Bribery and corruption amongst Argentina's customs officials? Shocked! Ah wuz Shocked ah say!

(pretty OT, here's the front cover of this week's Barcelona for those that understand)

This one is going to be interesting, not least because of the ever growing levels of cocaine exports registered recently out of Argentina and headed for Spain. Here's the first couple of paragraphs from this Clarín report today on how the head of the Argentine customs services at Buenos Aires' main International airport 'Ezeiza' (i.e. the main man head honcho) has been arrested. The man is obviously guilty as he has a dubious background.....he's a director of Boca Jrs.

It had just passed 1am yesterday morning when the doorbell rang at the house of Carlos Mechetti in Pinzón street of the Barracas neighbourhood. The number one customs official at Ezeiza airport opened the door and was immediately arrested, accused of leading a criminal band dedicated to accepting bribes to allow contraband through the international airport.

Just after the arrest, investigators of the Airport Security Police Force (PSA) in charge of the operation searched the house and found there U$800,000 and ArgP$120,000. Some of the confiscated banknotes were in the house safe deposit box. Other notes were found in shoeboxes.

Report Continues here

A Colombian human rights abuse case that can be nipped in the bud...by YOU

Martin Sandoval: You don't know who he is. You'll almost certainly never meet him.
You can help him if you want. Waddya say, dudes?

So let's see if anyone feels like caring out there today. Here's a post from the excellent CAJA blog run by Scott Nicholson, A gringo in Colombia fighting human rights abuses at ground level. Here's Scott's quick CV blurb from the site:

Scott Nicholson: Scott is one of the founders of Community Action for Justice in the Americas. For the past several years, he has been working in Colombia to provide on-the-ground accompaniment to social leaders whose lives have been threatened because of their work to bring peace and basic human rights to their country.

Today, Scott posts that his friend and collaborator Martín Sandoval has been arrested on basically trumped up charges because he's been too vociferous in his protests about extrajudicial killings by the Colombian army (well publicized recently). Here's how Scott's note starts:

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Dear friends,

My friend, Martin Sandoval, was arrested along with 13 other people here in the town of Arauquita on November 4. He began a hunger strike the following day in protest of those arrests.

Martin is the president of the Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in the state of Arauca. He has consistently spoken out against the human rights violations committed by the Colombian government in the state – including mass arrests and the killing of civilians who are then reported as guerrillas killed in combat. He has also forcefully denounced the abuses committed against the civilian population by the FARC and ELN guerrillas in their fight against each other in Arauca.

Martin was arrested just four days after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, met with human rights activists in Arauca to discuss the difficult situation that they’re confronting in their work. The arrest also occurred just four weeks after the United Nations working group on arbitrary arrests visited Arauca to investigate the mass arrests that have taken place in note continues here

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So, want to do something about it? Why not write a mail to your elected official? Or a quick phone call? Or how about contacting the Colombian embassy in your country? Or just pass on the link to Scott's post to a friend...or two friends...or three (or this post if you like, though it's better from the horse's mouth).

It's all well and good saying "Oh, isn't it terrible what's happening in Colombia", but here's a chance to do something that won't eat into your day. You might even get the satisfaction of knowing that an innocent man was set free thanks to your efforts and the efforts of others.

The small victories of life all add up in the end. Go on...I dare you....take action on this one.

The fascists walk away from Bolivia peace talks

Why they've walked away speaks volumes. A Tarija thug was arrested yesterday for being the ringleader in last month's attack on the local gas pipeline installations (remember all that about Brazil's supply getting cut off? Yeah, that's the one). The dude, named José Vaca, admitted being involved in the attack and was arrested in proper style by police. This prompted the prefect of Tarija, Mario Cossio, to accuse his democratically elected national gov't of "hunting" and "kidnapping" civilians. Aren't these guys beautiful, eh? This is regional-sponsored terrorism, no bones about it. So Evo's gov't shows major restraint yet again, points out that the arrest of José Vaca was on strict orders of the Fiscal General (i.e. head honcho of judiciary and not connected to the gov't), and asks the fascist scum to come back to the negotiation table.

There comes a point when patience will run out. This is not a question of state terrorism or gov't sponsored clandestine operations (that's the USA's speciality in the region, not Evo's). This is simple rule of law. You attack a gov't owned gas installation and block supply? You get arrested. Normal. These separatist shits seem to forget that nobody supports them outside of their tiny bastions.