Blogging the democratic revolution
After Lukashenko gave the order to clear October Square of any and all protestors in the Friday twilight., it was completely cordoned off by riot police. Access to the square was denied. But thousands, at least twenty to thirty thousand, people showed up for the planned opposition rally and it was held in Yanka Kupala Square instead. Even more would have gone if there had been more space, and if they weren’t hampered from doing so. Democratic opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich called for the creation of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Belarus, part of the opposition’s plan to…
Is there anything fouler than Daniel Ortega? The former Nicaraguan strongman, dubbed by the great Ronald Reagan as “the little dictator,” is poised to seize power again in Nicaragua next November. Unlike the last time, when he shot his way into power, this time he’s trying to seize power via what may be a rigged election. The Sandinistas brought war and hordes of Sandalistas to Nicaragua during their decade-long illegitimate rule. They stole everything in sight, and confiscated people’s houses, even shanty-like houses of very poor people, such was their voracity. To this day, Daniel Ortega lives in a stolen…
Jorge Rodriguez, the chairman of Venezuela’s supposedly independent election agency, the CNE, has said he’d step down. Rodriguez is one hell of a shameless chavista, the man who brought us Venezuela’s empty elections I witnessed on Dec. 4 last year. He reduced confidence to such a low that virtually no one wanted to vote in them anymore. He added insult to injury by continuously repeating that Venezuela’s elections are all free and fair. In short, the guy is even more fraudulent than the elections he certifies. But they certainly do reflect on his leadership. Today, the net result of his…
Like it or not, THE story for the coming week is immigration in the U.S. This weekend, vast crowds of hundreds of thousands of Latinos will take to the streets in support of immigration rights for illegal immigrants. Given the negative sentiment in other, non-Latino parts of the U.S. (thank you Hugo Chavez, clown and strongman, for your contribution to gringo stereotypes), the demonstrations are bound to be controversial. Boz has some interesting poll numbers in a good roundup, with all the latest on that, as well as Mexico’s election, and polls from Peru, Ecuador, Brazil and other places around…
Perhaps the most irritating part about the entire Belarus affair right now is the lies that come out of the Russian media, and the two-faced and often misled reporting done by many news organizations in Europe. For the former, they tell a story completely dislodged from reality; so far off that you can’t really tell if they believe it, or if they’re just trying to hide their grin. For the latter, they either tell the story to the West and repeat the lies to the East, or are simply so lazy in collecting information that they end up benignly repeating…
From today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page, edifying news that Kyrgyzstan’s Tulip Revolution is still blooming one year later: ‘Island of Freedom’ By ROZA OTUNBAYEVA March 24, 2006 BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — As protesters in Belarus demand a rerun of last Sunday’s presidential poll, and the people of Ukraine enjoy their recently won freedom at parliamentary elections there this weekend, my country celebrates the anniversary of the first peaceful transfer of power in Central Asia. A year ago today, the era when not just the president of the country, but also his entire family, stood above the people came to an…
Somewhat I feel vindicated. In August last year I posted an extremely thorough piece of investigative blogging regarding Smartmatic; the e-voting machines vendor, which owns Sequoia, that has proven so useful to Venezuela’s wannabe dictator Hugo Chavez. The recent e-voting fiasco in Chicago comes to prove the hypothesis that one thing is to observe how rigged electoral processes in far away lands, which do not affect Americans, are overlooked, or simply ignored, by the mainstream media and an entirely different matter when similar problems corrode the transparency and outcome of elections in US soil. As readers of this site know,…
Lukashenko has finally given the order to storm and detain the protestors on October Square in the early Minsk morning. They have all been arrested. The square is compeltely empty. What does this bode for tomorrow, when a massive demonstration is supposed to be held?… Will is happen? MINSK, Belarus – Police stormed the opposition tent camp in the Belarusian capital Minsk early Friday morning, detaining scores of demonstrators who had spent a fourth night in a central square to protest President Alexander Lukashenko’s victory in a disputed election. The arrests came after a half dozen large police buses and…
There was once a time when I predicted roughly when Mugabe????????s regime might collapse. During the Presidential election of 2002? Maybe in the MDC????????s final push? Perhaps he would just die of a heart attack? So far Mugabe has proved myself, and most probably every Zimbabwe watcher wrong. Yet could 2006 be Mugabe????????s last year in office? The succession within Zanu-Pf began in late 2004. At the party congress, much-hated information minister Jonathan Moyo attempted to boost his own position, by calling for a parliamentary speaker to be elevated to a vacant Vice-Presidential position. When Mugabe, a man with his…
I’m sure you’ve all heard that the Basque terrorist group ETA declared a permanent ceasefire with Spain a couple of days ago. They’ve waged a decades long campaign, killed hundreds of people, and have not furthered their interests one bit. Now it appears as if the train of thought in the ETA leadership has finally changed. Here is what they have been saying: MADRID, March 23 ???????? The governing party in the Basque region of northern Spain said today that the permanent cease-fire announced by the militant Basque separatist group ETA opened the way for the region to loosen ties…
A plastic-explosives bomb went off in downtown La Paz, Bolivia, today, killing two people at a hotel. An American and a supposedly Uruguayan woman were arrested. Police say they have confessed to doing it. The event is strange in itself. Miguel B. at MABB noted (well, until he changed his post!) that this hasn’t happened on a regular basis since the military regime in the 1970s. I recall one car bomb in front of Petrobras headquarters in Santa Cruz in the past year but that is all. There’s a whole lot of chaos in Bolivia, but it’s not the kind…
The ongoing protests in Belarus since Sunday leave much to be desired; that is, if you’re expecting a colored revolution immediately. Sunday saw well over 10,000 people rallying in October Square, about half that on Monday, and slightly more on Tuesday. You really can’t help but be down on it — the chances are slim to none. The mainstream media especially is hedging its bets against the protestors based on the dwindling numbers. Due to ongoing news coverage, I haven’t really been able to get my thoughts down completely. Here they are. Though there may not be a revolution, here…
Martha Beatriz Roque is a former political prisoner in Cuba and is the leader of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society, that gathers several hundreds of pro-regime change Cuban opposition movements inside the island. Since a couple of months, she is literally held as a prisoner in her own house. Daily acts of harassment plainclothes elements of the state security now turn into physical aggression. Some day ago, while she was going back home, a fascist woman of the state security and the rapid response brigades,started insulting and threatening her with beatings and even death. Plus, she and some other…
Glenn at Instapundit has gotten some amazing information about France that you don’t see in the mainstream media, along with a couple incredible pictures. There’s a vast youth counterprotest full of beautiful young people who are standing up against the bandana-swathed firebomb-hurling losers who would burn the city down, all for the right to not have to work hard in their early years of employment. That’s right, sensible heads have prevailed, the protest babes are out, and the revolutionary spirit of Frederic Bastiat is resurrected. That means thousands of industrious French young people have taken to the streets to SUPPORT…
A thousand or so Belorussian freedom fighters camped out in October Square all night without much food, tea, or things to keep them warm. Because the police wouldn’t let anyone help or join them. They survived the below-freezing temperatures and the threat of a bloodbath. These protestors swore to be there for good and they are, holding their ground all night and now all day. Having survived, what happens next is crucial. The protest on March 20 seemed to gain, in physical numbers, only about half the number of people as on election night. There were likely no more than…
In just a couple of hours, we will see if democratic opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich’s call to the people for street protests against an obviously fraudulent election will pan out. People are to meet at October Square in the middle of Minsk at 6:30 p.m. wearing smiles first and foremost. They will call for a recount and new elections. Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has condemned the election. The chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Senator Brownback (R-KS) has slammed the election as a complete “farce.” Ministers from the European Union have followed suit, and are…
After a flawed — to say the least — referendum in 2004 to allow for unlimited consecutive presidential candidacies, Dictator Alexander Lukashenko is running for the third time for president again today. People will go to the polls, voting without freedom of conscience or the knowledge that their vote is even tallied. The regime is looking to avoid the same kind of people power revolution that has brought down entire governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Lebanon on days that were marred with the kind of phony elections that Belarus is holding at this very moment. To do this, the authorities…
Venezuela’s Viaducto 1, a key bridge on the only highway route that links the vast city of Caracas to its international airport on the northern coast has collapsed down a deep Andean ravine with a huge crash. Holding my breath, it was this bridge I rode out of Caracas across on my last day there in late December. A thin access road in the valley has since been constructed but I do not know its fate since its nominal opening in late February. Miguel Octavio has spectacular photos and along with Daniel Duquenal, analyses of what this actually means for…
Via RealClearPolitics, I read a fascinating essay by Ruben Navarrette on the strategy of protests, which, in one case he says are hurting their own cause. His lede says it all: It used to be that protesters took to the streets to build public support for their cause. Now they do it to show their strength. Instead of moving you to join them, now they want you to know that they won’t be moved. Navarrette is talking about special-interest immigration protests that have appeared around the U.S., but his question has got a lot of relevance to demonstrations throughout the…
Today, March 18, 2006, marks the third anniversary of the “Black Spring”, o Primavera Negra, when some 75 peaceful Cubans were detained by the state security and later sentenced up to 30 years in Castro’s jails for the only crime of speaking out their mind and saying openly that they want free elections and democracy in Cuba. Source: Associated Press . During these three years, much has changed, including – for the worst – a change in the European attitude toward Cuba. The unexpected election ( by Al Qaeda’s help) of Spanish PM Zapatero has been without any doubt very…
DOWN is a good way to put it for today’s world festival of anti-Iraq democracy protests. Because as GatewayPundit has noticed, attendence is down at every single one of these. He’s got a liveblogging roundup of these “antiwar” (who the hell isn’t antiwar?) protests around the world, city by city, showing that this ‘movement’ doesn’t quite have the move it used to. Not many people want to go to these stupid irrational things anymore, not after “peace mom” Cindy Sheehan kissed Iran ally Hugo Chavez on the lips. And even more because given the growing victory of democracy and democratic…
Tchahar-Shanbe Soori (Fire Fiest) has been celebrated by millions of Iranians, who defied the regime’s official ban on this “pagan” pre-islamic ritual, symbol of ancient Iranian heritage, and took to the street to celebrate and protest against the regime in its totality. Thousands of potraits of the regime’s leaders were set on fire and the females bravely took out their mandatory veils and set them on fire, too. Reports speak of copies of Koran and the Islamic Republic’s illegitimate constitution also burned. To see the photos, go here and here.
You’d never know this from reading most of the mainstream media, but today in Ecuador, and I don’t mean in just coastal rightwing Guayaquil, but in the heart of the country, in central Quito, the capitol, tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans marched IN FAVOR OF free trade with the U.S. Source: Associated Press That’s right, while much of the mainstream media covered extensively the anti-free trade protests of a few indigenous special interest groups earlier in the week, which are now fizzling due to lack of public support, the real rally was building, the one the vast majority of Ecuador’s…
Here is the press release of a project that I’ve been working on with a bunch of great guys at the Hamsa Project and Harvard University. It’s a concert that we’re hoping will draw a few hundred people, featuring local bands, that we’re also hoping will highlight human rights abuses in Iran. Please check it out if you can, and maybe I’ll see you there if I can get back from Honduras in time! ***** CAMBRIDGE ???????? On Saturday, March 18, Harvard University will host the Iran Freedom Concert, a rally organized by Harvard students to support their counterparts in…
Not since 1968 has France seen so many educational institutions occupied and on strike. Thousands of students and young people have brought Paris to a standstill. Source: Thibautcho They are protesting a new labor law that would permit probationary employment for the first two years of employment for all new workers. That would affect them most of all. France’s young people grow up without the big dreams their American counterparts. But at the same time, they have their consolation. That compensation is that if they can land a job, no matter what kind of job, and no matter what kind…