After Violent Clashes with Leftists Yesterday, Mexican Federal Police Arrive in Oaxaca (Translation)

El Universal ( Mexico City ) ^ | October 28, 2006 | J.O. Ochoa and A. Torres ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

PFP arrives in Oaxaca; commerical air traffic closed

Six Boeing aircraft have landed at the Benito Juarez International Airport with federal components; Bell type helicopters are also observed

Jorge Octavio Ochoa and Alejandro Torres/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City)
Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
Saturday 28 October 2006

12:15  An intense mobilization of aircraft of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) can be observed at this time at the Benito Juarez International Airport of this city.

At 11:53 in the morning a Boeing airplane landed registered as XCMPF of the Federal Preventive Police, in the disembarkation quarter which it carried out this morning.

On the grounds of the airport five light Bell type helicopters also could be seen, as well as anti-riot equipment.

During the disembarkation of the special forces of the PFP air traffic was closed and an Aeroliteral airplane had to suspend its landing in an untimely manner at 12:00 noon.

In spite of the intense mobilization, all the operation of the PFP was carried out with extreme discretion in the rear of the airport.

At 12:10 p.m. another Boeing of the PFP landed, registered XC-OPF, and according to residents of the suburb, there were six airplanes with these which have disembarked components of the unit.

At a distance anti-riot equipment could be seen being unloaded, bulletproof vests and shields.

The components of the PFP are being concentrated at the Military Air Base 15, located behind the international airport.

[StJacques]

I want to refer everyone to two threads I put up yesterday which explain what is going on. Yesterday the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) seized complete control of Oaxaca City and its environs, blockading all the main roads and, perhaps most significantly, closed and seized local businesses. Violence erupted in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino as local policmen tried to push APPO out of one of their barricades in the city, and an American cameraman with IndyMedia, who have provided a lot of publicity and support for APPO, was killed. I have a photo essay thread with scenes of some of the violence.

For anyone and everyone keeping track of the deteriorating situation in Oaxaca I want to especially recommend the blogger's site http://www.markinmexico.blogspot.com. As I have said before, whoever Mark is his reporting has been a treasure. You may also want to keep track of the information posted at the Oaxaca Watch page at adirondackbasecamp.com, which has some good variety in its information.

[StJacques]

A Mexican Left Watch ping for you all.

Anyone wishing to be added to the ping list may contact me via Freepmail or post within this thread.

[StJacques]

Well, well, we have photos coming from Oaxaca of the arrival of the Mexican Federal Preventive Police.







I wonder if this means they're finally going to stand up to these leftist thugs.

[GSlob]

Well, mechanical flails [rotating around a horizontal axis drum with heavy chain flails attached] and modified water cannons connected to sewage tanks are very effective in riot control. Especially the sh*tthrower, for the rioters publicly p*ssed and defecated upon instantly lose credibility, both for themselves and for their cause.

[peyton randolph]

Probably means they're going to provide these fine citizens with air transport to the U.S. border so that we can receive them to do riots that Americans won't do.

[DaoPian]

Wow, now that is some serious photography!!

I've heard from the wife and it's total lockdown there right now. Now that the roads are closed and the airport is inaccessible, all contingency plans are out the window.

Mark's latest post does have some possible good news. I'm just not sure which - hide to fight another day (avoid confrontation) or wipe them out now (get it over with)?

"An APPO spokesman has called for APPO aficionados to reinforce the barricades. At the same time APPO radio (the hijacked Juarez University radio station) is calling for APPO personnel to abandon the barricades and avoid confrontations with federal police. What to do? What to do?"

[Founding Father]

Dear Supporters of the teachers’ and popular movement
>> in Oaxaca:
>>
>> Yesterday afternoon (Friday, October 27) I was at the
>> Planton (encampment) in Mexico City with the 21 hunger
>> strikers and the 400 remaining teachers and activists
>> from Oaxaca who arrived here October 9 following their
>> 500-kilometer walk.
>>
>> Just moments after the riot police (granaderos) charged
>> the encampment to dislodge us from in front of the
>> Hemiciclio a Juarez building, we learned that in the city
>> of Oaxaca, armed goons â€" under direct orders from PRI
>> Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz â€" had charged the barricades
>> in a major operation to remove all the Section 22
>> teachers and APPO supporters from the downtown section of
>> the city, which has been occupied by the movement since
>> June 14.
>>
>> The teachers’ union and APPO had called on their
>> supporters to join them in a major mobilization on Friday
>> to demand the immediate resignation of Ruiz Ortiz.
>>
>> Three people were killed in this assault: IndyMedia
>> photographer Bradely Roland Will from New York, Section
>> 22 teacher Emilio Alonso Fabian and community activist
>> Esteban Ruiz. At least 23 others were seriously injured,
>> and are currently in the hospital. This brings to 14 the
>> number of people who have been killed on the APPO
>> barricades.
>>
>> We later learned that in the neighboring municipality of
>> Santa Maria Coyotepec, 20 striking teachers were arrested
>> by the police and carted off to jail. Thirteen of them
>> had gunshot wounds. The teachers and their supporters had
>> organized a protest and encampment in front of the
>> Municipal Building to demand the ouster of Ruiz Ortiz.
>>
>> The Mexican newspaper La Jornada also reports this
>> morning (October 28) that as many 50 teachers who were on
>> picket duty in front of the office of Ruiz Ortiz in the
>> city of Oaxaca have been disappeared. At this writing,
>> their whereabouts are still unknown.
>>
>> In a statement issued Friday night, leaders of Section 22
>> and APPO said this operation was masterminded by Ruiz
>> Ortiz and Elpidio Concha Arellando, state president of
>> the PRI-controlled CNC peasant federation, and was
>> carried out both by plain-clothes cops and members of the
>> CNC and PRI. The movement leaders also said the Friday
>> assault was the first stage of a two-day effort to
>> destroy the movement. They warned that a major police
>> operation could take place today in Oaxaca against the
>> teachers and APPO activists.
>>
>> Both Ruiz Ortiz and Concha Arellanado had made public
>> statements during the past 10 days warning that the
>> Section 22-APPO downtown encampment would no longer be
>> standing after October 28. Concha Arellanado was the most
>> explicit, stating on October 16 that “we, the PRI
>> activist, will take matters into our own hands in the
>> event the federal government fails to put a halt by next
>> Saturday to the continued occupation and vandalism of our
>> state by these radical elements; we will carry out any
>> and all actions necessary to restore order, the rule of
>> law and social peace.�
>>
>> Indeed, the federal government had hoped the barricades
>> would be torn down and the teachers would be back to work
>> by now. Interior Minister Carlos Abascal Carranza,
>> wielding both a carrot and a stick, had been pressing the
>> leadership of the teachers’ union over the past 10 days
>> to agree to the negotiated settlement worked out in
>> common on October 10 in Mexico City.
>>
>> The carrot was the creation of a Senate Commission to see
>> if there was a basis for impeaching Ruiz Ortiz and a
>> pledge to address some of the teachers’ wage and
>> workplace demands. The stick was the deployment to Oaxaca
>> of more than 3,000 Army and Marine troops poised to enter
>> the city of Oaxaca on a moment’s notice to smash the
>> strike and the mass movement that was generated to
>> support the teachers.
>>
>> Abascal Carranza has had a willing partner in this effort
>> to ram through the government’s proposed settlement:
>> Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the general secretary of Section
>> 22 of the teachers’ union.
>>
>> The main problem for the government is that Rueda Pacheco
>> has not been successful to date in getting the teachers
>> to end their strike and return to the classrooms. The
>> main problem was that the Senate Commission, as expected,
>> ruled that there was no basis for impeaching Ruiz Ortiz.
>> A full vote by the Mexican Senate ratified the
>> Commission’s findings. The teachers â€" like the rest
>> of the indigenous and community activists in APPO -- are
>> steadfast in their commitment to get rid of Ruiz Ortiz,
>> who represents the worst of the corrupt and repressive
>> holdovers of the 70-year PRI regime that ruled Mexico
>> with an iron fist. They don’t believe it will be safe
>> for them to return to work as long as Ruiz Ortiz is
>> governor. They fear individual and collective retaliation
>> by the governor and his death squads.
>>
>> One week ago, Rueda Pacheco succeeded in getting his
>> union leadership to send out a ballot to all the
>> state’s 70,000 teachers that effectively would have
>> ended the strike. But an angry 10-hour session of the
>> Section 22 Delegates’ Assembly, the union’s highest
>> leadership body, on October 21 repudiated this maneuver
>> by Rueda Pacheco and his clique. The Assembly called for
>> a new ballot on ending the strike and a new
>> “consultation� of the members on October 23-24.
>>
>> The results of that balloting were made public on
>> Thursday, October 27: The Delegates Assembly, held the
>> previous day, certified that 31,078 teachers voted to
>> return to work this coming week, while 20,387 voted to
>> continue the strike. This vote reflected the exhaustion
>> and desperate situation facing teachers after a bitter
>> five-month strike. For the past two months, the teachers
>> have not received their wages or any funding from their
>> union. Many have lost their homes and cars. Countless
>> families have been broken up.
>>
>> The Delegates Assembly on October 26 took note of this
>> membership consultation, but it did not vote to return to
>> work on Monday, October 30 â€" as Abascal Carranza and
>> Ruiz Ortiz had hoped. The Assembly said the teachers
>> would return to work ONLY if certain conditions and
>> guarantees were met: the safety of all the teachers had
>> to be guaranteed, all wages lost during the strike had to
>> be repaid, all the political prisoners held in the state
>> of Oaxaca had to be freed, and a government fund had to
>> be set up to cover the long-term expenses of the families
>> of the 11 teachers and activists killed during the
>> strike.
>>
>> And the Delegates Assembly took another equally important
>> decision. It voted to reject the government’s demand to
>> end the encampment and tear down the barricades. The
>> Delegates Assembly stated they would not drop their
>> commitment to remove Ruiz Ortiz from office, even if they
>> were compelled to return to work. They said they remained
>> committed to APPO and would send teachers every day, on a
>> rotating basis, to staff the barricades and encampment.
>>
>> This last decision by the Delegates Assembly infuriated
>> Ruiz Ortiz and his supporters, who expected that a
>> decision to return to work would be accompanied by an end
>> to APPO and to the downtown occupation and encampment.
>>
>> A meeting was scheduled in Mexico City between the
>> Section 22 leadership and Abascal Carranza for today
>> (October 28) in which the government was to give their
>> response to the teachers’ conditions.
>>
>> In the interim, however, the violence instigated by Ruiz
>> Ortiz on October 27 has disrupted this attempt to work
>> out the final details of a settlement.
>>
>> I spoke late last night over the phone with Augusto Reyes
>> Medina, a member of the Executive Committee of Section
>> 22. He said the union leadership was holding an emergency
>> Delegates Assembly today (October 28) to discuss what to
>> do next in light of the new killings and the fact a
>> climate of peace does not exist for the teachers to
>> return to work.
>>
>> Reyes Medina told me he had met earlier in the evening
>> with dozens of general secretaries of local chapters of
>> the union from across the state. He and these delegates
>> to the Assembly, he said, had drafted a letter to the
>> Delegates Assembly and to all the teachers in Oaxaca in
>> which they state that the conditions for returning to
>> work stipulated by the October 26 Delegates Assembly do
>> not exist.
>>
>> “No matter what Abascal Carranza tells our Section 22
>> delegation about ensuring the safety and protection of
>> our teachers,� Reyes Medina said, “the fact is that
>> he does not call the shots in Oaxaca. Nor has Abascal
>> Carranza lifted a finger thus far to rein in Ruiz Ortiz,
>> much less get rid of him. As everyone knows, there is an
>> open alliance between the PAN and the PRI on this issue
>> today. … As long as the assassins of our 14 teachers
>> and supporters remain unpunished, as long as the No. 1
>> assassin, Ruiz Ortiz, remains at the helm of the state,
>> we will be gunned down one by one, or in clusters, by the
>> governor and his goons. Of this we can be sure. This is
>> how Ruiz Ortiz functions.�
>>
>> Reyes Medina said he and a large wing of the local
>> leaders of the union would call on the Delegates Assembly
>> to put the decision to return to work on hold until the
>> only real guarantee to ensure the safe return to the
>> classrooms is enacted: the punishment of those
>> responsible for the killings and the removal from office
>> of Ruiz Ortiz.
>>
>> I will keep you posted later today on the decisions of
>> today’s Delegates Assembly.
>>
>> In the meantime, I believe it is urgent that all
>> supporters of the teachers’ and popular movement in
>> Oaxaca organize this coming week emergency protest
>> actions in front of Mexican embassies and consulates to
>> demand an end to the repression in Oaxaca and the arrest
>> and punishment of all those responsible for the violence
>> against the teachers and the APPO activists. The earlier
>> these emergency protests, the better.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Alan Benjamin
>>

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oaxacastudyactiongroup/message/1096

[StJacques]

". . . In the meantime, I believe it is urgent that all supporters of the teachers and popular movement in Oaxaca organize this coming week emergency protest actions in front of Mexican embassies and consulates to demand an end to the repression in Oaxaca and the arrest and punishment of all those responsible for the violence against the teachers and the APPO activists. . . ."

"Supporters of the teachers?" ...

The teachers voted to end their strike and return to classes.

"Popular movement in Oaxaca?"

Parents have begun taking over their local schools and sending machete-carrying APPO activists home without their shirts.



". . . demand an end to the repression in Oaxaca and the arrest and punishment of all those responsible for the violence against the teachers and the APPO activists. . . ."

And what about the APPO seizure of both privately and publicly-owned radio stations they have used for broadcasts? What about APPO's destruction of the privately-owned businesses in downtown Oaxaca whose proprietors were deemed opposed to their protest? What about the killing of two dissident SNTE union members for opposing the APPO protest? What about the harm done to thousands of poor Oaxacans who depend every year on the Guelaguetza folk festival for their biggest chunk of annual income who saw that money lost when APPO shut the festival down? What about the harm done to hundreds of thousands of children who have had their opportunity for a basic education stripped from them?

Friggin' leftist dribble! I'm sick of their lies!

[Alia]

MSM is trying to paint this as a "murder" by Police of the IndyMedia Journalist. Oh yes, of course, they have access to the facts that police were specifically ordered to stay out of that fracas. "We" can't have the people of the world know that the residents and citizens of Oaxaca are fighting AGAINST the APPO, can we, now.

[Alia]

The APPO are equivalent to our RUCKUS, marxist thugs here in the US. They've shut down Oaxaca. The residents and teachers are fighting against the Marxists. These are the fine residents you are referring to? I'd welcome them legally in my town.

[Founding Father]

Friggin' leftist dribble! I'm sick of their lies!

Agreed, but I felt it important to know what the Left is saying and putting out (maybe another reason to have a thread on all things south of the border).

In other news from Mexico:

No one care about Tijuana... No one seems to care about what is going on in Tijuana. It has become the most dangerous city in Mexico, if not the world. Between yesterday Thursday and today Friday five people have been kidnapped. Person who appear to have no relationship whatsoever with the drug trade, rather local businessmen. The federal government refuses to send the federal police, the Governor refuses to do anything about this, and the Mayor of Tijuana Jorge Hank Rhon basically says that "Tijuana is as safe as San Diego" eventhought locals have identified more then 115 kidnappings this year alone and more then 400 families leaving the city in the last 18 months... Believe it or not Hank Rhon is planning to run for governor next year.... You know what? He may win....

For the story in Spanish--

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/editoriales/35755.html

[Alia]

Sweet Jesus!

This is awful news. The APPO is carrying through with their threats to "coup" and "replace with their own guys". Yeah right, Pelosi: Impeach the President!; Yeah Right, Chavez -- replace civil government with your marxist one. Spread the ill right up through Mexico and into the US.

It won't happen. But let the world properly see exactly the chaos Marxism has in mind.

[Thunder90]

The thing is that many of these protesters were AMLO supporters, and this is seen by AMLO and Chavez as a way to bring a communist revolution to Mexico. The Federal Police reaction needs to be swift but not cause too many deaths, otherwise it would be like putting gasoline on a fire.

[StJacques]

APPO is now evacuating offices of the Oaxacan State Government in anticipation of being thrown out by the federales.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPO evacuates offices of the PGJE in Oaxaca

In spite of the rejection of the ultimatum issued by the federal government to hand over the Oaxacan historic center, the organization forsees abandoning other public buildings in the next hours

Jorge Octavio Ochoa & Alejandro Torres/Correspondents
El Universal (Mexico City)
Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
Saturday 28 October 2006

8:38 p.m. The offices of the General Procurator of Justice of the State [of Oaxaca] located on San Antonio de la Cal, where yesterday a shootout was recorded with more than half a dozen wounded, were released around 7:30 p.m. by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), and over the next few hours it forsees carrying out an evacuation of other public buildings taken by said organization going back more than three months.

The preliminary report was made known by employees of said office [i.e. the PGJE] and later confirmed by Radio Universidad, the only broadcast with which APPO counts upon to coordinate calls to the population to "maintain calm" facing a possible intervention of federal police forces in this state.

Some areas of the city were found free of barricades, nevertheless on the periphery some vehicles and public service autobuses still remain crossed in important crossings such as that of the Morelos Rotunda, where the Periferico, Calzada de la Republica, Morelos, and Camino Nacional Avenues converge.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So; maybe APPO is just retreating to "defensible lines" within the city's center or perhaps they are throwing the feds a bone to keep them happy. I don't know, but there you have it.

[rovenstinez]

Seems these things always are planned on week ends, when the Press is in Acapulco at the golf course, and no one watches the news.

[StJacques]

"Agreed, but I felt it important to know what the Left is saying and putting out . . ."

Oh I agree completely with you on that. I hope you didn't think I was leveling a criticism at you FF. No; just the opposite. I very much appreciate everything you bring to the table in our "Mexican Left Watch," as I do in our larger "Latin American Left Watch."

Try to understand that there are times when the Mexican Left or the Latin American Left or their gringo wannabees (as in this case) will just flat-out pi$$ me off. I tend to become a little less than even-tempered in such instances. It's something of a personal fault.

[StJacques]

LOL rovenstinez!!!

I've often thought that it might be weekend entertainment for everyone when they're off work!

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Seems a lot like what was going on in Tlatelolco September 21 to October 2, 1968. Maybe this time the leftists will immolate bodies and throw them in the ocean. Again. Since they are leaving the government offices, let me guess where they are going. Maybe schools and churches, like last time?

[StJacques]

It's a pretty good bet they're retreating into the city center, i.e. the Zocalo state capital plaza. At that site they will have to defend a much smaller geographical area and can possibly even develop a "rolling defense" if ousted, permitting them to move as a group through the city as they are pushed by the PFP. APPO's goal is not to "win" a standoff with the federales, but rather to portay them as brutes and bullies providing the Mexican Left with a provocación they can use to rally support for themselves around the country. That is their real goal.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Yep. And the more people that get hurt and killed, the "better" they feel. Here is a leftist inspired site: http://mexconnect.com/mex_/

It is revisionist blame America and the CIA history.

[StJacques]

That's a PRI-affiliated web site. Did you notice that their "news" page links to former President Ernesto Zedillo's web site?

[Thunder90]

I agree. If the Oxaita protest is pushed too much, the AMLO elements will begin to riot themselves.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

"PEDRO MATÍAS/ROSALÍA VERGARA
Viernes negro para Oaxaca. La ciudad quedó literalmente sitiada y paralizada la entidad en medio de barricadas y bloqueos carreteros, lo que desencadenó balaceras en 15 puntos estratégicos de esta capital, que dejó hasta el momento dos muertos, entre ellos, el camarógrafo estadounidense Bradley Roland Hill y el maestro Emilio Alonso Fabián, además de 10 heridos, un desaparecido y al parecer tres profesores secuestrados.
El portavoz de la APPO, Florentino López Martínez, confirmó la muerte del camarógrafo de Indymedia Nueva York, Estados Unidos, y del profesor del sector D-III-34 de Candelaria Loxicha, y dijo que decretaron la “Alerta máxima” ante nuevos ataques perpetrados por el gobierno del estado y apoyados en las autoridades municipales priístas."

The story is being manipulated.

http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/

[StJacques]

"The story is being manipulated"

Yes it is. I'm going to put up a translation of that for the rest of our group who may show up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Black Friday for Oaxaca. The city left literally besieged and the state paralyzed in the midst of barricades and major highway blockades, which triggered shootouts in 15 strategic points of this capital, which up to now left two dead, among them, the U.S. camera photographer Bradley Roland Hill and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabian, and 10 wounded moreover, one person disappeared and what appears to be three kidnapped teachers.

The spokesman for APPO, Florentino Lopez Martinez, confirmed the death of the camera photographer of Indymedia, New York, United States, and of the teacher of sector D-III-34 of Candelaria Loxicha, and said that they decreed a "Maximum Alert" facing new attacks perpetrated by the state government and supported in the PRI-controlled municipal authorities.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's no mention of APPO doing anything, one might just get the feeling from reading the above that they are nothing but a peaceful group of people struggling on in the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, blah! blah! blah!

No one's heard about APPO and their actions yesterday ...

This is APPO at Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca yesterday:

[StJacques]

Thunder90 I meant to ping you to my #24 just posted and forgot.

It's late and I'm a little off my game.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Your pix links no workie no more!

[StJacques]

This has to do with page refresh issues. Click on "pings" and go to "My Comments" and then click on the title for this thread to reload the page and see the pics.

Blogspot.com pics do this on occasion.

[livius]

Great picture!

The teachers were just a pawn in this; the left is famous for using "the people" and then crushing them on its ascent to power.

Regardless of whether Ruiz is a lousy governor or not, he is the elected governor and should stay in place until there is some legitimate legal process undertaken by the state and the government of Mexico for his removal. If the radical left wins in Oaxaca, they are going to be trying this in other states soon.

I am thinking that to some extent Fox held off because he may have regarded this as an internecine dispute between leftists and felt that the presence of federal authorities would complicate the issue. But it seems to me that the principle of the stability of an elected government and the rule of law are the things actually being challenged here, and that if the radical left wins here, any provocation (that is, somebody or something they don't like) will be sufficient for them to try this elsewhere.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Leftist playbook. Cause civil unrest and violence. Destabilize society. Use the confusion to step in and establish a communist paradise.
Looks like they are having some success.
The left and the jihadists are both trying to overthrow peaceful civilizations. Both have to be stopped. Both are being encouraged and actively helped by the left.

[Founding Father]

StJacques--no real good place to post this so I stuck it here and hopefully it will be read.

---

Friday, October 27, 2006
POLL NUMBERS!!! October 27, 2006
Back with polls from the four final races of the year in Latin America. The numbers from two weeks ago are here.

In Nicaragua, Cid Gallup says it's Ortega 33, Montealegre 22, Rizo 17, Jarquin 13.
Borge has it Ortega 34, Montealegre 29.
U Central America did a huge sample ballot and came up with Ortega 38, Rizo 20, Montealegre 17.
Zogby has the race Ortega 35, Montealegre 20, Rizo 16.

In Venezuela, Zogby has the race Chavez 59, Rosales 24.
Consultores21 has the race Chavez 50, Rosales 33.
Cifras has the race Chavez 59, Rosales 22.
CECA claims the race is nearly tied and Datanalysis says Rosales is closing in.
The head of Hinterlaces agrees with me, saying that Rosales is slowly gaining and although Chavez is still likely to win, his popularity has taken a hit during the election.

In Ecuador, Informe has the race Noboa 47, Correa 34.
Cedatos has it Noboa 49, Correa 34.
Consultar has it Noboa 53, Correa 26.

In Brazil, Sensus says it's Lula 57.5, Alckmin 33.5.
Ibope has it Lula 62, Alckmin 38.
Datafolha has it Lula 61, Alckmin 39.
I feel fairly confident in saying Lula is going to win this one.

http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/

[Founding Father]

ditto my last ping

---

"...nobody owns that [Venezuela's central bank] money"

Miguel, Daniel, and F. Toro have typically kept us blog readers very well informed about the ever so transparent debt bond purchases from Argentina. For those interested here is an article from the Economist that is worth a read, plus who might be getting rich?:



Oct 26th 2006 | BUENOS AIRES
From The Economist print edition
Venezuela's president tries his hand at financial arbitrage

JUST as Venezuela is known for its exports of crude, Argentina is famous for its exports of IOUs. Less than two years after it handed its creditors a world-record loss in a sovereign debt-exchange, Argentina's government has found an eager new patron in its oil-rich ally. Over the last year, the government in Caracas has bought some $3.1 billion in Argentine bonds. Is this a case of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's tub-thumping president, putting political solidarity ahead of fiscal prudence? Look closer.

The roots of the deal lie in the currency controls Mr Chávez imposed on his country during the economic meltdown of 2003. To halt capital flight, he pegged the bolívar, Venezuela's currency, to the dollar (the official rate is now 2,150 to 1), and sharply curtailed opportunities to buy dollars at that price. As a result, a black market in foreign exchange soon opened up. The bolívar could not hold its value at the kerbside—a dollar has traded for anything from 2,400 to 2,900 bolívars in the past year—adding to inflationary pressures.

However, unlike most of his countrymen, Mr Chávez can help himself to dollars from the state oil company, PDVSA, or from his own central bank at the official rate. This he did to acquire the $3.1 billion he needed to buy the dollar bonds from Argentina's government, which started issuing debt with indecent haste after completing its huge bond restructuring in mid-2005. Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner, was more than pleased to borrow directly from Venezuela. Doing business with a fellow Latin American leftist is more palatable than asking for money from the private international lenders he repeatedly bashes. Moreover, Mr Chávez was, in effect, offering to underwrite his debt issue. Venezuela's big purchases meant that Mr Kirchner did not need to test the market's appetite for his government's bonds too deeply.

But almost as soon as he got the Argentine paper, Mr Chávez began to sell it to local Venezuelan banks, at the rate of 2,400 bolívars to the dollar. All told, his government off-loaded $2.4 billion-worth of bonds, pocketing a tidy profit. How tidy? His finance team eagerly announced a gain of $309m to the press last month; though the true figure may be a bit different.
The banks too were happy. They were free to sell the bonds abroad for dollars, which they promptly did for a handsome profit. Some of them converted the greenbacks back into bolívars at black-market rates, others hung on to them. Either way, this new source of foreign exchange has relieved pressure on the black market; the bolívar has stabilised and one source of inflationary pressure has eased.

Within Venezuela, critics have complained not about the deal itself, but about who was in on it, and who wasn't. The government has still not revealed its method of choosing which banks would be eligible for a chunk of the massive return Mr Chávez was offering. “Any operation that hands out $300m discretionally, regardless of the mechanism, is a clear incentive for corruption,” says Alejandro Grisanti of the Caracas consultancy Ecoanalítica. In the absence of an open bidding process, government officials were free to route the Argentine bonds to banks already supportive of Mr Chávez, to tie the sale to future support, or to receive payments or favours in exchange for offering them.But despite this carping, can the two presidents not congratulate themselves on a clever financial manoeuvre that had something for everybody who was party to it? Argentina's government found a reliable customer for its debt; Mr Chávez achieved lower inflation and a $309m profit for the Venezuelan exchequer; and the local banks divvied up a further gain of $250m-300m.

Unfortunately, there are no free lunches, and there is one big, hidden loser in this transaction: the Venezuelan central bank. Mr Chávez, in effect, plundered its reserves for about $580m, both by forcing it to sell him dollars at the official exchange rate, and by taking dollars from the state oil company that traditionally went to the central bank. That is a heavy loss to the country, which might need its reserves in a pinch. “But no one's going to complain,” says Walter Molano of BCP Securities, “because nobody owns that money.”



So who could be getting rich? Well Juan C. Escotet the owner of Banesco seems to be doing quite well by expanding into the US market. Throw in deposits form the military and Banesco I'm sure is swimming in money. I also wonder if the Makarem and Valbuena family have expanded into the banking system. One would think they would since they already hold business dealings in the oil industry (Petrotulsa), fake polling agencies (North American Opinion Research) , and legal and consulting offices (click here to read more in depth on the topic), among a few other business ventures. So why not expand into the lucrative banking systems too?

http://venezuela-usa.blogspot.com/

[StJacques]

"The left and the jihadists are both trying to overthrow peaceful civilizations. Both have to be stopped. Both are being encouraged and actively helped by the left."

You know; a couple of years ago I would have argued with you that the goals of the left and the jihadists were radically different, at least in terms of their immediate effect. But after what I've seen over the past two years I'm going to stop and say that, in the final analysis, you are right.

[StJacques]

I'm just posting a general update on the Oaxacan situation for the moment, since I won't have time to sit down and do any translating until later this afternoon. But in one sentence, it appears clear that there is not going to be a negotiated way out of this from the federal perspective, or at least not until they put APPO in a very weakened position so as to force them to deal honestly.

The following are the news items of note up on El Universal:

APPO has put up new barricades and strengthened existing ones to prevent the Federal Preventive Police from entering the city center, especially along the Oaxaca-Mexico highway where they evidently see evidence of a PFP advance.

APPO has called on its followers not to confront the PFP. This may mean that APPO is hoping for a positive response from the federal government to its offer to reenter negotiations or it could mean they don't want a fight until the PFP reaches the city center. APPO says it wants to bring "a class of civility" to the people of Mexico. Ahem! They have ordered a withdrawal of their supporters facing the PFP.

The PFP has already moved to within five kilometers of the city center. Some locals of the outlying areas of Oaxaca City are not reacting favorably to their approach, though there have been no confrontations reported.

The PFP are bringing armored cars into Oaxaca City in preparation for an evident move to enter the center of the city. Seven armored cars equipped "to remove obstacles" and carrying water cannons.

The PFP has already begun taking down APPO barricades in outlying areas. This means they have freed up the Procurator of Justice offices and the "official house of Government" (I don't know if this means the Governor's house or not), which are located between the airport and the city center.

Finally; the PFP is shutting down highway access to Oaxaca City, especially along the "international highway," which I assume to be the "Pan American Highway." This may fall under the heading of "securing your flank" prior to entering the city's center.

So that's everything of note -- there are numerous smaller stories about APPO activists burning fires in city streets, a PFP officer killed in an accident, local residents worried about the outcome, etc. -- up to this time. We will all be waiting to see if the PFP intends to enter the Zocalo capital square forcefully later today, which is where the mierda might really hit the fan.

I'll be checking back in later this afternoon.

[norton]

"There's no mention of APPO doing anything, one might just get the feeling from reading the above that they are nothing but a peaceful group of people struggling on in the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, blah! blah! blah!"

FOX News reported today that the protesters were "teachers and poor people".

I think they also made sure to note that the Indymedia guy was shot by police.

[DaoPian]

Ha! That is exactly the stuff my wife told me this morning exactly. She too mentioned Gandhi. The more extreme memes going around actually claim Will was "assassinated by paramilitary police sent by Ruiz". I had to spend about 20 minutes on Skype this morning explaining the nuances of collateral damage vs. planned assassination. She finally agreed to not use that term unless she had proof. She was just about to blame Bush, but I had to go get another cup of coffee and had to sign out.

[Jack Black]

Here, I've tried to make a "show and tell" story using the pictures on the web that even a demented leftist can understand. Link is here.