Saturday, July 24, 2010

Nicaragua's President considers "illegitimate" Honduras government

President Ortega has indicated that the incorporation of Honduras into the regional integration system (SICA in Spanish) is illegitimate as there was no representative from Nicaragua in the presidential meeting that drafted and released the joint declaration indicating that Honduras can rejoin the system. Never mind, that Nicaragua did not attend the meeting precisely to avoid signing the resolution openly. Furthermore, it is not clear whether Honduras was kicked out the system in the first place.

I have written before and will continue expressing my opinion that we need to define our foreign policy responding to our national/domestic policy. These two cannot be independent. Therefore, we need to pursue those foreign relations that will support our national development and policies and discard those that do not. We cannot continue begging for recognition. If a country wants to recognize us as the free and democratic country in the making that we are, so be it. If not, then we stop pursuing those interests and would wait until the time that we are treated as equals.

We will not tolerate those actions by Ortega, Correa, Morales or their ilk who keep on mounting requirements to "allow our return to the international arena". Now, even the FMLN, the old guerrillas turned political party in El Salvador are putting their own requirements for us as a country to comply. That is unacceptable and cannot be allowed anymore. If we let this build up, where anybody can pretty much tell us what to do, we are losing our national sovereignty and are in danger of pretty much giving our country away to those who seek destroying the Republic.

Our foreign policy should be unemotional, calculating, strategic and unwavering in maintaining our national identity as a democratic Republic. If foreign governments such as that of Nicaragua, insists on interfering with our affairs, we need to let them know, politely but firmly , that such interventions are not acceptable and that they are free to withdraw their diplomatic representation until they recognize us a democratic country with a freely elected government.

In fact, if Nicaragua or El Salvador insist on interfering with our affairs, we need to send the proper signals and further actions so that they will not be able to use Puerto Cortes as a shipment port for their products. This embargo would last until we normalize relations. We have an ace here as both countries need Puerto Cortes to ship their exports. Certainly,it will not take long and in all probabilities will not even need to be implemented in the first place. Let's see how long they continue interfering in our affairs.

Lets remember that no period of bad luck lasts forever. Governments come and go, and so we just need to be patient and build upon what we do have, governments who now recognize us as a democratic country and our government.  This is not bravado nor knee jerk reactions. Each intervention has to be thought thoroughly with the proviso that we have to have our country as our main interest. Other countries can look for themselves.

Monday, July 19, 2010

For a sample a button...a column by Luis Consenza Jimenez

Interesting article by Luis Cosenza Jimenez (Minister of the Presidency in the Maduro administration) showing the "tolerant" and "democracy-loving" ways of the current "Resistencia" leadership, through their actions in Tocoa, Colon. To read the article, please click here

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sunday's Funny Quotes

"We know that there are hundreds of thousands of unnecessary workers on the budget and labor books, and some analysts calculate that the excess of jobs has surpassed 1 million,"

 "Without people feeling the need to work to make a living, sheltered by state regulations that are excessively paternalistic and irrational, we will never stimulate a love for work,"

Who's the author of these pearls of wisdom: Barak Obama,  Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel.... nope... although they still have to yet confess this long time held secret "a sotto vocce"... it is... Raul Castro in public speeches around Cuba. BTW, these quotes are funny because of the source, although the tragedy of the Cuban people cannot be ignored anymore - nor their many accomplishments...

The winner though is the Cuban people, where most of them are employed by the government, thus unemployment is "non-existent" and whose salaries are so low that a favorite saying is:

"The government pretends to pay us and we pretend to work"

Welcome to the Socialist paradise my friends, and its "new" concoction "21st Century Socialism" pursued by the Narcisist-Leninist" followers of Chavez and Co. Why do we insist on trying things and models that have failed and to which even core communist countries such as China and Vietnam have started moving away from themselves?

Recommended reading

I just finished reading "Itinerario de una caida: Los consejos que no escucho Zelaya" again. I would recommend this book again and again, as this shows the deterioration and eventual collapse of Zelaya's administration and the reasons why his removal from office was justified. Martinez version of the infamous "Zelaya's resignation letter" is quite interesting as it is a very credible hypothesis.

The stories behind the so called "Patricios" and his former Foreign Minister inffluence on Zelaya are important to understand as they serve explaining many of his missteps, but not all. Certainly, Zelaya is a quite formidable political animal, a survivor and predator, who miscalculated his later steps, and who let his ego get the best of him...as he did not listen to anybody...but himself.

By the way, one of the things that has not resonated with people and which is highlighted in this book is the fact that Zelaya himself confessed to being elected using fraud. Another important fact is that he was elected with only 19% of the electoral vote, in fact the report of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal was never released in spite of being mandatory according to Honduran law, and that Zelaya was declared a winner by none other than a Mr. Aristides Mejia, Zelaya's old chump, Head at the time of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal and who later became Minister of Security under Zelaya. Later, Zelaya named Mejia,  Counselor Vice President....a joke in itself as our Constitution does not have the figure of a Vice-President, but Zelaya wanted to reward his friend Mejia with the position. So, Zelaya created this monstrosity of a title...no wonder...