Susan Rice, queen of de Nile on Cuba

People say Cubans are hot-tempered but Machetera doesn’t believe it.  Not when she sees the current Cuban foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, in action.

Following the recent U.N. vote, where the entire world (save the two countries totally on the U.S. dole – Israel and Palau – and not counting the other two abstentions, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands) condemned the United States of America again for its ongoing genocidal blockade against Cuba, and where the completely miscast U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice (Susan, Vermont is calling!) weighed in with a nasty speech against Cuba lifted lock stock and barrel from the rhetoric of the Bush administration, Rodriguez spoke to the Associated Press:

Rodriguez told AP he was “a little bit surprised” by the vehemence of Rice’s initial comments, saying he knew and respected her and held her in high esteem.

“She is an articulate person, a decent and well-meaning person, like president Obama,” he said. “And we respect both of them for that.”

This just proves that Machetera could never have been a diplomat.

Empire’s hubris

“Tell Raúl [Castro] that if he does not take steps, neither can I.  We are making efforts, but if they do not make efforts, it will be very difficult for us to continue.” – Barack Obama, October 13, 2009

Español

Atilio Boron on the blockade against Cuba

A Blockade Against Humanity - Español

By Atilio A. Boron

English translation: Machetera

On October 28^th, the United Nations General Assembly will once again bring a resolution to a vote, requiring the United States to put an end to the blockade against Cuba in effect since 1961.  Just as has occurred each time since 1991 up until the present day, that resolution will be approved practically unanimously, ratifying the international community’s condemnation of the United States and reinforcing Washington’s tremendous isolation in the debate, due to a policy that has not only brutally chastised the Cuban people but also constitutes a threat to humanity as a whole.

Conscious that by its nature, it violates the most basic norms of international law and human rights, the empire’s publicists and their local spokesmen have unleashed, as on so many other occasions, a persistent semantic battle aimed at confusing and misleading worldwide public opinion.  To this end they resort to a euphemism: they refer to the blockade as an “embargo” and present it as though it were merely a commercial matter. 

Jefferson Morley’s struggle to find the truth about George Joannides and the CIA’s fight to hide it

First, a brief word of apology to Jefferson Morley, whose excellent and meticulously researched book, Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA was first mentioned here almost exactly one year ago, with the promise of a review to come…like so many other worthy projects, the review ended up on the back burner (the saltmine beckons and is unusually active at present), but it has not been forgotten.  In the meantime, Machetera will say this: the book is terrific – engagingly written, carefully corroborated, it is a must-read for anyone curious about the CIA’s long reach in Mexico, particularly during the period in the fall of 1963 when the CIA did and then didn’t know about Lee Harvey Oswald’s visit to Mexico City in his failed search for a Cuban visa.  So get the book, now.

Second, José Pertierra has just published an exclusive interview with Morley at Cubadebate. 

Allan McDonald on Obama’s prize

For more about Wendy Elizabeth Ávila, see Avi Lewis’s report for Faultlines, embedded at the end of this post.

Wendy and Obama - Español

Peace as a medal rather than a principle

By Allan McDonald

English translation: Machetera

Wendy Elizabeth Ávila was born in Tegucigalpa on June 28, 1985, under a rain of melancholy ashes.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, under a carnival of Asiatic colors.

Wendy went to a public school, poor, like her comrades, and in her arms she always carried notebooks with the word “hope” written in upper case.

Obama went to the prestigious Harvard Law School with its hors d’oeuvres enriched by the protein of the judiciary.

Wendy grew up with an open smile, fresh with dreams.

Obama grew up in the mists of greed and public lies.

Atilio Boron on Obama’s prize

Consolation Prize (Amended)*- Español

By Atilio A. Boron

English translation: Machetera

In an astonishing decision, the Norwegian Nobel Committee put an end to seven months of searching among the 205 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize and conferred it upon Barack Obama.   Piedad Córdoba, the brave Colombian senator whose efforts in search of peace for her violence-ridden country largely deserved to be rewarded with the Nobel Prize was tossed to the wayside so that it might be granted to the American president. It is not a minor surprise to know that Obama’s nomination was submitted to the Norwegian Committee two months after his inauguration. What did he do in such a short period of time on behalf of the world peace? He delivered gentle speeches and made rather nebulous exhortations to end violent confrontations. The Colombian senator, on the other hand, has spent the last ten years in a tireless effort to put an end to armed struggle and to pacify her country. She put her own body and her actions on the line. But the Norwegian Committee did not share this appreciation and Piedad was once again passed over. A woman, black, leftist, and Latin American: too many flaws and defects for the cautious members of the Committee, always politically correct, forever sanctimonious, who only by mistake would it confer the prize upon a public figure whose struggles for peace were unacceptable to the empire. The Dalai Lama is acceptable; Piedad Córdoba is not. For him, the Prize; for her, the cold shoulder.

Colombian public universities as a laboratory for state repression

Ah, fall.  The beginning of the university year.  New classes.  New students.  New professors.  New ideas.  Death threats.  Disappearance. Murder.

Welcome to Colombian public university, where for at least the last ten years, the Colombian armed forces and paramilitaries associated with the (U.S. puppet) government of Álvaro Uribe and that of Pastrana before him, have been rolling tanks, harassing, threatening and even killing students who dare to express their opposition to the regime.  Meanwhile Colombian corporate media and politicians mock dissenting students who as a result, wish to conceal their identity and the universities quietly hand the government the databases it desires.

The link which follows will take you to a video documentary (in 3 consecutive parts) which includes eyewitness accounts from the besieged Colombian university students.  The contrast between the story these students tell and that which is presented by the media subservient to Uribe couldn’t be clearer.  The documentary was translated and subtitled by, naturally, the Tlaxcala global network  of translators for linguistic diversity.  Please redistribute it everywhere.

Click Here to View: Freedom and Rights at Colombian Public Universities