Manfred Reyes Villa and white rabbits

Coming to you live from the world of No Shit Sherlock, here's AFP:

WASHINGTON — A Bolivian opposition leader who was threatened with arrest after his defeat in recent elections has fled to the United States, President Evo Morales claimed Thursday.

Manfred Reyes Villa lost to Morales a December 6 presidential poll and a warrant was issued for his arrest last Wednesday, after charges of tax evasion and election fraud.

An arrest order was also issued for his wife.

"The information that I have is that Manfred is already in the United States," said the Bolivian president, who accused the police and others of aiding Reyes's yada yada continues here.

But hey...even the bravest and most fearless patriots sometimes decide that running away is the wisest option, right?



Right? (Graham Chapman, minute 1:33)

To catch a thief

Bolivian news services are today reporting that a warrant for the arrest of Manfred Reyes Villas (and his wife) has been issued by the Cochabamba public ministry dudes. This because Reyes Villas, the runner up in the recent election at 27% and rallying post for the remnants of the racist society being slowly but surely dismantled byEvo, decided yesterday not to turn up in court and respond to the accusations of corruption against him. It all stems back to when Manfred was head honcho of the Cochabamba region and decided to divert public funds for his own use. I mean, nobody has ever really got him to explain how a former army officer and presidential bodyguard managed to end up a few years later with a fortune counted in the tens of millions....all we'd like to do is find out, but Manfred keeps on refusing to have his day in court.

It goes without saying that to the fascist old guard all this is a political witchhunt, but this isn't anything more or less than a "innocent til proven guilty" court case that wants to get to the bottom of things.

Chart of the day is.....

.....the Bolivian edition of 'Where's Waldo?', as presidential EpicFail candidate goes on the run to escape criminal charges.

Here's AP with the story (thank you reader 'JR' for the inspiration):

Ex-Bolivian candidate disappears to escape charges

Associated Press, 12.16.09, 02:39 PM EST

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- The runner-up in Bolivia's presidential race has dropped out of sight to escape what he says are politically motivated charges of election fraud.

Manfred Reyes Villa tells ATB television that he won't leave the country, but will not surrender to authorities because "the conditions for a fair hearing don't exist in this country."

CONTINUES HERE

Bolivia's election: Want a clue about who wins?

Well, how about the fact that Manfred Reyes Villa, chief opponent to Evo Morales in this weekend's vote, has bought airline tickets to the USA and is planning to fly out on Monday 7th December, one day after the election.

Here's the story linked, and here's the photocopy of the tickets bought by Manfred.

click to enlarge (got names and everything)

As the report points out, perhaps Manfred is in a hurry to leave because he's under judicial investigation in his home town of Cochabamba for illegal use of public funds. Nah...probably coincidence, that one......

Anyway, Evo leads 2nd placed Manfred by a mere 34 points in voter intention. The only question left is to wonder by how much Evo wins on Sunday.

Duty free scotch served. The end.

Bolivia has its Sarah Palin moment

even the 'tache looks silly

Remember back in 2008 when that crusty McCain character chose Sarah Palin as his running mate for the US Presidential elections? At first it was a bit of a showstopper, then suddenly McCain was polling close to level pegging with The Hawaiian for the first (and as it turned out only) time. But then....well....then reality set in. As the novelty of Palin quickly wore off it was clear that McCain had basically thrown away his chances on someone that carries more baggage than a bellhop at the Ritz. Loved by hardcore Republicans and unelectable by normal people, the choice of Palin for Veep is now writ large in the book of tactical mistakes by politicos.

And thus last night Bolivian opposition candidate for the Presidency, Manfred Reyes Villa (photo above) presented his running mate for the December 6th vote, Leopoldo Fernandez. If that name sounds familiar, he's the prefect (aka governor) of the Pando region arrested as being the brains behind the Sept 11* 2008 Pando Massacre. Currently still on remand in a La Paz prison cell, Fernandez has joined Reyes Villa on a ticket that both hope will unite the opposition against President Morales.

Fat chance. When I first heard of Reyes Villa's pick for Veep this morning it was a difficult choice between cheering and laughing. Cheering because with this it's clear the opposition is done for. This choice of Fernandez means that the attempted opposition alliance that has for the last few days been trying to reach agreement and finding a single candidate to face Morales has failed miserably. It means the opposition will be fielding multiple candidates. It means they're plug stupid and have not a snowball's in hell of getting even close to Evo.

And I was laughing because I was thinking "Is that all you got, nutbars?". The great hope of the anti-Evo brigade now lies with two old hand politicos that have close historical ties with previous military dictatorships and all the muck that goes with them. Reyes Villa couldn't even keep his own job this time last year, as he was voted out of the Cochabamba prefect's job by a score of 35% for and 65% against him. His running mate, locked away in jail awaiting his day in court, has been in charge of the unpopulated and highly corrupt drug-running region of Pando and ruled via quasi dictatorship all this time. Just another tired old far-right racist that couldn't see the world changing around him and tried to suppress said change via hired gunmen and bullets sprayed at indigenous protestors.

In the comments section of this post last week (the one with the recent polling numbers), reader MyC left this comment which had merit to it:

"....the solution to that would be a strong centre-right (it will claim to be center left but will be center-right) opposition candidacy of Doria Medina, along with people who are willing to negotiate with the next Evo government for Bolivia's benefit, not that of the displaced or up and coming elites. and willing to enforce the law against their erstwhile political allies"

I replied at the time like this:

"Fair enough MyC, but a 'strong centre right' doesn't just appear out of thin air. For such a thing to happen the people that are currently on the right will have to stop their separatist flights of fancy, disalign themselves with the extremist racist tendencies and start listening and responding to all the electorate, not just the section of it that thinks it has divine right of rule.

Or in other words, until they get real you'll have a fractured opposition that looks very much like the shambles up against Hugo in Vzla. Or in two words: Evo wins."

And that has simply been confirmed by the Reyes Villa/Fernandez ticket today. Bolivia's opposition is living in the stone age and has no concept of the world around them. If they stopped preaching to their own converted and listened to the wants and needs of the whole country they might be able to put together a credible alternative to Evo. But until then they're just a bunch of reactionary fools with zero chance against a popular man doing a good job for his country....all his country, not just the light-skinned parts of it. The pick of Fernandez to run with Reyes Villa is Palin for Veep parte dos and will finish in the same trainwreck. Pandering to its own hardcore will consign the present political opposition in Bolivia to the dustbin in the same way that the choice of Palin and the step towards the hardcore GOPpers in the USA made the whole party unelectable there.

* Seriously, what is it with that date? Allende in Chile, twin towers, Pando...

UPDATE: Check out T'anta Wawa and her take on the Fernandez Veep story. She knows her Bolivia.