My translation of Voselsoberano article below. Note: it's horrifying to see the return of the Maduro cabal and their tactics, apparently unchanged. My book deals extensively with the Mano Dura politics he implemented alongside Pepe Lobo (author of the "anti-gang law" that made perceived identity a death sentence, intellectual author of prison fires that killed hundreds) and Oscar Álvarez, nephew of one of the worst U.S.-trained butchers in Honduras, Álvarez Martínez. Will things be different now that, according to one sign Pichu featured on her site, "el pueblo ya no es pendejo"? Or will the logic of neoliberal crime control continue to be an effective strategy for turning people against themselves? Can the liminal desubjectivation inspired by the violent usurpation of electoral democracy be maintained in what the U.S. State Department is billing as the "post-conflict" stage which will undoubtedly shape up to be even more bloody than the conflict?
Thursday January 28, 2010 09:01
The former minister of security Oscar Álvarez (2002-2006) appeared again on the scene, this time in the densely populated neighborhood El Pedregal, cradle of the Popular Resistance and the only place where military and the police were kicked out, last September 22nd after president Manuel Zelaya entered the country.
The show could not start any other way; without showing us any arrestee, without saying where it was found, appearing as if by magic, the minister announced in front of dozens of cameras and reporters the capture of a powerful anti-tank missile, an RPG-7, of Russian manufacture.
Immediately after the announcement was made on Radio Globo, one of the residents in the el Pedregal neighborhood who was arrested during the dictatorship, Mr. Fausto Arrazola, questioned why he did not say where and from whom the powerful weapon was confiscated. When this question was asked the director of the radio, David Romero, the minister could not hide his anger.
Feeling discovered and drunk with power, the minister Álvarez scolded the journalist David Romero, telling him "It's not the same thing to shout from inside a radio booth as being on the front lines," and continued on the attack saying that "a crazy man was shouting nonsense" referring to Mr. Arrazola.
It was at that point when [Álvarez] began making dangerous insinuations, asking why he was afraid, was he nervous about the arrests about to be made, and advised that we can't give information about how these "terrorist cells" operate, and that these weapons are only used by the FMLN of El Salvador and the Frente Sandinista of Nicaragua.
It seems the minister got ahead of himself with his announcements- all that was missing was for him to mention the FNRP and complete his conspiracy against the Resistance.
This government, child of the dictatorship, today took out its claws. It's no coincidence that an operation would be carried out in El Pedregal, that they would confiscate a high-powered weapon and not say where or how they got it.
On the defensive and facing a lack of information, the minister argued that neither the police nor the Armed Forces possess this type of weapons in their inventory. This is true, but that does not mean they don't have them.
This is why they haven't brought forth anyone accused of harboring the weapon, nor any follow-up investigation of the various explosions of grenades and supposed bombs in different places, and two RPG-7, found during the dictatorship.
Fighting crime is a duty of the police, and respect for human rights is also an obligation of all legal authorities. The police does not have the right, nor should it pursue people for their political beliefs, as occurred throughout the Micheletti dictatorship.
With what happened today the resistance's claims are proven correct: this government will be a continuation of the dictatorship.
WHO IS ÓSCAR ÁLVAREZ?
When a wave of torture and murder staggered a small U.S. ally, truth was a casualty.
Was the CIA involved? Did Washington know? Was the public deceived? Now we know: Yes, Yes and yes.
Sun Staff
June 11, 1995
Battalion 316 got its early training from Argentines, who had been invited to Honduras by General Alvarez, himself an honors graduate of the Argentine Military Academy.
"The Argentines came in first, and they taught how to disappear people. The United States made them more efficient," said Oscar Alvarez, a former Honduran special forces officer and diplomat who was the general's nephew.
"The Americans ... brought the equipment," he said. "They gave the training in the United States, and they brought agents here to provide some training in Honduras.
"They said, 'You need someone to tap phones, you need someone to transcribe the tapes, you need surveillance groups.' They brought in special cameras that were inside thermoses. They taught interrogation techniques.
No comments:
Post a Comment