Che Guevara - Hasta la Victoria Siempre

Che Guevara

C H E  G U E V A R A (1928–1967)   Ernesto 'Che' Guevara      Born Argentina ... Basque and Irish descent. Referring to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels". Declassified CIA report: "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino." Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist ... Radicalised by the poverty, hunger, and disease in South America. Saw capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States. CIA-assisted overthrow of Guatemala's social reforms President Árbenz solidified Guevara's political ideology. Collaborated with Fidel Castro with aim of overthrowing US-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime. 1967 Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA ... operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. About 30 minutes before Guevara was executed, Félix Rodríguez attempted to question him about the whereabouts of other guerrilla fighters who were currently at large, but Guevara continued to remain silent. Rodríguez, assisted by a few Bolivian soldiers, helped Guevara to his feet and took him outside the hut to parade him before other Bolivian soldiers where he posed with Guevara for a photo opportunity where one soldier took a photograph of Rodríguez and other soldiers standing alongside Guevara.  Guevara was asked by one of the Bolivian soldiers guarding him if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No," he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution." Guevara was shot nine times ... five times in his legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat.  [Did not want a clean kill because wanted appearance of death in battle.] ... Guevara's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby ... where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab ... witnesses were called to confirm his identity ... After a military doctor amputated his hands ... hands were preserved in formaldehyde to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. (His fingerprints were on file with the Argentine police.) They were later sent to Cuba. Cuba ... Ministry of the Interior building where Guevara once worked, is a 5-story steel outline of his face. Under the image is Guevara's motto, the Spanish phrase: "Hasta la Victoria Siempre" (English: Until Victory, Forever). ... Fidel Castro ... addressed a crowd of one million mourners: "If we wish to express what we want the men of future generations to be, we must say: Let them be like Che!  If we wish to say how we want our children to be educated, we must say without hesitation: We want them to be educated in Che's spirit!  If we want the model of a man, who does not belong to our times but to the future, I say from the depths of my heart that such a model, without a single stain on his conduct, without a single stain on his action, is Che!" [Source - Wikipedia- here.]

Over the years, Che Guevara was just a cool-looking t-shirt to me.

'He was a revolutionary' was enough for me.  

The detail wasn't important enough for me to remember -- it was all vague and foreign.

Today, focusing on the detail of the man's life, I'm really moved.

Not a lot moves me emotionally.  But this did.

He wasn't an economist.  He saw inequity.  He wasn't a cosseted politician.  He was an Independence Fighter.  He wasn't a theorist.  He was a Realist.  

He put his life on the line, despite the odds.

He was instrumental in training men who thwarted a $13.1 million US-sponsored CIA invasion of Cuba (see also Cuban oil refineries US-controlled corporations:  Shell, Esso and Standard Oil).

He could have chosen an easy path in life, but he died in pursuit of higher aims for his people.

Che Guevara was Dr. Ernesto Guevara, Independence Fighter; not some wayward stirrer.

History has proved that Che Guevara did not live, or die, in vain.

C O U R A G E

C H E  G U E V A R A

(1928–1967)

WTO TALKS - INDIA STAYING STRONG

WTO talks down to the wire, India holds out fe Bureau | New Delhi | Published: Jul 31 2014, 01:08 IST Even as Thursday’s deadline for signing the protocol for the trade facilitation agreement (TFA) at the WTO loomed large, India remained obdurate, asserting that the pact — expected to ease customs rules and potentially add $1 trillion to the world economy — could not be a done deal till it saw progress on the food security issue. Visiting the US commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, however, sounded optimistic about finding a solution to the vexed issue “over the next couple of days”. Secretary of state John Kerry, before starting for India on Wednesday morning, had expressed the hope that India’s opposition to TFA would wither away, adding that this was a test case for the country’s commitment to advance liberalisation of global trade and investment. Kerry arrived in India in the evening on a three-day visit. ... http://www.financialexpress.com/news/wto-talks-down-to-the-wire-india-holds-out/1275271

WTO (World Trade Organisation).

Re:  adoption of free trade facilitation protocol for Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

WTO is negotiating an easing of 'customs and rules'.

WTO says 'public stockholdings' of food/grain must not exceed 10% of grains produced by a country. 

But this is on the basis of a 1986-1988 stockholdings 'base price', and India is challenging on the basis of rising INFLATION.

Hey, I learnt about inflation. 

So the WTO 10% (dollar?) figure doesn't take into account rising inflation and India is like a trade union for food/grain reserves, asking for the reserve to be brought up in step with inflation?

Fair call, India.

India points out that there's a potential $1 TRILLION to the world economy coffers.  Go India! 

India standing firm:  insists no shift in its stand.

India wants TFA implemented ONLY as part of SINGLE UNDERTAKING ... INCLUDING the PERMANENT SOLUTION ON FOOD SECURITY.

For Food Security Against Food Security WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION vs FOOD SECURITY INDIA CHINA CUBA PAKISTAN BOLIVIA VENEZUELA

Deadline is on 31 July 2014.  Support of two-thirds of member countries is required to implement the TFP.

India suggested a postponement of adoption of TFP and outlined steps towards resolution by a date in December.

*Note:  there is a couple of other issues at stake. Bali Package (a big one) ... and LDC.

Bali Package is yet another trade agreement 'to lower trade barriers'.

LDC issues relate to Least Developed Country ... it's a United Nations designation of a country (I think) on the basis of:

lowest indicators of socio-economic development, with the lowest Human Development Index ratings of all countries in the world.  [wikipedia]

So there is some formula the UN apply for rankings of countries on socio-economic development.

Formula:  (1) Poverty assessment (2) Human Resource assessment (ie the labour force) (3) Economic Vulnerability ... eg. are exports stable etc.

Gee, sounds like estimating the quality of cattle.

All this stuff is worked out by economists and I guess it affects the trade deals that countries are party to and, I think, the concessions that countries may receive.

As I'm new to looking at politics and economics, this information is best double-checked.  LOL.

This is just my take at the moment.

Stand firm India ... world economy wants those trillions.

PS ... Love how John Kerry wants India's opposition to 'wither away'.  Bet he does.  LOL.

US & friends in no position to lecture

US and allies ‘in no position to lecture anyone on the sanctity of human life’ John Wight is a writer and commentator specializing in geopolitics, UK domestic politics, culture and sport. Published time: July 24, 2014 08:34 The destruction of a Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft over eastern Ukraine nobody disputes is a terrible tragedy. Almost 300 people have been killed in the most awful circumstances and though it is self-evident that a full and thorough investigation must follow to find out what happened its conclusions will be scant comfort to the families and loved ones of those who perished. That said, the mind boggles that a civilian passenger aircraft should be flying anywhere near a war zone, especially one in which fighter jets, military aircraft, and military transport aircraft are playing such a key role in hostilities. The alacrity with which Washington and its allies have sought to exploit this tragedy to attack Russia has been as unedifying as it has been despicable. If it turns out that the aircraft was downed by a missile, and as yet no one knows for certain how this disaster occurred, it is highly likely to have been an accident and there is something to be said for understanding the conditions in which such a tragic event has taken place. What we do know for certain at this point is that the conflict which has been raging in eastern Ukraine over the past few months, and which has intensified since the election of Petro Poroshenko as President of western Ukraine in May, was sparked by the toppling of the last legitimate democratically elected Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovich by an armed mob in Kiev in February, in which avowed neo-Nazis played a key role. Some of those neo-Nazis currently occupy ministerial offices in the regime led by Mr. Poroshenko and are prevalent in the violence that has been visited on the people in the east of the country, who have risen up in resistance to Kiev and its sponsors in the West. [...] The recent signing of the Association Agreement between the EU and the regime in Kiev has brought the EU into disrepute. Just think about this for a moment: the EU has just entered a state into its ranks bathed in the blood of its own citizens. There is another very important aspect to the continuing fallout from the Malaysian airliner disaster that helps us understand the level of anti-Russian vitriol and propaganda it has sparked. Vladimir Putin has just enjoyed a successful trip to South America. There he played a key role in the establishment of a new development bank to rival the dominance of the US and European-led World Bank. With a capital base of $100bn this new institution will provide developing economies with alternative funding without the punishing conditions and exploitative strings attached to funding obtained from the World Bank and its affiliate the International Finance Corporation. This is a massive step forward for the developing world, turning a new page in the continuing struggle to forge a multipolar alternative to the status quo of Washington’s and the West’s unipolarity, which has retarded the development of the Global South since the Second World War. There is also the no small matter, as far as the West is concerned, of the Russian President’s visit to Cuba and the forging of closer relations with its former Cold War ally. Again, this will have undoubtedly resulted in the gnashing of teeth in Washington, further evidence of the challenge that is being mounted to its hegemony in what it considers its own backyard. Furthermore, the stridency when it comes to the tragic deaths of the 298 people on the Malaysian airliner has been significantly absent when it comes to the comparable number of civilians slaughtered in Gaza as a result of Israel’s ongoing brutal military assault. The hypocrisy here is striking, if not surprising. For many years Washington and its European allies have provided political cover for Israel’s war crimes vis-à-vis the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors. They are in no position to lecture anyone on the sanctity of human life. The pressure being brought to bear against Russia, exploiting this tragedy as a pretext, should not blind us to the role of the West in fomenting and prolonging military conflicts around the world for their own geopolitical interests. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Palestine; their crimes would shame all the devils in hell. Only when Washington and its allies understand that their days of uncontested hegemony and unipolarity are over will there be a chance for a new global framework in which respect for national sovereignty and international law is returned to prominence and upheld as the non-negotiable arbiter of international affairs and foreign policy. The alternative is more conflict and more of the chaos we are witnessing today. Extract only...full @... Source - RT News - here.

Hopefully you cyber travellers like reading as much as I do.

It seems a lot to wade through but it's really worth a read to see the other side's viewpoint.

I think the article speaks a lot of truths about the way Russia is vilified, how MH17 victims are exploited for political point scoring and about hypocrisy.

No Cuban base for Russia?

TWITTER

Retweeted by Yasha Levine
 

simon saradzhyan ‏@saradzhyan 2h

Putin denies Lourdes SIGINT'll be reopend.So much for Kommersant's"several sources"in Rusgov,unless 11thhour reversal http://www.gazeta.ru/social/news/2014/07/17/n_6316069.shtml …

 RUSSIAN GAZETTA (as per above reference) -- SAYS ---WHAT???

Путин опроверг информацию о возобновлении работы радиоэлектронного центра в Лурдесе
17.07.2014, 03:24 | «Газета.Ru»

Президент России Владимир Путин опроверг информацию о планах Москвы по возобновлению работы радиоэлектронного центра в Лурдесе, сообщает Russia Today.

«Неправда, мы не обсуждали этого вопроса», — ответил Путин на вопрос о том, будет ли возобновлена работа радиолокационного центра.

[Source - Gazetta Ru - here.]

TRANSLATION

Putin denied the reopening of the Lourdes electronic
17.07.2014, 03:24 | «BBC»

Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied the information about Moscow's plans to resume the work of the Lourdes electronic, reports Russia Today.

"It is not true, we did not discuss this issue," - Putin replied to a question about whether it would be reactivated radar center.

[Google]
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COMMENT

LOL

Looks like there's no Cuban re-opening after all.

But Western papers are running the story.

Personal Google favourite is:

Putin gives Obama 'middle finger,' strikes deal to reactivate spy base ...
Washington Times-by Douglas Ernst-2 hours ago
New sanctions imposed upon Russia aren't deterring Vladimir Putin from reactivating an old Soviet-era spy base in Cuba that has been closed since January 27 ...

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UPDATE 

BRASILIA, July 17. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia had plans to deploy its radar in Lourdes, Cuba.

Putin noted that Russia had no plans to resume the Lourdes signals intelligence facility operation. “Russia is capable of fulfilling the defense capacity tasks without this component (Lourdes),” he said.

Source:  ITAR-TASS - here. 

Lesson:  don't pay attention to a single source.

Russia to reportedly re-open Cuban base

Following Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Cuba, it has been reported that Russia has written off Cuban debt to Russia.

Russia is rumoured to have also made arrangements with Cuba to re-open their SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) facility in Lourdes, Cuba (250km from mainland US).

Following the 1998 economic bust, Russia wound down her large scale operations at the Cuban facility.

However, Russia ultimately closed down the facility in 2001 due to US pressure.

The US held the purse strings and refused to reschedule or the forgive Russian debt, unless the Cuban facility was shut down.

Following the passing of the US Russian-American Trust and Cooperation Act (introduced in 2000 and rapidly passed by US Senate), Russia -- indebted to the US interests -- had no choice but to close down her Cuban base.

Particulars of the Act are as follows:

Full Title

To prohibit the rescheduling or forgiveness of any outstanding bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government of the Russian Federation until the President certifies to the Congress that the Government of the Russian Federation has ceased all its operations at, removed all personnel from, and permanently closed the intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba.

Legislation particulars:  GovTrackUS site - here. 

No further details are available as to the reinstatement of  Russia's Cuban base.

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EDIT
Since denied by Putin - further blog post - here.