30 years Sandinista Revolution

30 years after the victory

what is left of Sandinismus?

On 19 July 1979 winner of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua. They chased the dictator Somoza to the devil. On the same day over in June 1979 in Costa Rica, founded Regierungsjunta business. It was all stock represented by the FSLN with Daniel Ortega to the bourgeois alliance with FAO Alfonso Robelo. All were from the FSLN, 29 Program announced in May the National reconstruction acknowledged. Nevertheless, did the dispute. 1981 left Robelo Chamorro and the Government, the latter came into the Contra-Executive.
The FSLN now reigned alone. She organized the literacy, health care design and education in order. Country propertyless laborers and farm workers received land from the Somoza-owned. Cooperative emerged. Somoza-owned enterprises have been working. For 1984, the FSLN appointed elections which they won. Daniel Ortega became president. 1987, the FSLN initiated by the new Constitution came into force.
The Nicaraguan oligarchy and the U.S. administration, the Sandinista revolution was a thorn in the eye. They organized the Contra war and economic boycott. As the leadership of the Soviet Union in 1987 the Sandinistas dropped the Contra war and peace in the entire Central American region at risk, saw the Sandinista government in negotiations with the Contra leadership is the only way out. They took the peace for which the FSLN, but the expensive price of power paid. She lost the 1990 election against an alliance of 17 parties which Violeta Chamorro was invoked.

What is the Sandinismus gone? The round of talks of the "Long Night" in Germany in September 1995 Funk replied: "Ruined dreams." Others say: "Danielismus and neoliberalism." We think: "Everything."
The Sandinismus is the vision of the patriots from a Nicaraguan community in which milk and honey flow, independent and sovereign, and that in a large brotherhood with the Latin American and Caribbean peoples lives together. The ideas are the Sandinos of Bolivar, Sucre, Marti and others who oppose the European and North American colonialism and interventionism own oligarchy fought. The idea Sandinismus is a mixture of humanism, Christianity and Marxism.

1990 in Nicaragua, no system of society. A political force which at that time still was not a party, lost the election. 1991, from the politico-military organization to the FSLN party FSLN. This took 16 years until they have elections again came to power. Your left critics from Germany are probably a few years longer before they will succeed.

The FSLN continued to struggle one. I. At the 1991 Congress on two lines to the debate. By Sergio Ramirez, Vice President of the Ortega government, stated, represented a reformist approach. The other, represented by Daniel Ortega, wanted "the neoliberal policy has a revolutionary answer." The Ortega-direction prevailed. The FSLN Group of the National Assembly was the balance of power differently. Of the 38 deputies were 30 to Ramirez. They started against the party line. 1995 Ramirez split the group and founded the wing of the Sandinista Renewal Movement (MRS). He was succeeded by Marie Dora Tellez, Monica Baltodano, Victor Hugo Tinoco, and others. The MRS-grouping of the group gave the seats of the FSLN in the Supreme Electoral Council, the Supreme Court and the Prosecutor General of Civil splinter parties of the crumbling alliance of Mrs. Chamorro.

In 1996, the FSLN in the presidential election 42 percent of the votes. It looked like the sure winner. Then the Supreme Electoral Council conjured up 54 percent for the Liberal Party (PLC) Arnoldo Alemán of the retort. The country faced a political crisis.

Should a president from an electoral fraud will be introduced, or new elections take place? In this situation, the PLC gave the FSLN a contract: if the FSLN recognize the election results, they will receive in return their seats in the instances and the results of agricultural reform will not be canceled. That was the FSLN On. The MRS-wing had lost the plot. Ramirez 1998, from all political posts back.

In May 2006, the Sandinista innovator in Miami with the three middle-presidential candidate a deal. In the case of a second round, they wanted to the favorite of the U.S. administration to support Eduardo Montealegre. They landed in the neo-liberal camp, and with them the members of the National Historic Henry led Ruiz and Victor Tirado. That is regrettable. It is also regrettable that the German left by them for advice when it comes to the FSLN's. Today, the MRS of foundations from the USA and the EU-funded space.

In November 2006, voted 38 percent of Nicaraguans Daniel Ortega to their president. The FSLN, now nearly 100,000 members with 5.5 million inhabitants, has adopted the Sandinista project again. She could Munizipalwahlen in 2008, expanded positions. The dream of a brother of the Confederation of Latin American and Caribbean nations is in the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) form. The FSLN has again the transformation of society will be launched. It emerged the power of the citizen councils as organs of direct democracy. The literacy is still in this year of 1990 levels to be achieved. The health system was reorganized. In education and health to help Cuban friends. With the help of Venezuela, the energy and fuel supply stabilized. For the small and medium-sized family farming, the programs were "zero hunger" and "zero usury" open. Agricultural production is mainly about them will be stimulated. Nicaragua is in a position to own the basic shopping cart with 7 basic products and to guarantee rice, maize and beans in Honduras and El Salvador to deliver. Venezuela receives beef.

To Daniel Ortega. He likes to Nicaragua not be loved by all. He deserves respect, however. He has the FSLN on the neoliberal year. It determines the strategic line of the FSLN. He has the dirt, the FSLN has been unloaded on itself. He enjoys recognition among peers in Latin America and the Caribbean. At international meetings, he is consistently anti-imperialist positions. His opponents are sorry that you do not disconnect from the FSLN, and that the new process without the FSLN in Nicaragua, is unthinkable.
From the Sandinista revolution is not just something left. It is under new conditions. That was, is and remains the historic merit of the FSLN.
Wolfgang Herrmann, Dreesch

30 years Sandinista Revolution

The destiny of Latin is at stake

• Affirms Esteban Lazo at 30th anniversary celebration for the Sandinista Revolution

MANAGUA, July 19.— Esteban Lazo, vice president of the Council of State, stated here today that the destiny of Latin America and the right of the peoples to freely elect their leaders will be decided in Honduras, PL reports.

Lazo, who led the Cuban delegation to the event celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, emphasized that the Honduran coup leaders could not survive without Washington’s support and commented on the responsibility of U.S. officials for the military coup.
He quoted the statement of the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz: "The only correct thing to do at this point is to demand that the government of the United States ends its intervention, stops lending military support to the coup perpetrators and withdraws its Task Force from Honduras."

Lazo, likewise member of the Political Bureau, emphasized the advances achieved by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) and its determination in guiding the future of the people and in defense of its principal conquests.

"We are proud to know that today the FSLN has met its commitment of declaring Nicaragua an illiteracy-free country," Lazo highlighted.

Transmitting a message of congratulations from Fidel, Raúl and all the Cuban people to the people of Nicaragua, he greeted the Cuban collaborators completing different assignments in Nicaragua in education, heath and other areas. He stated that over the course of 50 years, Cubans have learned that unity, solidarity, and internationalism are the most powerful weapons against the enemy.

"We are absolutely convinced that integration based on the principles of ALBA is the most effective way to face these threats."

Lazo thanked the people, government and President Ortega for their fraternal expressions of solidarity toward Cuba in international forums, related to the elimination of the U.S. blockade and the liberation of the five Cuban anti-terrorists imprisoned unjustly in the United States.

30 years Sandinista Revolution

Nicaragua celebrates

Monday, 20 July 2009

A huge human sea under the red and black flags of the Sandinista Liberation Front FSLN decided on Sunday in Managua yesterday, the 30th Anniversary of the victory of the revolution about the bloody Somoza dictatorship celebrated. On 19 July 1979 were the victorious guerrillas of the FSLN in the Nicaraguan capital withdrawn, the dictator had previously fled to the United States.

At the big rally in the Plaza Juan Pablo II, participating in the center of Managua, next to the Nicaraguan President and former revolutionary leader Daniel Ortega, the Venezuelan President Cilia Flores and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, while Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez because of health problems did apologize. From Guatemala was Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú geeilt after Nicaragua, Honduras was the lawful Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas represented.

Many speakers recalled the great achievements of the Sandinista revolution and the new Sandinista Government, including during the festivities officially announced elimination of illiteracy, programs to free medical care, the cost-free education and housing program.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega criticized in his speech opening the three U.S. military bases in Colombia. This will begin Colombia, can be a threat to Latin America to be, said Ortega. Colombia would be for an occupied country and a threat from an arms race in the region could emerge. The United States by the three bases in Colombia, the Manta base in Ecuador to replace the closure of the local government of Rafael Correa had enforced.

Instead of military bases should love the United States schools, homes and hospitals built, Ortega called and reminded its North American counterpart Barack Obama because of this respectful relations have spoken.
With a view to ultimately unsuccessful mediation efforts of the Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Ortega, this is only an instrument of policy coup by the U.S. administration, in advance of the impending coup in Honduras have known: "Come to me not so that the Yankee no secret of the coup have known, so who should believe a lie? "

Comrade PS

An Autobiography For The Times
First General Secretary Communist Party of India (Marxist)

“Who is he?
Where from?
What has he done,
this man,
the most humane
of all us humans?”

RECENTLY during the summer vacation, I had been to my home town and happened to meet a person who is more like a grandmother to me. Though it was supposed to be just a courtesy call, it turned out to be a real learning experience. She hails from a communist family and was thus closely acquainted with many stalwarts of the communist movement. Talking about many things, I mentioned in passing about the release of the autobiography of Comrade Putchalapalli Sundarayya, fondly called by many as Comrade PS, in English. I showed her a copy of the book that I was carrying. As she was well informed both about the life of Comrade PS and the book (Telugu version of which was released long back), she recalled some of her own cherished memories and asked me to read extracts from the book. And what a learning experience it really was, that journey with her to those days!

While she was really happy that the autobiography of Comrade PS was out in English, she was apprehensive as she was lamenting the reading habits of today's generation. What I had understood from her tone was her anxiety on whether this generation would utilise this opportunity and lap up the contents of this great book. When I had gently told her not to be so gloomy, she asked me about my personal reading habits and directed me to read certain portions from the book which I would like to quote. “Then I also read Chilukuri Veerabhadra Rao’s three-volume History of the Telugus. I was 13-year-old then. After that I read Chillarige Srinivasa Rao’s History of Maharashtra. Practically, I read all the history books that were available in Telugu. I also read many other books, including novels, stories and literature, which were available at the Gowthami Library. After school hours, I used to visit the library regularly. I used to sit there and read till it was time to pull down the shutters...The librarian there was an ordinary person. He used to express surprise over my reading saying that I was reading all the books which were there in the library. I used to say: ‘What’s the big deal in it? It’s good to read books.’”

Reading this paragraph was a big revelation and made me ashamed of, if I can still call as such, my ‘reading habit'. No wonder it was this reading habit that was responsible for making even his fiercest critics listen whenever he spoke, either in the legislative assemblies or outside of them. She had rightly said that it was due to efforts of comrades like PS that the views expressed by communists are given so much prominence even today. It is they, who have taught subsequent generations to study, work hard and be thorough with their facts.

Cautioning me not to confine the concept of study to only reading of books, she pointed to another paragraph in the book and showed how Comrade PS was not only an avid reader of the books but also of the society. It seems even during the days of the Telengana armed struggle, he had prepared a questionnaire and studied the land relations and classified Indian peasantry. Reminiscing her interactions with Comrade PS, she recalled how meticulous he used to be - his indepth study on various subjects and the various questions he used to ask. Turning to me, she asked me some questions concerning the nature of my work which I could not answer. This, in fact, made me contemplate about ‘study’, its true meaning and its implementation.

Our discussion subsequently veered towards the recent election results and the disappointment. She once again pointed me a paragraph in the book. Here, Comrade PS explains the days after the election defeat in 1955. “Results apart, another important dimension of the Andhra election was the unleashing of the worst ever anti-communist propaganda here after the turmoil of 1942-43…They used to peddle all lies against the communists, but that was the bourgeois way of attacking the Left. In one way, that exposed the hypocrisy of the so-called progressive intellectuals when real issues come up…One thing was that the landlords and their families took up an aggressive door-to-door campaign. Their womenfolk were out in the open distributing sarees and begging people to vote for the Congress…Ultimately, they all came together and went on the offensive since they feared that they would be swept out in the elections”. Isn’t this contemporary too? Asking me not to lose heart, she again pointed to Comrade PS’ response when a big leader of the Party had asked the active cadre to fend for themselves. “Okay, we have been defeated, but let’s consolidate our hold…We should build on it...” Isn’t this what we should be doing today?

With glistening eyes and fondness, she recalled Comrade PS’ concern and care towards cadre. She recalled many anecdotes where he had asked about her health and how he had gently admonished her husband for not taking enough care. She also stated that Comrade PS always used to ask the well-being of many comrades by name whenever he used to come to their village. She told me of a letter he had written from a hospital in Moscow where he had undergone gastrectomy and said that even in that letter he did not forget to enquire about the health of the comrades working in the Party press.

I remembered another paragraph where Comrade PS states, “I was always patient and attentive to the problems of Party activists. Be they physical needs or problems regarding organisational matters. Everything has to be taken care of. Or else they won’t look up to the leaders for any kind of help. Being seniors, we have to read their state of mind and suggest measures that could solve their immediate problems”. Reading this made me jealous of all those comrades who could get the care of such a great man.

Remembering those days when I used to go places and address rallies, I read with a sense of shame: “Leaders should not limit their roles to addressing rallies. They have to take out the time to meet the local cadre and sort out their problems, especially with regard to organisational matters. They have to monitor or review the implementation of Party programmes at the local level. Rather than addressing public meetings, I loved to spend a lot of time in the general body meetings. There we can have the chance to interact with the local leadership and cadre more closely and share their experiences as also their problems. Though the issues they may bring up may seem to be very small to the leaders but they would have their own impact on the cadre”. This once again points out the importance of time management. When a person of the stature of Comrade PS could wriggle out and squeeze time, nay give credence to interaction with cadre, why could not we?

Bringing me back from my chain of thoughts, she narrated anecdotes that speak about simplicity and humility of Comrade PS. She told me how Comrade PS had admonished some of the Party comrades who were shouting slogans, ‘Comrade PS zindabad’, when he had attended a meeting. She recalled with misty eyes what he had told them: “give those slogans when I remain a communist even at the time of my death and if the Party thinks that my body is worthy to be draped with a red flag…not now”. This immediately brought to mind one particular sentence in the book. “I feel that my services are not worth reckoning”. These words from a man who was the general secretary of the Party, who led the ideological struggle both against the right and left deviations and above all from one of the prominent leaders of the famed Telengana armed struggle! Thus, not surprisingly, he dismisses his cycle rides to the parliament when he was a member as just a matter of fact. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the word humility would be humbled when written along with his name!

When I had mentioned this to her, she concurred and stated that Comrade PS, in spite of his vast knowledge was always ready to learn from everyone. She said that he always used to exhort our comrades to learn from people. She asked me to read one particular paragraph. “The struggle for a correct Party line comes not out of your praise-mongering theoretical knowledge, but out of your own experience, how it affected the movement and in course of the struggle what issues came up before you. All I can say is that I have got some experience, be it the armed movement or organisational work”. This book thus contains the ideological debates that raged within the communist party and its evolution into a revolutionary party.

Borrowing from Mayakovsky, we can very well say

“Sundaraiah
and the party
are brother-twins
who’ll say
which means more
to history, their mother…
name one
and you can’t but imply
the other”

Comrade PS’ autobiography is not only a must read but also an eye-opener for my generation who have not got the opportunity to see Comrade PS. So is it for all the subsequent generations who are increasingly becoming unaware of such towering personalities.

Comrade PS always used to emphasise on being well versed with our history - to learn from it, remould ourselves and shape our future. This book, thus, should be used as a guide for reinvigorating ourselves. Speaking in the second all India conference of the Students’ Federation of India, he concluded by stating: “There are revolutionaries in every state. Always remember their idealistic revolutionary life style…they have not come down to the earth from the heavens with superhuman powers. They too are ordinary people just like all of us. Read their life histories…if they had fought with so much determination and courage, we too could. We too would get this strength only when we always keep in our mind our aim to build a new society”. He carried this conviction firmly till his death and lived the life as a true communist.

Learning from the book means rectifying our mistakes and working for the change that he had strived all his life.

“This man was a human-
as human as anyone…
Proletarian army,
Rise in force!
Long live the revolution
With speedy victory
The greatest
and justest
of all wars
ever fought
in history”

G Mamatha

From Arbenz to Zelaya

Chiquita in Latin America

When the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya two weeks ago there might have been a sigh of relief in the corporate board rooms of Chiquita banana. Earlier this year the Cincinnati-based fruit company joined Dole in criticizing the government in Tegucigalpa which had raised the minimum wage by 60%. Chiquita complained that the new regulations would cut into company profits, requiring the firm to spend more on costs than in Costa Rica: 20 cents more to produce a crate of pineapple and ten cents more to produce a crate of bananas to be exact. In all, Chiquita fretted that it would lose millions under Zelaya’s labor reforms since the company produced around 8 million crates of pineapple and 22 million crates of bananas per year.

When the minimum wage decree came down Chiquita sought help and appealed to the Honduran National Business Council, known by its Spanish acronym COHEP. Like Chiquita, COHEP was unhappy about Zelaya’s minimum wage measure. Amílcar Bulnes, the group’s president, argued that if the government went forward with the minimum wage increase employers would be forced to let workers go, thus increasing unemployment in the country. The most important business organization in Honduras, COHEP groups 60 trade associations and chambers of commerce representing every sector of the Honduran economy. According to its own Web site, COHEP is the political and technical arm of the Honduran private sector, supports trade agreements and provides “critical support for the democratic system.”

The international community should not impose economic sanctions against the coup regime in Tegucigalpa, COHEP argues, because this would worsen Honduras’ social problems. In its new role as the mouthpiece for Honduras’ poor, COHEP declares that Honduras has already suffered from earthquakes, torrential rains and the global financial crisis. Before punishing the coup regime with punitive measures, COHEP argues, the United Nations and the Organization of American States should send observer teams to Honduras to investigate how sanctions might affect 70% of Hondurans who live in poverty. Bulnes meanwhile has voiced his support for the coup regime of Roberto Micheletti and argues that the political conditions in Honduras are not propitious for Zelaya’s return from exile.

Chiquita: From Arbenz to Bananagate

It’s not surprising that Chiquita would seek out and ally itself to socially and politically backward forces in Honduras. Colsiba, the coordinating body of banana plantation workers in Latin America, says the fruit company has failed to supply its workers with necessary protective gear and has dragged its feet when it comes to signing collective labor agreements in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras.

Colsiba compares the infernal labor conditions on Chiquita plantations to concentration camps. It’s an inflammatory comparison yet may contain a degree of truth. Women working on Chiquita’s plantations in Central America work from 6:30 a.m. until 7 at night, their hands burning up inside rubber gloves. Some workers are as young as 14. Central American banana workers have sought damages against Chiquita for exposing them in the field to DBCP, a dangerous pesticide which causes sterility, cancer and birth defects in children.

Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit Company and United Brands, has had a long and sordid political history in Central America. Led by Sam “The Banana Man” Zemurray, United Fruit got into the banana business at the turn of the twentieth century. Zemurray once remarked famously, “In Honduras, a mule costs more than a member of parliament.” By the 1920s United Fruit controlled 650,000 acres of the best land in Honduras, almost one quarter of all the arable land in the country. What’s more, the company controlled important roads and railways.

In Honduras the fruit companies spread their influence into every area of life including politics and the military. For such tactics they acquired the name los pulpos (the octopuses, from the way they spread their tentacles). Those who did not play ball with the corporations were frequently found face down on the plantations. In 1904 humorist O. Henry coined the term “Banana Republic” to refer to the notorious United Fruit Company and its actions in Honduras.

In Guatemala, United Fruit supported the CIA-backed 1954 military coup against President Jacobo Arbenz, a reformer who had carried out a land reform package. Arbenz’ overthrow led to more than thirty years of unrest and civil war in Guatemala. Later in 1961, United Fruit lent its ships to CIA-backed Cuban exiles who sought to overthrow Fidel Castro at the Bay of Pigs.

In 1972, United Fruit (now renamed United Brands) propelled Honduran General Oswaldo López Arellano to power. The dictator was forced to step down later however after the infamous “Bananagate” scandal which involved United Brands bribes to Arellano. A federal grand jury accused United Brands of bribing Arellano with $1.25 million, with the carrot of another $1.25 million later if the military man agreed to reduce fruit export taxes. During Bananagate, United Brands’ President fell from a New York City skyscraper in an apparent suicide.

Go-Go Clinton Years and Colombia

In Colombia United Fruit also set up shop and during its operations in the South American country developed a no less checkered profile. In 1928, 3,000 workers went on strike against the company to demand better pay and working conditions. At first the company refused to negotiate but later gave in on some minor points, declaring the other demands “illegal” or “impossible.” When the strikers refused to disperse the military fired on the banana workers, killing scores.

You might think that Chiquita would have reconsidered its labor policies after that but in the late 1990s the company began to ally itself with insidious forces, specifically right wing paramilitaries. Chiquita paid off the men to the tune of more than a million dollars. In its own defense, the company declared that it was merely paying protection money to the paramilitaries.

In 2007, Chiquita paid $25 million to settle a Justice Department investigation into the payments. Chiquita was the first company in U.S. history to be convicted of financial dealings with a designated terrorist organization.

In a lawsuit launched against Chiquita victims of the paramilitary violence claimed the firm abetted atrocities including terrorism, war crimes and crimes against humanity. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said that Chiquita’s relationship with the paramilitaries “was about acquiring every aspect of banana distribution and sale through a reign of terror.”

Back in Washington, D.C. Charles Lindner, Chiquita’s CEO, was busy courting the White House. Lindner had been a big donor to the GOP but switched sides and began to lavish cash on the Democrats and Bill Clinton. Clinton repaid Linder by becoming a key military backer of the government of Andrés Pastrana which presided over the proliferation of right wing death squads. At the time the U.S. was pursuing its corporately-friendly free trade agenda in Latin America, a strategy carried out by Clinton’s old boyhood friend Thomas “Mack” McLarty. At the White House, McLarty served as Chief of Staff and Special Envoy to Latin America. He’s an intriguing figure who I’ll come back to in a moment.

The Holder-Chiquita Connection

Given Chiquita’s underhanded record in Central America and Colombia it’s not a surprise that the company later sought to ally itself with COHEP in Honduras. In addition to lobbying business associations in Honduras however Chiquita also cultivated relationships with high powered law firms in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Chiquita has paid out $70,000 in lobbying fees to Covington and Burling over the past three years.

Covington is a powerful law firm which advises multinational corporations. Eric Holder, the current Attorney General, a co-chair of the Obama campaign and former Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton was up until recently a partner at the firm. At Covington, Holder defended Chiquita as lead counsel in its case with the Justice Department. From his perch at the elegant new Covington headquarters located near the New York Times building in Manhattan, Holder prepped Fernando Aguirre, Chiquita’s CEO, for an interview with 60 Minutes dealing with Colombian death squads.

Holder had the fruit company plead guilty to one count of “engaging in transactions with a specially designated global terrorist organization.” But the lawyer, who was taking in a hefty salary at Covington to the tune of more than $2 million, brokered a sweetheart deal in which Chiquita only paid a $25 million fine over five years. Outrageously however, not one of the six company officials who approved the payments received any jail time.

The Curious Case of Covington

Look a little deeper and you’ll find that not only does Covington represent Chiquita but also serves as a kind of nexus for the political right intent on pushing a hawkish foreign policy in Latin America. Covington has pursued an important strategic alliance with Kissinger (of Chile, 1973 fame) and McLarty Associates (yes, the same Mack McLarty from Clinton-time), a well known international consulting and strategic advisory firm.

From 1974 to 1981 John Bolton served as an associate at Covington. As U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under George Bush, Bolton was a fierce critic of leftists in Latin America such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Furthermore, just recently John Negroponte became Covington’s Vice Chairman. Negroponte is a former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence and U.S. Representative to the United Nations.

As U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, Negroponte played a significant role in assisting the U.S.-backed Contra rebels intent on overthrowing the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. Human rights groups have criticized Negroponte for ignoring human rights abuses committed by Honduran death squads which were funded and partially trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Indeed, when Negroponte served as ambassador his building in Tegucigalpa became one of the largest nerve centers of the CIA in Latin America with a tenfold increase in personnel.

While there’s no evidence linking Chiquita to the recent coup in Honduras, there’s enough of a confluence of suspicious characters and political heavyweights here to warrant further investigation. From COHEP to Covington to Holder to Negroponte to McLarty, Chiquita has sought out friends in high places, friends who had no love for the progressive labor policies of the Zelaya regime in Tegucigalpa.

Nikolas Kozloff

Honduran Coup

The Honduran Coup is the Caribbean's Business

On April 11, 2002, Venezuela''s President Hugo Chávez was briefly removed from office by an abortive coup d-etat. A documentary on this episode, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, shows how an alliance of big business, wealthy landowners, and elements of the military conspired to remove him, with the active support of the Bush Administration and the local and international media. State-owned TV stations were closed,coverage of pro-Chavez demostrations was blanked, and false stories circulated. Fortuitously, on the day of the coup, an Irish television crew happened to be inside the Presidential Palace making a documentary; and the end -result was a film that offers an alternate and compelling viewpoint to the pro-coup stories. It documented the pro-poor policies of of the government, the fact that it had been democratically elected and enjoyed extensive support among the working poor; it refuted the lie that Chávez had resigned and revealed that he was being held prisoner, and showed the massive street demonstrations in his support.

There are disturbing parallels with Honduras, where on the morning of June 28th the incumbent President Manuel Zelaya, democratically elected in 2006 , was taken prisoner by soldiers and put on a plane to neighbouring Costa Rica, a forged letter of resignation was produced, and the President of the National Assembly, Robert Micheletti, proclaimed President. Honduras, a Central American nation of seven million people that recently overtook Guyana as the third poorest country in the hemisphere, still exhibits the deep racial and class inequalties that are a legacy of Spanish conquest and colonisation of the indigenous majority. 75 percent of the people live in poverty, while the top 10 percent of the population gets 45 percent of the national product (Background to the Honduran coup: Poverty, exploitation and imperialist domination, By Rafael Azul). The unemployment rate is 30 percent and the average working day for adult men and women is 14 hours. 30,000 employees in the maquiladora (export assembly) plants have reportedly lost their jobs since the onset of the global economic crisis. Manuel Zelaya, himself a wealthy landowner, had angered the Honduran business elite and military by moving increasingly to the left' during his presidency, raising the mimimum wage by 60 percent, reducing fuel prices in response to popular demands, and, most controversially, taking Honduras into the Venezuelan-led ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas). His plan to hold a non-binding referendumwas the trigger of a series of events which led to his ouster.

Contrary to widespread media reports, the June 28 Referendum was not about extending Zelaya's term of office. The actual question on the aborted June 28 ballot read: "Do you think that the November 2009 general elections should include a fourth ballot box in order to make a decision about the creation of a National Constitutional Assembly that would approve a new Constitution?" "Yes" or "No."? To quote Mark Weisbrot, Director of the Washington-based Centre for Ecocomic Policy and Research writing on July 8th for the London Guardian,

"There was no way for Zelaya to "extend his rule" even if the referendum had been held and passed, and even if he had then gone on to win a binding referendum on the November ballot. The 28 June referendum was nothing more than a non-binding poll of the electorate, asking whether the voters wanted to place a binding referendum on the November ballot to approve a redrafting of the country's constitution. If it had passed, and if the November referendum had been held (which was not very likely) and also passed, the same ballot would have elected a new president and Zelaya would have stepped down in January".

What was launched, therefore, appears to have been a pre-emptive strike by the Honduran elite in an attempt to thwart Zelaya's plans to deepen the democratic process in a country that has historically excluded the poor and indigenous majority from effective participation in social and economic life; a process similar to that underway in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.

An inadvertent revelation of inbred racism and classism of this class was the statement by Enrique Ortez Colindres, named as interim foreign minister, dismissing U.S. President Obama as a "little black man [who] doesn't know where Tegucigalpa is." A lukewarm apology was proffered, but a further remark by Colindres surfaced which translated reads "I have negotiated with queers, prostitutes, leftists, blacks, whites. This is my job, I studied for it. I am not racially prejudiced. I like the little black sugar plantation worker who is president of the United States." (There are reports that Colindres has been replaced, but other news stories contradict this).

Whatever one may think of Mr Zelaya's politics, there can be little doubt that what is at stake here is the integrity of institutional democracy and constitutional order. Quite simply, if soldiers can take it on themselves to remove and eject a demcratically elected President, then no such President or government is safe-not in Latin America, not in the Caribbean, not anywhere in the world. The Cuban leader, Fidel Castro has rightly warned that failure to restore President Zelaya could result in a wave of additional coups in Latin America, or place existing governments "at the mercy of the ultra right-wing military, educated in the security doctrine of the School of the Americas, an expert in torture, psychological warfare and terror". Hence the coup has been unanimously condemned internationally-the United Nations General Assembly, the OAS General Assembly, the Rio Group, the ALBA nations, the Central American Integration System, the Caribbean Community, the European Union, and now the Non-Aligned Movement" have all called for the President's restoration. Evidently the geopolitical climate has shifted somewhat since 2002. Last week US President Obama reassuringly declared "America supports now the restoration of the democratically-elected President of Honduras, even though he has strongly opposed American policies" .

But is the U.S. speaking with one voice? Some argue that the Pentagon, which operates one of the largest U.S. air bases in the region just 50 miles from Tegucigalpa, and has close ties to the Honduran military, must have had forewarning of the coup; and not only failed to stop it but may even have given a wink and a nod'. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's initial statements on the coup were ambiguous, to say the least, and she sponsored the clumsy attempt to broker an agreement between President Zelaya and the usurper Micheletti, using President Arias of Costa Rica as mediator; an attempt which spectacularly-and predictably-failed. As Weisbrot notes, the US still does not call for an immediate and unconditional return as do the United Nations, the Organisation of American States and Caricom. Some in the U.S. may well support the coupists' strategem of dragging out the process until the Honduran presidential election, due in November.

But just who is in charge in Washington? And when President Obama spoke of the a dangerous precedent' that Zelaya's ouster would create if it succeeded, was he subliminally, perhaps, thinking of the possibility of it coming closer to home? Was Fidel sending an oblique warning to Obama when he wrote "The Pentagon formally obeys the civilian power. The legions have not yet taken over control of the empire as they did in Rome"?

Meanwhile popular resistance to the coup in Honduras grows daily, and with it the likelihood of a violent polarisation of the country; dragging other Central American nations into the conflict. Daily demonstrations are being held by the national resistance movement, a coalition of popular organizations, at least one of which has been violently supressed. The National Fraternal Black Organization, representing Honduras' Garifuna population ('Black Caribs', of African-Caribbean origin), is an active part of the resistance movement; considering it their a historic responsibility, as a culturally distinct people (whose) culture is threatened by these same powerful groups responsible for the coup'.

Mike James in July 10th Catholic Standard, has reported on several Honduran religious communities publicly condemning the coup. One protestor, a youth killed by military snipers when he attempted to go onto the airfield to welcome the plane that was attempting to land returning Zelaya-aborted by the military-was the son of Pentecostal ministers, one of whom led the Human Rights committee in his community and has since been arrested. He describes popular religious organizations offering alternative radio coverage and carrying video footage of the resistance and repression in the Honduran capital; and a website, Honduras Resists, has been set up with regularly updated coverage. And across the region grassroots organizations are also categorically condemning the coup, like the network of indigenous women of South America and Mexico who issued a statement from Lima last week.

Honduras also brings to mind the ongoing crisis in Haiti, where, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was himself put on a plane by soldiers (American, in this instance) and banished in 2004, on the eve of the 200th anniversary of Haitian independence; a disgraceful episode in which US, Canadian and French governments played no small part. Honduras is not only our business in the Caribbean, we need to put to these events in a wider hemispheric context. We must insist on a conversation that recognizes that today two popularly elected presidents from our part of the world, Aristide and Zelaya, are in exile, and that the democratic aspirations of both the Honduran and Haitian people continue to be in limbo and require our solidarity.

Tania La Guerrillera

Tania La Guerrillera

The only woman in Che Guevara's final guerrilla force
Biography
1935
Tamara Bunkes Jewish-German father and her Russian-born mother flee Nazi Germany for Buenos Aires, Argentina
1937
Haydée Tamara Bunke is born on November 19. She grows up during Argentina’s Peron era.
1952
Tamara’s parents return to East Germany to help build a Socialist society with their two children.
1953
Tamara is educated at “Clara Zektin Highschool” in Stalinstadt, GDR. She becomes a member of the Communist Youth Organization FDJ and gets weapons training at the state-owned Society for Sports and Technology
1958
Tamara joins the ruling Socialist Party SED during university. She plans to return to Latin America and creates a Latin American student club at her university in Berlin
1960
The Cuban revolution is a great inspiration for Tamara. Sie works as interpreter for Cuban delegations in Berlin und Leipzig and gets to meet Che Guevara – the most important encouter of her life, a lasting friendship develops
1961
Tamara leaves the GDR for Cuba, where she workes as interpreter at the Institute For The Friendship Of Peoples ICAP, and many other institutions. Together with Che she volunteers for labor assigments
1962
The Cuban Secret Service recruits Tamara. Che assigns her a special mission in Bolivia that she is now preparing for. She is given the code name Tania.
1964
Following travels with a number of fake identities, Tamara settles in La Paz, Bolivia under the alias „Laura Gutierrez Bauer“
1966
Agent Tania has gained access to many political leaders in Bolivia and works within the Ministry of Information. Secretly, she prepares the urban support group for the guerrilla and welcomes Che, who arrives with his first fighters in November
1967
Tania leads two foreign comrades to Che’s secret base camp near Camiri, Bolivia. Meanwhile, two deserters reveal a lot about Che’s plans, plus Tanias true identity, to the Bolivian military. Tania has to stay with the group and joins the fight for six months. She is killed on August 31 during an ambush at the banks of the Rio Grande river. Che Guevara himself is captured and assassinated soon afterwards.

The Revolutionary

Tamara Bunke a.k.a. Tania La Guerrillera was the only woman in Che Guevara’s final guerrilla force in the highlands of Bolivia.
Her memory is preserved in many places around the world: In Argentina, where she was born and raised, in the former German Democratic Republic, where she spend the formative years of her youth, in Cuba, where she arrived in 1961 to help create a Socialist society, und last but not least in the mountain region in the North of Bolivia where she fought - and died.
During 1967, when the soldiers of the Bolivian army discovered that a woman was among their adversaries, she quickly developed a reputation as invincible warrior that vastly overstated her actual abilities. Thus, the legend of “Tania La Guerrillera” was born. Even today, many girls in Bolivia are named Tania in memory of a short dream of freedom that never came true.
In 1998, Tamara’s remains where found in Bolivia near the place where she was killed. They were transferred to Cuba where she is now buried alongside Che Guevara in Santa Clara. Many schools in Cuba are named after her, she still enjoys the revered status of revolutionary hero.
In the GDR, too, she became an official hero of the working class after her death. Many people who heard about her then still think highly of her – she remains one of the few cult icons of the East that still has appeal even after the end of Socialism.

Tania and her times

In 1959, Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevera and the fighters of the Cuban Revolution take Havanna – the dream of a liberated Latin America begins. In 1961, the government of the German Democratic Republic orders the building of the Berlin Wall. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the world comes to the brink of nuclear destruction. One year later John F. Kennedy, symbol of a better America, is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. In 1964, The Beatles record their album “A Hard Days Night”, triggering world-wide Beatlemania. In 1965, the US Airforce starts it’s massive attacks on North Vietnam. In 1966, Arthur Penn directs “Bonny and Clyde”, leading the way in the aesthetic revolution of Hollywood cinema. And in Bolivia in 1967, Ernesto Che Guevera resumes his struggle for a continuing revolution. At his side: Tamara Bunke alias Tania la Guerillera….

Tanias Story

La Paz, Bolivia, in the mid-sixties. A military regime of laughably operatic generals around René Barrientos, the corrupt president. It’s a lazy provincial outpost of US imperialism, high up in the Andes, ignored by the powers of the world. Among the local big shots, there’s a young woman on the rise. Beautiful, ambitious, an elegant opportunist, trophy in a Macho world, ready to do anything to advance her career… or so it seems.
Truth is, she’s been living a lie, for many years now. Every single day, she betrays her deepest convictions in order to serve them – all for the benefit of the great idea, the secret plan. She waits for Ernesto Che Guevara, the man who has promised to take the Cuban revolution to all of Latin America. She knows, among only a handful of people on earth, where his next fight is to begin – right here in Bolivia. Che has personally given her the order to prepare it. And so she spies on the local regime, counting the days to his arrival, alone and far from home: worldly Buenos Aires, where she was born, socialist Germany, the land of her parents, joyously liberated Havana. The Cuban secret service has given her a codename: Tania.
One evening in November of 1966, Che and a handful of comrades finally arrive in Tanias apartment, unbeknownst to the CIA and the world powers. They are passing through on their way to the jungle up North, where the fighting is due to begin. To Tania, their presence seems like a passing dream. Her duties in La Paz are now more important than ever – and more hopeless at the same time. She’s supposed to keep drinking Champagne, keep lying and listening, while somewhere else, bullets will finally speak the truth. And yet she’s ready to sacrifice herself – until the moment she breaks down in the middle of the day, is brought to a hospital and learns she has cancer. Returning to her parents in Germany, the doctors say, could save her life – maybe. But Tania decides on a different route: Every day she has left, she will use with utmost determination for the great cause.
Against her orders, she leaves the city and makes her way to Che’s base camp in the North, where the Guerrilla prepares for battle. Yet before she has a chance to tell the Commandante about her sickness, bad news come in over the radio: Two Bolivian deserters from the camp have given away it’s location – and also Tania’s true identity – to the military. So now, there’s no way back for her, she will have to move with the group and fight. She welcomes the danger and clarity of this new situation, it feels like a salvation. Only now she has to hide the fact that she is dying – she wants to complete her journey without being pitied or favoured by her comrades.
Soon, all ideas of a romantic liberation army dissolve in a quagmire of problems and hardship. The miles are gruelling, food is scarce, and Che, almost suffocating from asthma, doesn’t seem to know any mercy - least of all for himself. His plan to radicalise and recruit local peasants doesn’t show any promise: Too often, they have to hide, too alien they seem to the scattered peasants they meet along the way. While the group’s general mood is darkening, Tania makes existential new discoveries: the adrenalin rush of danger, the devil may care attitude of Cuban veterans, the first Guerrillero killed in action. An ace marksman in the gun clubs of her Socialist youth, she’s ready for combat – if she can only overcome her fear. Marcos, never seen without his heavy machine gun, encourages her. In Cuba, he used to be a revolutionary hero and member of the State Council, now he’s back in arms where he feels most comfortable. He’s a fighting machine, completely confident in his body and his abilities, a physical presence Tania can’t easily ignore. Furthermore, he’s an independent thinker. More and more, he challenges Che on what he thinks are grave strategic mistakes.
For everyone not blinded by ideology, the truth becomes apparent pretty soon: In this country, people are not on the brink of revolution, this will not be a new Vietnam, and the whole exercise seems more and more pointless. Also, Tania is unable to hide her sickness anymore – during long marches, she trails behind, prompting Che to assign her to the rearguard. His plan to move in separate groups proves to be a fateful mistake: The units can’t seem to connect anymore, Che and his vanguard are lost. The rearguard is a pretty dispirited lot, lead by hesitant commander Joaquin. Thank God Marcos is also with them – his open criticism of Che has led to his relegation.
The secret agent marked by death, the dishonoured fighter, they fall in love – a flare-up of passions in already desperate circumstances. The idea to abandon the fight slowly creeps in on them, even Marcos dreams of a new, more peaceful life with Tania. She knows she should tell him that this is impossible, her cancer has progressed way too far – yet she can’t find the heart to do it. Finally, he summons all his courage to pose the fateful question, high treason for any Guerrillero yet somehow unavoidable: In the end, isn’t love more important than revolution? Tania feels what answer she would give, but she can’t anymore. All she wants now is a dignified end. With her death-defying conviction she even spurs the others to move on, and so she becomes “Tania La Guerrillera”, feared by her enemies, a legend of the Bolivian Andes even today.
During a firefight with US-trained Army Rangers, Tania’s death wish is about to be fulfilled - when Marcos sacrifices his life to rescue her. She mourns her lover but knows he is only leading the way by a few steps: The enemy is closing in, the last traitor has already been paid, an ambush is being prepared along the bank of the Rio Grande…

Concept

TANIA LA GUERRILLERA, the movie, is being developed at Berlin-based production company Tourel Film. It will focus on the final dramatic chapter of Tamara Bunke’s life. This is where her ideas and convictions were put to the ultimate test, in events of great drama and emotion. The focus on her last fight will allow us to concentrate on few but spectacular locations in Latin America that have not changed much since her death: For example the poor and barren mountain region near Camiri, Bolivia, where she fought as guerrillera.
Our shooting style will be flexible, almost documentary-style, with only a small but dedicated crew. We hope to get deep inside our characters, their revolutionary dreams, their suffering, their longing. Tania will always be center stage: A remarkable woman who holds her own in the tough macho world of fighting and dying for the great cause.