Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalCuba leads fight against Ebola in Africa as west frets about border security
Cuba leads fight against Ebola in Africa as west frets about border security
The island nation has sent hundreds of health workers to help control the deadly infection while richer countries worry about their security – instead of heeding UN warnings that vastly increased resources are urgently needed
Monica Mark in Lagos
The Observer, Saturday 11 October 2014
As the official number of Ebola deaths in west Africa’s crisis topped 4,000 last week – experts say the actual figure is at least twice as high – the UN issued a stark call to arms. Even to simply slow down the rate of infection, the international humanitarian effort would have to increase massively, warned secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
“We need a 20-fold resource mobilisation,” he said. “We need at least a 20-fold surge in assistance – mobile laboratories, vehicles, helicopters, protective equipment, trained medical personnel, and medevac capacities.”
But big hitters such as China or Brazil, or former colonial powers such France and the UK, have not been stepping up to the plate. Instead, the single biggest medical force on the Ebola frontline has been a small island: Cuba.
That a nation of 11 million people, with a GDP of $6,051 per capita, is leading the effort says much of the international response. A brigade of 165 Cuban health workers arrived in Sierra Leone last week, the first batch of a total of 461. In sharp contrast, western governments have appeared more focused on stopping the epidemic at their borders than actually stemming it in west Africa. The international effort now struggling to keep ahead of the burgeoning cases might have nipped the outbreak in the bud had it come earlier.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/12/cuba-leads-fights-against-ebola-africa
Colombian port city where body parts wash up following screams in the dark
Colombian port city where body parts wash up following screams in the dark
Despite efforts to demobilise militias in Buenaventura, many ex-fighters still live by the gun in growing bands of torture gangs
Sibylla Brodzinsky in Buenaventura
The Guardian, Sunday 12 October 2014 12.07 EDT
So many different criminal groups have terrorised the slums of Colombia’s main Pacific port that residents rarely bother to learn the name of the latest clan in control. They simply call the warring gangs los malos or the bad guys.
The rival factions fight for control of some of the poorest neighbourhoods of Buenaventura, a city of 290,000 people that serves as the country’s gateway to the Pacific and handles about half of the country’s cargo. Many of the barrios are major routes for drug trafficking. They also happen to overlap with areas where the government and private investors are planning big infrastructure projects.
The criminals recruit children, extort businesses, force people from their homes and dismember live victims, scattering their remains in the bay or surrounding jungle. Dozens of wooden huts balanced precariously on stilts over the bay have been abandoned by terrorised citizens and taken over by the gangs for use as casas de pique, or chop houses, where they torture and murder their victims.
The chop houses are the most gruesome consequence of a deeply flawed attempt to dismantle rightwing militias, which originally emerged to combat leftwing guerrillas in collusion with state security forces and drug traffickers. These paramilitary groups were gradually demobilised from 2003, but many former fighters neither went to jail nor joined the reintegration programmes, choosing to by the gun as part of new criminal groups.
More:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/12/colombia-violence-torture-gangs-buenaventura
Two Arrested in Venezuela Lawmaker's Murder
Two Arrested in Venezuela Lawmaker's Murder
World | Agence France-Presse | Updated: October 12, 2014 22:53 IST
Two men have been arrested in Venezuela for the murder of a ruling party lawmaker and his assistant, a high-profile crime with political overtones, the country's supreme court said Sunday.
In a statement, the high court identified the suspects as Eduwin Torres and Carlos Garcia, but gave no other details about them.
Local news reports said Torres was a police officer and Garcia a bodyguard of slain lawmaker Robert Serra, who was found stabbed to death on October 2 at his home with his assistant Maria Herrera.
The court said the two men are accused of "the alleged commission of the crimes of aggravated homicide, conspiracy and other crimes."
If found guilty, they face up to 30 years in prison.
President Nicolas Maduro hinted a day after the murders that they were politically motivated, and his interior minister called it "an intentional act of homicide, planned and carried out with great precision."
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/two-arrested-in-venezuela-lawmaker-s-murder-605719?curl=1413136011
Bolivia: Has Evo Morales proven his critics wrong?
Bolivia: Has Evo Morales proven his critics wrong?
Bolivia's first indigenous president has tried to break with the country's neoliberal past - has he succeeded?
Last updated: 12 Oct 2014 07:33
Benjamin Dangl
Evo Morales will most likely be re-elected today because he is a better alternative than his neoliberal predecessors and their contemporary counterparts.
Morales' presidency is historic for a number of reasons. Consider the fact that before the 1952 National Revolution, indigenous people weren't even allowed to enter the Plaza Murillo in front of the presidential palace because they were believed to be too dirty and unsanitary. Now an indigenous president and poor farmer without a college education sits in the presidential palace itself, and is likely to be re-elected to a third term in office today with a huge wave of support.
Morales' presidency is also notable when considering his predecessors. For much of the past 30 years, Bolivian heads of state simply massacred workers when they didn't comply, sold off mineral wealth to foreign corporations while Bolivians remained bound in poverty, and worked closely with Washington to undermine the country's sovereignty and militarise coca producing regions.
As Bolivians head to the polls, this history will be present as voters reflect on this racist past and Morales' neoliberal predecessors (and their contemporary counterparts) who, rather than attempting to empower the indigenous and poor majority, typically repressed and exploited them.
More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/10/bolivia-evo-morales-proven-his-2014101251517262730.html
(My emphasis.)
Contras, Dirty Money and CIA
Contras, Dirty Money and CIA
December 19, 2013
From the Archive: On Dec. 20, 1989, President George H.W. Bush ordered the invasion of Panama to arrest Gen. Manuel Noriega on drug charges. The U.S. news media viewed the assault as a case of Bush seeking justice, but there was a darker back story of U.S. guilt, as Robert Parry reported in 1997.
By Robert Parry (Originally published in 1997)
On the afternoon of Oct. 2, 1987, John F. Molina, a 46-year-old Cuban with the look of a Latin Sean Connery, sauntered from the stylish Panama City offices of the law firm, Sucre y Sucre. Molina and his companion, Enrique Delvalle, had been clearing up business that they had with lawyers who had created shell corporations for an arms supply network for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels. The two men stepped out onto the busy street and climbed into Molina’s red Mitsubishi four-wheel-drive vehicle.
Without their noticing, a young bushy-haired man with a moustache darted toward the car. The young man raised a .32-caliber pistol, pointed it at Molina’s head and fired three times. Molina slumped across the front seat. For a moment, Delvalle thought Molina was reaching toward the opposite side door. Then, Delvalle realized that John Molina was dead.
The gunman fled on foot. He was chased and cornered by an armed bystander, and then was arrested by Panamanian police. In custody, the killer identified himself as Maximillano Casa Sanchez, a Colombian hit man. Casa Sanchez told police that Colombian narcotraffickers had sent him to Panama to rub out Molina over a drug debt.
In the following days, La Republica, a newspaper allied with then-dictator Manuel Noriega, played up the drug angle — and Molina’s ties to Noriega’s political enemies in the Cruzada Civilista. The newspaper also noted that in the 1970s, Molina was president of UniBank, or the Union de Bancos, the Panamanian outpost for the WFC Corp., a shadowy money-laundering network earlier known as World Finance Corporation and run by Miami-based Cuban-Americans with close ties to the CIA.
More:
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/19/contras-dirty-money-and-cia/
A Short History of Vultures
A Short History of Vultures
Long before Argentina’s latest default, there was Elliott Associates L.P. v. Republic of Panama.
BY Saskia Sassen
AUGUST 3, 2014
When Argentina defaulted on its debt for the second time in 13 years this week, the financial world was shocked, both by the default itself and, perhaps even more so, by the fact that a small minority of debt holders was willing to torpedo Argentina's debt restructuring. But while the fight between Buenos Aires and its creditors may be in the headlines now, it's not a new story. It began 18 years ago with a perversion of international law in a New York City court and a then-obscure hedge fund that was called a vulture.*
One firm in particular deserves the blame for Argentina's current situation -- or kudos for its innovation, depending on how you look at it. In 1977, Paul Singer founded the hedge fund Elliott Associates L.P. with $1.3 million from friends and family. For nearly two decades, the firm grew by investing in various equities markets. But in 1995 Elliott Associates transformed from just another New York City hedge fund to a pioneer in the world of international finance. And today, 19 years later, the newest iteration of the same fund has played a crucial role in bringing Argentina to default.
In October 1995, Elliott Associates L.P. purchased approximately $28.7 million of Panamanian sovereign debt for the discounted price of $17.5 million. The banks holding those bonds, a group that included heavy hitters like Citi and Credit Suisse, had given up on repayment from Panama. To cut their losses they sold their holdings to Elliott.
When Panama's government asked for a restructuring of its foreign debt in 1995, the vast majority of its bondholders agreed. Not Elliott. In July 1996, Elliott Associates, represented by one of the world's most high-profile securities law firms, filed a lawsuit against Panama in a New York district court seeking full repayment of the original $28.7 million -- plus interest and fees. The case made its way from a district court in Manhattan to the New York State Supreme Court, which sided with Elliott. Panama's government had to pay the firm over $57 million, with an additional $14 million going to other creditors.
More:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/03/a_short_history_of_vultures_argentina_default_elliott_associates_panama
Honduran President Wants Upgrades to Military Airport
Honduran President Wants Upgrades to Military Airport
Published 21 September 2014
Juan Orlando Hernandez will travel to Spain in coming days to ask Madrid to reinvest his country's debt into the Palmerola Airbase.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced that he will ask the Spanish government to reinvest Honduras' debt into the country's infrastructure, specifically discuss the construction of an airport at the former U.S. military airbase at Soto Cano, also known as Palmerola.
~ snip ~
Before the 2009 coup d'état against democratically elected Manuel Zelaya, his administration worked to turn the former U.S. military base at Soto Cano into a civilian airport. The plans were strongly opposed by the former U.S. ambassador in the country, especially as Zelaya intended develop the project with funding from the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and Venezuela's Petrocaribe.
The airbase was revitalized in the 1980s by the U.S. military and *used to supply counter-insurgency forces throughout Central America.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Honduran-President-Wants-Upgrades-to-Military-Airport-20140921-0018.html
*(Contras, Nicaragua)
Baby Doc is Dead But His Shadow Lingers Over Haiti: Duvalier vs. Aristide
Weekend Edition October 10-12, 2014
Baby Doc is Dead But His Shadow Lingers Over Haiti
Duvalier vs. Aristide
by BEN TERRALL
The October 4 death of former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in Port-au-Prince has justly garnered world-wide attention. But too much about current Haitian politics has been left out of this round of media coverage.
Duvalier’s father Francois, nicknamed Papa Doc, died in 1971 after years of brutal repression of anyone not in Duvalier Senior’s inner circle. When Papa Doc died in 1971, his 19-year-old son (aka Baby Doc) was soon declared the new President for Life. The elder Duvalier had maintained power in no small part by successfully currying power with Washington, and his son did an even more impressive job of winning essential economic, political, and military support from the U.S. In his essential volume Damming the Flood, historian Peter Hallward explains that in return for that backing, Duvalier “…[provided] the sort of investment climate his patrons had come to expect – minimal taxes, a virtual ban on trade unions, the preservation of starvation wages, the removal of any restrictions on the repatriation of profits.”
But Duvalier’s iron-fisted rule, in which many thousands of people were slaughtered, broke down in the face of a courageous popular uprising of the downtrodden poor masses. This grassroots opposition was largely nurtured by community-based church groups, called ti legliz in Haitian kreyol, which were inspired by liberation theology and its focus on a “preferential option for the poor.”
With the help of the U.S. government, Duvalier and his wife fled with hundreds of millions of dollars for exile in Paris.
Duvalier’s return to Haiti in 2011 was met with gasps of horror from most of the populace but celebrated by his friends in the ruling elite, including the current president Michel Martelly. Duvalier retained a passionate hatred for Lavalas, the movement of the poor majority. Lavalas (which means “flood” in kreyol) was and still is led by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It was created to help the poor rise “from misery to poverty with dignity.” Aristide was elected president twice by large majorities but forced from office by U.S.-orchestrated coups in both 1991 and 2004. After a seven year global campaign of pressure combined with sustained grassroots activity in Haiti, Aristide and his family returned to their homeland in March of 2011.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/10/duvalier-vs-aristide/
Morales a shoo-in for third-term victory
Morales a shoo-in for third-term victory
By CARLOS VALDEZ, Associated Press | October 10, 2014 | Updated: October 10, 2014 2:03pm
[font size=1]
Photo By Juan Karita/AP
A supporter of Bolivia's President Evo Morales,who is running for re-election with the Movement Toward Socialism,
MAS, attends the closing campaign rally in El Alto, Bolivia, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Bolivia will hold general
elections on Sunday. [/font]
EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — Evo Morales, the former coca growers' union leader who seems certain to win an unprecedented third term in Sunday's presidential elections, has become such an institution in Bolivia that stadiums, markets, schools, state enterprises and even a village have been named in his honor.
The country's first indigenous president long ago capitalized on his everyman origins, anti-imperialist rhetoric and his Movement Toward Socialism party's consolidation of control over state institutions. But his staying power may best be credited to the country's accompanying economic and political stability.
Since Morales first took office in 2006, a boom in commodities prices has increased export revenues ninefold, the country has accumulated $15.5 billion in international reserves and economic growth has averaged 5 percent annually, well above the regional average.
Morales has used the windfall to create subsidies for schoolchildren and pensions for the elderly. A half a million people have put poverty behind them.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Morales-a-shoo-in-for-third-term-victory-5814582.php
The Despotic Chimpanzee and the Ultra-Rich
The Despotic Chimpanzee and the Ultra-Rich
Friday, 10 October 2014 11:44
By Lorenzo Del Savio and Matteo Mameli, Truthout | Op-Ed
Because of escalating economic inequalities, the ultra-rich are becoming increasingly dominant and oppressive. This applies to democratic countries too, where the rewards and incentives in politics are such that elected politicians are constantly captured by oligarchic power and end up serving the interests of the ultra-rich rather than those of the electorate. Current democracies are oligarchic democracies. Some argue that large wealth inequalities are inevitable in a free society where people can freely develop their talents and freely compete in order to obtain what they want. But how can a society where all the political power is effectively in the hands of a miniscule ultra-privileged minority be genuinely free? How can a society like this be properly respectful of the equal dignity of all people?
In one of his books, primatologist Frans De Waal recounts what he once observed in a group of chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Park Primate Research Center. What he saw can tell us something important about political power. Chimpanzees are a hierarchical species. They have what primatologists call a dominance hierarchy, and at the top of this hierarchy is the dominating alpha male. In chimpanzees, domination is obviously not gained through the accumulation of wealth, as it so often is in humans, but rather through the direct threat of physical violence and through various kinds of social and manipulative skills. Domination consists in being able to coerce others to live and behave in certain ways. In chimpanzees, this primarily applies to sex (who is allowed to mate with whom) and to the display of power. Everyone in the group is coerced to show deference and submission toward the alpha male and, moreover, the alpha male has privileged access to females.
What did De Waal see? On one occasion, Jimoh, the alpha male of his chimpanzee group, was in an angry mood since, earlier that day, one of his favorite females had repeatedly refused to mate with him. He then spotted that very female mating with Socko, a juvenile male. Alpha males are normally relatively tolerant of juvenile males, as they do not - at least not yet - constitute a threat to their domination over the group. Normally, in a case like this, an alpha male would have simply chased off the youngster. But this time, no doubt because of the anger he had accumulated, Jimoh started chasing Socko around the enclosure with what were clearly ill intentions.
Jimoh wanted to catch Socko and punish him with violence. Alpha males are extremely strong and can, especially through biting, inflict deep and sometimes deadly wounds. Socko, understandably, tried to escape. He started screaming loudly and, because of intense fear, had an attack of diarrhea. While Jimoh was intent on catching Socko, several females that were nearby started manifesting their distress and disapproval at what was happening. They did this by producing the characteristic waa-barks that chimpanzees use in protest against intruders and aggressors. Initially, there were only a few females doing this. Their barking was not very loud and they looked around to see how the rest of the group was reacting. But, slowly, other females joined in, and when the top-ranking females finally participated, the barking became more confident and, therefore, louder. The intensity of the barks increased until, as De Waal puts it, "everyone's voice was part of a deafening chorus." At that point, Jimoh suddenly stopped the attack and left Socko alone. As he did that, Jimoh showed a nervous grin on his face, a grin that in chimpanzees usually signals fear and submission. It is called the "Grin of Fear" and it is often seen on the faces of nondominant members of the group when they interact with the alpha male.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/26674-the-despotic-chimpanzee-and-the-ultra-rich
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