Narco News Live
War Correspondent's Log
By Al Giordano
Immediate History from the Drug War Front
December 17, 2001
The Chapare, Bolivia From somewhere in a country called América...
Your correspondent has just completed an investigative tour of the Amazonic Chapare region of Bolivia.
There, we took testimony from eyewitnesses of the assassination of union leader Casimiro Huanca...
"Casimiro Huanca Choque Executive of the Chimoré Federation Hero - Coca Grower - Fallen in the Defense of National Sovereignty December 6, 2001" - Memorial Cross to be placed at Crime Scene One of the disadvantages of being a low-budget project in Authentic Journalism is that the work of investigating and reporting the facts in remote regions sometimes places us far from the Internet screen and causes delays in writing and posting the information.
Your correspondent asks our kind readers for patience; a full Narco News White Paper on the assassination of Casimiro Huanca, and the tense situation of the Chapare region, is being prepared and will be posted here as soon as humanly possible.
Meanwhile, test your Spanish reading skills with the comprehensive report of today about the history of the Banamex-Citigroup defeat by Narco News and Mario Menéndez in the daily Por Esto! of Mérida, Yucatán in México...
del Diaro Por Esto! de 17 diciembre...
Leense de la Historia Entera de la
Derrota de Banamex-Citigroup There are links to more reports on this historic court victory for press freedom, cyber-liberty and free speech for all, including from the Boston Phoenix, Wired.com, Indymedia NYC, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, now archived in the "Drug War on Trial" War Room.
December 13, 2001
Cochabamba, Bolivia From somewhere in a country called América...
Your correspondent left the Downtown Cochabamba bureau of the Narco Newsroom this morning, stepped out onto the street...
...and got tear-gassed immediately.
Sometimes a story just hits you in the face, eh?
In yesterday's "war log" (below), we mentioned that Cochabamba's La Cancha is the biggest open-air market in all América.
Last night, a 25-year-old man was shot in the chest there by police.
And, lo and behold, this is also a drug war story.
Your correspondent wipes the chemical spray from his eyes and begins to explain....
The public police are upset that the market vendors have hired private police to patrol the huge market. So last night, the public police rounded up the local drug-addicted youths (many of whom are glue sniffers because the price of every other alternative is too high under prohibition), and used them to invade the La Cancha market, damaging market stands, setting fires, and shooting the youth.
The morning newspapers said that it is not known whether the youth was a market worker or what his status was, but I am guessing, from the scent of teargas and the scene outside the Newsroom window, that he probably worked in the market. Because this morning, bands of young market workers took to the streets with large sticks, smashing windows and making a ruckus in protest of the shooting. Then came the police (yup, the ones who started it all last night) in uniform, shooting canisters of teargas all over downtown Cochabamba. Regul
ar pedestrians who had nothing directly to do with the conflict were running through the streets this morning, coughing, eyes tearing, to escape the toxic cloud.
This is just one of many signs of the illigitimate government of this country. The Quiroga regime in Bolivia has shut all paths to peaceful resolution of social conflicts and so a chain reaction of riots is inevitable. The marketers felt they needed patrols, that the government wasn't protecting them, and they hired private police. The public police, upset that the extra work and pay didn't come to them who had left the market defenseless in the first place, decided to attack the marketers and the private police. To do this, they recruited the very same youths that they are normally rounding up and putting in jail: Hey kids! You get a "get out of jail free" card tonight if you burn and loot with us! And a young man gets shot by a cop during last night's riot.
Thus, what clearer example could there by of the symbiotic relationship between cops and delinquents that is caused by the prohibition on drugs?
The market vendors have no authority to turn to for protection or justice, so they counter-riot this morning, with sticks and stones. The police counter-attack with tear-gas. The average citizen gets caught in the crossfire. Welcome to Bolivia under the reign of Viceroy Manuel Rocha, two-thousand-and-one A.D. Because when a nation is not allowed to make its own decisions, chaos like this morning's becomes the normal routine of settling disputes.
Somehow I doubt the Ambassador was among those who got gassed this morning.
The Viceroy's "Travel Advisory" Another of the Viceroy's tricks in meddling in the sovereign affairs of Bolivia -- used also by US Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow and other so-called diplomats -- is the use of Embassy power to punish regions economically for exercizing their democratic rights.
This is the "Travel Advisory" by the Embassy and State Department that convinced your correspondent to come to Bolivia:
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
Bolivia
November 1, 2001The Embassy of the United States in La Paz, Bolivia advises that a coalition of anti-government groups has called for a campaign of civil unrest in Bolivia beginning on November 6. In the past, these campaigns have resulted in large and sometimes violent demonstrations and blocked roads. U.S. citizens should avoid demonstrations at all times, and they should not attempt to pass through or go around roadblocks. The leaders of this campaign of civil unrest include elements opposed to Bolivian Government coca eradication activities in the Chapare region between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba and the Yungas region northeast of La Paz. Since the U.S. Government is a strong supporter of the coca eradication activities, we recommend that U.S. citizens postpone all travel to the Chapare and Yungas regions until further notice.
U.S. Government employees and contractors in the Yungas region have been told to depart and not to travel to the Yungas region until further notice. U.S. citizens should keep apprised of current conditions and monitor local news sources prior to travel in Bolivia.
Information on current conditions may be obtained from the American Embassy, 2780 Avenida Arce, La Paz; tel. 243 3520 (country code 591) (city code 2). The Embassy's web site is available at www.megalink.com/usemblapaz.
For general information on travel to Bolivia, please consult the Department of State's latest Consular Information Sheet, available on the Bureau of Consular Affairs home page at http://travel.state.gov.
This Public Announcement expires on February 2, 2002.
There is no danger to U.S. citizens in these regions (assuming they are not spies or military advisors). But it bugs the Viceroy that these regions have elected local officials from opposition political parties like the MAS.
Bolivia is not a federation of states, like the U.S. or Mexico. It has a centralized federal government that directly funds the municipal governments. Bolivian law is very clear that these governments must be funded according to their populations under the census. But the US Embassy has insisted that none of its money go to Town Halls or City Halls controlled by opposition party officials. So, in violation of its own laws, the Quiroga regime obeys the Viceroy and declines fair funding to towns that elect opposition parties, as a means of punishing democracy: Vote for our side, or starve!
The State Department "Travel Advisory" is no different. It is meant to destroy the tourism industry in the Amazonic Chapare region and in the Las Yungas region -- both areas with large indigenous Quechua and Aymayra populations -- both dependent on tourism for their local economies.
Well, the results are in. According to this morning's daily Opinión in Cochabamba, the tourist industry is shutting its doors in the Chapare:
The president of the Chamber of Private Businessmen in the Tropic of Chaparé, Marcos Goitia, said that not even a part of the losses to the industry this year -- a cost to the region of $7,000 US dollars per day -- can be recuperated...
Goitia reported that all the hotels, hostels, lodgings and residential vacation housing of the region, above all those in Villa Tunari, Chimoré, and Ivirgarzama, closed their doors temporarily or permanently because "the crisis is huge. The losses are irreplaceable and, what's moe, there is not any way to develop economic activity." He acknowledged that many of the businessmen that work in the region decided to leave for other cities or countries and, in some cases, also suspended their business activities...
This policy of breaking the economic back of a region, however, belies the US rhetoric on "alternative development" to replace the drug trade. If you punish entire regions by making them poorer, you end up forcing the populace to seek new, even illegal, means of feeding their families. And you drive down the price of labor for the drug traffickers who need employees.
Viceroy Manuel Rocha: he's the narco-trafficker's best friend.
Inauthentic Journalism Today's national daily, El Diario, notoriously supportive of the Quiroga regime and the Embassy for which it stands, was also at yesterday's assembly of coca growers in Cochabamba. Or was it?
In yesterday's war log, your correspondent reported:
Referring to the seven assassinations in recent weeks, a man stands up in the multitude and speaks: "We are now losing 7-0," he shouts. "We have to make more goals. We already know the name of the assassin. If they don't put him in jail, we are going to make some goals of our own."
Congressman Evo Morales is in the front of the hall, which looks like giant tunnel or airplane hangar with an arched tin roof over brick walls. He stops the assembly and calls an impromptu press conference. As about 20 reporters make their way down the aisle to the front, the assembled are shouting, "tell the truth! Tell the truth! We want the press to tell the truth!"
And that Evo Morales took a stand for pacifying the region, and against vengance. He said, as your correspondent reported:
"You have heard the references to a 7-0 score here. Many want vengance. However, we are announcing the suspension of our blockades of the highways until December 29th, for the Christmas season. The government tells us it wants to dialogue again. But there can be no dialogue while the assassins walk free. There can be no dialogue while the eradication of coca continues. We've been very patient people. We want justice not only in the case of compañero Huanca, but in the assassinations of all seven farmers killed in these months."
Now look at El Diario's out of context description of the same statement, twisting it to accuse Morales of inciting vengance and violence. The El Diario story is titled:
"Thirst for Vengance? Evo Threatens to Provoke Deaths of Armed Forces and Police"
And this yellowist of pro-regime newspapers states:
The leader and congressman Evo Morales seems to have a "thirst for vengance" for the seven coca growers in the Chapare who died at the hands of the Joint Task Force of the military. "Since August they have scored seven goals against us. Now we have to go for at least a tie. That is the message of the compañeros," declared the congressman and leader.
Not only is this an inaccurate portrayal of what was said, but the report specifically excludes the Congressman's words specifically countering the call for vengance and his reference to the patience of the growers.
Am I laughing or crying at this example of inauthentic journalism from El Diario? Nope, I guess it's just the tear-gas.
December 12, 2001
Cochabamba, Bolivia From somewhere in a country called América...
Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET, December 12, 2001...
Today's Assembly of Coca Growers Photo: Al Giordano, D.R. 2001 Thousands of coca growers and other sectors of civil society gathered this morning in downtown Cochabamba, Bolivia, during an hours long meeting spoken in Spanish and in the native Quechua tongue.
"The government wants to dialogue!" Congressman Evo Morales informed the assembled. "But while the assassins of Compañero Huanca walk free there will be no dialogue." (For more information on the assassination of union leader Casimiro Huanca, see the December 9th warlog).
The aftermath of the December 6th assassination of the popular union leader, shot "in cold blood" according to the Catholic Church, the Public Defender and Human Rights organizations by Bolivian military soldiers during a peaceful protest by pineapple, banana and palm farmers in the town of Chimoré, has displayed, once again, that Bolivia is in violation of the Leahy Amendment prohibiting US financial aid to countries that do not exercise justice against blatant human rights violations.
The "investigation" into the assassination was taken over by the same Bolivian Armed Forces that are responsible for the leader's murder. This, at the orders of President Jorge Quiroga, who, on Saturday, December 8th, pledged that the facts of the crime would be "clarified within 48 hours." But 96 hours later, the government and military continue to obfuscate.
According to the daily La Razón of this morning, the unnamed military soldier who shot Casimiro Huanca and his commanders claim that he shot the leader in "self-defense" because coca growers were throwing stones and trying to drag him into the forest. But La Razón reports:
"The version told by the soldier of the Expeditionary Task Force contrasts with the testimony and televised images, where Expeditionary troops are observed indiscriminately beating the coca farmers and, according to the witnesses, firing their weapons."
Narco News must correct one fact stated by La Razón: The protest, at that moment, was not being held by "coca growers," but by former coca growers, like the wounded farmer Fructuoso Herbas (interviewed by Narco News from Viedma Hospital) who had obeyed the government, left their coca crops behind, and attempted to grow fruits and other "alternative crops" only to find the cruel joke was on them: there was no market for their produce. This was the backdrop of last Thursday's confrontation that led to the assassination of Casimiro Huanca after he had been dragged from his office by military troops.
Civil prosecutors have been ordered away from the investigation, leading to an internal power struggle between the civil police and the military. "Thanks to the dispute between the police and the military, we now have the name of the assassin, and we will release it to the press if the government does not," said Congressman Evo Morales, during a press conference in the middle of today's assembly.
In recent days, Narco News has interviewed leaders of the Catholic Church, the regional Human Rights Assembly and other experts in Bolivian law and is preparing a full report on the crisis of impunity that haunts this nation of 8.3 million citizens.
René Pérez, Secretary General of the Human Rights Assembly of Cochabamba State explained the history of assassinations against organized coca growers and their leaders from 1987 to the present: During demonstrations in that year, eight peasant farmers were shot and killed. In 1988, in Villa Tunari, eight more were assassinated by bullet. From 1989 to 1996, government bullets killed 22 peasant farmers. In 1997, the massacre of Eterazama took five more farmers' lives. From April to August of 1998, fourteen more were shot and killed, this time including two police officers (although the government never released the evidence that the officers had been shot, as it had claimed). In 1999, the farmers began to fight back harder: three campesinos were killed by gunshot, but also two military soldiers, three police officers and the wife of one policeman died as well (in once case, farmers attacked the hospital bed of a wounded police officer who had participated in the conflict).
But since Vice President Jorge Quiroga assumed the presidency in August, explains Pérez, the murder rate has risen sharply. In these few months, eight coca farmers have been assassinated by the forces of order, including the labor leader Huanca. (And in a different region, struggles by the Landless Peasants led to massacre of seven more.) The Quiroga Death March has brought an average of three assassinations of unarmed peasant farmers a month by his government.
What will interest Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), when Narco News delivers our full report to him and other US Congressional leaders, is that the Bolivian state's response to these assassinations by its own troops places it in clear violation of the Leahy Amendment. This could have profound consequences for the US-imposed "war on drugs" and its support for a Military Regime in Bolivia that dresses as a "democracy" but where the uniforms still rule with an iron fist.
"In none of these cases," explained Pérez, "was a single assassin brought to justice."
Human Rights Leader René Pérez Photo: Al Giordano, D.R. 2001 "The issue," says Pérez, "is impunity."
"In 1998," he explains, "the Human Rights Assembly filed a legal complaint over the fourteen assassinations that had been conducted that year. The prosecutor's office filed its final report in 2000. It said that there was not sufficient proof to press charges. The local civil judge in Villa Tunari opened a case over four of those deaths. But the prosecutor's office declined jurisdiction and passed the case along to the military tribunal. We solicited a report from the military tribunal in January 2001. We have still received no response."
The legendary "water wars" of Cochabamba of February to April 2000, which resulted in 22 wounded and a 17-year-old adolescent being shot by military troops led to another legal complaint filed by the Human Rights Assembly, together with the families of the wounded and the deceased. "We opened up a process against the Commander of the Seventh Division and 20 other officials responsible that we were able to identify by name, in May 2000," said Pérez. That case, too, was detoured to a military tribunal, where justice was never done.
During the national blockades of September-October 2000 by coca growers and other sectors, two more peasant farmers were assassinated. None of the military officers responsible were ever prosecuted, although 26 peasant farmers were incarcerated, some of them still in prison.
Your correspondent asked the human rights leader: Were all these assassinations of unarmed farmers by military forces a consequence of errors? Or were they intentional, as a means of attempting to intimidate the populace from taking part in public protest?
"To us," answered Pérez, "it seems like the latter."
Attorney Rosemarie Acha, an investigator, author and a member of the Human Rights Assembly, explained that, today, in the State of Cochabamba, there are more than 1,500 men and 350 women in prison for alleged violations of the drug laws. "In the United States, if a kilo of cocaine is seized, it makes headlines," she said. "One or two people might be arrested. Here in Bolivia, the arrests fall in a pattern. They tend to fall in groups of four to six people. They include many taxi drivers, or the owners of homes where alleged drug activity took place, who, if there had been drugs, probably did not know it. There is a lot of falsification of evidence."
Attorney Rosemarie Acha Photo: Al Giordano, D.R. 2001 "With the drug war, it is all about statistics," explained the attorney. "They want to drive up the arrest numbers to obtain the certification of the US Congress."
"Some years ago, the United States government began funding television commercials by an 'anti-drug' group called 'Seamos.' These ads were very distorting. In spite of the fact that coca has many other uses here, the TV spots blamed the coca growers for the existence of cocaine addicts," she recounted. "There has been a demonization of the Chapare region and of the farmers."
Still, the 36,000 coca growing families of the Chapare region are more organized than ever, as evidenced by today's massive assembly in Cochabamba. And they are angry.
Referring to the seven assassinations in recent weeks, a man stands up in the multitude and speaks: "We are now losing 7-0," he shouts. "We have to make more goals. We already know the name of the assassin. If they don't put him in jail, we are going to make some goals of our own."
Congressman Evo Morales is in the front of the hall, which looks like giant tunnel or airplane hangar with an arched tin roof over brick walls. He stops the assembly and calls an impromptu press conference. As about 20 reporters make their way down the aisle to the front, the assembled are shouting, "tell the truth! Tell the truth! We want the press to tell the truth!"
Evo Meets the Press Photo: Al Giordano, D.R. 2001 "First," begins the congressman and coca growers' leader, "we condemn that assassination of compañero Huanca by the government of Bolivia and the government of the United States. You have heard the references to a 7-0 score here. Many want vengance. However, we are announcing the suspension of our blockades of the highways until December 29th, for the Christmas season. The government tells us it wants to dialogue again. But there can be no dialogue while the assassins walk free. There can be no dialogue while the eradication of coca continues. We've been very patient people. We want justice not only in the case of compañero Huanca, but in the assassinations of all seven farmers killed in these months."
"Yesterday, the MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) party held its convention here to say that neoliberalism is not the solution," said the Congressional leader. "The coca growers were here, but also the teachers, the professional organizations, all uniting to defeat this economic system. There will be at least four pre-candidates of our party for the presidency."
The news behind the news of this announcement is significant. Each of the pre-candidates has agreed to support the winner of a late January national convention vote of delegates from primarily rural bases throughout the entire country. The labor leader and environmentalist Oscar Olivera will be one pre-candidate. René Joaquino, the mayor of Potosí City, will be another. Evo will be a third. And among the others will be a name that, by allying with the other three, will open the possibilities for a national alliance with a massive base: Felipe Quispe, "El Mallku" or "Great Condor," the maximum leader of the Aymayra indigenous ethnicity. The strategic alliance between these forces, particularly Quispe and Morales, who have sometimes competed and quarreled with each other at the expense of national unity, has launched discussion throughout Bolivia, by friend and foe alike, of the possibility of a "clean sweep" by the MAS party of every rural district -- 48 Congressional Seats -- a number that would make any party the largest in the national congress. "It would change how our country is run," said one well-placed source to your correspondent.
The strategy is not a presidential one, but a congressional strategy, on the coattails of a national unity ticket in the June 2002 elections.
No wonder US Ambassador Manuel Rocha (known as "La Cuca-Rocha," or "the cockroach," with increased frequency in certain Bolivian circles) during a recent speech in Washington DC, predicted "storm clouds" over Bolivia come next Spring's elections.
Democracy, to La Cuca-Rocha, may prove just the can of RAID that dignity orders.
Letters from Readers and Response Your correspondent has filed a report from the tri-national gathering in Cochabamba, where leaders from Bolivia, Colombia and Peru are gathered this week to compare notes on cocaine eradication programs in each of their nations and analyze the programs that the governments call "alternative development." The report appears on the Drug Policy Foundation/Lindesmith Center website (whose assignment to your correspondent to write it helped get your correspondent to Bolivia) and includes interviews with the president of the 250,000-member National Association of Agricultural Producers in Peru (who said "drug legalization is the only possible solution"), a Colombian indigenous leader, a Colombian journalist, and includes quotes from our Friday interview with Fructuoso Herbas, the wounded Bolivian farmer (see December 8 war correspondent's log, below, for the full text of that interview).
Meanwhile, the Narco News victory over the billionaires in NY State Supreme Court is taking on historic proportions; check out the Electronic Frontier Foundation's press release on this precedent-setting free-speech decision, and don't forget to sign the "Victory Guestbook" at NYC Indymedia.
Since Thursday morning when your reporter began his trek from Mexico City to Panama City to Santa Cruz, Bolivia, to Cochabamba, Bolivia, his Internet access has been limited.
Still, your correspondent believes that authentic journalists should answer mail from readers, including - sometimes especially - mail that contains criticism. Authentic Journalism is a two-way street. It is a relationship built between the writer and the reader.
So shall it be, as much as humanly possible, with this "war log."
Basic Questions from a Reader This note arrived from someone named Danny, from somewhere in a country called América. He writes to Narco News about our recent Live From Bolivia coverage:
"I'm trying to understand more about the war on drugs, and it seems that I can only understand a small piece of it. Mainly, how do the people of Bolivia export the coca or do they keep it? When did the coca issue become a controversy in these countries? How long had they been cultivating it prior to? Why is no one else hearing about this? What can I do to help and get the message out?"
Thanks for your letter, Danny. It gives me an opportunity to repeat some basic facts and comments.
The exact numbers on how much of Bolivia's coca is used domestically as a food, how much is exported as a food (Argentina is the major importer of legal Bolivian coca, followed by Chile, Brazil and Paraguay), and how much is exported under the aegis of the Narco-State to be processed into cocaine is widely disputed. This is one of the questions that the Narco News Team in Bolivia is now attempting to answer.
What many North Americans do not understand is that, here, the coca leaf is chewed, as a medicine to fight hunger, fatigue, altitude sickness (this is a mountainous country) and is a key year-round source of vitamins B and C.
Even Pope John Paul II understood that when he came to Bolivia. He drank tea made from the leaf and spoke warmly of its virtues.
Your correspondent went to the Cancha the other day - the largest open market in all América - it stretches on and on through Cochabamba City. Elder women were selling the coca leaf from small stands. Your correspondent took some photos…
See? It's just a leaf. It looks and feels like a bay leaf. But as you note, it is the nexus of a controversy, a global battle that the governments and media call the "war on drugs."
"Coca Shopping in La Cancha" Photos: Al Giordano, D.R. 2001 Coca as controversy is a post-Colombus phenomenon. The leaf became controversial when empires prohibited it, and tried to impose their domestic prohibitions on the Andean countries that produce it: Colombia, Perú and Bolivia. (No such "war" is waged on Hawaii, where the Coca-Cola company is legally licensed to grow large plantations of coca for use in its soft drink).
The first attempted coca prohibition was imposed by the Spanish conquerors. Obviously, that prohibition, like the one today, failed to achieve its goal of "zero coca." The Spaniards finally, around the year 1600, repealed their failed coca prohibition, and taxed the sale of the leaf, giving 10 percent of the proceeds to the Catholic Church.
How long has it been cultivated? Some scholars say that it was planted and harvested more than 4,000 years ago. The plant played an important role in the cosmology of the ancient Inca civilization, which peaked more than a millennium ago.
Finally, Danny asks: "Why is no one else hearing about this? What can I do to help and get the message out?"
Danny, we have to berate the US media into covering this important issue, and into covering it differently than their pro-war-on-drugs bias has so far allowed them to do.
As for how to spread the word: I'll simply note, in this holiday season, that subscriptions to the Narco News email alerts are an economic way to say you love them in a recession economy: Offer your friends and loved ones a gift subscription, absolutely gratis, by pointing them to this URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews
After all, if the New York Supreme Court was nice enough to give us a Chanukah present by restoring freedom of the press and applying it to internet journalists, we ought to keep giving something back.
Because free speech means that you don't pay…
The Sanchez Papers: An Update It seems we stirred the hornet's nest with our critique and fact-check, last week, on the November 30th column by Washington Post writer Marcela Sanchez.
Paul writes from somewhere in a country called América…
Dear Mr. Giordano,
I immensely enjoy your work, but I think I caught you on this one.
You repeatedly charge Sanchez for not providing names, but your article is an attack on an insignificant foot soldier without mention of the names of those that let that type of journalism get in the Washington Post.
Thanks and keep on the good works.
Paul
You've got an excellent point, Paul. The blame for bad journalism by underlings truly lies with the top hierarchies, and owners, of the media.
I would add this proviso, though: every journalist, in the end, is responsible for what appears under his and her byline. That is an ethic that must be strengthened if we are to win back a Free Press. Journalists always have the option of defecting from their publications, of denouncing censorship and pressures from above. Even rank-and-file journos are still very privileged people compared to the average citizen. With that privilege comes a duty to never allow others to dictate what we say.
But, yes, on to the big boys as well…
Sometimes we at Narco News have been able to smoke out the men behind the curtain, as we did in 2000 when provoking the New York Times' then-foreign editor Andy Rosenthal to defend the disgraced Mexico bureau chief Sam Dillon, embarrassing both of them in a letter to Mexico's largest daily. Speaking of Bolivia, the fall of ex-AP correspondent Peter McFarren would probably not have happened without the pressure placed on Gerry Ceppos of the AP Managing Editors Association by our readers and by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) who took up that battle. Then again, it was the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, dean of media critics, who made sure most of the world knew of McFarren's conflict-of-interest.
But the Sanchez column was a abomination of journalism. You will be glad to know that our shaking of the Washington Post tree has snuffed out at least one protector of bad journalism by name - the Post's "ombudsman," Michael Getler - who has been speaking with a forked tongue.
On December 4th, in response to our communiqué, Ombudsman Getler wrote a seemingly positive request to Narco News:
From: ombudsman@washpost.com
To: "Alberto M. Giordano" narconews@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 17:53:11 -0500How about e-mailing me just the portion of the column dealing with Sanchez.
I have my hands full with the paper and don't get involved critiquing the web site, which is impossible for me to monitor given my other duties. I do an internal weekly critique of the paper for the staff, so I can perhaps include something in that, and I can also pass this along to the web site and ask them to respond. But let me see the material first. Thanks.
I was in the process of preparing the abridged memo for him, as he requested, on the journalistic abuses by the Sanchez puff-piece on the Bolivian tyrant.
But Aimee Mann must have been singing to me when she sang, "At least you know, you were played by a pro."
The Ombudsman Getler gave a different story to a Narco News reader that wrote to him about Sanchez's column (we at Narco News never asked our readers to write to the Ombudsman; this reader did it on his own initiative). Thankfully, that reader saved your correspondent a lot of work that would have been taken away from covering the conflict down here in Bolivia, by exposing two of his faces in the same week.
A reader named Blair wrote to the Post Ombudsman, and received this reply:
From: ombudsman@washpost.com
Subject: Re: rising star or political jokeI asked our foreign desk editors what they thought about the sanchez article and your criticism and they said they thought the column was fair and accurate.
So, there we have it, Paul. First the Ombudsman tells your correspondent that he doesn't "do" criticism of his newspaper's online content but that he'd like a memo for possible use in his weekly express inside the newspaper.
Then he tells a reader that the "foreign desk editors" assured him that the Sanchez column was "fair and accurate."
"Fair and accurate" to "foreign desk editors" has a very different meaning than it would have to any normal citizen. In this case, "fair and accurate" means that a story is within the boundaries of the official party line in Washington, whether the story is true or not.
The Washington Post "foreign desk editors" (Names? Anyone care to drop a dime?), like their counterparts at the NY Times and other large US news agencies, give very specific instructions to their correspondents in Latin America. Above all, their correspondents in any Latin Ameican country must stay close to the US Embassy and maintain US diplomats and spooks as sources. The Embassies are hip to this game. If any foreign correspondent dares to step out of line and report information critical to the brutal US policies in the region, that reporter is cut off from the leaks and "access" to the Embassy sources. And that upsets the "foreign desk editors" and harms the "career" of carerrist reporters.
Finally, in the Sanchez file, we received this funny correspondence between Marcela Sanchez of the Washington Post and one of our readers.
Lawrence wrote to Marcela Sanchez:
Dear Ms. Sanchez,
Why didn't you want to respond to Mr. Giordano? Are his points valid or not? Honestly, I don't know and would have loved to have seen you put him in his place (if he deserves that).
And the Post's Sanchez replied:
From: desdewash@washpost.com
To: Lawrence…
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: GiordanoDear Mr. Davin:
I thank you for writing.
I simply want to let my columns speak for themselves. And as a journalist it is not my role to put Mr. Giordano or anybody else in his or her place.
I trust you will understand.
Sincerely,
Marcela SanchezSo, once again, we see a non-response from Sanchez.
Lawrence was not impressed. He comments:
I'm an expatriate living in Mexico so I know a little bit about the manipulation of Latin American governments by the U.S. As you know there's not much available on Bolivia but I believe your reporting to be accurate.
I sent the message to Marcela Sanchez and it's obvious that she's not going to comment further. Is it that she's overwhelmed by her lack of knowledge? I would think even a pat answer in support of her column would be the least she would do.
This bit about "letting columns speak for themselves" is utter bullshit. Sanchez isn't the only journalist to hide behind it. At the big dailies, there is a culture of hubris, of being "above the fray." It is a culture of cowards, who hide behind such nonsense in order to keep from being accountable for their words.
Danny Schechter, "the news dissector," a veteran authentic journalist who was producing at NBC when Marcela Sanchez was a gleam in her career's own eye, wrote in his excellent Media Log on The Media Channel:
I was not surprised by Al Giordano's Narco News note today about his attempt to get a response to his blistering critique of her reporting from Bolivia. Here is his email and her response. File this under Media Acountability… At least big AL gets a response. What I am I doing wrong?
Of course, Danny Schechter's doing nothing wrong. Check out his daily Media Log and see how authentic journalism, yes, can be practiced in the United States, when a veteran journo like him, too, responds to his readers.
I do think the Marcela Sanchez's of the media should get down from their ivory towers and interact with the public more. But desk reporters don't like to get their hands dirty. And their reporting suffers for it.
Joe writes…
Hey Al,
BIF! BAM! POW!
FANTASTIC JOB!!! on Marcela and the Post!
Godspeed, Hombre,
Joe
The readers understand: The pompous commercial press is a headin' for a fall. And that toppling of their illusive credibility is necessary for urgent reasons.
Reports about Latin America that appear in the US media often make the difference between life and death for millions in our América.
Father Eugenio Coter of the Catholic Diocese in Cochabamba explained it to your correspondent yesterday. He said, "When a story appears in the Bolivian press, the government pays it no mind. Nothing happens. But if that same story appears in the Italian press, or the United States press, the government has to respond. I was amazed one day while inside a Bolivian consul in Italy. They were clipping all articles from the Italian press that mentioned Bolivia. But if the same article appears here in Bolivia, nothing happens."
Padre Eugenio Coter Photo: Al Giordano D.R. 2001 Coming soon to a screen near you: More from our interview with Father Coter.
Self-Criticism Some alert readers brought to your correspondent's attention a truly boneheaded error in our own alert to Narco News subscribers the other day.
While describing the assassination of coca growers union leader Casimiro Huanca, your correspondent wrote that Casimiro had been shot in the "ephemeral artery."
Of course, there is nothing ephemeral about the artery in question. It's the femoral artery.Or is it Femural?
Yikes, don't hire your correspondent as a medical surgeon!
Narco News regrets the error.
More Correspondence About Bolivia In the category of "staying on topic" even after the Big Banamex Blow-Up in the NY State Supreme Court, here's some more mail and comments on our Live from Bolivia coverage.
J writes…
Thank you, thank you Narco news. Please be safe...especially when reporting things the government is trying to silence...You are doing an Outstanding job. I have been emailing a local radio station trying to get them to talk about what is currently happening in Bolivia...
A Latin American correspondent for one of the largest daily newspapers in the world also wrote us this week, saying…
I truly appreciate your dispatches, though am having a hard time selling non afghan foreign news but where there is a will there is a way.
Simon, an economic libertarian with whom your correspondent has debated via private email for many months now, writes of the events in Bolivia…
What is happening there is a crime.
America exports liberation to Afghanistan and terror to Bolivia. This is so wrong that I can't begin to tell you how ashamed I am of the US government. Liberating the Afghani people and warring on the Bolivian people is not a coherent policy.
I am looking forward to your latest reports.
Simon
Gretchen writes…
This is horrible. Stay safe, Al. Your work is greatly appreciated.
Gretchen
Diane writes…
Hello Al,
I hear you're relocating to Bolivia. With this knowledge, I send you peace and safety on your fantastic journey on behalf of all that is and should be.
In light,
DianeAl replies:
We're not "relocating," exactly. But soon Narco News will make an important announcement about our new Andean bureau. Stay tuned!
Anne from Canada writes…
Congratulations. And thank you very much. We know what all this "war against drugs" is really all about, we recognize imperialist expansion when it stares us in the face… Be careful, please. And thank you very much for your courage.
Anne
On Solidarity Gayle writes…
Hi, I appreciate your news service and list very much, since I am involved in particular with indigenous struggles in South America as well as here.
But even though sometimes your bulletins were sometimes reposted on one of the Colombia lists I was on, I had had no idea that you were =mainly= about how the "drug war" is affecting Latin America and especially the Andes. Your name gives the impression that it is mainly about domestic drug war policies, maybe touching on international issues in passing. There are a lot of other people who are involved with these issues in the Andean countries who probably don't take a look at your service because they don't realize it is so relevant. (A lot of the people involved with Latin American solidarity stay away from domestic drug war issues because they don't want to give the impression that a "pro-drug" agenda is behind such solidarity, -- of course, there are others who do make common cause with those working with domestic drug war issues too. But to indigenous people of the Andes it is especially important to distinguish between coca leaf, an ancient sacred plant, and cocaine, an illegal recreational drug, so connecting with defense of people jailed for drugs in the US would not be a priority.) I wonder if you might consider changing your name to something that would make it clearer what your focus is, so that it would be easier for people who are specifically involved with these issues as they affect Latin America to find you?
Gayle
Al replies:
Your thoughts, Gayle, are understood and appreciated, but Narco News will remain Narco News.
My view is that if "people who are involved with Latin American solidarity" avoid the issue of the drug war, their arity isn't all that solid. Because solidarity involves listening to what the people of Latin America say. They want the drug war boot off their necks. I hear that everywhere I go down here.
If a "solidarity" activist is afraid of the drug issue, he or she needs to listen better to what Civil Society is saying in Latin America.
I live in an indigenous community and probably spend most of my hours with indigenous people, and I don't agree for a minute that indigenous people don't consider injustice to others a priority. But then again, to me, human beings are human beings. I loathe the approach of anthropologists and archeologists and other academics and even some "activists" that always try to speak for the indigenous. My role is to let people speak for themselves, and, often, to translate their own words into English so that they can be heard to a wider public.
Our focus is Narco News, "Authentic Journalism on the 'war on drugs' in Latin America," and it's right on the masthead on page one, 365 days a year. Anyone who is scared of that is probably too timid to affect any real social change anyway.
Here's a recent example of how some "solidarity" activists impose their developed-world values upon Latin Americans.
There is a group that calls itself the "Colombia Solidarity Network."
They've done some good work, but wow did they screw up recently.
There is an Elián González type of controversy going on in Colombia right now, fueled by the commercial media. Specifically, the nation's big daily newspaper, El Tiempo, has made a poor little kid into a disingenuous poster boy for double standards. The kid's father is a corporal in the Colombian military. He is currently a prisoner held by the rebel forces of the FARC. The corporal's kid has terminal cancer, the newspaper tells us. And therefore, the newspaper is beating the drums to get readers to write the FARC and demand that it release the kid's father.
Well, um, there is a civil war going on, and war has its own dynamics. The FARC has offered to trade the kid's father for one of its militants who is sick and dying in a government prison. It's the Colombian government that refuses to make the trade.
Then comes this "Colombian Solidarity Network" to join in the commercial media's manipulative use of this poor kid, acting like the Miami relatives of Elián. The "solidarity" network is now telling the 40-year-old insurgent group what to do, calling upon the FARC to release the military corporal.
So your correspondent wrote to Colombia Solidarity Network wondering whether their email account had been hacked by paramilitaries or whether there was some other explanation for this very un-solid form of "solidarity."
Someone named "Cecilia," who did not give a last name, wrote back:
Al: the person from FARC who is in jail was found guilty by the Colombian justice system with all its faults. It is really a humanitarian action. Sorry if you do not agree. Cecilia
Your correspondent asks: What "Colombian justice system"?
There is a game in some "human rights" circles that, in order to appear "non-partial," they have to hit the right and left equally. So if X human rights group criticizes the Bolivian regime one week, the next week they feel they must criticize Cuba (which, being for so long the only left wing regime in América, always seems to get a disproportionate amount of criticism compared to the nation's size and actual situation). My read is that the Colombia Solidarity Network was playing this right-left posturing game when it joined the new Elián campaign in Colombia. Ay, with humanitarians like these...
Finally, A Word from the War Bloggers Authentic Journalist Ken Layne who has been logging the war logs that have proliferated online since September 11th, writes on his website, Kenlayne.com:
Hooray!
Al Giordano, publisher of the drug-war chronicle Narco News, has had enough of our sorry "warblogs." After all, he's been in Mexico/Central America for quite a while now, covering the War on Drugs.
So, I'm proud to announce Giordano's War Correspondent's Log. Bookmark this one. It's already shocking. And it will -- until we stop this idiot Drug War -- stay that way.
Okay, It's 7:44 a.m. in Bolivia, and your correspondent is going out to get his hands dirty again.
Read the December 7-9 2001 War Log
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