 |
| Aunque pertenecen a sus padres y maridos, parece que las van a dejar sacarse la licencia de conducción. Para las mujeres no existen los derechos en un país rico y poderoso. Y a nadie le importa. Como que son los dueños del petróleo. No importan los derechos humanos. La foto es propiedad de Hassan Ammar/AFP/GETTY y apareció en "The Guardian". |
sábado, 22 de marzo de 2014
Arabia Saudí odia a las mujeres
Racial disparities in EEUU education
No, el "sueño americano" al parecer no se ha cumplido para una parte significativa de los ciudadanos de esa democracia ejemplar. La desigualdad de los estudiantes negros respecto a otros escolares se manifiesta pronto. Una mala base educacional o el abandono escolar conducen tarde o temprano a la pobreza. O en el peor de los casos, a la cárcel. Lo que viene a continuación es un extracto de un informe del departamento para la educación y los derechos civiles
"Black students are more likely to be suspended from US public schools – even as tiny pre-schoolers.
The racial disparities in American education, from access to high-level classes and experienced teachers to discipline, were highlighted in a report released Friday by the education department's civil rights arm.
The suspensions – and disparities – begin at the earliest grades.
Black children represent about 18% of children in pre-school programs in schools, but they make up almost half of the preschoolers who are suspended more than once, the report said. Six percent of the nation's districts with preschools reported suspending at least one preschool child.
Advocates long have said get-tough suspension and arrest policies in schools have contributed to a "school-to-prison" pipeline that snags minority students, but much of the emphasis has been on middle school and high school policies. This was the first time the department reported data on pre-school discipline.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued guidance encouraging schools to abandon what it described as overly zealous discipline policies that send students to court instead of the principal's office. But even before the announcement, school districts have been adjusting policies that disproportionately affect minority students.
Overall, the data show that black students of all ages are suspended and expelled at a rate that's three times higher than that of white children. Even as boys receive more than two-thirds of suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates than girls of any other race or most boys.
The data doesn't explain why the disparities exist or why the students were suspended.
"It is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed," education secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement". (Información de AP)
Cuba y la violencia en el hogar
El llamado mal llamado "crimen pasional" es un delito en que se incurre tras una repentina alteración de la conciencia causada por celos, ira o desengaño, pero también como respuesta a un proceso continuo de agitación, sobre exigencia o menosprecio en las relaciones interpersonales.
"A diferencia del crimen premeditado —con planificación del momento y el arma—, la agresividad emocional es un impulso, un desahogo repentino. Por eso el perpetrador utiliza lo que tiene a su alcance para lastimar y muchas veces es el primero en socorrer a la víctima o avisar a la policía.
Cerca del 20 por ciento de los hechos sangrientos en parejas estables u ocasionales entran en esa categoría de crimen pasional, afirma el doctor Juan Gibert Rahola, farmacólogo y neurólogo español vinculado a la Universidad de Cádiz, con quien conversamos esta semana durante la VI Conferencia Internacional del Hospital Psiquiátrico de La Habana.
El otro 80 por ciento responde a una conducta abusiva fríamente calculada, y en muchos casos a secuelas de un pasado con predominio de alguno de los cinco tipos de maltrato infantil: físico, psicológico, sexual, por sobreprotección o por desapego.
Este sujeto, incapaz de reconocer el daño derivado de sus actos, agrede a conciencia, sin ansiedad ni remordimiento.
La diferencia entre este sociópata y un agresor impulsivo se puede establecer tanto en su percepción del crimen como en el estudio del cerebro mediante técnicas de neuroimagen, explicó el experto, e insistió en la necesidad de personalizar cada análisis para decidir el seguimiento legal y terapéutico pertinente.
Las leyes tipifican el delito, pero el tribunal debe además discernir si está ante un individuo capaz de rehabilitarse (mediante un tratamiento farmacológico y psicoterapéutico que le ayude a replantearse su sistema de conocimientos, creencias y cultura) o si se trata de un típico abusador que se enorgullece de su conducta y en cuanto esté libre la retomará.
Una de las excusas más comunes entre estos Otelo de sangre fría es que «trataban de probar su amor». En estos casos la guerra suele ser anunciada, y la alarma debería saltar desde el noviazgo, cuando empiezan las prohibiciones y las frases al estilo de «Quítate esa ropa o te la rompo encima»... «No te busques lo que no esta pa’ ti» o «Si no estás conmigo no estarás con nadie».
Aún presa de la mayor agitación, la gente suele reconocer los límites entre el bien y el mal y comprender que una reacción desproporcionada va a generarle consecuencias negativas, sobre todo si el conflicto es con un ser querido.
La escala de valores y sentimientos refrena el impulso de devolver mal con mal, hasta el día en que se rebasa el umbral de reactividad afectiva y el mecanismo inhibitorio no se activa a tiempo.
Numerosos estudios confirman que estímulos como el estrés, el consumo de drogas o de alcohol y la adicción a los juegos (ludopatía) inundan el cerebro de neuroquímicos que activan sus áreas de agresividad, lo cual puede incluso ser acumulativo.
Pero más allá de ese disparador biológico, ciertos elementos culturales median en la elección de la víctima. Psicoterapeutas de México y España presentes en el debate confirmaron que es más común «explotar» en casa y no con individuos cuya autoridad facilite tomar represalias. También narraron las dificultades de muchos agresores emocionales para desaprender ese «derecho» naturalizado de cosificar a la mujer y descargar en ella su rabia. Antes prefieren abandonar la terapia.
El psiquiatra Ernesto Pérez, una autoridad en Medicina Legal en nuestro país, apuntó que el perfil de hombres procesados en los últimos años por violencia contra la pareja difiere mucho del resto de los homicidas: no suelen ser agresivos en otras esferas de la vida; solo agreden a sus mujeres y a veces a los hijos, repitiendo patrones que aprendieron en su familia de origen.
Claro que ellas también pueden ser agresoras —las hay sociópatas, como la reina Medea, pero sobre todo impulsivas, que en un día se cobran toda una vida de abusos—. Algunas parejas homosexuales tampoco escapan a esta realidad, y si el estigma popular es mayor en estos casos también responde a razones culturales.
El artículo 264.1 del Código Penal cubano establece que quien mate a su cónyuge (sea matrimonio formalizado o no) incurre en la sanción de privación de libertad de 15 a 30 años o pena máxima, pues según el artículo 52 del citado Código el vínculo matrimonial y las relaciones de afecto con la víctima constituyen agravantes en los delitos contra la integridad personal, así como el abuso de autoridad o confianza y el actuar bajo los efectos de drogas o del alcohol. No obstante, la medida puede ser atenuada si se obró en estado de grave alteración psíquica provocada por actos ilícitos de la víctima".
Gerald Grosvenor in Spain
Vaya honor que tenemos los españoles. Damos piadoso cobijo a uno de los hombres más ricos del Reino Unido. Les dejo la perla made by Forbes.
"Duke of Westminster (Wealth: £7.9bn)
Gerald Grosvenor and his family owe the bulk of their wealth to owning 77 hectares (190 acres) of Mayfair and Belgravia, adjacent to Buckingham Palace and prime London real estate.
As the value of land rockets in the capital so too does the personal wealth of Grosvenor, formally the sixth Duke of Westminster and one of seven god parents to the new royal baby, Prince George.
The family also own 39,000 hectares in Scotland and 13,000 hectares in Spain, while their privately owned Grosvenor Estate property group has $20bn (£12bn) worth of assets under management including the Liverpool One shopping mall, according to leading US business magazine Forbes".
The Globalization of Poverty
The Globalization of Poverty: Inside the New World Order
By Global Research
Global Research, March 20, 2014
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-globalization-of-poverty-inside-the-new-world-order/5313987
In these unprecedented economic times, the world is experiencing as a whole what most of the non-industrialized world has experienced over the past several decades. For a nuanced examination of the intricacies of the global political-economic landscape and the power players within it, pick up your copy of:
The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order
by Michel Chossudovsky
Michel Chossudovsky takes the reader through an examination of how the World Bank and IMF have been the greatest purveyors of poverty around the world, despite their rhetorical claims to the opposite. These institutions, representing the powerful Western nations and the financial interests that dominate them, spread social apartheid around the world, exploiting both the people and the resources of the vast majority of the world’s population.
As Chossudovsky examines in this updated edition, often the programs of these international financial institutions go hand-in-hand with covert military and intelligence operations undertaken by powerful Western nations with an objective to destabilize, control, destroy and dominate nations and people, such as in the cases of Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
To understand what role these international organizations play today, being pushed to the front lines and given unprecedented power and scope as ever before to manage the global economic crisis, one must understand from whence they came. This book provides a detailed, exploratory, readable and multi-faceted examination of these institutions and actors as agents of the ‘New World Order,’ for which they advance the ‘Globalization of Poverty.’
Global Research Price: $18.00
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jueves, 20 de marzo de 2014
STOP Female Genital Mutilation
Los "raelianos", liderados por Rael, forman una secta muy extendida más o menos espiritual que profesa veneración a seres de otros planetas. Los Objetos Volantes no Identificados, son casi sus santos. Pero lo que aquí describo es una iniciativa para practicar la reconstrucción del clítoris a niñas africanas sometidas a tal práctica salvaje. El clítoris es un importante centro de terminaciones nerviosas en los genitales femeninos y durante las relaciones sexuales o la masturbación, una fuente orgánica y natural de placer. Su mutilación no equivale a la circuncisión masculina (corte de piel del prepucio que cubre el pene) ritual sino a una verdadera agresión al cuerpo de la mujer. La forma en que se realiza, mediante cuchilla de afeitar, sin anestesia, y sin condiciones mínimas de higiene, pueden contribuir a provocar infecciones. Y eso poniendo a un lado el trauma psíquico que se produce en la niña. Esas niñas se sentirán marcadas el resto de su vida.
Técnica de la mutilación del clítoris (Amnistía Internacional)
Sientan a la niña desnuda, en un taburete bajo, inmovilizada al menos por tres mujeres. Una de ellas le rodea fuertemente el pecho con los brazos; las otras dos la obligan a mantener los muslos separados, para que la vulva quede completamente expuesta. Entonces, la anciana toma la navaja de afeitar y extirpa el clítoris. A continuación viene la infibulación: la anciana practica un corte a lo largo del labio menor y luego elimina, raspando, la carne del interior del labio mayor. La operación se repite al otro lado de la vulva. La niña grita y se retuerce de dolor, pero siguen sujetándola. La anciana enjuga la sangre de la herida y la madre, así como las otras mujeres, "verifica" su trabajo, algunas veces introduciendo los dedos. La cantidad de carne raspada de los labios mayores depende de la habilidad "técnica" de quien opera. La abertura que queda para la orina y el flujo menstrual es minúscula. Luego, la anciana aplica una pasta y asegura la unión de los labios mayores mediante espinas de acacia, que perforan el labio y se clavan en el otro. Coloca tres o cuatro a lo largo de la vulva. Estas espigas se fijan con hilo de coser o crin de caballo. Pero todo esto no basta para asegurar la soldadura de los labios; por eso, a la niña la atan desde la pelvis hasta los pies. Le inmovilizan las piernas con tiras de tela.
First clitoral repair hospital in Africa
"The speaker was a spiritual leader known as Rael, the founder of one of the world's largest UFO sects, and he was online to announce the arrival of the first
clitoral repair hospital in Africa.
Rael preaches that humans were created by extraterrestrials to enjoy untrammelled
sexual pleasure – a belief that has led the group to campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM), and to advocate surgery to improve sexual feeling to FGM victims.
"The idea of the hospital came from Rael," said Nadine Gary, a spokeswoman for
Clitoraid, the Raelian-backed NGO behind the clinic. "Rael realised a lot of campaigning work is being done to prevent circumcision, but nothing is being done for the women who have already been circumcised."
Each year about 3 million girls – mostly in rural Africa and Asia, are forced to have part of their genitalia sliced off. But while clitoral reconstruction surgery is
becoming more common in the west, it remains contested. The procedure restores normal appearances to women who have been mutilated – which can be an important step in restoring self-image – but some doctors argue it risks causing further damage".(From "The Guardian").
Russian Crimea: strategic and geopolitical facts
Crisis in Ukraine: Russia Extends its Control over the Black Sea and Strategic Waterways
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, March 18, 2014
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-extends-its-control-over-the-black-sea-and-strategic-waterways/5374021
The decision of the people of Crimea to join the Russian Federation has strategic and geopolitical implications.The union of Crimea with Russia redefines the geopolitical chessboard in the Black Sea Bassin. It constitutes a major setback for US-NATO, whose longstanding objective was to integrate Ukraine into NATO with a view to undermining Russia and extending their military presence in the Black Sea bassin.
With the March 18, 2014 Treaty signed between Russia and Crimea, the Russian Federation will extend its control over the Black Sea as well over the Sea of Azov, the West coastline of which borders on Eastern Ukraine and the Donesk region.
Under the agreement between Russia and Ukraine announced by president Putin, two “constituent regions” of Crimea will join the Russian Federation: the “Republic of Crimea” and the “City of Sevastopol”. Both will have the status of “autonomous regions”.
The status of Sevastopol as an autonomous entity separate from Crimea is related to the location of Russia’s Naval base in Sevastopol.
Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia retained its naval base in Sevastopol under a bilateral agreement with Ukraine. With the signing of the March 18th Treaty, that agreement is null and void. Sevastopol including the naval base becomes an autonomous region within the Russian federation
Strategic Waterway: The Kerch Straits
Russia now formally controls a much larger portion of the Black Sea, which includes the entire Crimean peninsula.
The Eastern part of Crimea –including the Kerch straits– are now under Russian control. On the Eastern side of the Kerch straits is Russia’s Krasnodar region and extending southwards are the port cities of Novorossiysk and Sochi.
Novorossiysk is also strategic. It is at the cross-roads of major oil and gas pipelines between the Black Sea and Caspian sea.
Historically, the Kerch straits have played a strategic role. They constitute a gateway to Russia’s major waterways.
During World War II, the Kerch peninsula occupied by Nazi Germany (taken back by the Red Army) was an important point of transit by land and water. In the coldest months of Winter, it became an ice bridge linking Crimea to the Krasnodar region.
The Kerch straits are about 5 kilometres in length and 4.5 km. wide at the narrowest point between the tip of Eastern Crimea and the peninsula of Taman, Kerch is a major commercial port linked to railway, ferry and river routes.
The Sea of Azov: New Geopolitical Hub
Of significance, the integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation means that Moscow is now in full control of the Kerch Straits linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The Ukrainian authorities are no longer in control of the port of Kerch. The bilateral agreement between Russia and Ukraine governing the maritime route through the Kerch straights has been scrapped.
The straits constitute an entry point into Russia’s major river waterways. The Sea of Azov connects with the Don River and the Volga, through the Volga Don Canal. In turn, the Volga flows in the Caspian sea.
The Kerch straits are strategic. The Kerch-Yenikalskiy Canal allows large vessels (215 meters long) to transit from the Black sea to the Sea of Azov.
Moreoever, the Kerch Straits link the Black Sea to the Volga which in turn connects to the Moscow river through the Volga-Moskva canal.
Full control of the narrow Kerch straits by Russia ensures unimpeded maritime transit from the Black Sea to Russia’s capital as well as the maritime route to the Caspian Sea. (Black Sea- Sea of Azov -Don- Volga Don Canal -Volga -Caspian sea)
In December 2013 Moscow signed a bilateral agreement with the Yanukovych government in Kiev pertaining to the construction of a bridge across the Kerch Straits, connecting Eastern Crimea (which was part of Ukraine) with Russia’s Krasnodar region.
That agreement has also been scrapped. Crimea’s union to Russia was already in the pipeline: Less than two weeks before the March 16 Referendum, at the height of the crisis in Ukraine, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the state-road building corporation Avtodor, or “Russian Highways” “to create a subsidiary company that will oversee the building of a bridge across the Kerch Strait”.
Needless to say, the project will now be fully under Russian ownership and control.
he Sea of Azov, Eastern Ukraine and the Donbas Region
The Eastern Ukraine and the densely populated Donetz basin (Donbas region) of Ukraine -in which the Russian population constitutes a majority– borders on the Western coastline of the Sea of Azov, which is now in large part under Russian control.
“Ripple Effect” of the Crimean Referendum. How will the Crisis Evolve?
Will the referendum in Crimea set the stage for the integration of part of Eastern and Southern Ukraine into the Russian Federation?
The geographic and geopolitical changes discussed above have a direct bearing on unfolding events in Eastern Ukraine. (see map above)
Throughout Eastern Ukraine as well as in Odessa in southern Ukraine, the legitimacy of the interim neo-Nazi government in Kiev has been questioned. Municipal and local levels citizens’ committees are challenging the authority of Kiev appointed officials.
In the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea, a protest movement demanding a referendum has unfolded.
Thousands held a Pro-Russian rally in support of Crimea’s referendum in Odessa, despite calls from the city’s authorities not to participate in meetings. Organizers claim more than 5,000 people joined the demonstration.
“Odessa is against the coup in Kiev, paid for by the West and Ukrainian oligarchs who remained in power with the help deceitful extremists and militants. We are tired of living in poverty and we are no longer going to tolerate the tyranny of oligarchs and officials,” ....
The people were chanting “Ukraine and Russia – one country,” and “Odessa, be bold, drive the fascists out,” as they gathered in the center of the city. (RT, March 16, 2014)
Reported by RT, protests have developed in Kharkov and Donetsk demanding the holding of a referendum similar to that of Crimea.
Protesters, on behalf of Kharkov’s assembly, asked Putin to “guarantee their rights and freedoms” and pass to the United Nations their demands regarding a referendum on the federalization, which they plan for April 27, reported Ukrainian National News (UNN) website. Additionally, activists asked to deploy Russian peacekeepers to Kharkov region, adding that they fear for their lives and property.
The demonstrators then marched to the nearby consulate of Poland, protesting against Western interference into Ukrainian affairs.
Kharkov protesters also looted the building housing offices of radical-nationalist organizations, including the Right Sector group, reported Interfax-Ukraine. The activists broke into the building, took out books and nationalist symbols and burnt them.
Pro-Russian activists hold giant Russian flags during their rally in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on March 16, 2014.(AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply)
In Donetsk, pro-Russian protesters questioned the legitimacy of the interim coalition government:
Meanwhile, Kiev sent heavy military hardware to the borders with Russia. Activists in eastern Ukraine regions, including Donetsk and Lugansk, were reportedly blocking trains delivering military equipment from the central and western parts of Ukraine.
Similar rallies were held in Dnepropetrovsk and Lugansk. In Lugansk the campaign focused on a ‘people’s referendum’ directed against the Kiev interim government:
In Lugansk, several thousand anti-coup activists were conducting a public poll by handing out “ballot papers” of “people’s referendum” of Lugansk region. The poll raised questions of trust in the authorities in Kiev, the possibility of joining the Customs Union following the federalization of Ukraine.
One of the questions was about the international bailout: “Do you support reduction of social benefits and cancellation of benefits at the request of the IMF?”
“This is for all an opportunity to officially announce their choice. Now we have run out of 5,000 forms, we are rushing to print more,” organizer Irina Gotman told UNIAN. (RT, op cit)
Copyright © 2014 Global Research
miércoles, 19 de marzo de 2014
Spain pobre y desempleada
E.E.U.U. Advancing Empire
America’s Advancing Empire: Putsch, Pillage and Duplicity
By Prof. James Petras
Global Research, March 09, 2014
Url of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/americas-advancing-empire-putsch-pillage-and-duplicity/5372688
The Obama regime, in coordination with its allies and proxies, has re-launched a virulent world-wide campaign to destroy independent governments, encircle and ultimately, undermine global competitors, and establish a new US – EU centered world order.
We will proceed by identifying the recent ‘cycles’ of US empire-building; the advances and retreats; the methods and strategies; the results and perspectives. Our main focus is on the imperial dynamics driving the US toward greater military confrontations, up to and including conditions which can lead to a world war.
Recent Imperial Cycles
US empire-building has not been a linear process. The recent decades provide ample evidence of contradictory experiences. Summarily we can identify several phases in which empire-building has experienced broad advances and sharp setbacks – with certain caveats. We are looking at global processes, in which there are also limited counter-tendencies: In the midst of large-scale imperial advances, particular regions, countries or movements successfully resisted or even reversed the imperial thrust. Secondly, the cyclical nature of empire-building in no way puts in doubt the imperial character of the state and economy and its relentless drive to dominate, exploit and accumulate. Thirdly, the methods and strategy directing each imperial advance differ according to changes among targeted countries.
Over the past thirty years we can identify three phases in empire-building.
Imperial Advance 1980’s to 2000
In the period roughly from the mid-1980’s to the year 2000, empire-building expanded on a global scale.
(A). Imperial Expansion in the former Communist regions
The US and EU penetrated and hegemonized Eastern Europe; disintegrated and pillaged Russia and the USSR; privatized and denationalized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of public enterprises, mass media outlets and banks; incorporated military bases throughout Eastern Europe into NATO and established satellite regimes as willing accomplices in imperial conquests in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
(B). Imperial Expansion in Latin America
Beginning from the early 1980’s to the end of the century, empire-building advanced throughout Latin America under the formula of “free markets and free elections”.
From Mexico to Argentina, empire-centered, neo-liberal regimes privatized and denationalized over 5,000 public enterprises and banks, benefiting US and European multi-nationals. Political leaders lined up with the US in international forums. Latin American generals responded favorably to US-centered military operations. Bankers extracted billions in debt payments and laundered many billions more in illicit money. The US-centered, continent-wide “North American Free Trade Agreement” appeared to advance according to schedule.
(C).Imperial Advances in Asia and Africa
Communist and nationalist regimes shed their leftist and anti-imperialist policies and opened their societies and economies to capitalist penetration. In Africa, two key “leftist” countries, Angola and post-apartheid South Africa adopted “free market policies”.
In Asia, China and Indo-China moved decisively toward capitalist development strategies; foreign investment, privatizations and intense exploitation of labor replaced collectivist egalitarianism and anti-imperialism. India, and other state-directed capitalist countries, like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, liberalized their economies. Imperial advances were accompanied by greater economic volatility, a sharpening of the class struggle and an opening of the electoral process to accommodate competing capitalist factions.
Empire-building expanded under the slogan of “free markets and fair elections” – markets dominated by giant multi-nationals and elections, which assured elite successes.
Imperial Retreat and Reverses: 2000-2008
The brutal costs of the advance of empire led to a global counter-tendency, a wave of anti-neoliberal uprisings and military resistance to US invasions. Between 2000 – 2008 empire-building was under siege and in retreat.
Russia and China Challenge the Empire
US empire-building ceased to expand and conquer in two strategic regions: Russia and Asia. Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, the Russian state was reconstructed; pillage and disintegration was reversed. The economy was harnessed to domestic development. The military was integrated into a system of national defense and security. Russia once again became a major player in regional and international politics.
China’s turn toward capitalism was accompanied by a dynamic state presence and a direct role in promoting double digit growth for two decades: China becoming the second largest economy in the world, displacing the US as the major trading partner in Asia and Latin America. The US economic empire was in retreat.
Latin America: The End of the Neo-Liberal Empire
Neo-liberalism and US-centered ‘integration’ led to pillage, economic crises and major popular upheavals, leading to the ascendancy of new center-left and left regimes. ‘Post neo-liberal’ administrations emerged in Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Central America and Uruguay. US empire-builders suffered several strategic defeats.
The US effort to secure a continent-wide free trade agreement fell apart and was replaced by regional integration organizations that excluded the US and Canada. In its place, Washington signed bi-lateral agreements with Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Panama and Peru.
Latin America diversified its markets in Asia and Europe: China replaced the US as its main trading partner. Extractive development strategies and high commodity prices financed greater social spending and political independence.
Selective nationalizations, increased state regulation and debt renegotiations weakened US leverage over the Latin American economies. Venezuela, under President Hugo Chavez successfully challenged US hegemony in the Caribbean via regional organizations. Caribbean economies achieved greater independence and economic viability through membership in PETROCARIBE, a program through which they received petrol from Venezuela at subsidized prices. Central American and Andean countries increased security and trade via the regional organization, ALBA. Venezuela provided an alternative development model to the US-centered neo-liberal approach, in which earnings from the extractive economy financed large-scale social programs.
From the end of the Clinton Administration to the end of the Bush Administration, the economic empire was in retreat. The empire lost Asian and Latin American markets to China. Latin America gained greater political independence. The Middle East became ‘contested terrain’. A revised and stronger Russian state opposed further encroachments on its borders. Military resistance and defeats in Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq and Lebanon challenged US dominance.
Imperial Offensive: Obama’s Advances the Empire
The entire period of the Obama regime has been taken up with reversing the retreat of empire-building. To that end Obama has developed a primarily military strategy (1) confrontation and encircling China and Russia, (2) undermining and overthrowing independent governments in Latin America and re-imposing neo-liberal client regimes, and (3) launching covert and overt military assaults on independent regimes everywhere.
The empire-building offensive of the 21st century differs from that of the previous decade in several crucial ways: Neo-liberal economic doctrines are discredited and electorates are not so easily convinced of the beneficence of falling under US hegemony. In other words, empire-builders cannot rely on diplomacy, elections and free market propaganda to expand their imperial reach as they did in the 1990’s.
To reverse the retreat and advance 21st century empire-building, Washington realized it had to rely on force and violence. The Obama regime allocated billions of dollars to finance arms for mercenaries, salaries for street fighters and campaign expenses for electoral clients engaged in destabilization campaigns. Diplomatic duplicity and broken agreements replaced negotiated settlements – on a grand scale.
Throughout the Obama period not a single imperial advance was secured via elections, diplomatic agreements or political negotiations. The Obama Presidency sought and secured the massification of global spy network (NSA) and the almost daily murder of political adversaries via drones and other means. Covert killer operations under the US Special Forces expanded throughout the world. Obama assumed dictatorial prerogatives, including the power to order the arbitrary assassination of U.S. citizens.
The unfolding of the Obama regime’s global effort to stem the imperial retreat and re-launch empire-building “pivoted” almost exclusively on military instruments: armed proxies, aerial assaults, coups and violent putschist power grabs. Thugs, mobs, Islamist terrorists, Zionist militarists and a medley of retrograde separatist assassins were the tools of imperial advance. The choice of imperial proxies varied according to time and political circumstances.
Confronting and Degrading China: Military Encirclement and Economic Exclusion
Faced with the loss of markets and the challenges of China as a global competitor, Washington developed two major lines of attack: 1. An economic strategy designed to deepen the integration of Asian and Latin America countries in a free trade pact that excludes China (the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement); and 2. Pentagon-designed military plan Air-Sea Battle , which targets China’s mainland with a full-scale air and missile assault if Washington’s current strategy of controlling China’s commercial maritime lifeline fails (FT, 2/10/14). While an offensive military strategy is still on the Pentagon’s drawing board, the Obama regime is building up its maritime armada a few short miles off China’s coast , expanding its military bases in the Philippines, Australia and Japan and tightening the noose around China’s strategic maritime routes for vital imports like oil, gas and raw materials.
The US is actively promoting an Indo-Japanese military alliance as part of its strategy of military encirclement of China. Joint military maneuvers, high-level military coordination and meetings between Japanese and Indian military officials are seen by the Pentagon as strategic advances in isolating China and reinforcing the US stranglehold on China’s maritime routes to the Middle East, Southeast Asia and beyond. India, according to one of India’s leading weeklies, is viewed “as a junior partner of the US. The Indian Navy is fast becoming the chief policeman of the Indian Ocean and the Indian military’s dependence on the U.S. military-industrial complex is increasing...” (Economic and Political Weekly (Mumbai), 2/15/14, p. 9. The US is also escalating its support for violent separatist movements in China, namely the Tibetans, Uighurs and other Islamists. Obama’s meeting with the Dali Lama was emblematic of Washington’s efforts to foment internal unrest.
The gross political intervention of outgoing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke in domestic Chinese politics is an indication that diplomacy is not the Obama regime’s prime policy instrument when it comes to dealing with China. Ambassador Locke openly met with Uighur and Tibetan separatists and publicly disparaged China’s economic success and political system while openly encouraging opposition politics (FT, 2/28/14, p. 2).
The Obama regime’s attempt to advance empire in Asia via military confrontation and trade pacts, which exclude China, has led China to build-up its military capacity to avoid maritime strangulation. China answers the US trade threat by advancing its productive capacity, diversifying its trade relations, increasing its ties with Russia and deepening its domestic market.
To date, the Obama regime’s reckless militarization of the Pacific has not led to an open break in relations with China, but the military road to advancing empire at China’s expense threatens a global economic catastrophe or worse, a world war.
Imperial Advance: Isolating, Encircling and Degrading Russia
With the advent of President Vladimir Putin and the reconstitution of the Russian state and economy, the U.S. lost a vassal client and source of plundered wealth. Washington’s empire-builders continued to seek Russian ‘cooperation and collaboration’ in undermining independent states, isolating China and pursuing its colonial wars. The Russian state, under Putin and Medvedev, had sought to accommodate U.S. empire builders via negotiated agreements, which would enhance Russia’s position in Europe, recognize Russian strategic borders and acknowledge Russian security concerns. However, Russian diplomacy secured few and transitory gains while the US and EU made major gains with Russian complicity and passivity.
The un-stated agenda of Washington, especially with Obama’s drive to re-launch a new wave of imperial conquests, was to undermine Russia’s re-emergence as a major player in world politics. The strategic idea was to isolate Russia, weaken its growing international presence and return it to the vassal status of the Yeltsin period, if possible.
From the US - EU takeover of Eastern Europe , the Balkans and Baltic states, and their transformation into NATO military bases and capitalist vassal states in the early 1990’s, to the penetration and pillage of Russia during the Yeltsin years, the prime purpose of Western policy has been to establish a unipolar empire under US domination.
The EU and the US proceeded to dismember Yugoslavia into subservient mini-states. They then bombed Serbia in order to carve off Kosovo, destroying one of the few independent countries still allied with Russia. The U.S. then moved on to foment uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Chechnya. They bombed, invaded and later occupied Iraq – a former Russian ally in the Gulf region.
The driving strategy of US policy was to encircle and reduce Russia to the status of a weak, marginal power, and to undermine Vladimir Putin’s efforts to restore Russia’s position as a regional power. In 2008 Washington’s puppet regime in Georgia, tested the mettle of the Russian state by launching an assault on South Ossetia, killing at least 10 Russian peacekeepers and wounding hundreds (not to mention thousands of civilians). Then-Russian President Medvedev responded by sending the Russian armed forces to repel Georgian troops and support the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
U.S. diplomatic agreements with Russia had been asymmetrical – Russia was to acquiesce in Western expansion in exchange for ‘political acceptance’. Duplicity trumped open-diplomacy. Despite agreements to the contrary, U.S. bases and missile installations were established throughout Eastern Europe, pointing at Russia, under the pretext that they were “really targeting Iran”. Even as Russia protested that post-Cold War agreements were breached, the Empire ignored Moscow’s complaints and encirclement advanced.
In a further diplomatic disaster, Russia and China signed off on a U.S.-authored United Nations Security Council agreement to allow NATO to engage in “humanitarian overflights” in Libya. NATO immediately took this as the ‘green light’ for attack and converted ‘humanitarian intervention’ into a devastating aerial bombing campaign that led to the overthrow of Libya’s legitimate government and the destruction of Libya as viable, independent North African state. By signing the ‘humanitarian’ UN agreement, Russia and China lost a friendly government and trading partner in Africa! Even earlier, the Russians had agreed to allow the US to transport weapons and troops through Russian Federation territory to support the US invasion of Afghanistan ... with no reciprocal gain (except perhaps an even greater flood of Afghan heroin).
Russian diplomats agreed to US (Zionist)-authored UN economic sanctions against Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons program ... undermining a political ally and lucrative market. Moscow believed that by backing US sanctions on Iran and granting transport routes to Afghanistan in late 2001 they would receive some ‘security guarantees’ from the Americans regarding the separatist movements in the Caucuses. The U.S. ‘reciprocated’ by further backing Chechen separatist leaders exiled in the US despite the on-going terror campaigns against Russian civilians – up to and even after the Chechen slaughter of hundreds of school children and teachers in Beslan in 2004....
With the US under Obama advancing its encirclement of Russia in Eurasia and its isolation in North Africa and the Middle East, Putin finally decided to draw a line by backing Russia’s only remaining ally in the Middle East, Syria. Putin sought to secure a negotiated end to the Western-Gulf Monarchist-backed mercenary invasion of Damascus. To little avail: The US and EU increased arms shipments, military trainers and financing to the 30,000 Islamist mercenaries based in Jordan as they engaged in cross-border attacks to overthrow the Syrian government.
Washington and Brussels continued their imperial push toward the Russian heartland by organizing and financing a violent seizure of power (putsch) in western Ukraine. The Obama regime financed a coalition of armed neo-Nazi street fighters and neo-liberal politicos, to the tune of $5 billion dollars, to overthrow the elected regime. The putschists then moved to end Crimean autonomy and break long-standing military treaty agreements with Russia. Under enormous pressure from the autonomous Crimean government and the vast majority of the population and facing the critical loss of its naval and military facilities on the Black Sea, Putin, finally, forcefully moved Russian troops into a defensive mode in Crimea.
The Obama regime launched a series of aggressive moves against Russia to isolate it and to buttress it faltering puppet regime in Kiev: economic sanctions and expulsions were the order of the day ... Obama’s seizure of the Ukraine signaled the start of a ‘new Cold War’. The seizure of the Ukraine was part of Obama’s grand ongoing strategy of advancing empire.
The Ukraine power grab signaled the biggest geo-political challenge to the continued existence of the Russian state. Obama seeks to extend and deepen the imperial sweep across Europe to the Caucuses: the violent regime coup and subsequent defense of the puppet regime in Kiev are key elements in undermining a key adversary– Russia.
After pretending to ‘partner’ with Russia, while slicing off Russian allies in the Balkans and Mid-East over the previous decades, Obama made his most audacious and reckless move. Casting off all pretexts of peaceful co-existence and mutual accommodation, the Obama regime broke a power-sharing agreement with Russia over Ukrainian governance and backed the neo-Nazi putsch.
The Obama regime assumed that having secured Russia’s earlier acquiescence in the face of advancing US imperial power in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the Gulf region, Washington’s empire-builders made the fateful decision to test Russia in its most strategic geopolitical region, one directly affecting the Russian people and its most strategic military assets. Russia reacted in the only language understood in Washington and Brussels: with a major military mobilization. Obama’s advance of ‘empire-building via salami tactics’ and duplicitous diplomacy was nearing an end.
Advancing Empire in the Middle East and Latin America
The imperial advance of the 1990’s came to an end by the middle of the first decade of the new millennium. Defeats in Afghanistan, withdrawal from Iraq, the demise of puppet regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, election losses in the Ukraine and the defeat and demise of pro-U.S. neo-liberal regimes in Latin America were exacerbated by a deepening economic crisis in the imperial centers of Europe and Wall Street.
Obama had few economic and political options to advance the empire. Yet his regime was determined to end the retreat and advance the empire; he resorted to tactics and strategies more akin to 19th century colonial and 20th century totalitarian regimes.
The methods were violent- militarism was the policy pivot. But at a time of domestic imperial exhaustion, new military tactics replaced large-scale ground force invasions. Proxy-armed mercenaries took center stage in overthrowing regimes targeted by the US. Political and ideological affinities were subsumed under the generic euphemism of “rebels”. The mass media alternated between pressuring for greater military escalation and endorsing the existing level of imperial warfare. The entire political spectrum in Europe and the US shifted rightward – even as the majority of the electorate rejected new military engagements, especially ground wars.
Obama escalated troops in Afghanistan, launched an air war that overthrew President Gadhafi and turned the Libya into a broken, failed state. Proxy wars became the new strategy to advance imperial empire-building. Syria was targeted – tens of thousands of Islamist extremists were recruited and funded by imperial regimes and despotic Gulf monarchies. Millions of refugees fled, tens of thousands were killed
In Latin America, Obama backed the military coup in Honduras overthrowing the elected Liberal government of President Manuel Zelaya, he recognized a congressional coup ousting the elected center-left government in Paraguay while refusing to recognize the election victory of President Maduro in Venezuela. In the face of Maduro’s win in Venezuela, Washington backed several months of mob street violence in an attempt to destabilize the country.
In the Ukraine, Egypt, Venezuela and Thailand, ‘the street’ replaced elections. Obama’s strategic imperial goals have focused on the re-conquest and pillage of Russia and its return to the vassal status of the Boris Yeltsin years, Latin America’s return to the neo-liberal regimes of 1990’s and China to the submissiveness of the 1980’s. The imperial strategy has been ‘to conquer from within’ setting the stage for domination from the outside.
Advancing Empire: Israel and the Middle East Detour
One of the great historical paradoxes of the U.S. imperial retreat of the 21st century has been the role played by influence of Israel and its Zionist Fifth Column embedded within the U.S. political power structure. Washington’s wars and sanctions in the Middle East have been largely at the behest of influential ‘Israel Firsters’ in the White House, Pentagon, Treasury and National Security Council and Congress.
It was largely because the US was engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that Washington “neglected” China’s growing economic prowess. By concentrating on ‘wars for Israel’ in the Middle East, the U.S. has not been in a position to challenge the rise of nationalism and populism in Latin America. Protracted ‘wars for Israel’ have exhausted the US economy and the American public’s enthusiasm for new ground wars elsewhere.
Zionist ideologues, dubbed “neo-conservatives”, were instrumental in shaping the global militarist approach to empire-building and marginalizing the market-driven empire building, favored by the multi-nationals and giant extractive industry.
Obama’s attempt to halt the retreat of empire caused by Zionist militarism has not borne fruit: His effort to co-opt Zionists and pressure Israel to stop fomenting new wars in the Middle East is a failure. His ‘pivot to Asia’ has turned into a strategy of brute military encirclement of China. His overtures to Iran have been stymied by the Zionist power bloc in Congress and the imposition of Israeli-dictated terms of negotiations. The entire “advance of the empire-building project”, which was to define the Obama legacy, has been weakened by the enormous cost of heeding the advice and directives of the Israel-loyalists within his Administration. Israel, one of the most brutal colonial powers, has paradoxically and unintentionally played a major role in undermining Obama’s efforts to reverse the decline of empire and advance the U.S. diplomatic and economic dimensions of empire-building
Results and Perspectives: Advancing Empire in the Post Neo-Liberal Period
Obama’s reckless effort to advance empire in the second decade of the 21st century is far more dangerous than his predecessors in the late 20th century. Russia has recovered. It is not the disintegrating state that Bush and Clinton dismembered and pillaged. China is no longer a rising market economy so eager to trade with the US while overlooking American incursions into Chinese territorial waters. Today China is a major economic power, wielding economic leverage in the form of $3 Trillion in U.S. Treasury notes. China no longer tolerates U.S. interference in its domestic politics- it is willing to crack down on U.S.-backed ethnic separatists and terrorists.
Latin America, including Venezuela, have developed autonomous regional organizations, diversified their markets to Asia and established a powerful post-neoliberal consensus. Venezuela has turned its military, once the favorite instrument of US-engineered coups, into a bulwark of the existing democratic order.
The electoral road to US empire-building has been closed or requires tight imperial “supervision” to secure “favorable outcomes”. Washington’s new policy of choice is violence: enlisting mob action, mercenary extremists, Islamists and Uighur terrorists, neo-Nazis and the riff raff of the world in its service.
The balance sheet of six years of “advancing empire” under Obama is in doubt. The violent overthrow of President Gadhafi did not lead to a stable client regime: the utter destruction and chaos in Libya has undercut the imperial presence. Syria is under attack but by anti-Western Islamist fanatics. The defeat of Assad will not ‘advance empire’ as much as it will expand radical Islamist (including Al Qaeda) power.
The Ukraine puppet regime of neo-liberals and neo-Nazis is literally bankrupt, riven with internal conflicts and facing profound regional divisions. Russia is threatened, but their leaders have taken decisive military action to defend their Crimean allies and strategic military bases.
Obama has provoked and threatened adversaries but has not secured much in terms of valuable allies or clients. His effort to replicate the imperial advances of the 1990’s has failed because the relationships of power between Europe and Russia, Japan and China, and Venezuela and Colombia have changed. Proxies, predator drones and the US Special Forces are not able to reverse the retreat. The economic crisis has cut too deep; the domestic exhaustion with empire is too pervasive. The cost of sustaining Israel is too high. Advancing empire in these circumstances is a dangerous game: it risks a larger nuclear war to overcome adversity and retreat.
Copyright © 2014 Global Research
lunes, 17 de marzo de 2014
Low-cost kitchen guide
1 large and 1 small non-stick saucepan
1 large frying pan or saute pan, with a lid
1 roasting tin
1 baking sheet
1 loaf tin
2 wooden spoons
Masher
Sharp paring knife
Kitchen scissors
Small grater
Measuring jug or old baby bottle
General cutlery
Blender: mine is from a supermarket value range and cost about a tenner.
Scales: for measuring bread or cake ingredients. Everything else is a handful of this, whatever's left of that.
Large mixing bowl: mine is a big metal bowl from a pound shop.
Store cupboard
Carbs: The cheapest rice is invariably long-grain, with brown varieties costing far more. The same goes for pasta. White flour is far cheaper than wholemeal. However, you can use any type you like for my recipes.Dairy: A large pot of plain yoghurt goes a long way, either as a standalone breakfast with some tinned fruit, or as a sauce in which to marinate chicken or toss with pasta, lemon juice and herbs for a quick lunch.
Dark chocolate: Use as a base for Mexican-style soup or authentic chilli, or melted to make cornflake cakes.
Fruit: Tins of peaches, pineapple chunks, mandarin segments and pears are all handy for stirring into yoghurt, tagines, curries or simply as a snack. The reduced chiller in the supermarket is your friend – freeze punnets of berries and store for a few months.
Lemon juice: Bottled lasts far longer than a bag of lemons.
Oil: Olive oil is nice but expensive. I like the lightness of sunflower oil when making pesto and sauces, and the way it takes on the flavour of other ingredients.
Plain flour: Self-raising is great, but the raising agents cease to be as effective when they come into contact with air, so I buy plain and add one teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda or baking powder to 150g flour.
Protein: Can be found in tins of sardines, jars of fish paste and tins of beans and pulses. I eat meat twice a week, fish twice and vegetarian alternatives in between. I pack out soups with pulses and use them to make chilli, burgers, curry and flavourful stews. Beans, pulses and lentils are a great source of fibre and far cheaper and easier to store than a big joint of meat.
Raising agents: You can make a quick soda bread from just bicarbonate of soda, flour, lemon juice and milk.
Spices: My essentials are paprika, cumin and turmeric, to enliven simple ingredients. They are cheaper in large plastic bags from an Indian grocery store than in jars from a supermarket.
Stock cubes: I aways have supermarket value-range vegetable, chicken and beef cubes as a base for soups, sauces, gravy, curries and casseroles.
Tins: Potatoes, carrots, kidney beans, chopped tomatoes and fish are great in tins.
Vegetables: Tinned carrots, tomatoes and sweetcorn can be cheaper than fresh or frozen. Frozen spinach, peas and green beans are interchangeable in most recipes. A large bag of onions will keep for around three weeks in the bottom drawer of the fridge – longer if peeled, chopped and frozen.
Wine: A little splash of a supermarket's own-brand red or white can make a big difference in casseroles, risottos and soups.
Herbs and chillies
Start a herb garden with just four plants.
"Everything" herbs: Parsley, or coriander if you like curries and spicy food.Delicate herbs: Mint or basil are well-suited to Mediterranean cooking, pasta dishes, light soups and pesto.
Woody herbs: Rosemary is hardy. Sage is deliciously earthy. Thyme does well on a sunny window ledge and can be plucked into tiny pieces.
Chillies: I grow tiny red chillies on a window ledge and get a good crop all year round. Chilli plants are cheap from a supermarket or garden centre.
• Extracted and abridged from A Girl Called Jack: 100 Delicious Budget Recipes by Jack Monroe (Michael Joseph, £12.99). To buy a copy for £9.99 including free p&p, visit the Guardian bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Happy St. "Patri"
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| Take a mojito and be happy. |
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| S@ludo very felino para P@tri de L@ Gu@rdi@ i Font. From Cat/@lina cl@n/destin@ your secret agent in poor Europe. |
Ulysses and Tania war romance
Nadia Bunke, madre de Tania, muestra
durante una entrevista del periódico cubano Juventud Rebelde, dos dibujos que representan a su hija. “Lo nuestro, explica Ulises Estrada, solo lo sabían unos pocos compañeros
comunes del MININT, los padres de ella, Erich y Nadia, y su hermano Olaf.
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| Museo dedicado al Che en Argentina. |
“Nada ni nadie pudo evitar que nos atrajéramos mutuamente y nos amáramos
con pasión”, dijo el oficial cubano Ulises Estrada refiriéndose a su relación
íntima con Tamara Bunke.
Como el amor no puede someterse a protocolos
militares ni reglamentos operativos, Tania “la guerrillera” y Ulises Estrada se
enamoraron. Incluso planearon pasar el resto de sus vidas juntos. Pero Tania murió,
tras haberse incorporado a la guerrilla del Che. Tania había sido una
pieza clave en las labores de inteligencia que prepararon
el establecimiento de las tropas del Che en Bolivia. HaydeéTamara Bunke fue una agente cuya
profesionalidad y coraje se puso a
prueba tanto durante su entrenamiento en Cuba, como en el desarrollo de
diferentes misiones, algunas muy espinosas. Era camaleónica, encantadora pero
por encima de todo inteligente.
Desde luego, lo que surgió entre Ulises Estrada y Tamara Bunke no estaba
previsto en los planes del Departamento América. Manuel Piñeiro Losada tenía un
olfato exquisito pero no era vidente. Nada ni nadie pudo evitar que se atrajeran
mutuamente. Lo de la argentino alemana Haydeé Tamara Bunke Bider y el cubano
Dámaso José Lescaille Tabares (su nombre de pila), oficial operativo de inteligencia del
Ministerio de Interior (MINIT) cubano, fue amor del bueno.
De tal historia apasionada entre dos
combatientes clandestinos se habla en el libro “Tania la guerrillera y la epopeya sudamericana del Che”, de Ulises Estrada, que fue primero el
pseudónimo de guerra del oficial cubano Dámaso José Lescaille Tabares, y después
terminó convirtiéndose en su apelativo definitivo.
Con 334 páginas, 15 capítulos, 17 anexos
y 29 fotos, el texto ha sido editado por Ocean Press. Lleva un prólogo explicativo y ha sido
editado por el historiador Luis Suárez Salazar. Pese a la enorme cantidad de
publicaciones sobre el Che, Tania, y las tropas guerrilleras en Bolivia, la obra de
Ulises Estrada es un documento esclarecedor de los pasos perdidos de Tania
tanto en Cuba como en el extranjero.
Aquí rescato algo de la historia privada y sentimental de Tania y Ulises. El soldado que amó a Tania y a Tamara la relata con pasión, nostalgia,
modestia y sin el machismo que se cultiva en América Latina y muchas
otras partes del planeta, entre las que no escapa Europa.
“Sostuve con ella estrechas relaciones
tanto de trabajo como personales. Fueron de tal intensidad que, antes de su
salida a la misión encomendada por el Che, acordamos que al concluir la misma
uniríamos nuestras vidas y tendríamos todos los hijos con que ella ya soñaba. Por iniciativa de Nadia, decidí incluir
en mi libro una carta en la que en su momento Tania le revelabaa su familia nuestra
relación”.
No puede evitar Ulises (un hombre destacado del equipo de “12” o “Petronio”, ambos nombres falsos utilizados
por Manuel Piñeiro Losada, conocido como “Barba roja”, comandante de la Sierra
Maestra) comentar: “la gran amistad y el sólido amor que surgió entre nosotros
desde que nos conocimos en La Habana, en marzo de 1963”.
“Poco a poco nos fuimos acercando, y en los momentos de relajación que compartíamos, comenzamos a compartir también nuestras inclinaciones por la música, la literatura, el cine y el deporte. A ambos ya nos unían los vínculos emotivos que nacen entre jefe y subordinada, entre un oficial operativo y su agente, o, si se prefiere, entre un compañero y una compañera entregados ambos a cumplir una misión internacionalista” (Se refiere al foco guerrillero organizado y dirigido por el Che en Bolivia).
De cuando Tania solo sabía del
oficial cubano que se llamaba Ulises , él evoca en su libro: “De hecho,
nuestra relación, luego de alcanzar las
profundidades de una amistad sincera, paso a paso, y sin que casi nos diéramos
cuenta, fue adentrándose en los sentimientos más caros que pueden trabarse
entre una mujer y un hombre. Tania, que era rigurosa muy consigo misma,
comenzó a exigirme reciprocidad en nuestra incipiente confianza. Fue así como
decidí, en dos o tres ocasiones, que saliéramos juntos acompañados por mis dos pequeñas
hijas.Quería que compartieran con ella”
Ulises le descubre a Tania su experiencia
clandestina en la lucha contra la tiranía de Fulgencio Batista desarrollada en Santiago de
Cuba y La Habana. También la hizo partícipe de ciertas facetas de su vida
privada, diciéndole, incluso, que iba a divorciarse ya que no estaba a favor de
mantener relaciones paralelas con dos mujeres (Se refería a su mujer y madre de
sus hijas y a la propia Tania).
En realidad ellos, sin que se supiera,
solían escaparse a la Playa Baracoa, en Bauta, en la provincia de La Habana. “Allí
intercambiábamos nuestros sentimientos y vivencias personales. Escogíamos
emplazamientos y lugares alejados de los sitios donde Tania recibía su
entrenamiento”, recuerda Ulises. “En esos momentos tenía conmigo a Haydée
Tamara, no a una agente a la que debía instruir y entrenar”.
“En
esos ambientes clandestinos, una noche del año 1963, cuya fecha exacta mi ya
envejecida memoria no alcanza a precisar, ocurrió lo inevitable. Estando en
Playa Baracoa, (La Habana) sentados en la arena, mirándonos a los ojos, nos entregamos el
uno al otro. Lo hicimos con la pasión propia de nuestra edad. Los dos sabíamos que
era un amor prohibido. Fuera de las reglas y normas del trabajo. Pero también
sentíamos que ya no nos podíamos contener. Estábamos convencidos de la pureza
de nuestros sentimientos y de que aquella relación no interferiría en nuestras
relaciones de trabajo. Nuestro vínculo era serio y profundo. Ya desde entonces
ella me hablaba de un futuro juntos, a su regreso a Cuba”.
El 11 de abril de 1964, en carta a sus
padres, Tania les contó lo de sus relaciones amorosas y su profundo cariño por Ulises. Lo hizo identificándose con el apodo familiar de “Ita” y escribió:
“Bueno, ahora otra cosa: si no me roban
a mi negrito antes de que yo vuelva, entonces me voy a casar. Si habrá
enseguida “mulatitos” (término popular y cariñoso cubano para describir a los/as descendientes de la unión de un/a persona blanca y otra, él o ella, negra, mestizaje, vamos), no sé, pero sería muy posible. ¿Qué aspecto tiene?
Flaco, alto, bastante negro, típicamente cubano, muy cariñoso. ¿Están ustedes
de acuerdo?¡Ah!. He olvidado lo más importante: es muy revolucionario y quiere
también a una mujer muy revolucionaria” (Extracto de la carta de Tania a sus padres).
La vida los distanció de manera
irreversible. Él se divorció de su primera mujer, la madre de sus dos hijas.
Luego estuvo esperando a Tania durante mucho tiempo. A pesar de que volvió a
casarse, y de los años transcurridos desde la muerte de Tamara Bunke,
Tania vive en la memoria de Ulises
Estrada.
No solo como la agente Tania conocida como “la
guerrillera”, sino como Haydée Tamara Bunke
Bider: la excepcional mujer, compañera y amiga que un día amó contra toda
disciplina. A las dos las recuerda.
Según “Ariel”, uno de los agentes
secretos cubanos vinculados estrechamente a la misión clandestina de Tania en
Bolivia ella tenía tres grandes amores: sus padres, su compañero cubano Ulises
Estrada y la causa revolucionaria.
Ulises fue nombrado por el Comandante
Manuel Piñeiro como jefe de la Dirección General del Viceministerio Técnico del
MININT, que en lo adelante se encargaría de materializar la solidaridad de la
Revolución Cubana con los movimientos de liberación nacional africanos.
Tal dirección estaba especializada en el
trabajo dirigido a África y el Medio Oriente, razón por la cual Ulises quedó
desvinculado de la atención directa o indirecta que hasta ese momento había
mantenido con el “caso Tania”.
Tania nació en Argentina, el 19 de noviembre de 1937. A los
16 años fue llevada por sus padres a la
desaparecida (por la reunificación y caída del Muro de Berlín), República
Democrática Alemana (RDA). Posteriormente regresó a su país de origen, vía
Cuba, en 1961. Tania trabajó tres años en Cuba. Del total de los treinta años
que llegó a vivir, veinte, muy ajetreados, transcurrieron en América Latina.
En una carta que su madre dirigió a Fidel
Castro el 25 de diciembre de 1995, pidiéndole su apoyo para iniciar la búsqueda
de los restos de su hija, le dice:“en su alma y por su mentalidad, fue una
latinoamericana. Durante los nueve años de su estancia en la RDA tenía doble
nacionalidad (argentina y alemana). Llegó a Cuba el 12 de mayo de 1961 con
ciudadanía argentina. Albergaba un gran deseo de recibir la ciudadanía cubana”.
Cuando el 31 de agosto de 1967 Tania cayó en la emboscada del vado de Puerto
Mauricio, en el Río Grande, vestía pantalón de camuflaje, botas militares, una camisa a rayas verdes y blancas muy
desteñida. Iba con su mochila a la espalda mochila y la metralleta colgada al
hombro.
Un soldado boliviano llamado Vargas la
cazó con ayuda de la mirilla telescópica de su fusil “made in USA”. Reconoció
una mujer dentro de la fila de combatientes que avanzaban lentamente. Estaban enfermos y
desesperados. El hombre hizo diana: le destrozó un brazo, un pulmón,
provocándole la masiva hemorragia interna que la mató.
Su cuerpo fue a parar al agua y pronto
resultó arrastrado por la corriente. Siete días después efectivos del ejército
boliviano, con la ayuda de perros rastreadores entrenados en búsqueda de
fugitivos, lo rescató del río. Estaba casi irreconocible. Las pirañas y otros
animales de agua dulce habían hecho bien sus deberes. Quién sabe si su último
pensamiento fue para Ulises. Aunque lo más probable es que se le fuera la luz
sin enterarse.
En alguna parte he leído que los
miserables sicarios bolivianos, asesorados por la CIA, rindieron
honores militares a aquellos pobres despojos de la agente secreta que, al
destaparse su verdadero cometido e identidad, provocó la furia del Gobierno
boliviano en pleno.
Aquella mujer tan bella y culta se había burlado de todos ellos tanto que se lo tomaron muy mal.
Investigación documental, edición y
redacción de Alina Quevedo Goicoechea para codondesastre.blogspot.com
Prohibida la reproducción en cualquier formato.
La vida y muerte de Ulises.
Autora:Zenaida Ferrer para “Juventud Rebelde”
Foto:Yoandry Ávila
Foto:Yoandry Ávila
Prohibida la reproducción tanto del texto como de la foto.
"El lunes 27 de enero fue enterrado con honores militares en la
Necrópolis de Colón un destacado internacionalista, Ulises Estrada
Lescalille (nombre de guerra) quien para honra del gremio, asumió la profesión
de periodista con el mismo ardor y pasión revolucionaria con que desplegó su
osadía desde su natal Santiago de Cuba (1934) en contra de la dictadura de
Batista.Un sentido duelo le tributaron sus compañeros de siempre. En las
palabras de despedida, Oscar Oramas, combatiente junto a él en múltiples
acciones, dijo que “a Ulises lorecordaremos siempre como al jefe querido,
exigente, y que supo con su ejemplo mostrarnos la conducta a seguir”.“Fue la
máxima dirección de la Revolución la que lo designó para acompañar al Che
Guevara desde tierras africanas a europeas, por su abnegación, valor,
dedicación extraordinaria al trabajo y lealtad a toda prueba.“Ulises no es de
llantos, es de seguir su ejemplo, es de los hombres que están por siempre en
nuestros corazones y memoria. Seremos fieles a su legado”, expresó con mucha
pasión quien lo acompañara por muchos años en sus luchas, tras evocar algunas
de sus cualidades y aspectos relevantes de su biografía.
Ulises: un revolucionario ejemplar
Su temple y valor le llegaron por la genealogía de la familia Maceo, como
bisnieto de María Baldomera Maceo y tataranieto de Mariana Grajales y Marcos
Maceo, pero su heredada modestia le impidió hacer gala de tan memorable
estirpe, mientras luchaba por mantener vivo el patrimonio familiar.Su verdadero nombre, Dámaso José Lescaille Tabares, lo dejó
atrás desde el triunfo de la Revolución cubana, cuando como Ulises Estrada fue oficial del Ejército Rebelde y del Ministerio del Interior, donde ocupó importantes responsabilidades. Desde 1960 tomó parte
activa en el aplastamiento de “la Guerra sucia”, fomentada por las guerrillas
aupadas y mantenidas en toda la isla por la Agencia Central de Inteligencia
(CIA), estuvo al lado del Comandante Manuel Piti
Fajardo cuando este fue emboscado y muerto en el Escambray, y él mismo se
encargó de capturar al asesino. Por sus méritos pasó a integrar los
Órganos de la Seguridad del Estado, en el Departamento Técnico del Ministerio
del Interior y a las órdenes del legendario Comandante Manuel Piñeiro, con
quien trabajó en el apoyo solidario de la Revolución Cubana a los Movimientos de Liberación Nacional de África y Medio Oriente, y también en la ejecución de la ayuda solidaria con
los movimientos revolucionarios y fuerzas progresistas de América
Latina y el Caribe.Su mayor orgullo radicó en haber estado con el Che en el Congo, adonde se incorporó
durante un tiempo luego de hacer un recorrido de casi cinco meses en barco
cumpliendo todos los compromisos que Ernesto Guevara había hecho con los
africanos, llevándoles armas, ropa, implementos agrícolas, y medicinas.Cumplió
otras misiones en el exterior, aprendió el principal dialecto del Congo, el
swahili, y en francés les hablaba de política y ética. Despuntó además, como
responsable del trabajo político y la defensa de la embajada cubana en Chile en
septiembre de 1973, donde sostuvo contactos con Miguel Enríquez y Andrés Pascal
Allende, dirigentes del MIR, y en respuesta al pedido a estos, apoyó con
valentía al presidente Salvador Allende.Entre los años 1975 y 1979, Ulises fue vice jefe del Departamento América del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba, y luego laboró como
Embajador Extraordinario y Plenipotenciario en diversos países como Jamaica, Yemen
Democrático, Mauritania, la República
Árabe Saharaui Democrática y Argelia, así como Director del
Departamento de Medio Oriente.Licenciado en Ciencias
Sociales, a partir de 1990 comienza su labor periodística como jefe de Información del periódico Granma Internacional.
 |
| Prohibida la reproducción. |
Museo del Ministerio de Interior. Quinta Avenida. La Habana Cuba. (2009, 2010, 2011).
Entrevista a Margarita Adot, sobre el Comandante Piñeiro y el trabajo del Departamento América. La Habana, Cuba (2010).
Hemeroteca de Granma Internacional. La Habana, Cuba.
Ministerio de Exteriores. La Habana, Cuba.(2010).
Entrevista a Patricio La Guardia Font. La Habana (2010). Coronel de Tropas Especiales.
Entrevista a Patricio La Guardia Font. La Habana (2010). Coronel de Tropas Especiales.
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