIO PUEBLA
ALFREDO PUPO
SECUNDINO RAMIREZ
RAMON RAMOS
PABLO RAVELO
RUBEN REY
MARIO RISQUELME
FERNANDO RIVERA
PABLO RIVERA
MANUEL RODRIGUEZ
MARCOS RODRIGUEZ
NEMESIO RODRIGUEZ
PABLO RODRIGUEZ
RICARDO RODRIGUEZ
JOSE SALDARA
PEDRO SANTANA
SERGIO SIERRA
JUAN SILVA
FAUSTO SILVA
ELPIDIO SOLER
JESUS SOSA BLANCO
RENATO SOSA
SERGIO SOSA
PEDRO SOTO
OSCAR SUAREZ
RAFAEL TARRAGO
TEODORO TELLEZ
FRANCISCO TELLEZ
JOSE TIN
FRANCISCO TRAVIESO
LEONARDO TRUJILLO
TRUJILLO
LUPE VALDES
MARCELINO VALDES
ANTONIO VALENTIN
MANUEL VAZQUEZ
VERDECIA
DAMASO ZAYAS

Here's one instance of Che's modus operandi:

A Cuban gentleman named Pierre San Martin was also among those jailed by the gallant Che. A few years ago he recalled the horrors in an El Nuevo Herald article.

"Thirty-two of us were crammed into a cell," he recalls. "Sixteen of us would stand while the other sixteen tried to sleep on the cold filthy floor. We took shifts that way. Actually, we considered ourselves lucky. After all, we were alive. Dozens were led from the cells to the firing squad daily. The volleys kept us awake. We felt that any one of those minutes would be our last.

"One morning the horrible sound of that rusty steel door swinging open startled us awake and Che's guards shoved a new prisoner into our cell. His face was bruised and smeared with blood. We could only gape. He was a boy, couldn't have been much older than 12, maybe 14.

"'What did you do?' We asked horrified. 'I tried to defend my papa,' gasped the bloodied boy. 'I tried to keep these Communist sons of b**tches form murdering him! But they sent him to the firing squad.'"

Soon Che's goons came back, the rusty steel door opened and they yanked the valiant boy out of the cell. "We all rushed to the cell's window that faced the execution pit," recalls Mr. San Martin. "We simply couldn't believe they'd murder him! Then we spotted him, strutting around the blood-drenched execution yard with his hands on his waist and barking orders � the gallant Che Guevara.

"Here Che was, finally in his element. In battle he was a sad joke, a bumbler of epic proportions [for details see "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant"], but up against disarmed and bloodied boys he was a snarling tiger.

"'Kneel Down!' Che barked at the boy.

"'ASSASSINS!' We screamed from our window. 'MURDERERS!! HOW CAN YOU MURDER A LITTLE BOY!'

"'I said, KNEEL DOWN!' Che barked again.

"The boy stared Che resolutely in the face. 'If you're going to kill me,' he yelled. 'you'll have to do it while I'm standing! MEN die standing!'

"COWARDS! MURDERERS! Sons of B**TCHES!" The men yelled desperately from their cells. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" HOW CAN ...?!"

"And then we saw Che unholstering his pistol. It didn't seem possible. But Che raised his pistol, put the barrel to the back of the boy's neck and blasted. The shot almost decapitated the young boy.
"We erupted. We were enraged, hysterical, banging on the bars.'MURDERERS! ASSASSINS!' His murder finished, Che finally looked up at us, pointed his pistol, and BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! emptied his clip in our direction. Several of us were wounded by his shots."

To a man (and boy) Che's murder victims went down in a blaze of defiance and glory. So let's recall Che's own plea when the wheels of justice finally turned and he was cornered in Bolivia. "Don't Shoot!" he whimpered. "I'm Che! I'm worth more to you alive than dead!"

Don't expect to find any of that at the Mason Gross Galleries in New Brunswick.

This is what happens to artists in present-day Cuba.

May Day nonsense, and today's items

May Day came and went and Fidel didn't show up. I guess he's still waiting for his suits to come back from the cleaners.

Of course all the MSM had reporters in Havana breathlessly waiting for fidel to show up. And playing right along into the revolucion propaganda games. In yesterday's bloggers' call with Tony Snow, one of the questions asked was, what did TSnow think of the allegations by the reporter yesterday that Cuba's economic disaster is due to the US "embargo"; his reply was that there's an unbroken record of economic failure in socialist states, which comes as a direct result of repressing people.

Fidel was a no-show but Che's alive, at least in the minds of some.

I firmly support Ilya Somin's May Day proposal (h/t dr. Sanity)

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their regimes. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes' millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century's other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so. I suggest that May Day be turned into Victims of Communism Day. I am, of course, open to suggestions for the official name of this day of commemoration. Maybe someone will come up with a better one than I have.

The main alternative to May 1 is November 7, the anniversary of the communist coup in Russia. However, choosing that date might be interpreted as focusing exclusively on the Soviet Union, while ignoring the equally horrendous communist mass murders in China, Camobodia, and elsewhere. So May 1 is the best choice.

I have referred to in previous posts to The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. This book should be required reading at every college and university in this country and around the world.

All the same, name-calling is OK at CNN.
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Media Target: The US Military
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Taranto nails it: So according to the Beeb, you're controversial and divisive if leftists hate or distrust you.
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Speaking of controversial and divisive, NZ Bear's under attack. I suggest we all keep a cool head and give NZ a little time to reorganize his system. Dr Sanity had a moment of joy, too.

Special thanks to Larwyn for the links.

A poor choice of words

Larwyn emailed about this,

Un Goofo Grande
Mitt Romney committed a paso falso the other day when he spoke to a group of Cuban-Americans in Miami:

When he mistakenly associated Fidel Castro's trademark speech-ending slogan--Patria o muerte, venceremos!--with a free Cuba, listeners didn't laugh. They winced.

Castro has closed his speeches with the phrase--in English, ''Fatherland or death, we shall overcome''--for decades. . . .

Romney's fumble demonstrates the potential snags for state and national politicians trying to navigate the Cuban-American community of South Florida.

Ever since Ronald Reagan enthralled exiles by crying, ''Cuba si, Castro no,'' in a landmark 1983 visit to Little Havana, politicians have clamored, with mixed success, for the Spanish-speaking vote.

It's not so different from the candidates who court Broward County's heavily Jewish retirement condominiums, offering residents a free nosh and delivering their best schtick.

And if you do go to Broward, Gov. Romney, try to avoid the slogan "Arbeit macht frei."

I mentioned to Larwyn that Taranto makes a very apt comparison, as the rallying cry of the Cuban revolution, the older generation of Cubans will tell you that Che would preside over executions in Cuba and yell out the "Patria o muerte, venceremos" as he was giving the order to fire the rifles.

Please, please, if you're a political candidate, avoid the foreign language schtick altogether.

The Che myth

Michelle Malkin blogs that Target's pulled the Che CD case but still carries the Che Calendar.

Nothing shows what an ignoramus you are like having a Che Calendar hanging on your wall.

Yesterday I was talking to Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the WSJ, and I asked her, what book would she recommend for a quick primer on Che? Mary's choice is The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty by Alvaro Vargas Llosa, published by The Independent Institute. I read the whole book (67 pages of text) in one sitting last evening.

As it turns out, Alvaro had an epiphany because of Che's image hanging on a wall (page 2):

A few years later, I spent a semester studying at an American university. Che Guevara made a new attempt to seduce me. This time, my friends were mostly politically active Puerto Ricans who wanted their land to be independent.

It never ceases to amuse me how many independentistas come to the continental USA for college. But I digress.

One of them hung a poster of Che Guevara on his wall and, next to it, a picture of "Comrade Gonzalo", the genocidal leader of Shinning Path, Peru's Maoist organization.

And that's another thing: the rich Marxists. When I was at the University of Puerto Rico, one of the most Marxist guys around drove a convertible Jaguar. Now, when you realize that a Jaguar in Puerto Rico at that time cost twice what it cost in the continental USA, you really appreciate the meaning of the word irony. Alvaro continues (emphasis added),

As I came into the room one afternoon and this couple [Che and "Comrade Gonzalo"] faced me from the wall, I was paralyzed. It suddenly downed on me why my South American friend from boarding school had never been quite able to persuade me to take up Che.

There it was, pure and simple: just like Abimael Guzman, Che was the negation of what I most seemed to long for in this complicated word - freedom and peace. I must have vaguely sensed this at school, but now, for the first time, I was able to fully grasp a precious truth: one should never be confused by the many variations of that species: the tyrant. Stalinist Che Guevara and Maoist Abimael Guzman belonged to different camps and represented contrasting attitudes to life - the former being the quintessential pinup, the latter a bizarre recluse - but what they had in common, their lust for totalitarian power, was much more important than their differences.

I had experienced firsthand Shining Path's campaign of terror against the very poor peasants in whose name it purported to act. Like millions of Peruvians, I had personally been affected in different ways by this unlikely reincarnation of Cambodia's Pol Pot in the middle of the Andes. Seeing Che Guevara next to Guzman on a chic campus wall brought to light the ugly truth about the Argentine hero of the Cuban Revolution, but, more importantly, it inspired the poignant realization that all those prepared to use force to take life and property from their fellow men are soul mates whatever the ideological or moral subterfuge used to conceal their real motives. "Really, you should rip that off. You have no idea," I said to my friend, and I left the room quite disturbed.

Many years later, when I had the chance to encounter numerous other disguises for tyranny, some on the left but others on the right, I focused on that image from university as the starting point of a larger reflection. The conclusion I reached continues to haunt me today: there are myriad forms of oppression, some much more subtle than others, sometimes adorned with the theme of social justice and at other times obscured by the language of security, and recognizing and denouncing the deceitful psychological mechanisms with which the enemies of liberty attempt to bamboozle us into voluntary servitude is one of the urgent tasks of our times.

I highly recommend The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty

Dershowitz, Che, and today's items

Alan Dershowitz asks Why won't Carter debate his book?

When Larry King referred to my review several times to challenge Carter, Carter first said I hadn't read the book and then blustered, "You know, I think it's a waste of my time and yours to quote professor Dershowitz. He's so obviously biased, Larry, and it's not worth my time to waste it on commenting on him." (He never did answer King's questions.)

The next week Carter wrote a series of op-eds bemoaning the reception his book had received. He wrote that his "most troubling experience" had been "the rejection of [his] offers to speak" at "university campuses with high Jewish enrollment." The fact is that Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz had invited Carter to come to Brandeis to debate me, and Carter refused. The reason Carter gave was this: "There is no need to for me to debate somebody who, in my opinion, knows nothing about the situation in Palestine."

As Carter knows, I've been to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, many times -- certainly more times than Carter has been there -- and I've written three books dealing with the subject of Middle Eastern history, politics, and the peace process. The real reason Carter won't debate me is that I would correct his factual errors. It's not that I know too little; it's that I know too much.

Nor is Carter the unbiased observer of the Middle East that he claims to be. He has accepted money and an award from Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan , saying in 2001: "This award has special significance for me because it is named for my personal friend, Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan." This is the same Zayed, the long-time ruler of the United Arab Emirates, whose $2.5 million gift to the Harvard Divinity School was returned in 2004 due to Zayed's rampant Jew-hatred. Zayed's personal foundation, the Zayed Center, claims that it was Zionists, rather than Nazis, who "were the people who killed the Jews in Europe" during the Holocaust. It has held lectures on the blood libel and conspiracy theories about Jews and America perpetrating Sept. 11. Carter's acceptance of money from this biased group casts real doubt on his objectivity and creates an obvious conflict of interest.

Carter's refusal to debate wouldn't be so strange if it weren't for the fact that he claims that he wrote the book precisely so as to start debate over the issue of the Israel-Palestine peace process. If that were really true, Carter would be thrilled to have the opportunity to debate. Authors should be accountable for their ideas and their facts. Books shouldn't be like chapel, delivered from on high and believed on faith.

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Irwin, Echuta, and Val emailed on this: Target Pulls che guevara CD Case from Stores
Here's why it matters: WSJ (by subscription only)

Guevara is not just a dead white guy from a well-to-do family who terrorized a racially mixed nation and executed hundreds of thousands of innocents in the late 1950s and 1960s. He is also a symbol of the totalitarian regime that persists in Cuba, which still practices his ideology of intolerance, hatred and repression. It is not the torture and killing alone that make the tragedy. That only describes the methodology. Guevara's wider goal - to forcibly strip a population of its soul and spirit - is what is truly frightening and deplorable. Christians, who celebrate the birth of their Savior on Monday, have particularly suffered under Guevara's dream of revolution, which has lasted since 1959.

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Cinnammon thanks a serviceman at Christmas.
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A few articles from Maria
Why radical Islam - and why now?

Bust the joint up

Updates from Germany--War on homeschooling

The world in 2007
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Support Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Juan Compean of the Fabens, Texas Border Patrol Station
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Update: Don't miss also AP whitewashes Ahmadinejad (again)