US warns Bolivia that growing ties to Iran could put trade deal at risk

[Judi Lynn]

US warns Bolivia that growing ties to Iran could put trade deal at risk
The Associated Press
Published: February 20, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia: A U.S. congressional delegation arrived Tuesday to smooth tensions between the two countries, but warned that Bolivia's growing ties to Iran could cost it a key U.S. trade agreement.

Five lawmakers are promoting the extension of the Andean Trade Preferences and Drug Eradication Act, which expires next week and allows duty-free imports from Andean countries as a reward for cooperating in the war on drugs.

But they arrived just a day after President Evo Morales announced that Iran wants to open a regional television network in Bolivia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also proposed investing in Bolivia's oil and gas industry.

"There is a very high level of concern regarding the activities of Iran in Latin America," U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, a Republican from Illinios, said following the meeting. "If this concern continues to grow in our Congress, it will be come more difficult to extend these preferences in the future."

More:
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/20/america/LA-GEN-Bolivia-US-Iran.php

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The American slickster, Jerry Weller gained attention for his marriage to the daughter of bloody Guatemalan butcher/dictator, Ronald Reagan and Jesse Helms collegue, and Jerry Falwell/Pat Robertson ally, Efraín Ríos Montt.



RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: Genocide Plans May Be Declassified
By Inés Benítez

GUATEMALA CITY, Sep 6 (IPS) - Guatemala’s Constitutional Court must decide whether or not to declassify documents from 1982 and 1983 military operations commanded by then dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt that would shed light on the genocide committed in this Central American country.

"The victims have the right to know the truth, and revealing these documents is a form of reparation," Alejandro Rodríguez, a lawyer with the Association for Justice and Reconciliation (AJR), said Thursday in a public hearing held by the Constitutional Court.
(snipO

On Jul. 19, an appeals court dismissed a legal plea by Ríos Montt to keep the military documents secret. Appeals court Judge Napoleón Gutiérrez argued in his ruling that the documents did not compromise national security because the crimes had already been committed.

He instructed the Defence Ministry, which has kept the files confidential as "state secrets," to hand certified copies of them over to the court hearing the case in which Ríos Montt and other military officers have been charged with genocide.

The documents in question deal with military operations carried out at the height of the counterinsurgency "scorched earth" campaign in which hundreds of rural indigenous villages were destroyed, along with every man, woman and child living there. The operations were known as "Campaña Victoria 1982", the Jul. 15, 1982 "Operativo Sofía", the 1983 "Operación Ixil, Civilian Affairs" and "Plan Firmeza 1983".

Article 30 of the Guatemalan constitution establishes that all administrative documents and files are public unless they deal with military or diplomatic affairs involving national security.

"We cannot try to hide the atrocities that were committed by arguing that a ‘state secret’ is involved," said another AJR lawyer, Edgar Pérez.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39172

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Zury Rios Sosa and Jerry Weller at their wedding in Antigua

AP Photo ⁄ Rodrigo Abd

Illinois Republican Jerry Weller is one of the most powerful men in Congress when it comes to Latin America. His wife is the most powerful woman in Guatemala’s controversial FRG party.
By Frank Smyth
August 25, 2006

JERRY WELLER WAS running for his sixth term as congressman from Illinois’ 11th District in July 2004 when he announced that he was engaged to Zury Rios Sosa, an outspoken third-term legislator in Guatemala’s congress and the daughter of former dictator General Efrain Rios Montt. “I am thrilled to have found my best friend and soulmate,” Weller stated in a press release. “Our love knows no boundaries.” In the same release Sosa said, “With Jerry, I am starting an eternal springtime. I admire his character, his commitment to his responsibilities, and his honesty.”

Their mutual admiration notwithstanding, the announcement raised a red flag. Weller, who would be the first congressman ever to marry a member of a foreign national legislature, sat on the International Relations Committee and its western hemisphere subcommittee--would his votes be influenced by Sosa?

In a July 12 editorial the Chicago Sun-Times said, “The problem is the image it conveys to our Latin American neighbors, who are critical enough of our policies without concerns about how a vote might have been influenced by a committee member’s wife.” The following day the Bloomington Pantagraph, the biggest paper in Weller’s district, ran an editorial that said, “Any time an elected U.S. representative privy to confidential information is intimately involved with a central figure in a foreign government--and one whose father has been accused of genocide within that country--there should be concern. . . . There are some boundaries that elected representatives have to draw in the name of U.S. security. We can’t say Weller has crossed that line, but he’s sure tiptoeing down it.”

The Sun-Times suggested that Weller, a Republican whose district includes parts of the south suburbs, resign from the committee. His opponent in the congressional race, Tari Renner, also called on him to give up the post. Weller’s spokesman, Telly Lovelace, told the Pantagraph the congressman had no intention of resigning. “If there is any obvious conflict,” Lovelace said, “Congressman Weller will do what’s appropriate.”

More:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/jerryweller/

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No doubt Evo Morales is going to get all whipped up about what a scuzball like Weller thinks about his administration. Screw the clown Weller, and screw the "Democratic" a-hole, Elliot Engler, who can't be bothered to educate himself on the facts of the situation. Read a book, why doncha, Rep. Engler? IT'S YOUR JOB TO BE INFORMED. This is not a paid vacation, this is not a popularity contest. Serious things are going on in this world, and you're supposed to know about them. Can't be bothered? Drop dead, and let someone serious take your place.



So did Rep. Engler DRIVE to Bolivia?

[dipsydoodle]

1. I'da thunk

that the risk of losing the trade deal was an incentive.