Ernesto Hernández Busto, rest in peace

For awhile there I lost track of Ernesto Hernández Busto, but it seems that I’m not the only one.  After his appearance in Texas at the George W. Bush Institute, where apparently W mentioned his invited guests one by one but passed EHB over (worried perhaps about team loyalty?), the bleating from Barcelona suddenly ceased.  Now we know why.  EHB closed his blog, “until further notice.”  Who is Machetera going to kick around now?

Zoé Valdés, the ex-Cuban-wannabe-Parisian with the penchant for posting quarter century old photos of herself (age is kinder to some than others) isn’t half as tempting a target.  Also, the fact that she’s turned her blog into some kind of aggregator where she posts nonsense about 90 times a day means that it’s work to read it now, instead of Machetera’s guilty pleasure.  Honestly, where do these people find the time?  Oh, I forget, they’re paid.

Well, here’s a good piece on EHB’s disappearance anyway:

Ernesto Hernández Bushto and the General Strike – español

Ernesto Pérez Castillo

Translation: Machetera

Ernesto Hernández Bushto is a rascal, but a willing one.  For mysterious and unexplained reasons he closed his blog –www.penultimosdias.com – some days ago and in the meantime has gone about teasing El País, promising them lemonade while delivering water, in the form of a new article (The Limits of Cyber-Dissidence) which is nothing more than a self-referential link to his own speech some months back in the auditorium of the Bush Institute.

EHB is on the far left and that is not a wax figure in the middle

Iran, Obama’s War

Iran, Obama’s War - español

Atilio Boron

English Translation: Machetera for Tlaxcala

Amitai Eztioni is one of the most influential sociologists in the world.  Born in Germany, he emigrated to Israel during the years that state was being founded, settling later in the United States where he began a long academic career that led him to pass through some of the most prestigious universities in that country: Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, culminating in most recent years, as Professor of International Relations at George Washington University in Washington D.C.  But his activities were not limited to university faculties: he was a permanent consultant to a variety of U.S. presidents, particularly Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  And since 9/11, with the inordinate rise of militarism, his voice has resonated with growing force in the U.S. establishment.  Just a few days ago he offered a new example.

Politico’s Ben Smith and Left Business Observer’s Doug Henwood join in smear campaign against Vicky Peláez

Machetera

When the FBI arrested ten Cubans in Miami in 1998, accusing them of espionage and failing to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Miami’s media immediately went into action, with headlines that screamed “Spies Among Us” and “Experts Claim That Cuba Sells Information Gathered by Spies.”  When the accused finally went to trial in the late fall of 2000 and early 2001, Miami’s rocket scientists had added another charge to the original indictment – that of conspiracy to commit murder – in relation to Cuba’s shootdown of the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft who had defied every warning from both U.S. and Cuban governments in order to repeatedly trespass into Cuban airspace.  For the court case, the media went into overdrive.

The political persecution of Vicky Peláez

Son of Peruvian Journalist Arrested in United States Denounces Persecution - español

Translation: Machetera

 

Lima, June 29 (Prensa Latina) – Waldo Mariscal, the oldest son of the Peruvian-U.S. journalist, Vicky Peláez, arrested and accused of espionage in the United States, is convinced that his mother is a victim of political persecution.

This was reported on Manuel Avendaño’s radio program in Lima.  Avendaño is a journalist for the Spanish daily La Prensa in New York, a colleague of Peláez, who said he was surprised by the capture of his colleague.

U.S. to accused Russian agents: Do as we say, not as we do

Journalist Critical of U.S. Government Accused of Spying

M.H. Lagarde – Cambios en Cuba – español

English translation: Machetera

Vicky Peláez, the Peruvian journalist who writes for the Hispanic newspaper El Diario/La Prensa in New York, is among 10 people arrested under the accusation of presumably working for undercover Russian agents in the United States.

Authorities confirmed that Peláez was arrested along with her husband, Juan Lázaro, on Sunday at their residence in Yonkers, a suburb of New York City.

Vicky Peláez, the journalist who wrote too much

I often thought of translating Vicky Peláez’s pieces but somehow never found the time.  Here’s one from December of last year.  It’s not too hard to imagine why the State Department would have liked to shut her up.

The Empire’s Elections in Honduras

Vicky Peláez – El Diario NY

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 – español

Translation: Machetera

Venceréis pero no convenceréis

[You’ll win but you won’t convince] – Miguel de Unamuno

The United States can change its strategy and tactics but its national interests are set in stone.  It proved this when, without making much noise, threatening, or brandishing arms as it has in the past, it imposed its will by breaking the weakest link in the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America (ALBA): Honduras.  Ignoring every democratic precept that it has supposedly preached for the last 200 years, it threw human rights and international relations in the wastebasket, and forgot its promises of support for the deposed president, Manuel Zelaya.  In this way, refusing to hear the clamor of the Honduran popular resistance and the opnion of the majority of the countries in the world, the Big Boss supported the putschists in order to hold illegal presidential elections, and now Honduras has a new wolf as its president.

Vicky Peláez caught in U.S. dragnet

Vicky Peláez was the only Spanish language journalist in New York worth a damn.  So naturally something had to be done about her.  She and her husband are the sore thumbs in this story and you have to wonder if the mighty U.S. Justice Department wasn’t running a twofer (or in this case a ten-fer) that swept Vicky off the press desk at El Diario/La Prensa so that even if she is ultimately exonerated, her career will be destroyed.  Eva Golinger has the story.

BREAKING NEWS: United States Arrests Ten Supposed “Russian Spies,” a Journalist Among Them - español

Eva Golinger

English translation: Machetera

Caracas, June 28, 2010 – Last week, President Barack Obama shared a typical “American” meal with the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitri Medvedev.  Between hamburgers and Coca-Colas, the two heads of state smiled and proclaimed their relationship “stable” and “better than ever.”  Medvedev even sent photos via Twitter of his pleasant meal with his U.S. counterpart.  He didn’t expect that just a few days later, the Cold War would be resuscitated.

Fidel again on the nuclear war nobody is talking about

Knowing the Truth in Time - CubaDebate (español)

Fidel Castro Ruz

Translation: Machetera

When writing each one of my previous Reflections, while a catastrophe for humanity is rapidly approaching, my greatest concern has been to perform the basic duty of informing our people.

Today I’m calmer than I’ve been for 26 days.  As things continue to happen at short notice, I can reiterate and add to the reports presented to Cuban and international opinion.

Obama has promised to attend the World Cup quarter-finals on July 2^nd, if his country advances from the second round.  He should know better than anyone that these quarter-finals may not take place since very serious events will take place before then, or at least he ought to know that.

On Friday, June 25^th, an international news agency known for its close attention to detail in its reports, published the declarations of the “…commander of the elite Navy corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, General Ali Fadavi…” warning “…that if the United States and its allies inspect Iranian ships in international waters, ‘they will receive a response in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.’”

Fidel sketches the rapidly approaching world war

The English translation of Fidel’s reflection released by Granma International today  contains an unfortunate error.  The Spanish original says:

El Sha de Irán había sido derrocado por el Ayatollah Ruhollah Jomeini en 1979 sin emplear un arma. Estados Unidos le impuso después la guerra a aquella nación con el empleo de armas químicas, cuyos componentes suministró a Irak junto a la información requerida por sus unidades de combate y que fueron empleadas por estas contra los Guardianes de la Revolución.

This was translated as:

The Shah of Iran had been defeated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 without using a single weapon. The United States imposed the Shah after the war on that nation with the use of chemical weapons, whose components it supplied to Iraq together with the information needed by its combat units and which were deployed by them against the Revolutionary Guards.

What was imposed on Iran as punishment for tossing out the Shah was not the Shah again, but a chemical war.  In addition to correcting this error, I have taken the opportunity to edit the rest of the piece for the sake of readability.

Silvio Rodríguez on innate Cuban musicality, and change

“The thing that would bring about a huge change in Cuba faster than anything else would be the lifting of the blockade.”