Guatemala: So they weren’t “Zetas” after all
Guatemala: So they weren’t “Zetas” after all
Written by La Hora, Translation by Christina Hewitt
Monday, 13 May 2013 12:11
This editorial, published last week in Spanish by Guatemalan newspaper La Hora, denounces how the government of Otto Pérez Molina and complicit media attempted to criminalize anti-mining protests in San Rafael Las Flores by linking protestors to organized crime.
To justify the state of siege in the municipalities of Jalapa and Mataquescuintla, in addition to San Rafael Las Flores and Casillas, the government said they were pursuing a drug-related criminal network linked to drug trafficking, as declared by the President to international media and reported, for example, by El País newspaper in Spain, while the Minister of the Interior strongly asserted that the Zetas drug cartel were exploiting the protest against mining.
Yesterday, however, both the Minister of the Interior and the Attorney General said there was no evidence of links to drug trafficking, despite having reported to leaders of the Parliament Xinca and the community of Santa Maria Xalapán that the Zetas were involved. Now it has been said that the state of siege was imposed to recover stolen explosives from the San Rafael mine and recover weapons that were stolen from police held illegally by settlers.
The rule of law, with full constitutional guarantees, contains mechanisms to prosecute all criminals and those who have committed illegal acts such as theft of explosives, hijacking enforcement officers and the destruction of stolen vehicles and weapons. The same rule of law contains mechanisms to punish mining security agents who have attacked individuals. The same rule of law has mechanisms – useless ones at that – to investigate why a few months ago investors complained that they were asked for money in exchange for granting the license and how it could be that, magically, that very license was granted to them.
From the beginning we maintained that the authorities had to be very careful in how they reported events because it is wrong to smear an entire community by, for example in the case of Xalapán, saying that their actions were linked to drug trafficking, specifically the Zetas cartel, to then go and change their statement. The former idea still remains in the public perception and as the saying goes, water spillied can never be completely collected, even if clarifications are made as the Minister Bonilla Lopez and Attorney Paz y Paz sought to do yesterday.
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http://upsidedownworld.org/main/guatemala-archives-33/4289-guatemala-so-they-werent-zetas-after-all
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Whether it's fascist law enforcement acting in the interest of transglobal corporations, banksters or war profiteers, or fascist political leaders parading as democratic leaders, or the corpo-fascist media which trumpets their lies, the purpose is BRAINWASHING millions of people to believe that those who object to social and economic injustice and to environmental crimes are CRIMINALS.
We saw it in Seattle '99--way back then, when the anti-globalization movement first erupted in the United States. We've seen it in every anti-globalizatin protest since then and in every anti-war protest, and more recently in the "Occupy" movement, and also in the portrayal of some of the best, most democratic leaders that Latin America has ever been graced with, notably Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and also Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Evo Morales in Bolivia and others.
The writer of this article nails it! Such a simple statement of the truth--a truth that is almost never stated, almost never seen in print.
"The former idea still remains in the public perception...".
The lies that corpo-fascists tell are all about PERCEPTION--deceiving the public completely or as long as necessary to complete the looting by the rich, or the 1%'s war for oil, or their war for land, or other resources, or slave labor, or deregulation, or privatization of all public services, or whatever it is they want to loot next. The demonization and brutalization of those who object begins.
The "Big Lie" SMEAR. Sometimes it's TOTAL LIES with no retractions. Sometimes it's NEARLY TOTAL LIES laced with bias and distortion, failure to follow up, no context ("black holes" where information should be) and maybe one tiny retraction when the liars are caught out (as happened recently with a New Yorker smear of Chavez). (Yes, the New Yorker!)
First purpose: to brainwash. Second purpose: to free fascist police to bash heads, to use all the tools of modern warfare to brutalize protestors, to beat up, to imprison, to kill, with impunity.
All for the 1% to get richer and for the 99% to get poorer in ignorance of the true costs of corpo-fascist rule.
Democracy cannot kick in--justice and fairness cannot kick in--when the corpo-fascists have control of the MEDIA. All they have to do is LIE ABOUT those who object to their thievery and destruction, and the MEDIA accommodates and trumpets their lies, because they are one and the same: corpo-fascist police and militaries, corpo-fascist government flaks, corpo-fascist media and the uber-rich who benefit from lies like this and own it all.
Drug traffickers. The U.S. "war on drugs," in addition to being corrupt, murderous and a colossal failure (and a classic "Big Lie"--the hard drugs NEVER STOP FLOWING), is a handy tool for smearing those who object to oppression. They tried it on Chavez, Correa and Morales--accusing them of "not cooperating" with the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs." The U.S. government also uses "terrorist" this way. (They did that to all three--Chavez, Correa and Morales--during the Bush Junta--tried to smear them as "terrorist-lovers."
You know, the Bush Junta were such total liars that I developed a rule of thumb for them: Whatever they say, the opposite is true; and whatever they accuse of others of doing, they are doing or planning to do.
This was a very useful rule for quickly determining what was really going on during that era and its Bushwhack echoes in the current era. But I'm beginning to think that this "rule of thumb" applies to the U.S. government in general, no matter who is in charge (or thinks they are in charge), to virtually all U.S. politicians, certainly to the Pentagon and law enforcement here, and to all allied politicians, police forces and militaries in Latin America (at least, probably worldwide).
Whatever they say, the opposite is true; and whatever they accuse of others of doing, they are doing or planning to do.
Democratic leaders here are slightly more circumspect than Bushwhacks--maybe the word is deceptive (slightly more deceptive). Consider President Obama's initial statement of his policy in Latin America. He said he wanted "peace, respect and cooperation" in U.S./Latin American relations. Six months later (June '09), his government supported the rightwing military coup d'etat in Honduras, and, while they may not have designed that coup, they most certainly funded the coupsters and set them up with an entirely phony, U.S. Department-run, so-called "election," under martial law, with hundreds of leftists being murdered or imprisoned.
"Peace, respect and cooperation" out the window; murder in. It follows my rule of thumb for Bushwhacks. "Whatever they say, the opposite is true."
I hate to think that that is all that can be said for our Democratic Party leadership--that it is a bit more deceptive than the Bush Junta. And I don't think we yet have a full picture of the U.S. Imperial shipwreck in Latin America, that the Bush Junta left behind.
For instance, I think it includes numerous crimes by the Bush Junta in Latin America--specifically in Colombia--that the Obama team feels obliged to cover up, while at the same time maybe trying to de-criminalize U.S. policy in Latin America--a viper's nest of perils, likely including mass murder by U.S. military 'contractors' and possibly the U.S. military itself, aiding illegal domestic spying on judges and prosecutors, alliance with an outright criminal organization running the Colombian government during the Bush Junta, drug trafficking--flipping the U.S. "war on drugs" into its opposite--a war FOR drug revenues, routes and hegemony--assassination, massive land theft and more.
Some Obamaites may have had thoughts of cleaning this up--but, if so, they are up against very, very powerful forces such as the Bush Cartel and the banksters, and the meager bits of news we get about it are very murky and quickly disappear into the corporate media "river of forgetfulness."
In short, it's hard to know what the Obama administration has been UP AGAINST in Latin America, and I haven't mentioned the half of it--for instance, freshman Senator Jim DeMint (SC-Diebold) and his admitted BLACKMAIL of Obama to force Obama to support the Honduran coup, by holding up all Obama's appointments in Latin America, which ALSO had the effect of keeping Bushwhacks IN PLACE, in Colombia, for instance, to do some "clean-up" operations, such as the midnight extradition of death squad witnesses to the U.S. on mere drug charges and getting Maria Hurtado--Uribe's spy chief--out of Colombia, and into instant asylum in Panama.
CLEARLY, Obama policy in Latin America is designed to serve transglobal corporate and war profiteer interests. But whether or not he is a total hypocrite on "peace, respect and cooperation" remains to be seen. For instance, it is simply not possible for the (new) leader of a U.S. client state like Colombia to be pursuing peace with Colombia's armed leftist rebels, without Washington's blessing on those talks. THAT is an Obama policy and it needs to be kept in view along with the bad stuff--some of it very bad; some of it pointing to possible Bushwhack operatives still embedded in U.S. agencies sabotaging what might be better--if not ideal--policy; and all of it serving the 1%.
I've gone seemingly far afield from the Guatemalan activists' struggle, but I see it as all of a piece with struggles elsewhere in Latin America and here. The corpo-fascist tactics are almost identical. The corpo-fascist goals are identical. And the U.S. is always on the wrong side, often directly aiding and abetting fascist tactics with everything from weaponry to "talking points."
It's always a pleasure reading your posts. They're a breath of fresh air.
I'm not holding my breath on any changes coming from up North any time soon.
Memo to Secretary Kerry: Stop funding the bad guys in Honduras.
February 12, 2013|By Dana Frank
The United States is expanding its military presence in Honduras on a spectacular scale. The Associated Press reported this month in an investigative article that Washington in 2011 authorized $1.3 billion for U.S. military electronics in Honduras. This is happening while the post-coup regime of Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is more out of control than ever, especially since the Honduran Congress staged a "technical coup" in December.
Honduran soldiers guard cocaine in a military base in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Jan. 16.
In the last few years, the U.S. has been ramping up its military operations throughout Latin America in what the Associated Press called "the most expensive initiative in Latin America since the Cold War." The buildup has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $20 billion since 2002, for troops, ships, clandestine bases, radar, military and police training and other expenses.
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On Dec. 13, in a clash of two equally corrupt groups of competing elites, the Honduran Congress illegally deposed four members of the Supreme Court, swearing in new justices within hours. Since then, the congress has run roughshod over the constitution, rapidly repassing a series of laws that had been overruled by the court, including a much-criticized mining law and a notorious law authorizing so-called model cities in which the constitution itself doesn't apply.
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The drug war, though, does provide cover for a new wave of U.S. aggression in Latin America. Honduras, with the only large U.S. Air Force base between the United States and South America, has long been important as a linchpin of U.S. military domination of the region, including, most famously, U.S. involvement in the 1954 coup in Guatemala and the 1980s Contra war against the Nicaraguan government. Today, the expanding U.S. role poses an enormous threat to the whole region, and to Honduras' sovereignty.
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http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/12/opinion/la-oe-frank-honduras-drug-war-20130212