Chilean president visits Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Chilean president visits Cuba
Published: Wednesday 11 February 2009 08:01 UTC
Last updated: Wednesday 11 February 2009 08:01 UTC

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has begun a four-day visit to Cuba. Today President Bachelet will meet her Cuban counterpart Raul Castro. In the coming days she plans to visit former president Fidel Castro. Former president Salvador Allende was the last Chilean leader to travel to Cuba, in 1972, a year before the coup of General Augusto Pinochet.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/international/6171588/Chilean-president-visits-Cub

[rabs]

1. Bachelet was under extreme pressure

The visit is a huge symbolic event both for Cuba and Chile. Cuba called it a "valient" decision.

The Chilean opposition right wing and the Christian Democrats were vehemently opposed to her state visit, as could be expected. Both parties based their arguments on the alleged human rights situation in Cuba and the fact that she would not meet with the "dissidents," who are lackeys of and receive funding from the U.S. Interests Section. They neglected to mention that human rights were violated far more massively in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship.

La Nacion newspaper of Santiago said in a headline:

Me voy pa’ La Habana… y qué (I'm going to Havana ... so what."

[Judi Lynn]

2. It absolutely overwhelms me that the Chilean opposition has the NERVE to howl

about Cuba's "human rights violations." It's beyond any definition of rationality whatsoever.

It appeared there were still too many of them left in Chile when Pinochet died, and some papers reported that there was mourning in certain parts of the society, and a crowd of these murderous pigs walking past Pinochet's coffin to get one last glimpse of Nixon's mass murdering, torturing monster.

I finally remembered to grab that image of a painting I found in google images, of a man looking down at the Mapocho River in Santiago.

http://zonezero.com.nyud.net:8090/comunity/portfolios/street/mc_manus/02.jpg

As I said, the moment I saw it, I recalled your and Maria Lamoretti's comments about life at that time in Argentina and Chile.

Yes, it IS brave of Michelle Bachelet to go ahead and do something she knows will fire up the fascists who are still left in Chile. It doesn't take much to get right-wingers wild, and feverish to destroy a President who serves the common good, instead of theirs.

Wanted to add that I've seen a lot more information about Paul Schäfer since you discussed Colonia Dignidad, including the fact he had an air strip or two, a radio station for communicating internationally, and did custom torturing for Pinochet.

I also remember you mentioned he had another location which catered more to tourists. If you remember the name, please post it. I'd love to look up photos of that one.

I put the pieces together after your references to Colonia Dignidad and realized this is also the place where the professor from a New England university disappeared, undoubtedly, on a hiking trip through the area. He must have gotten too close to some answers, just like the American writers Charles Horman, and Frank Terrugi during Pinochet's time which brought on their torture and deaths with the full knowledge of the U.S. military officers who were there coordinating details of the coup.

[rabs]

3. Bachelet met with Fidel today

Bachelet: “Vi a Fidel Castro bien, muy ágil, activo”

Una hora y media estuvo la Presidenta con el legendario líder cubano, en una reunión concretada fuera de toda agenda. Fidel Castro manejaba “mucha información y estadísticas” sobre Chile e interesado en el desarrollo de nuestra economía, reveló la Mandataria.

Bachelet: "I saw Fidel Castro well, very agile, active.

(paraphrasing) She spend an hour and a half with the legendary Cuban leader in a meeting not on the officia agenda. Fidel Castro "cited a lot of information and statistics about Chile and he was interested in the development of our economy."

Well, that certainly will douse (once more) the rumors in Miami that Fidel is done for and the meeting will set many teeth gnashing in Santiago.

"El Caballo" still seems to have his sway over the ladies. A few days ago he also met with Cristina Kirchner of Argentina. :rofl:

http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20090212/pags/20090212180630.html

[rabs]

4. I will have to look up latest on Schafer

Last I heard was that he had been charged with child molestation but don't remember if he was convicted. I don't think Colonia Dignidad is still operational. Seem to remember too that the name had been changed.

The other German colony I may have mentioned is Colonia Tovar but that is in Venezuela. When I visited, it resembled a Bavarian village. The residents lived off tourism, selling German-style chocolates, trinkets etc. But there was an aspect to the people that stunned me. It was the number of mentally retarded-looking people in the village. I was told by Venezuelans that it was the result of decades and ecades of isolation and in-breeding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonia_Tovar

Re the bodies in the Mapocho: There was a British-based outfit called UPITN that filmed TV news for its headquarters in London for worldwide distribution. The Chilean cameraman was a good friend and he told me he would go down to the Mapocho early in the morning to film the corpses. The photo indicates to me that it was taken right after the coup, because of the snow.

A few days ago noted in another thread that you mentioned Klaus Barbie. I posted in the old CNN forum that I had seen him in La Paz, Bolivia. I was with our company's representative in a cafe early one day and he told to turn around and glance around the room, then look at an elderly gentleman sitting in a corner having breakfast and reading the newspaper. It was Barbie. It was about the time that Luis Garcia Meza overthrew President Lydia Gueiler in what came to be known as "The Cocaine Coup." Barbie was an advisor to Garcia Meza. I had a photo of Barbie dressed in jungle camos posing with Bolivian soldiers.

In the next Nazi-related thread, will tell you about another one. Now that one was a major-league criminal, up there with Menegele and Eichmann. (Go head, call me a teaser.) :spank:

[Judi Lynn]

5. This is amazing, Colonia Tovar, in Venezuela. Good grief!

http://vagamundos.net.nyud.net:8090/v3.1/albums/album155/Favoritas_V3_Venezuela_Colonia_Tovar_DSC03116.sized.jpg

More images:
http://images.google.com/images?q=Colonia%20Tovar&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi

Would NEVER have believed this is in Venezuela, if you hadn't named the place which is easily verifiable.

Have only glimpsed the fact Klaus Barbie was actually working for a Bolivian President, although he was known as The Butcher of Lyons in WWII. So few Americans have run across the fact the U.S. had helped get some of those mega-Nazis out of Europe and relocated safely in Latin America. It's a pity, since US taxpayers' hard-earned tax dollars were involved in financing the operation.

Haven't had the time I desperately need to dive into finding out about the right-wing Bolivian Presidents who were involved in trafficking cocaine. Now THAT'S another world of information we have been spared the hard work of trying to learn about, too, by our corporate media, since it has NEVER been mentioned, to my knowledge, ANYWHERE in our traditional popular newspapers/magazines. They clearly are aware of it in Latin America, however.

You bet that's a tease, dropping a hint there's another one of these guys out there unnamed!

Will be waiting, "all ears," or, "all eyes" for this one!

http://blogs.zdnet.com.nyud.net:8090/open-source/images/ferengi.jpg http://msa4.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/08/ostrich.jpg