Rafael Rey, Peruvian Defence Minister and winner of this week's coveted award

Rey (for it is he)

It's difficult to get across in mere words the moronic stupidity of Rafael Rey, Peru's new (and hopefully soon-to-be-ex) Defence Minister. The subject is the recent attacks on army personnel by Sendero (shining path) terrorists in the cocaine-producing VRAE region of selvatic Peru that we've mentioned here on several occasions.

There has been a marked uptick in attacks on Peru soldiers by the terrorists, within the last week or so a helicopter shot down, gunfights that resulted in deaths and injuries on either sides, etc. Skirmishes, in other words. The uptick is clearly caused by Peruvian army's own mini-surge into the region to rid us of the bad guys combined with a well-trained and entrenched guerrilla that will protect at all costs its highly lucrative cocaine business.

Now before we continue, let's make it clear that your author fully supports, as in 100% without a shadow of doubt and the merest hint of oppostion, the Peruvian government and its army in the current situation against the Sendero terrorists. This isn't even an issue and the world would be a better place if the outlaws of VRAE were defeated once and for all. However there's no way that the total and absolute moron in charge of Peru's Defence Ministry, Rafeael Rey, can say what he said today without comment made against him. In a presentation made to Peru's Congress today, Rey said the attacks against the national army must be considered "crimes against humanity".

Forgive him, Father, he knows not what he says, he is truly a dumbass.
He's just admitted to his enemy that they are in control of VRAE.

Yes, terrorist bands roaming semi-jungle, making cocaine and killing soldiers is bad, but there's no crime against humanity going on here. In fact the scumballs that run the Sendero operation in VRAE will probably be celebrating and toasting Rey by name tonight, such is the stupidity of what he said, because we need to understand what a "crime against humanity" really is. We all have a vague idea of course, and words like The Final Solution, Rwanda, Pol Pot, Stalin, Dirty War (I could continue, sad to say) come to mind. But there is a precise and legally recognized definition of the phrase. According to the people who created the standard, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, crimes against humanity (author's bold type added):

"....are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings. They are not isolated or sporadic events, but are part either of a government policy (although the perpetrators need not identify themselves with this policy) or of a wide practice of atrocities tolerated or condoned by a government or a de facto authority. Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice. Isolated inhumane acts of this nature may constitute grave infringements of human rights, or depending on the circumstances, war crimes, but may fall short of falling into the category of crimes under discussion."

Thus by calling Sendero's attacks "crimes against humanity" he is recognizing that the narcoterrorists in the region are either the government or the de facto government of that region. His words show the utmost disrespect to the fallen, not due to malice aforethought but simply due to lack of intellect, knowledge and education. Did the brave soldiers think they were going in to VRAE to take back the region from its rulers, or were they there to defend Peru? This isn't some hair-splitting about semantics either, worthy lector of IKN, this is about having a stupid person ordering around brave people. This is about an ill-educated fool rising to the executive power level of a country. Put simply, dumbasses with this much power are very dangerous people and need to be surgically removed from any type of decision-making process as soon as possible, for the good of all.

A man like Rafael Rey isn't fit to polish the boots of the personnel in the Peruvian army, let alone order them about. Twobreakfasts is the most mediocre of Presidents (as recognized by this humble corner of cyberspace and by his own citizenry in approval polls) but at least he has a brain about him. He should sever his links to the stupid, stupid person (I keep coming back to the word to describe Rey's actions today, as no other seems apt) immediately before he is not simply the cause of a dialectic scandal but his clear ineptitude spills over into policies lethal to the soldiery he controls....or perhaps it is already too late there, too.

Anyway, Rafael Rey, you win this week's coveted award hands down. Nobody's gonna come close to you in the days remaining, that's a stone-cold cert. Enjoy, dumbass:

Great Peru Cocaine report from Associated Press

Yes, Associated Press. Not joking, either.

Here comes the first half (click through to read it all...very recommended click, too) of a report by Andrew Whalen of AP on the VRAE region of Peru, the 'Shining Path' terrorists, the local coca growing and cocaine producing trade, the life of poverty and the detachment from Lima felt by these people.

Most LatAm watchers (me included) roll their eyes when they see an AP story coming through as the newswire has a reputation of spinning out the story that The North wants to hear instead of telling it like it is. But credit where due, this is a great piece of reporting and full kudos and cyberbackslap goes out to Whalen for the note. Now read on and learn a little about how Peru really is.

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Cocaine trade revitalizes Peruvian rebels

UNION MANTARO, Peru (AP) — The last town on a rutted dirt road in Peru's most prolific cocaine-producing highland valley, Union Mantaro has no police post, no church and no health clinic. Its 600 people lack running water and electricity.

Until January, makeshift huts of wood and plastic housed scores of refugees from a government offensive against a small but lethal band of drug-funded rebels, revitalized remnants of the fanatical Shining Path guerrilla movement.

Most have since returned to outlying mountain villages as the rebels frustrated the army's campaign against them, killing 33 soldiers and wounding 48 since the military arrived in August. The rebel death toll is unknown.

The army's setbacks — the narcotics trade does not appear to have been dented — are more than a worrisome embarrassment for the central government in faraway Lima. Critics say President Alan Garcia needs to act fast or risk greater instability.

Peru's cocaine trade — No. 2 after Colombia's — is booming after a 1990s drop-off. The government calls the insurgents who've used it to rearm ideologically bankrupt, but peasants who have coexisted with them don't necessarily agree. At least not publicly.

The gateway to the Shining Path's jungle-draped stronghold, Union Mantaro is a bumpy two-day drive down the Andes' eastern slopes from the provincial capital of Ayacucho, where the movement was born nearly three decades ago.

Along the road into the Apurimac and Ene valley, women and children dry coca leaves on long canvas beds in front of half-built, brick homes. A pro-coca political party has painted the leaf on wooden shacks in villages so poor that parents must chip in to pay teachers' salaries.

Coca production soared in this rugged region just 100 miles from the world-renowned Machu Picchu ruins as migrants more than doubled its population to some 240,000 in little more than a decade.

Growing the crop, a mild stimulant widely chewed in the Andes, is legal in Peru, but authorities say nine-tenths of it goes to the illegal manufacture of cocaine.

"Politicians in Lima don't know what's going on in these communities. If they did, they would know the solution to the problem isn't more soldiers," says Marisela Quispe, a government worker who keeps track of victims of political violence.

CONTINUES HERE

Peru: Insight into why Sendero terrorists are gaining ground

• There's the lack of attention paid to the provincial regions by the Republic of Lima*, of course.

• There's also the drug money Sendero is using to win hearts and minds of VRAE (and other Amazon basin dwelling) locals.

• There might even be some political sympathy towards the group's ostensibly ultra-communist ideology (though that's debatable)

But there's one key element that hasn't been fully examined up to now, which is...

...Peru's Security Forces are Commanded by Total Dumbasses.

Here's an example: This week the chief of police in the VRAE region was stripped of his post by the new Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas. It so happened that the VRAE police force took delivery of a consignment of 120 AKM rifles to help beef up presence in the Sendero controlled region but the police honcho, General Percy Riveras Paiva, decided to get the arms from Lima to his area by putting them on an interprovincial bus like any other cargo load. On its journey into the terrorist-controlled region the bus wasn't escorted by any other army or police force vehicle, either. Now let me be clear I'm in no way a fan of Cabanillas, being a career politico in the corrupt and inept APRA party of President Twobreakfasts. However Cabanillas has done the right thing this time and should be applauded.

That the bus wasn't intercepted by Sendero and the guns lost to the enemy isn't the point. What's crystal clear from this episode is the lax attitude of Peru's security forces in the face of a growing threat to their country's social stability. Cabanillas has made a Voltaire-like "pour encourager les autres" move, but it remains to be seen whether Peru's police and army can pull themselves together. If not, one has to fear the worst.

*excellent phrase stolen from Cesar Hildebrandt, perhaps the most intelligent journalist in Peru

There is a secret US military base in Peru.....

The secret document as published by La Primera today

.....which only comes as a surprise to those silly enough to believe what the liars that inhabit the Twobreakfasts government say. Peru newspaper La Primera has today got its hands on a secret memo (not secret any more though) that outlines the US military prescence in the VRAE coca growing region of Peru. Even this humble corner of cyberspace knows as much, though. In this post back in February I wrote...

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In fact, there might not be a formal US air base in Peru the same as the one in Ecuador, but anyone who hangs in the right places in lowland Peru more than a week knows the VRAE airbase, supposedly Peru soldiers only, is constantly packed full of US soldiers, planes, copters and air crew.

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...which, funnily enough, is the exact scenario laid out by La Primera in its report today. Here's a section translated by yours truly:

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• "....The government categorically denied the possibility of the installation of a US military base in our country. However, La Primera has gained access to an official document stating the Ministry of Defence coordinated with the ex-commander general of the armed forces, Edwin Donayre, the request of the United States of America to construct an Operations and Intelligence Command Centre at the Pichari military base in the Valle de los Rios Apurimac y Ene (VRAE).

• Via notice 058 VPD/A/SEC dated March 10th 2008, the Vice-minister of Defence Policy, Nuria Esparch Fernández, told Donayre that the administration of the sector coordinated with the Southern Command, via the the Constulting and Military Assistance Group of the United States, the construction plans for "A centre of medical assistance and a command centre for operations and intelligence in the territory where the armed forces are stationed in Pichari."."

Oh how they insulted Evo Morales when he had the balls to accuse Peru of running a secret US base. Let's see what they throw at each other this time, as apologies from Twobreakfasts are as unlikely as a hunger strike.

Teenage Peru can't take its own medicine

VRAE base, Peru: ain't no gringos here...oh no no no no no no

In Peru right now, there's a congressional investigation going on about the so-called Casas de ALBA (ALBA houses), a string of social support offices and drop-in centres that are dotted all around the continent but can also be found in the poor, highland areas of Peru.

The problem Peru has with these ALBA houses is that the funding supposely comes from Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolutionary Socialist (etc etc) Venezuela. The Peru of President Twobreakfasts doesn't like that, y'see. Definitely doesn't like the fact that somebody else cares more for its poor than the Lima-centric government of Peru. Definitely doesn't like the idea of Socialism propagating amongst "those brown people".

Back in November, your humble correspondent noted in this post that Peru was trying to change its laws to make it much easier to chuck out bodies such as ALBA. So right now busybody congresspeople are snooping around all the ALBA houses they can to build their case. One of the places the suits have recently snooped is Copacabana...

....a small town in Bolivia just a few clicks from the Peru border where up to 14,000 Peruvians have reportedly visited in the past couple of years to get free medical treatment in an ALBA house run by Cuban doctors. Especially popular have been free cataract operations performed by the team there (cos Peru...err...doesn't do that, y'see. No money = go blind in the land of democracy).

But the thing is, Peruvian congresspeople had absolutely no right to do what they did, namely go marching into Bolivia and demanding answers. So when Dr. Evo Morales got wind of Peruvians on his patch he threw a snarky barb over, saying that he'd like to send over a delegation to investigate the suspected US air base in Peru.

As thus Peru exploded (here's a link to 192 Spanish language news stories in the last day), Twobreakfasts calling Morales an interference, the Defence Minister saying there was no airbase in Peru like there is in Ecuador, that Morales was talking rubbish, that he has no right to blah blah etc etc. Or in other words Peru once again acts like an immature teenager stomping its foot.

In fact, there might not be a formal US air base in Peru the same as the one in Ecuador, but anyone who hangs in the right places in lowland Peru more than a week knows the VRAE airbase, supposedly Peru soldiers only, is constantly packed full of US soldiers, planes, copters and air crew. So Morales gave Peru an ironic dose of its own medicine and Twobreakfasts just couldn't hack it. The Twobreakfasts administration of self-congratulatory corrupt cronies finds it impossible to accept they cannot treat another sovereign state in the same arrogant manner as it treats its own people. Their shrill screams are laughable, and Evo does well to mock them as he does.

All power to Morales for sticking it to Peru where it hurts; directly in the pride gland. My stars they surely deserve it.

It may be a bit early...........

A visibly spaced-out Antero tells the story of Itsy-Bitsy Spider with just one hand, as the other is
busy holding a marijuana joint disguised as a Cuban fatboy

.....to hand out the weekly 'No Shit Sherlock' award, but as this quote is basically unbeatable we'll just get it over with today.

Ántero Flores-Aráoz is one of those cigar-smoking Peruvian career politicos from the "good families" who is currently in place as Peru's Defence Minister. He was called upon to comment on yesterday's skirmish between Sendero Luminoso narcoterrorists and Peruvian soliders in the VRAE coca growing region of central Peru. The incident left one Peruvian soldier dead on the ground and others injured as Sendero managed to spray an airborne helicopter. All signs also point to some of the Sendero insurgents also being injured. Anyway, on with the quote. Flores-Aráoz said,

"There is always a risk of deaths or injuries during combats."

Thank you for that, dumbass. Real insightful bunch of ministers over there in Peru, no?

Peru: The country of extrajudicial killings and media silencing they don't tell you about

"What? Peru's army goes around shooting innocent people? What? Peru closes down opposition radio stations? Isn't that supposed to be the hated Chávez and Venezuela? I thought that Peru was our friend and a true democracy?"

Dear friend (probably) sitting up North, prepare to be confused by the truth. What follows under the line is my translation of this quite magnificent post at Susana Villarán's blog today called "When Impunity Reigns" (Spanish language). With all the financial woes going on right now, it's easy (for me at least) to get immersed in the world of stocks and bonds. But this blog is also about LatAm political and social issues and what follows is about as important as it gets.

Peru cannot be allowed to slip back into a state of military terror and authoritarian dictates. Neither from insurgent terrorist groups nor its government who (although Peruvians still have a hard time in admitting it) were also responsible for thousands of extrajudicial murders not so very long ago. Although it's a long post that follows, please take time out and read. Otto

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From El Blog de Susana Villarán

What happens in our regions and provinces doesn't make headlines. The efforts of websites and alternative forms of communication allows us to know what happens at first hand. In this post I want to highlight two acts that should make all Peruvians react:

• The executions and disappearances under the guise of a military operation against Sendero in VRAE (Ottonote; the Shining Path terrorist organization operating in VRAE, the coca/cocaine producing region of Peru) on September 14th which has been shrouded in disinformation by the Ministry of Defence to avoid punishment. Reports of the killings have been made from the zone by human rights organizations such as 'Paz y Esperanza' (in English, "Peace and Hope") via its base in Ayacocho, and APRODEH (Ottonote: Peruvian human rights group). These disappearances and extrajudicial killings must be investigated and their authors severely sanctioned.

• The other issue concerns the closure of Radio Mercurio Huancavelica, a radio station that serves the people of the Huancavelica region and its demands. A few days ago I was told about the threats from the Ministry of Transport and Communication to close 'Radio Uno' in Tacna (South Peru), a station with by far the highest audience ratings in its region and a station that we should feel proud about for its unstoppable fight for people's rights and its excellent information. Does it bother Mrs Aljovín, close ally of Minister Zavala, that Radio Uno easily beats RPP's audience in Tacna?

But its not just Radio Mercurio and Radio Uno: Radio Marañon is also under threat. Father Francisco Muguiro, director of this radio station in the North of the country, has recently been accused by police of inciting indigenous rebellion.

We defend freedom of speech and stand up to be counted against those who wish to silence the voice of the people. Regional, local and community radios are open spaces for public and organizations, and are being clamped down upon by the authorities.

From the INFOREGION network:
Huamanga - Ayacucho (6 October 2008 - 18:09)

The Dead were Not Terrorists; They were Locals that Disappeared After the VRAE Military Incursion

This morning, after waiting several hours, the families of the campesinos (Ottonote: rural dwellers. Literally 'peasants', but the Spanish word does not carry the stigma of the direct translation) that disappeared on September 14th at the annex to Rio Seco, located 1km from the village of Mayobamba, were finally allowed to identify the four bodies recently brought from VRAE and which had been in the installations of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Minister of Public.

Family members and their lawyers, along with the member of parliament for Ayacucho Elizabeth León Minaya, entered the installations of the Huamanga Institute of Legal Medicine to begin the indentification process of the dead who had been labeled as terrorists in an offical Defence Ministry communique.

Outside the building, Frank Canchanya Rimachi, brother of José Félix Canchaya Rimachi emotionally said that he had indentified his brother even though the body showed signs of decomposure. He asked for human rights organizations to speak out and demanded severe sanctions for those responsible.

Another family member that went into the building was Marcelino Pichardo, who identified his son Maximiliano, his daughter-in-law who was five months pregnant and his young son Alejandro.

The Victims Were from the Village Defence Committee

Alexis Avilés, lawyer of the families, stated that "humble people have been assassinated and they have tried to cover up the crime. First they denied their existence and later they accused them of being terrorists."

The lawyer said that fortunately they could prove the victims' identity, who were mainly members of the Autodefence Committe of Mayobamba, "a fact that proves false any association with terrorist groups."

The mortal remains that were identified belonged to Maximiliano Pichardo Fernández, vicepresident of the Autodefence Committe of Mayobamba, his wife Rosa Chávez, 22 and five months pregnant, José Félix Canchanya Rimachi, husband of Lucy Pichardo, the woman who reported the attack in Huanta, and Alejandro Pichardo Fernández, just 16 years old.

Up to now Moisés Pichardo Pariona and Rosalinda Pichardo Chávez, just one year old, are still missing. To accelerate the investigations, Public Ministry authorities have asked for the use of X-ray equipment.

Huamanga - Ayacucho, 6 October 2008 The Mayobamba Dead Received Weapons from the Army the Help Fight Against Terrorism. Documents Prove that the Missing People in VRAE were Members of the Autodefence Committee

Family members and lawyers showed a community agreement that demostrates that the people who disappeared during the VRAE military operations against terrorism were members of the Autodefence Committee of Mayobamba and had been recognized as such by the army, an entity that had given various weapons to the group to help fight against the remnants of Sendero Luminoso.

This confirms the existence of the people and proves they they not part of any terrorist group. On September 14th, according to testimoies from locals at the Rio Seco annex, approximately 125 were at the National Pavilion when about shots and explosions were heard coming from one kilometre away.

Immediately members of the Autodefence Committee of Mayobamba sent their leader Carlos Gutarra Ayala to find out what had happened. However he was detained by army troops and tortured.

Gutarra Ayala was released several hours later and found by locals in the community of Jésus María with evident signs of mistreatment. Because of this, dozens of Mayobamba locals decided to leave their land and go to other communities in VRAE.

According to the head of the Myobamba locals, the following people are still missing: José Félix Canchanya Rimachi, Maximiliano Pichardo Fernández, Moisés Pichardo Pariona, Alejandro Pichardo Fernández, Rosalinda Pichardo Chávez y Rosa Chávez, 22 years old and five months pregnant.

The multisectoral committee visited the zone

Last weekend representatives of public institutions traveled to VRAE to investigate the occurances. The Commission for Peace and Development of Ayacucho, representatives of PRONAA and FONCODES were part of the group along with lawyers and human rights defence organizations such as the Peace and Hope Association and APRODEH.

This working party collected testimonies and confirmed that the army troops violated human rights. Alexis Avilés, one of the defence lawyers of local woman Lucy Pichardo Fernández who managed to survive the armed forces attack, stated that there was sufficient evidence to demonstrate presumed forced disappearances, as there are testimonial declarations from a person who was witness to the occurances.

"General EP Raymundo Flores has admitted the existence of a military operaton in the zone by orders of his command and we therefore request that the State hand over the bodies of the people still missing", he said.

In Huancavelica, the Closure of Radio Mercurio

Press Release

Faced with the arbitrary intervention and confiscation of the transmission equipment of Radio "Majestad SAC" by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the city of Lima, Fiscal for the Prevention of Crimes and the Peruvian National Police last Tuesday September 30th 2008, the following needs to be said:

First: That freedom of expression and freedom of the press are inalienable rights recognized by the Political Constitution of Peru, the Convention of Human Rights and other national and international laws, as well as their full use in any form such as free opinion, reporting of injustice and irregularities, the demand for change etc. They also constitute a basic element for a country's democratic life.

Second: Part of the work of the Centre for Andean Development (SISAY) is the strengthening of citizens' organizations in Huancavelica, allowing room to govern and promoting the exercise, defence and compliance of respective human rights. Therefore the radio programs directed by our institution as well as other organizations (Frente de Defensa de Huancavelica, Bio Ritmo Periodismo Escolar directed by the student of the Francisca Diez Canseco College in Castilla, amongst others) have been using this to report the actions of regional governors and reporting irregularies including the control in the use of natural resources, which has obviously become a problem to the current authorities.

Third: Because of this it is easy to deduce that said authorities have asked the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the city of Lima to interrupt this station's broadcasts under the pretext that it is a "pirate" radio station with the name "Maxima", that is to say without licence to operate. This is not true, as the radio station was broadcasting at frequency 95.5FM under the name Radio Majestad, something that can be verified by the authors of the intervention, and that this frequency and radio station is correctly authorized via a contractual agreement. Therefore the station is clearly compliant with the law.

Fourth: Accordingly, the behaviour of the functionaries of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Lima is both abusive and arbitrary, because even though they had a resolution with the authorization of closure, this was against Radio Máxima and not against Radio Mercurio that at the time of closure was broadcasting at frequency 95.5FM; respective legal action will therefore proceed.

Fifth: The right to free speech is generally violated in dictatorial and oppressive states, and in the present context we have been witness to an APRA government that has used this mechanism to silence the voice of the people. Apparently the regional government are supporting these acts in order to be able to govern without any type of opposition or accountability from social organizations.

BECAUSE OF THESE CONSIDERATIONS

1. We reject the arbitrary acts of the funactionaries of the Ministry of Transport and Communication
2. We reject the non-transparent attitude of local authorities.
3. We reaffirm our service to organizations and the people by broadcasting true and objective information in our information spaces

Down with Authoritarianism! Long Live Freedom of Speech!
For a free and independent press