Frank Holmes, winner of this week's coveted award

A schematic diagram that may be of use to Mr. Holmes
the next time he opines on Latin America

I was recommended to read an interview over at The Gold Report with Frank Holmes, published yesterday. So obedient little Otto clicked the link supplied and went over. I got as far as the very first answer given by Holmes and it was all over. Frankie sez:

Look at Hugo Chavez in Venezuela as opposed to Álvaro Uribe in Colombia. Chavez destroyed Venezuela's economy and judicial system to maintain his power. Bolivia is heading in the same direction, but Colombia and Panama are booming. Policies in those two countries are completely different from Venezuela's.

Question: Which Latin American country had the fastest growth rate of all in 2009?

Answer: Bolivia.

So Panama and Colombia are 'booming', but the country with the best boom of all is used as a counterpoint to his examples. Dumbass.

Frank Holmes, you win this week's coveted award. Only the ignorant would bother to read the rest of your inanities if you can't get the basic facts correct. So if you prefer to spout prejudiced crap instead of the truth it would be better for all of us if you just....

Sickening news from Colombia

While myopic gimme-da-munneh-and-screw-the-consequences capitalists promo Colombia as some kind of democratic, forward-thinking paradise, the real rotten core of the country is plain to see for anyone who bothers to look. This from Plan Colombia and Beyond:

It is with revulsion that we learn of a Colombian court’s decision yesterday to release 17 Colombian Army personnel for the 2008 Soacha murder case.

The officers and soldiers were awaiting trial for conspiring to kidnap and kill unemployed young men in a slum on Bogotá’s outskirts, only to present their bodies hundreds of miles away as those of armed-group members killed in combat. By raising their “body count” through this unconscionable scheme, the soldiers qualified for a schedule of rewards, as established by Defense Ministry orders. This so-called “False Positives” scandal now involves hundreds of cases since 2002 under official investigation all over Colombia, with over 1,000 potential victims.

Because of its high-profile nature — it forced the resignation of Army chief Gen. Mario Montoya — the Soacha case is a key test of whether Colombia would be able to investigate and punish these crimes.

Colombia is failing that test. Yesterday, 17 alleged perpetrators were released because continues here

Frank Holmes would have been promoting 70s Chile in the same tones, for sure. Disgusting.