Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

Archives for January 2018

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Venezuela: Oscar Perez killed by police? UPDATED

Oscar Perez, the former police helicopter pilot who last year attacked the Supreme Court and Interior Ministry, has been killed, according to government sources (emphasis added),

Oscar Perez, a Venezuelan police pilot accused of stealing a helicopter and using it to attack the country’s Supreme Court in June, was killed Monday in Caracas, a government official told CNN.

The high-ranking member of the Venezuelan government asked to remain anonymous. CNN has not been able to independently confirm Perez’s death.

“BREAKING NEWS: Óscar Pérez is wounded by an exploded grenade launched by security forces surrounding him. He denounces that Maduro’s regime is shooting at them and do not allow them to surrender.”

Roundup:
Venezuelan Helicopter Pilot Who Rebelled Against Dictatorship Livestreamed Raid that Killed Him

Venezuela forces launch deadly assault, capture rebel police officers

The assault was made public early Monday by Pérez himself, who posted video snippets on social media, including one in which he appears with a bloodied face.

“They are firing at us with RPG, grenades and grenade launchers, snipers,” Pérez says in one video. “There are civilians in here. We told them that we’re going to turn ourselves in and they don’t want to let us surrender. They want to kill us.”

A Day of Blood

A police operation for the capture of former CICPC inspector Oscar Pérez and his team took the entire day in Venezuelan social media. By 11:00 p.m., there was no official statement about his situation, only reports of the police takeover of the Bello Monte morgue, as an insinuation that his corpse might be there. Oscar Pérez’ group made a live digital recount of the assault they faced, uploading videos on his Instagram account (@equlibriogv) that showed what was happening. An unprecedented method that raised more suspicion than solidarity and prompted official mouthpieces to make unwise statements.

Two police officers and several “terrorists” have been killed in an operation to capture a helicopter pilot accused of leading an armed rebellion in Venezuela last year, officials say.

Venezuelan forces surrounded a house in the town of El Junquito, near the capital, Caracas, as they targeted the “cell” linked to pilot Oscar Pérez.

The authorities said they had arrested five people who they accuse of being part of a criminal group.

It is unclear what became of Mr Pérez.

Venezuelans Watch as Soldiers Besiege Rebel Group. Rogue police pilot Oscar Perez posts videos online as his supporters engage in gun battle at hideout

The saga of a police pilot and former actor who authorities said stole a helicopter in June and tossed grenades over official buildings took another violent turn as government forces said they had engaged in a bloody shootout with him and supporters at their rural hideout.

Venezuelans watched on Monday as Oscar Perez posted videos online of the fighting between special-forces soldiers and his group of civilians and former military personnel.

“Venezuela, they’re killing us!” Mr. Perez said in a video amid gunfire as blood streamed down the side of his face. His fate wasn’t known Monday evening. He has been calling for rebellion against President Nicolás Maduro’s autocratic rule.

La inhumana indiferencia del venezolano ante la ejecución de Óscar Pérez

UPDATE
CONFIRMED

After hours without revealing what Oscar Pérez’s fate was, Justice Minister Néstor Reverol gave a news conference on Tuesday.

In it he said that Mr Pérez was among seven “terrorists” killed in the siege.

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Puerto Rico: Hoarding electric equipment

Corruption: ARMED FEDERAL AGENTS ENTER WAREHOUSE IN PUERTO RICO TO SEIZE HOARDED ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT

ON SATURDAY, A day after becoming aware of a massive store of rebuilding materials being held by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the U.S. federal government — the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with their security detail — entered a Palo Seco warehouse owned by the public utility to claim and distribute the equipment, according to a spokesperson for the Corps.
. . .
“Due to the size of the warehouse,” Vera said, accounting for everything contained therein is still underway days later. Among the materials recovered so far are “2,875 pieces of critical material to contractors” along with the sleeves of full-tension steel, a component of Puerto Rican electrical infrastructure required to erect new power lines. PREPA did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment, though in a statement to the Associated Press, it rejected allegations that it had failed to distribute the warehouse’s contents. The AP only reported that “officials over the weekend also discovered some needed materials in a previously overlooked warehouse owned by Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority.” How they discovered them and how they were obtained is a story that has not been fully told.

Read it and weep.

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Venezuela: Where was Sean Penn?

Last Friday I asked, Speaking of sh**holes, where were you?,

Were you outraged when Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez declared himself a Marxist and took over private property and the media? Would having people kill zoo animals for food qualify a country as a shithole?

Today Rachel Campos-Duffy wants too know Who is Sean Penn to lecture Trump about compassion?

So what has Sean Penn said about these horrible indignities and abuses suffered by the Venezuelan people? Nothing. Where is his “compassionate” op-ed to show concern for the victims of Venezuelan socialism and repression? Silence.

Well, I dug through this blog’s archives, and found this gem from 2011: Back then Hugo Chávez was still alive, and Sean had  invited Charlie Sheen to Haiti, as if the blighted country hadn’t had enough yet, and Charlie accepted.

I posted,

Sean’s meeting with Hugo Chávez (link in Portuguese) this weekend to discuss Hugo’s proposal to send a goodwill peace commission to Libya. Chávez claims (link in Spanish) Sean’s worried about what’s going on in Libya, as if there weren’t enough reasons to worry about what’s going on in Venezuela.

Once Sean and Hugo work out the Libya situation, Sean will be heading to Haiti with Charlie next week.

I never did find out if Charlie made it to Haiti, but Sean later on became pals with Argentina’s Cristina Fernández and Mexico’s drug lord El Chapo.

Sean wasn’t the only American actor hangin’ with Hugo. Kevin Spacey and Tim Robbins also did, and Hugo bankrolled Danny Glover to the tune of $20 million to produce two movies, [CORRECTION old link; go here for a current link] one of which was – wait for it – a bio of Toussaint D’Overture, the Haitian slave that led the revolt against the French and declared himself emperor.

Haiti’s per capita GDP is US$739.60.

So I ask again, where are they?

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Recommended #shithole reading

PJ O’Rourke went to the shitholes so you won’t have to,
Holidays in Hell: In Which Our Intrepid Reporter Travels to the World’s Worst Places

Publisher’s blurb,

Now available from Grove Press, P. J. O’Rourke’s classic, best-selling guided tour of the world’s most desolate, dangerous, and desperate places. “Tired of making bad jokes” and believing that “the world outside seemed a much worse joke than anything I could conjure,” P. J. O’Rourke traversed the globe on a fun-finding mission, investigating the way of life in the most desperate places on the planet, including Warsaw, Managua, and Belfast. The result is Holidays in Hell–a full-tilt, no-holds-barred romp through politics, culture, and ideology. P.J.’s adventures include storming student protesters’ barricades with riot police in South Korea, interviewing Communist insurrectionists in the Philippines, and going undercover dressed in Arab garb in the Gaza Strip. He also takes a look at America’s homegrown horrors as he braves the media frenzy surrounding the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Washington D.C., uncovers the mortifying banality behind the white-bread kitsch of Jerry Falwell’s Heritage USA, and survives the stultifying boredom of Harvard’s 350th anniversary celebration. Packed with P.J.’s classic riffs on everything from Polish nightlife under communism to Third World driving tips, Holidays in Hell is one of the best-loved books by one of today’s most celebrated humorists.


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Ecuador: When will Assange have to leave?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been staying at the Ecuadorian Embassy (a small apartment) in London for nearly since 2012. He has not left the premises due to outstanding warrants for his arrest.

He tweeted this last year, criticizing president Lenín Moreno,

Moreno did not like it and wants him out, but does not want the visuals of Assange being dragged away by police. Ecuador requested that the UK grant Assange diplomatic status, to which the UK said “no” (link in Spanish). Here’s a screenshot of the letter,

James Ball of The Guardian summarizes Assange’s situation,
The only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuador’s embassy is pride

The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the US, charges in Sweden have been dropped – and for the embassy, he’s lost his value as an icon

Ball, by the way, worked with WikiLeaks for a few months in 2010 and 2011.

———————————————–

Headlines:
WikiLeaks: Ecuador wants Julian Assange out of its embassy. Deporting him to Australia is one option

Ecuador is hoping it can break a long impasse that has seen WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holed up in its London embassy for five years.

It is seeking a third-party mediator to broker a deal with the United Kingdom in an effort to find a way for Mr Assange, who is an Australian citizen, to leave their building.

Ecuador has been “considering and exploring the possibility of a mediation” to resolve the issue.

Why is Julian Assange in Ecuador’s UK embassy?
Mr Assange was accused of raping two women in Sweden in 2010 and was subsequently arrested in London.

He was released on bail whilst fighting extradition to Sweden, but after losing his appeal in 2012 he sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Mr Assange has been in the small embassy in Knightsbridge ever since.

Sweden has subsequently dropped all charges against Mr Assange, but he continues to fear extradition to the United States.

JULIAN ASSANGE MAY BE FORCED TO LEAVE ECUADOR EMBASSY AFTER UPSETTING PRESIDENT

Ecuador’s newly elected president Lenin Moreno issued several warnings to the Australian asking him to refrain from commenting on politics relating to Ecuador’s allies.

The UK has turned down a request from Ecuador to grant diplomatic status to Julian Assange – as a means of breaking a longstanding deadlock over his fate.

UK police say he will be arrested if he leaves the embassy in Knightsbridge for failing to surrender to the court in 2012.

An FCO spokesman said: “The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Mr Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter.

“Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice.”

Cross-posted at WoW! Magazine.

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