Current Affairs

A US company, Pandemic, is going to sell a videogame, named Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, in which a US invasion is simulated in a country ruled by a tyran with the grasp of the oil refineries and with the final objective to throw out the tyran. This has worsened even more the US-Venezuelan relationship.

“The players take the place of soldiers to throw out a hungry tyran/dictator who varies the supply of Venezuelan oil, unleashing an invasion that makes the country a war place“. The simulated mission is began by a Marines’ commando to take it by a military assault.

This happens when Caracas has reinforced its alliance with Iran about the nuclear crisis. Ahmadinejah said:

“We hace a lot of common ideals and aims that unites us profoundly. And our common enemies’ position are each day less strong”.

Their common interests are so great they lack the same thing: oil refineries. As a result they are just making a new one jointly.

This came afterwards Bush said he was worried about an important erosion in democracy both in Bolivia and Venezuela.

Newsweek comments also about Chávez:

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is the new rock star of world politics. His impassioned rants against globalization, with animated poses to match, make front-page headlines almost daily. The commentariat-particularly in Europe-seems to buy Chávez’s line that Latin Americans are so disenchanted by their short tryst with liberalism that they now prefer a strongman to spread the benefits of a commodity boom. The recent moves by a Chávez soulmate, Evo Morales, to renationalize the energy resources of Bolivia reinforce a growing perception that Latin America is lurching to the radical left.

Read it all.

US had made arrangements to consider Lybia is fighting against terrorism. I was not the least happy about it. And at the same time Gadaffi says he is going to receive Chávez. As a result, Washington is going to suspend the selling of weapons to Caracas because of its lack of collaboration with the fighting of terrorism.

So Chávez is going to ask Oliver Stone to make a film about the failed coup d’état that took place in April 2002. “I am sure that there are a lot of people that are not willing the truth to come out because this people is going to investigate to have the truth and is going to tell both the good and the bad that happened then”, Chávez said. What? The same man who said that Castro is one of the wisest man on Earth is going to find the truth?

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I read some time ago about a girl aged 11 who was pregnant and who smoked constantly in My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. I was totally shocked. Imagine what I have felt when I read this: WorldNetDaily: Pedophiles launch own political party:

UPDATE:

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From BBC:

France and Morocco have agreed to work together to combat terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy agreed the deal with his Moroccan counterpart, Chakib Benmoussa.

Mr Sarkozy was in Morocco as part of an African tour, widely seen as a prelude to his presidential bid next year.

He has already visited Benin and Mali, where there were street protests over his tough immigration policy, designed to keep out “unskilled” foreigners.

French MPs have already backed Mr Sarkozy’s immigration bill but it can only become law after it has been passed by the Senate.

Wow! This is marvellous. I am very confident in them working together. They are just going to send more inmigrants to Spain, that’s all. From Spain Herald:

Saharan human rights activist Aminetu Haidar said yesterday in Seville that prime minister Zapatero’s support for his own Alliance of Civilizations project is “incompatible with permitting the tortures that the Moroccan government inflicts on the Saharan people.” After speaking before the Andalusian regional parliament, Haidar said that if the Spanish government does not act in favor of self-determination for the Western Sahara, “it will be responsible for the genocide and massacres that are going to begin, if they have not already…Spain and France are the two governments that support Morocco’s state terrorism against the Saharan people.”

She called Zapatero’s proposed Alliance of Civilizations “a makeup job that the administration applies to its face while it turns its back on the Saharan people, who have not received any support from this government, despite the strong support that the Spanish people have given us.” Haidar added, “Morocco does not respect the Saharans.”

Aminetu Haidar also called on Spain to accept “its historical and legal responsibility with respect to the Sahara, and recognize the crimes committed against the Saharan people.” Therefore, she said, “Spain should take a clear position on self-determination.”

I think that we are more indebted with this people that with American indigene population. While our American domination was ended because of an independence war, Saharan people were left alone after Franco’s death and Morocco, with international support or at least not much critisizing of their position, invaded their territory.

But the aggressions to Saharan people continue: you can see photos here. The problem is that most of the documents are in Spanish. Anyway,there has been arbitrary detentions made to Saharan activists since the Moroccan invasion. The problem is that with the new antiterrorist measures, they are detained as Islamists or terrorists, being none of that (someone has heard of a Saharan terrorist? ehh, … NOPE).

Socialists at first were very much interested in defending Saharan cause as they thought that it was so good to oppose right-wingers. But everything changed with Mr. Zapatero new political approach. As Perejil conflict showed, Mr. Aznar’s relationship with Morocco was not the best. And so Mr Zapatero had to change this policy as well, not taking into account that most of the accused in March 11th bombings were Moroccans. He has not said anything about Saharan situation before Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, -in fact, he has not said it at any time- and several Socialists have praised them openly. Even when international opinion was critical with Spanish handling of inmigrants in Ceuta and Melilla last year and it was proved that Moroccan police killed two inmigrants and the rest were obliged to walk thrpugh Moroccan desert, where 24 -at least- were dead of thurst.

Moroccan authorities have been denying pass to foreign delegations that intended to defend Saharan Human Rights. For example, from Norway, Spain. Spanish journalists have also been expelled (example).

By the wat, there are also connections with the Oil-for-Food scandal, coming from Morocco.

That is why when I read this kind of news, I just burst out laughing… just for not crying. I know Islamism is a threat -that is why I keep TAJP- but at the same time, I do think these decissions are nothing more than an international pose just to appease foreign critics and as such to diminish the importance of democracy and opposition movements inside it.

UPDATE: I am even more concerned now that I have read this: France and Morocco will help Spain with inmigration problem. According to Sarkozy and Benmoussa joint communiqué, “taking into account the situation of the arrival of inmigrants to the Canary Islands coasts, the ministers have decided to take the necessary measures without waiting, (…) mainly the related with technical and financial support to benefit the countries that need it“.

Related posts:

• Spanish Inmigration Problem.
• New EU Directive on free Movement.

Tags: Aznar, Human Rights, Inmigration, Moratinos, Morocco, religious freedom, Sahara, UN Security Council, Zapatero

Astounding:

Interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said yesterday that the administration “has not yet reached the conviction that ETA wants to put an end to violence…although the process has solid foundations.” After the interview with two masked terrorists published in the ETA-front newspaper Gara, which made it clear that ETA had not renounced any of its objectives, and the report from the French police that ETA is still stealing cars in the south of that country, Rubalcaba backed off the Zapatero administration’s former optimism.

Well, he must be the only optimist in Spain after the televised interview of two ETA members I wrote about here. But there is more: looks like Mr. Zapatero is going to ask the Congress an authorization to negotiate with ETA.

Rubalcaba also said that there won’t be bringining together all the ETA prisoners in Spain. Well, I really do not believe him…

As ElenaB writes in her blog, there are people who say openly that we, people who are for the defense of freedom and justice and, so, against any treatment that means a negotiation with ETA, we do not want its end. Yes, that is a very normal and common “theory”, but really that is NOT true. We want peace, but not a peace that means surrendering to criminals who only intend to impose their political projects by terror.

Meanwhile, Mexico is going to extradite 6 ETA terrorists (whatever the link says they are no activists).

By the way, what has to do South Africa in Spanish Affairs? I do think that anything. But they do not:

The African National Congress is encouraged by prospects for a peaceful and lasting resolution to violence in the Basque region of Spain, it said on Thursday.

This was after a meeting between the Basque political party Batasuna and the ANC in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

The ANC was represented by secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe and Batasuna by Urko Aiartza Azurtza, the ANC said in a statement.

In March Basque separatist group ETA announced a permanent ceasefire.

“The ANC is further encouraged by the stated intention of Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the Spanish Socialist Workers Party … to seek a peaceful and just outcome,” the ANC said.

Even if the last post that I wrote was about Morales, I think he deserves another one. looks like he is not only accusing Spain of breaking aid promise and nationalising the oil and gas sectors but now he is also going to review the contract with the Spanish firms AENA and Abertis, united in SABSA, which is in charge of the management of Bolivian airports (link in Spanish). The workers of the firm has denounced it because, apparently, it has not done the investments at first it promised.

Even if I really do not know if they have really made the investments or not, it is somewhat similar to the nationalization of oil companies. The last news are that Morales has said Bolivia was not going to pay anything also to BBVA, who was obliged to turn over the shares in Andina (background). According to EL MUNDO, he said

“there is nothing to compensate, we are not nationalising, we are just recovering what belongs to Bolivian people”

Hmm, yes of course. Now, just a bit a reasoning: if you take something without the will of his proprietor and without paying him/her its price, how on earth that action should be named? Exactly: STEALING.

But the link goes on:

Solbes [Second Vicepresident and Economy Minister] has said in Spanish Cadena Ser [left-wing] that “taking goods from someone without compensation is utterly unnaceptable. But if they are only deprivin them of the management, then we will see what is the compensation. In any case, we have to study it very carefully”.

I totally agree with Sandmonkey:

Nationalization doesn’t help Faisal, and capitalism isn’t the problem. It’s a difference in approach. Trust me when I tell you that capitalists don’t want poor people in the world, because the more people with money there is the more goods they buy and more money they make. It’s just how we see things. For example, socialists see that a good way to help poor people is to give them welfare. Capitalists disagree, because welfare doesn’t really improve the person’s life, it just helps make it more tolerable. Capitalists for example champion micro-banking and micro-financing: Lend the people money to start their own businesses and not need your charity to live. We want the people to live with dignity, and welfare checks from the government is anything but dignified, and the door is always open for its abuse. Look at China: Capitalism helped move 300 million chinese from the poverty they lived under during the days of communism. When has socialism ever done that?

It is very interesting that even Alejandro Toledo, Peruvian President, and also an Indian reasons against the nationalization:

“If you do not have clear rules for the game, capital is not
going to come. If there is no capital, there is no growth. If there is no growth, there is no employment. If there is no employment, there is no income. If there is no income, there is nothing to invest more in nutrition, health and education, which are the most powerful weapons for reducing poverty,” the Peruvian president said.

Hmm, can you please tell all this to our President Mr. Zapatero? I’m sure he hasn´t know it yet…

So, in Spain, people are claiming for yet another boicot (Catalans are boycotting Castillian products and viceversa) against Morales.

Lastly, Barcepundit has written also about this. He reproduces a Fake photo of Morales and Spanish FM Moratinos (right). He has seen this image in Spanish Blog Zapaterías Rimadas, whose author writes the news in poetry.

In fact this image is very appropriate because looks like Spanish Administration is divided over Bolivian nationalisation: while Solbes does not agree with it and says it does not sound good:

foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said, “It’s just a change in the management of the titles.” Bolivian president Evo Morales answered Solbes, “There’s nothing to indemnify. We’re not expropriating anybody.”

I think however that the image is not correct: Morales is not punching on Moratino’s nose, but on the one of the workers and shareholders of these frims… and his own people, because of the lack of credibility, his country is going to have in the future.

But this is not all: According to Spanish blog Zetapolleces, Bolivia will also nationalize all the improductive large states. I do really believe that nationalising is not the solution at all. Firstly, they would have to examine WHY these states are improductive and provide a solution. And I expect that the proprietors are given some money in return….

You can read also DOCE DOCE comments, in which he remarks that the Leftists European MPs applauded Evo when after he said he was not going to compensate the firms. Hmm, what a wonderful world…

Tags: BBVA, Bolivia, European Union, Evo Morales, PSOE, Repsol, Spain, Zapatero

Spain Herald:

Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Bolivian president Evo Morales met on Friday for about 45 minutes in Vienna at the EU-Latin American summit there. Zapatero said the meeting had been “positive, sincere, and clarifying,” but did not mention any advantage over the agreement previously negotiated by a Spanish delegation in La Paz.

He did announce that Morales had sent an official letter praising Spain’s cooperation, in contradiction of the harsh accusations Morales had launched last Thursday. Morales’s letter said that he had never accused Spain of not fulfilling its commitments to Bolivia, but instead expressed hope that aid to development and debt forgiveness “would soon be a reality.” Meanwhile, PP leader Mariano Rajoy demanded that Zapatero defend Spanish interests in Bolivia and that Morales obey the law and international agreements.

And so he is putting into effect the cooperation: Spain Herald

Bolivian president Evo Morales said yesterday that his nationalization of Bolivian fossil fuel resources “does not expel or expropriate anyone,” to the applause of the Euro-MPs. Meanwhile, the Bolivian government announced that Spanish bank BBVA must turn over the shares in Andina, Repsol’s Bolivian subsidiary, that it manages through a pension fund, within three days.

“These pension funds will be closed down in three days if they do not obey the decree. That’s it,” said Bolivian vice president Alvaro García Linera, who signed a further decree allowing Bolivia to “take absolute control” over the fuels industry.

BBVA and Zurich Financial Service have managed two Bolivian pension funds since 1997. They were created with the government’s shares resulting from the partial privatization of Bolivian state companies in strategic sectors carried out during the 1990s, which attracted a great number of foreign investors.

Just a few minutes previously, Morales told the European Parliament, “Any company that invests in my country has the right to recover its investment and make a profit, but not to have control. They will be partners, not the owners of our natural resources.” He added, “Without social security, there can be no legal security.”

EL MUNDO reports:

they will have to hand to Bolivian state the shares they are managinig in the oil companies Andina (48%), which belongs to Spanish-Argentinian Repsol YPF; Transredes (34%), from the US Enron and the Dutch Shell, and Chaco (48%), from British Petroleum. These companies were created with the division of the State Company Bolivian Fiscal Oil fields (or Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos), which will recover control over them. They represent (approx.) 700 of the $1,600 million which this fund has.

Tags: BBVA, Bolivia, British Petroleum, Enron, European Union, Evo Morales, Shell, Spain, Zapatero, Zurish Financial Services

The Spain Herald

Two masked ETA members, interviewed by the pro-ETA newspaper Gara, confirmed on Sunday that its extortion letters sent to Navarrese businesses were mailed out after its declaration of an “indefinite cease-fire,” contradicting prime minister Zapatero’s claim that the letters had been mailed before the declaration. The terrorists said, “There are economic needs in order to carry on the struggle, and today the struggle for liberation continues, causing these needs, including economic ones.” The etarras stressed that the truce is conditional, depending on whether the Zapatero administration accepts ETA’s political price, self-determination and the annexation of Navarre. The two showed no sign of the “flexibility” and “correct path” that the administration had attributed to ETA. According to the terrorists, ETA has already done its part to promote the peace process by declaring the cease-fire, and they insinuated that further steps would be taken if the administration made its commitments specific.

So really there are no truce: they are only trying to impose themselves on all the other Spanish people. And Zapatero has lied… again.

EL MUNDO (in Spanish) adds -this is new- that “France says this is an Spanish issue. They are lying: this is also a French issue “. Otegi also paid homage to the ETA prisoners dead in the French prisons. But the French press has not published anything about this issue. The site of the French Government does not say anything either.

But there are also good news: Alcaraz reelected president of AVT - The Spain Herald

Francisco Jose Alcaraz was reelected president of the Association of Victims of Terrorism on Saturday by 601 votes in favor to 43 against. There were nine abstentions. Opposing candidate Pablo Broseta pulled out of the race after the AVT’s assembly approved the association’s budget. The PP praised Alcaraz’s reelection because “the victims want to be in the center of the process to put an end to terror.”

Alcaraz said at a press conference, “The results make it very clear that the previous board of directors was supported by the majority of the members.” He added that some members had asked him to continue working in favor of psychological aid for the victims of the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid. Alcaraz promised that the new board of directors would “fight for memory, dignity, and justice toward the victims of terrorism.”

I agree.

UPDATE: VIA Pajamas Media, I read Barcepundit has written about this topic.

Tags: Alcaraz, Asociación de Víctimas del Terrorismo, AVT, ETA, PSOE, Spain, terrorism, Truce, Zapatero, France, Villepin

Fistful of Euros writes about it:

Rondot made inquiries, consulting Lahoud, and concluded that the allegations were baseless. That was when things began to get weird, though, as the lists and a CD-ROM were sent anonymously to Renaud van Rumbeyke, the judge investigating the long-running urtext of French political corruption, the Taiwanese frigates affair. But the lists were not quite the same lists as those shown to General Rondot. Instead they included accounts in the thinly disguised name of Sarko, but also the Socialist Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the hard-right Alain Madelin, and the centre-left semi-gaullist Jean-Pierre Chevénément, as well as top Thales and EADS executives.

[…]It must have seemed a perfect opportunity to whack Sarko, destabilise the Left with a scandal that would worsen their coalition fighting, punish Madelin for straying from the Gaullist core of the Right and Chevénément for voting against the European Constitution (or something), eliminate obstacles to Forgeard’s elevation, and perhaps even get Van Rumbeyke off their case…literally.

UPDATE: From Adam Smith Institute Blog:

President Chirac declared that 2006 would be “a useful year for France.” He may be right, in that it seems to have discredited the government there. With France still licking its wounds from last year’s street conflagrations by the economically excluded, this year has seen the riots which saw off France’s very modest efforts at labour market reform. (Clue: it’s because the rioters always win that they always do it).

Awful… And even harder times are yet to come…

Tags: France, Villepin, Sarkozy, Madelin, Jean-Pierre Chevénément

New York Times:

The biggest problem, however, is structural: Italy’s thousands of family-owned companies, the secret to its export success in the 70’s and 80’s, appear ill-suited to the demands of globalization. They make products that can be easily replicated in Asia, using cheaper labor.

"Look at these valves," Mr. Bonomi said, plunking down a matched set. "This one is mine; this one was made in China. It doesn’t work as well as mine, but it’s close enough."

The Chinese one costs half as much.

Economists offer plenty of remedies for this situation: Italy needs to move into more sophisticated high technology manufacturing. It must bolster its service economy, starting with the tattered tourist trade, which has also lost ground to China. It must shake up its rigid labor market, the main culprit for its high costs.

Well, I did not comment really this piece of news, because I was too busy. There is one thing in this article that stroke me, when reading it, and it’s this part:

Italian voters ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last month to a large degree because he did not fix the economy. But then they elected a new center-left government with a parliamentary majority so slim that it may be hobbled before it even takes power.

"I’m not very positive," said Alessandro Profumo, the chief executive of Italy’s leading bank, UniCredit. "We have a lot of issues to manage, and the government needs a larger majority to manage these issues."

It is clear why economic fears dominated Italy’s recent election, and the epithet "sick man of Europe," conjuring images of the tottering Ottoman Empire, has become shorthand here.

Even knowing the bias of NYT (very liberal newspaper) it stroke me really. I mean, perhaps Berlusconi has not done what he should have done to fix the economy. But they are clearly saying that if the new leftist Government cannot fix the economy, it’s just because they do not have the sufficient majority. They are just "curing the Government before the wound it’s done" and that is really stupid. If the center-left Government does make a sound economic policy they can have the support of most of the people. If they do not, then they would be to blame and not the majority.

There is another thing though: Looks like the Italian production has risen (in Italian) this year 6.8% in comparison with last year’s. As Orpheus says in her blog, then the right wing Berlusconi was in power -and every leftist was just worried about the economical statistics-, but now that the center-left has reached it, everything seems OK… well, marvellous, in fact.

But if the information that NYT is giving is right, Prodi&Co. would do very well just worrying about the future and working for it. Ehhh, no, the culprit is the Italian people who has not given them an ample majority….

Tags: Italy, Berlusconi, Prodi, family firms, China

From BBC:

Mr Chavez, a radical leftist, will meet the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone as well as some Labour MPs and union leaders during his two-day trip.

But he will not meet Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he has called a pawn of the “imperialist” US.

Mr Chavez controls a country with the world’s fifth largest oil supply. On Friday Mr Blair urged Venezuela to use its energy resources responsibly.

The BBC’s World Affairs correspondent Chris Morris says Mr Chavez is following in the footsteps of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Mr Chavez combines populist economics, authoritarian politics and a fundamental dislike of the United States - particularly the way he says it tries to dominate its neighbours, our correspondent says.

From World Net Daily: about the dictatorial Bolivarian project. Looks like Chávez’s ex-mistress thinks of Chavez as a dictator and worse in fact than what Blair has said ever.

Herma Marksman, who spent nearly 10 years of her life as “the other woman” at the side of Hugo Chavez, as the military man plotted his way to power in the ’80s and 90’s, still recalls her ex-lover as “sweet” and “kind,” but when it comes to his current rule over Venezuela, the ex-mistress uses words like “totalitarian” and “fascist dictatorship.”

The professor of history, who’s written two books about Chavez’s politics, told the London Times: “He is imposing a fascist dictatorship. A totalitarian regime is coming because he doesn’t believe in democratic institutions. Hugo controls all the powers.”

Marksman, whose home was used by Chavez to plan his coup against the Venezuelan government, says the two once shared a dream of “a prosperous Venezuela where justice would reign”.

“We were preparing for the time when we would be in government,” Marksman has written. “We wanted to establish a state in which the law was respected, to abolish corruption, to develop our basic industries and to do a real restructuring of the education system. None of that has happened.

“If anything, there has been a turning for the worse. Today there is more injustice, and no sign of that group of democrats who voiced, and accepted, different opinions. We live under an autocrat who does not respect the separation of powers. There is a chief justice who does not act, a financial comptroller who does not control, an ombudsman who only defends government interests. So where is the Bolivarian project?”

UPDATE: Chavez, to give Europeans cheap oil? My goodness if this is true, how low we have fallen…

Tags: Chávez, Great Britain, Tony Blair, Venezuela, Herma Marksman