Two news stories and no Allen

As usual there is more than just one story this side of the Darien Gap, so here's a two-for-one memo about things more political. And apart from the mini-scoop of the previous post maybe it's better to check for Stanford stories in the larger blogs and MSM than here. I'm going to try and avoid too many posts on the subject now (though temptation is always there and a few may slip through in the days/weeks to come).

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In Peru another crap minister bites the dust. Interior Minister Remigio Hernani has just resigned this morning and will be replaced by another crappy politician, APRA stalwart Mercedes Cabanillas. Hernani was hurt by a bungled and frankly amateur recent police raid on land squatters that ended up with three cops shot dead, but he was under pressure due to his total mediocrity from the moment he got the job (he came in via the Yehude Simon new broom of late last year...what a total flop that was).

So anyway, Peru now has the amazingly annoying Cabanillas as a minister. The Twobreakfasts admin just gets worse (yes, it was possible).

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In Ecuador, Studmuffin chucks out another US diplomat and leaves us thinking of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest:

"To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness."

Check out that link above for the full story, but expect a big hoo-hah on this one to reappear when Saturday's installment of Radio MUFN comes around. Da Prez is now campaigning, remember, and he'll milk this for all he can.

Riddle me this one

"Allow me to help you with your bags, sir."

Guess what happens when you:

• train some guy up for a couple of years

• then put him (or her, obviously, but frankly it's more likely to be a him) in a uniform

• give him impressive powers to detain/arrest/search people

• let him legally break into places and look at whatever he wants

• give him a big gun with a holster to show it off to the world with

But then pay him U$250 for 240 hours of work per month? (And yes, that says two hundred and fifty dollars a month)

In the latest Ipsos/Apoyo report on corruption in Peru, 68% of people that responded said that police were "corruptable" (i.e. ready to take a bribe). It also puts the police as the second most corrupt body in Peru, just behind the judiciary (and there's just one degree of separation there, too).

This report (you can link through to it here...the link that says "ver nota de prensa") came before Interior Minister Remigio Hernani revealed that 246 police officers had been put under suspicion of gasoline theft due to the investigative operation his bureau started on October 1st. He did dismiss talk that three-quarters the $150m in fuel assigned to the police forces was being sold on the black market, but did say that of the 59 control operations that the Interior Ministry had run, 15 had turned up police officers siphoning off fuel and selling it. So if they manage to turn up 246 bent cops in the first place they decide to check, how many officers will be left on the street if they really start asking around? Chances are the figure will be floating around the 32% mark, no?

The solution is for the national government to start respecting its police force. That means it should be moved into a higher pay bracket. You know what happens when you pay peanuts, yeah?