FAKE NEWS FROM AMERICA

Fake news is used often against leaders; Evo Morales has to contend with it in Bolivia and from other nations' journalists. Donald Trump is also a victim of fake news. The monster that the press had made Trump out to be has been so scary that it impeeds relations and damages international cooperation. Which is the aim of certain intel agencies: divide and conquer. Making a mess by deception.
Last month the newscasters reported that Trump called immigrants animals, and Morales responded. However, the press owes both men an apology. Here from the www.brothers4trump.blogspot.com site of David Jefferson, an African American, is the debunking of the press in his country:
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Earlier this week Donald Trump held a rally in Nashville. It was packed, and to the dismay of the lefty press, it was full of happy people talking about JOBS - and MS 13. Apparently this gang is liked by the lefty regime, with Nancy Pelosi telling us they are people. NO. They are animals. Only sick animals, and not even really sick animals, no creature in the animal kingdom actually does what they do - torture kids for instance, they are lower than animals. Let Pelosi invite them in.
The press got laughed at to their face by a 4-year-old who taunted them saying 'FAKE NEWS, FAKE NEWS'.
A 4-year-old.
And fake news is not just an issue for tots to ridicule, it is serious, like when the FAKE NEWS BRIGADE reported that Trump called immigrants animals. He did NOT. He called MS 13 animals.
The fake news understandably sent shock waves around the world, and leaders such as Evo Morales of Bolivia responded negatively to Trump. Which is what the enemies of both countries want. They want to divide and conquer with FAKE NEWS that even a 4-year-old can see through. Then they want to get MS 13 into Bolivia.
More fake news followed when the left showed photos of youngsters in cages. The photos were real; but they were taken in 2014, and Obama was in charge then. So the attempt to depict Trump in a bad light backfired. Real kids could see through that one too.
And real kids, and real adults, are fighting back in the press. In the New York Daily News on 21 May a reader, Nancy Kennedy,  wrote:

" I am, by no means, a supporter of Donald Trump, but the headline declaring that Trump called immigrants animals could not be more misleading. This is Yellow Journalism 101. Shame on you for distorting the facts. You led your readership to believe that Trump was calling all immigrants "animals." He was referring to the MS-13 gang members and, in a very rare instance, I agree with the President. In my town, this gang is a genuine threat. I do not want to see any of those members allowed in our country. Be careful, Daily News,  you are treading in dangerous waters here."

But not all lefties are against Trump. No less a person than former US President Jimmy Carter is saying that Trump merits a Noble Peace Prize, if he can get North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal. Carter is one of the few ever honest US presidents, and the rest of the left ought to listen up. But most likely they are too busy entertaining MS 13 members, who are fed at the expence of the taxpayer. Man, that has gotta stop. Along with all the FAKE NEWS. Time to get real

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Bolivia, the US and MS 13

2018 brings us a whole new era in US history. The presidency of Donald J. Trump, and the vicious attacks his critics make on him every day. No doubt he has his faults. But he is not the monster that
the left wing extremists in the US make him out to be.
For instance, one of his first acts was to sign legislation in support of gay rights. Then he gave away his entire pay on each pay day to a charity. No one ever reported it, they were too busy reporting hearsay and slander.
Last week a rogue senator, one who has been contradicted by witnesses, accused Trump of calling many nations 's--thole countries'. As a matter of fact, some nations deserve that statement. Think of
the human rights abuses and religious persecution in so many.
Many try to instigate the Latin community against Trump; but it does not work. As soon as Mexicans
complain about the wall, Guatemalans, Salvadoreans and others complain about Mexico - which does not take refugees kindly. But which sends its criminals to the US. Trump has support among many Guatemalans and Salvadoreans.
Bolivians tend to keep an open mind, at this moment there is not a lot of interaction between Trump and Morales. The enemies of Bolivia and the US will try to keep it that way, or try to keep up the hysteria that Trump is a nazi. Idiotas! Much of his family is Jewish. He has black and Latin support, gay and Moslem support.
Whatever his faults, some of them could be private faults and not anybody's business, he has aided the US economy and people want him to build the wall; some have even already built a wall, as Texans could not wait for the White House to act, they had to build a 131 mile wall between El Paso and Texas. As soon as it was up, rape and murder went down.
And what with many rapes and murders committed by MS 13, it was a good idea.
MS 13 is not just coming to the US; it has its hands in South America, especially Brazil, and has branched out to the Philippines. Bolivia has wisely kept them out, or at least at a minimum. MS 13 are satan worshippers, some of them tied to Chinese intel bent on destroying El Salvador for its stance on human rights; it was the only nation to support Tibet in the UN.
But while Trump has MS 13 to deal with, he is reaching out positively to the Latin community. Which makes the left mad, so the spread lies about him. One does not have to like him - there are many things I do not - but one needs to at least be honest.
Trump is a powerful ally, or a powerful enemy. While he does not murder and torture people, leave that to MS 13 and some Mexican gangs which afflict other Mexicans - he can make the stupid, lying journalists look like the fools that they are.
Better to have him as a friend, in which case, he can create a lot of good.
There is a joke that Mexico is trying to get on his good side - because they want him to build a wall to keep out Guatemalans and Salvadoreans. Es broma, nada mas.
But in reality, many Latin leaders are sensing the real Donald from the bad hype. So let me make a prediction here: that Trump will be working closely with many Latin nations, including Bolivia, and that MS 13 and the terror gangs that sell drugs and kill Latin people will be his greatest enemy. In which case, Trump and Morales  and other Latin leaders will have a common enemy. Even if they are not best friends, I expect Morales and Trump to be on good terms later this year.

Puma Punku

While most people know about the Pyramids, and wonder how they could have been built, few in the US have any knowledge about Puma Punku, built around 536 AD. Some of the stones in this  mysterious structure weigh over 100 tons, and have remarkable precision in the carving. Who did this?
No one seems to know. Linda Stasi of the New York Daily News is on her way to the jungles of Bolivia to find out. The site is 12,800 above sea level, so the mystery of how these stones got to such an elevation is indeed deep.
But of course some say it's simple. Aliens.
Illegal of course. That way they did not have to be paid much!


See below what Wiki has to say:

Pumapunku or Puma Punku (Aymara and Quechua puma cougar, puma, punku door, Hispanicized Puma Puncu) is part of a large temple complex or monument group that is part of the Tiwanaku Site near Tiwanaku, in western Bolivia. It is believed to date to 536AD and later.
Tiwanaku is significant in Inca traditions because it is believed to be the site where the world was created. In Aymara, Puma Punku's name means "The Door of the Puma". The Pumapunku complex consists of an unwalled western court, a central unwalled esplanade, a terraced platform mound that is faced with stone, and a walled eastern court.
The Pumapunku is a terraced earthen mound that is faced with blocks. It is 167.36 metres (549.1 feet) wide along its north–south axis and 116.7 metres (383 feet) long along its east–west axis. On the northeast and southeast corners of the Pumapunku, it has 20-metre (66-foot) wide projections that extend 27.6 metres (91 feet) north and south from the rectangular mound.
The eastern edge of the Pumapunku is occupied by what is called the Plataforma Lítica.. This structure consists of a stone terrace that is 6.75 by 38.72 metres (22.1 by 127.0 feet) in dimension. This terrace is paved with multiple, enormous stone blocks. It contains the largest stone slab found in both the Pumapunku and Tiwanaku Site, measuring 7.81 metres (25.6 feet) long, 5.17 metres (17.0 feet) wide and averages 1.07 m (3 ft 6 in) thick. Based upon the specific gravity of the red sandstone from which it was carved, this stone slab has been estimated to weigh 131 metric tons.
The other stonework and facing of the Pumapunku consists of a mixture of andesite and red sandstone. The core of the Pumapunku consists of clay. The fill underlying selected parts of the edge of the Pumapunku consists of river sand and cobbles instead of clay. Excavations at the Pumapunku have documented "three major building epochs, in addition to small repairs and remodeling"
At its peak, Pumapunku is thought to have been "unimaginably wondrous," adorned with polished metal plaques, brightly colored ceramic and fabric ornamentation, and visited by costumed citizens, elaborately dressed priests, and elites decked in exotic jewelry. Current understanding of this complex is limited due to its age, the lack of a written record, and the current deteriorated state of the structures due to treasure hunting, looting, stone mining for building stone and railroad ballast, and natural weathering.
The area within the kilometer separating the Pumapunku and Kalasasaya complexes has been surveyed using ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, induced electrical conductivity, and magnetic susceptibility. The geophysical data collected from these surveys and excavations have revealed the presence of numerous man-made structures in the area between the Pumapunku and Kalasasaya complexes. These structures include the wall foundations of buildings and compounds, water conduits, pool-like features, revetments, terraces, residential compounds, and widespread gravel pavements, all of which now lie buried and hidden beneath the modern ground’s surface.
Researchers have worked to determine the age of the Pumapunku complex since the discovery of the Tiwanaku site. As noted by Andean specialist, W. H. Isbell, professor at Binghamton University, a radiocarbon date was obtained by Vranich from organic material from the lowermost and oldest layer of mound-fill forming the Pumapunku. This layer was deposited during the first of three construction epochs and dates the initial construction of the Pumapunku to 536–600 AD (1510 ±25 B.P. C14, calibrated date). Since the radiocarbon date came from the lowermost and oldest layer of mound-fill underlying the andesite and sandstone stonework, the stonework must have been constructed sometime after 536–600 AD. The excavation trenches of Vranich show that the clay, sand, and gravel fill of the Pumapunku complex lie directly on the sterile middle Pleistocene sediments. These excavation trenches also demonstrated the lack of any pre-Andean Middle Horizon cultural deposits within the area of the Tiwanaku Site adjacent to the Pumapunku complex.

Detail of stone with precisely cut straight line and tooled holes within the line

An example of high-precision small holes

Stone block with a set of blind holes of complex shape

The largest of these stone blocks is 7.81 meters long, 5.17 meters wide, averages 1.07 meters thick, and is estimated to weigh about 131 metric tons. The second largest stone block found within the Pumapunku is 7.90 metres (25.9 feet) long, 2.50 metres (8 feet 2 inches) wide, and averages 1.86 metres (6 feet 1 inch) thick. Its weight has been estimated to be 85.21 metric tons. Both of these stone blocks are part of the Plataforma Lítica and composed of red sandstone.^[5] Based upon detailed petrographic and chemical analyses of samples from both individual stones and known quarry sites, archaeologists concluded that these and other red sandstone blocks were transported up a steep incline from a quarry near Lake Titicaca roughly 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) away. Smaller andesite blocks that were used for stone facing and carvings came from quarries within the Copacabana Peninsula about 90 kilometres (56 miles) away from and across Lake Titicaca from the Pumapunku and the rest of the Tiwanaku Site.
Archaeologists argue that the transport of these stones was accomplished by the large labor force of ancient Tiwanaku. Several theories have been proposed as to how this labor force transported the stones, although these theories remain speculative. Two of the more common proposals involve the use of llama skin ropes and the use of ramps and inclined planes.
In assembling the walls of Pumapunku, each stone was finely cut to interlock with the surrounding stones. The blocks were fit together like a puzzle, forming load-bearing joints without the use of mortar. One common engineering technique involves cutting the top of the lower stone at a certain angle, and placing another stone on top of it which was cut at the same angle.The precision with which these angles have been utilized to create flush joints is indicative of a highly sophisticated knowledge of stone-cutting and a thorough understanding of descriptive geometry. Many of the joints are so precise that not even a razor blade will fit between the stones.Much of the masonry is characterized by accurately cut rectilinear blocks of such uniformity that they could be interchanged for one another while maintaining a level surface and even joints. However, the blocks do not have the same dimensions, although they are close.The blocks were so precisely cut as to suggest the possibility of prefabrication and mass production, technologies far in advance of the Tiwanaku’s Inca successors hundreds of years later. Some of the stones are in an unfinished state, showing some of the techniques used to shape them. They were initially pounded by stone hammers—which can still be found in numbers on local andesite quarries—, creating depressions, and then slowly ground and polished with flat stones and sand.
Tiwanaku engineers were also adept at developing a civic infrastructure at this complex, constructing functional irrigation systems, hydraulic mechanisms, and waterproof sewage lines.
Puma Punku was a large earthen platform mound with three levels of stone retaining walls.Its layout is thought to have resembled a square. To sustain the weight of these massive structures, Tiwanaku architects were meticulous in creating foundations, often fitting stones directly to bedrock or digging precise trenches and carefully filling them with layered sedimentary stones to support large stone blocks.Modern day engineers argue that the base of the Pumapunku temple was constructed using a technique called layering and depositing. By alternating layers of sand from the interior and layers of composite from the exterior, the fills would overlap each other at the joints, essentially grading the contact points to create a sturdy base.
Notable features at Pumapunku are I-shaped architectural cramps, which are composed of a unique copper-arsenic-nickel bronze alloy. These I-shaped cramps were also used on a section of canal found at the base of the Akapana pyramid at Tiwanaku. These cramps were used to hold the blocks comprising the walls and bottom of stone-lined canals that drain sunken courts. I-cramps of unknown composition were used to hold together the massive slabs that formed Pumapunku's four large platforms. In the south canal of the Pumapunku, the I-shaped cramps were cast in place. In sharp contrast, the cramps used at the Akapana canal were fashioned by the cold hammering of copper-arsenic-nickel bronze ingots. The unique copper-arsenic-nickel bronze alloy is also found in metal artifacts within the region between Tiwanaku and San Pedro de Atacama during the late Middle Horizon around 600–900.
It is theorized^{[by whom?]} the Pumapunku complex as well as its surrounding temples, the Akapana pyramid, Kalasasaya, Putuni, and Kerikala functioned as spiritual and ritual centers for the Tiwanaku. This area might have been viewed as the center of the Andean world, attracting pilgrims from far away to marvel in its beauty. These structures transformed the local landscape; Pumapunku was purposely integrated with Illimani mountain, a sacred peak that the Tiwanaku possibly believed to be home to the spirits of their dead. This area was believed to have existed between heaven and Earth. The spiritual significance and the sense of wonder would have been amplified into a "mind-altering and life-changing experience" through the use of hallucinogenic plants. Examinations of hair samples exhibit remnants of psychoactive substances in many mummies found in Tiwanaku culture from Northern Chile, even those of babies as young as one year of age, demonstrating the importance of these substances to the Tiwanaku.
As was characteristic of civilizations around this time, the Tiwanaku actively incorporated human sacrifice into their culture. The remains of dismembered bodies have been found throughout the area. Ceramic artifacts depict imagery of warriors, masked with puma skulls, decapitating their enemies and holding trophy skulls, and adorned with belts of human heads with their tongues torn out. It is believed that, because of certain markings on stones found at Puma Punku, the Gate of the Sun was originally part of Puma Punku.
The Tiwanaku civilization and the use of these temples appears to some to have peaked from 700 AD to 1000 AD, by which point the temples and surrounding area may have been home to some 400,000 people. An extensive infrastructure had been developed, including a complex irrigation system that extended more than 30 square miles (80 km²) to support cultivation of potatoes, quinoa, corn and other various crops. At its peak the Tiwanaku culture dominated the entire Lake Titicaca basin as well as portions of Bolivia and Chile.
This culture seems to have dissolved rather abruptly some time around 1000 AD, and researchers are still seeking answers as to why. A likely scenario involves rapid environmental change, possibly involving an extended drought. Unable to produce the massive crop yields necessary for their large population, the Tiwanaku are argued to have scattered into the local mountain ranges, only to disappear shortly thereafter. Puma Punku is thought to have been abandoned before it was finished.

Live longer in Bolivia

A New York Post article by Johnny Oleksienki in yesterday's paper (19 March 2017) , titled " 'Jungle diet' heart boost" tells people they live longer in Bolivia: "The secret to a stronger heart could be moving to Bolivia. Researchers have found that the Tsimane people who live in the forests of that country have the healthiest hearts in the world.
According to a study in the Lancet, few Tsimane people have clogged arteries, due largely to their ancient lifestyle. Their hunting, farming and gathering practices are much the same as they were thousands of years ago.
Seventy-two percent of their unusual diet is carbs, researchers say, while 17 percent is game meat, like pig, tapir and cabypara.

Meeting of Amigos de Bolivia in New York

Amigos de Bolivia is in its 9th year, which started off with a new member, Greg Purdy, a young political activist in Washington Heights. He likes the energy of Evo Morales, and wants to visit Bolivia soon. At present Greg is working on a weekend in the Dominican Republic, lots of Dominicanos here in the hood want him to see their island paradise, where he could practice his Spanish.
Naturally, a topic of conversation was the new Trump era in the US, and how the new State Department under Rex Tillerson will deal with Bolivia. We look forward to improved relations, and will compose a letter to Mr Tillerson to give him our support.
One thing that Greg wants to see instituted is a selective amnesty, modeled on the amnesty that Ronald Reagan gave to Latin immigrants in the '80s. It worked. Why the Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama did not make an amnesty is beyond words.
Greg is also supporting a Latin candidate for Mayor of New York, Daby Carreras. Earlier this month one of Greg's friends introduced a New York Times reporter to Daby, hopefully the paper will have access to his campaign. One issue with the new regime is that the press is getting shut out at times.
So we hope that our new member will be able to get his amnesty idea put forward and get it to the press so it will have the support it needs, along with positive press for Bolivia.

Donald Trump and Bolivia

Today Donald J. Trump became the 45th President of the United States. There are protests on 5th Avenue and some are turning violent, the Clinton crowd has set fires, blocked traffic for hours, smashed a newspaper office, it is out of control.

So I am sure Bolivia is watching the outcome and preparing for a new jefe in los EEUU. The former jefes were not good to Bolivia; Bush treated it with contempt and US spies and diplomats were expelled; Obama did much the same, insisting that Bolivia be treated as a drug dealing haven when in fact Bolivia got rid of lots of drug dealers as it got rid of the DEA, and Clinton, as Secretary of State, had little love for Bolivia.

The left has tried to scare people away from Trump, while hiding the truth about Clinton raping a woman, hanging our with child molesters, etc etc. It refused to hear the truth about Clinton either on Wikileaks or on the show www.dialectradio.co.uk - where a former navy intel op talked about secret deals in Syria, Jellyfish, and secret ops against Bolivia. Oh no, they did not have time to hear the truth. Instead,  the left spent time on hysterical propaganda and predicted massive market drops if he was elected. No such thing. Markets are fine. And they said Trump would divide.

In fact, when Trump won, he reached out. He called Obama and had a nice conversation, consoled Clinton, and told the American people it was time to heal. That is what made the left mad. They wanted him to act like a mad bully, instead, he acted presidential. They were proven wrong, and they are afraid Clinton might go to jail. And along with her, lots of evil American politicians, some of whom have mistreated Bolivia.

While I cannot say Bolivia is Mr Trump's #1 agenda, I do have some inside information  that Mr Trump is discussing how to really reach out to Bolivia. He has some respect for Evo Morales and the economic moves that Mr Morales has made, Trump is a businessman and knows the value of hard work. The fact that the Bolivian president works all day and has little sleep sometimes in order to improve his country is not lost on the Trump crew.

So expect better relations there. It will surprise the left in the US.

In a couple of weeks, the Bolivian Vice President, Alvaro Garcia Linera, will be in New York. While I cannot attend, I have good friends and founders of Amigos de Bolivia who will be at his talk at Columbia University, and they hope to reach out to him and perhaps bring the US and Bolivia closer together.

So far we have some good harbingers of this new era in American history. The president is NOT from the Yale elite (as are Bush and Clinton). He is NOT against minorities, though he did take a tough stance against ILLEGAL ALIENS - some of whom rape and murder people.

I am sure that Bolivia is against such crimes, and for economic development, as is Donald Trump and Amigos de Bolivia. We look forward to writing more about the future relationship between Mssrs. Trump and Morales. This could be the start of something really good for the whole world.

Facts about War on Drugs: Bolivia is winning, Colombia, thanks to the US, is losing

The United States constantly berates Evo Morales and insinuates that he is dealing drugs. However, the facts speak for themselves, and in the New York Times, 14 September, 2016, (editorial pages) we can read about how it is Colombia, where the US agencies are actives allegedly fighting drugs, that drugs are up 40% - while they are being eradicated in Bolivia. Obama needs to read the papers! And he might note the 11 September article in the front page of the NYT titled "U.S. Extradition Benefits Warlords from Colombia: Held to Account for Decades of Atrocities - Until the Americans Stepped In", by Deborah Spring. Below is the 14  September NYT article:

This week, the White House issued its yearly report on the nations on the front lines of the war on drugs. Predictably, it listed Bolivia as one of three countries that “failed demonstrably” to do enough to combat the drug trade. President Evo Morales of Bolivia responded, as he does each year, with defiance.

“The world knows that our counternarcotics model is better without the Americans,” Mr. Morales said during an event on Tuesday, alluding to his expulsion of American drug enforcement agents in 2008.

The yearly condemnation of Bolivia has been futile. So far, that country’s experience with its drug strategy is showing more promise than Washington’s forced-eradication model.

Over the past decade, the Bolivian government has sought to gradually curb the cultivation of coca — the plant processed to make cocaine — by establishing a tightly regulated market for its consumption as a nonnarcotic stimulant. (Bolivians have been chewing coca leaf and using it to make tea for generations.) The government eradicates unauthorized crops after negotiating with, and finding alternatives for, growers.

This approach, which has been supported and financed by the European Union, has shown significant results. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, coca leaf cultivation in Bolivia has declined each of the past five years. In its latest report, U.N.O.D.C. said Bolivia had roughly 20,200 hectares (about 78 square miles) of coca cultivation, a slight drop compared with the previous year.

These tactics have been hailed by scholars and some Western officials because they place a premium on the rights and needs of farmers in poor areas. Coca growers who have voluntarily registered with the government are given title for small parcels of land and are authorized to grow a limited amount. Mr. Morales, a former coca growers union leader, has played a hands-on role in negotiating the terms of this arrangement with unions and other local leaders.

This stands in stark contrast to the strategy the United States has long financed in the region — a combination of aerial herbicide spraying, manual eradication and the prosecution of drug kingpins in the United States. The inadequacy of this approach is most obvious in Colombia, which has been Washington’s closest ally in Latin America on counternarcotics.

Last year, coca cultivation in Colombia increased by nearly 40 percent compared with the previous year, according to U.N.O.D.C. The tough-on-crime approach has often exacerbated violence there. Colombia, however, did not get the “failed demonstrably” label. It may be time for Washington to drop that marker altogether and study the merits of innovative approaches, including Bolivia’s.

Escritura en la pared

A 16 August article in El Deber  - http://www.eldeber.com.bo/bolivia/vagabundo-boliviano-apoya-trump.html  - captured the graffiti art work of a homeless Bolivian who is writing that in Iran, there are no free elections, and that he is supporting Donald Trump in the US elections.
He is not the only Bolivian to support Trump, and far from being the only Latin American. Thousands of Bolivians in the state of Virginia, and all over the US, are rooting for El Donald. And so are Mexicans!
This week there is a Latins for Trump conference in the  US, but since the left wing media is ignoring it, it's as if it never  happened. And oh yes, there's Gays for Trump, Moslems for  Trump and African Americans for Trump - the latter you can see at www.brothers4trump.blogspot.com - a former US Army demo expert put that up tired of all the left wing jabs at a qualified candidate.

Trump would make much better relations with Bolivia than Bush, Obama or Clinton (show state department messed things up, and had some amount of support for the 2009 assassination attempt in Santa Cruz - don't think we don't know).

There is writing on the wall.

New York Times article: In the Mountains of Bolivia, by Michael Benanav

Below is a New York Times article on Bolivia, perhaps the best every published in that paper on Bolivia, we look forward to more like this. It is by Michael Benanav, published on  23 March 2016, titled  "In the Mountains of Bolivia: Encounters with Magic."

 

With a face as creased as a walnut shell and a smile as gleeful as it was toothless, 98-year-old Augustina Lamagril welcomed us into the small shop inside her adobe home. Rickety wooden shelves were stocked with sardines, cigarettes, beer, soda, kitchen utensils, light bulbs and other household goods. Beneath posters of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, two metal-framed beds were heaped with blankets. From the ceiling — rice sacks that had been stapled together — the corpses of hummingbirds dangled from strings, drying.

In addition to being one of the few storekeepers in the village of Chaunaca, Augustina is one of the most highly regarded curanderas, or traditional healers, in the Cordillera de los Frailes, a serrated sub-range of the Andes in south-central Bolivia. Despite her remote location, the ill and the injured make their way to her door, traveling for hours or even days to get there. The dead birds were part of her natural pharmacy.

My girlfriend, Kelly; our 9-year-old son, Luke; and I, along with our guide and translator, Rogelio Mamani, were invited to sit on low stools. As a black and white cat padded around our feet, Augustina explained the uses of the plants and animal parts that she kept around the house. Speaking in Quechua, she said aloe was good for throat problems; rosemary could heal bones; rue was prescribed “when the wind makes you sick.” She held out an enamel pot half-full with beige powder — a combination of black corn, barley, wild herbs, frog and owl parts and bat blood. “Three drops of bat blood,” she said, “can cure heart problems.”

None of us required treatment, so we left the shop with bottles of water, a wool hat knit by Augustina, and a sense that we’d been very lucky to have had this encounter with a master of the old ways.

 

Chaunaca is on a well-established trekking route through the Cordillera de los Frailes, a jumbled geologic mass that rises just west of Sucre, Bolivia’s official capital, best known for its whitewashed Spanish colonial neighborhoods and universities. Though the edge of the mountains can be reached from the city in about an hour, the villages within them feel worlds away.

The scenery would have been enough to draw me to the cordillera, with its upthrust layers of multicolored sedimentary rock set around a crater that’s encircled by rugged river canyons. But I was equally intrigued by the indigenous Jalq’a people who live there and who are known for intricate weavings that represent a fantastical underworld filled with spirits and mythical animals. In the same way that a place like Varanasi exudes a distinctly Hindu aura, and Cairo is palpably Islamic, I wondered how it would feel to be in a place where the culture is strongly associated with strange, subterranean dreamscapes.welcomed us into the small shop inside her adobe home. Rickety wooden shelves were stocked with sardines, cigarettes, beer, soda, kitchen utensils, light bulbs and other household goods. Beneath posters of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, two metal-framed beds were heaped with blankets. From the ceiling — rice sacks that had been stapled together — the corpses of hummingbirds dangled from strings, drying.

In addition to being one of the few storekeepers in the village of Chaunaca, Augustina is one of the most highly regarded curanderas, or traditional healers, in the Cordillera de los Frailes, a serrated sub-range of the Andes in south-central Bolivia. Despite her remote location, the ill and the injured make their way to her door, traveling for hours or even days to get there. The dead birds were part of her natural pharmacy.

My girlfriend, Kelly; our 9-year-old son, Luke; and I, along with our guide and translator, Rogelio Mamani, were invited to sit on low stools. As a black and white cat padded around our feet, Augustina explained the uses of the plants and animal parts that she kept around the house. Speaking in Quechua, she said aloe was good for throat problems; rosemary could heal bones; rue was prescribed “when the wind makes you sick.” She held out an enamel pot half-full with beige powder — a combination of black corn, barley, wild herbs, frog and owl parts and bat blood. “Three drops of bat blood,” she said, “can cure heart problems.”

None of us required treatment, so we left the shop with bottles of water, a wool hat knit by Augustina, and a sense that we’d been very lucky to have had this encounter with a master of the old ways.

Chaunaca is on a well-established trekking route through the Cordillera de los Frailes, a jumbled geologic mass that rises just west of Sucre, Bolivia’s official capital, best known for its whitewashed Spanish colonial neighborhoods and universities. Though the edge of the mountains can be reached from the city in about an hour, the villages within them feel worlds away.

The scenery would have been enough to draw me to the cordillera, with its upthrust layers of multicolored sedimentary rock set around a crater that’s encircled by rugged river canyons. But I was equally intrigued by the indigenous Jalq’a people who live there and who are known for intricate weavings that represent a fantastical underworld filled with spirits and mythical animals. In the same way that a place like Varanasi exudes a distinctly Hindu aura, and Cairo is palpably Islamic, I wondered how it would feel to be in a place where the culture is strongly associated with strange, subterranean dreamscapes.

 

Though I’ve trekked alone in remote regions around the world, I decided to go into the cordillera with a guide. If I hoped to talk to local people, I would need help from someone fluent in Quechua, the area’s native language. Additionally, I had heard that some Jalq’a were extremely reluctant to be photographed (I met one French couple who had stones thrown at them when they aimed their cameras at people), and I figured I would have a better chance of shooting pictures without upsetting anyone if I was accompanied by a guide who had local connections. It also sounded as if walking the entire route with a backpack would be a daunting prospect for a 9-year-old, so I wanted vehicle support.

When I asked around about trekking companies in Sucre, travelers and locals alike pointed me in the same direction: Condor Trekkers. Their guides were reputed to be top-notch, and the company’s profits support projects in the cordillera communities. To me, this meant that not only would my money be helping the villagers, but that the guides were likely to have positive relationships with them.

I found the Condor Trekkers office inside the Condor Cafe, a restaurant run by the by the same nonprofit that is a magnet for travelers to Sucre, thanks to its cheap and delicious vegetarian food. There, I met the director, Alan Flores. After he described the standard two-, three- and four-day treks that Condor offers, we decided that none of them were right for us. With typical days involving eight or nine hours of strenuous hiking, Alan agreed that it would be no fun for my son. Additionally, I wanted to add an extra day to the four-day itinerary, so we could stay two nights in one place.

Alan said it would be no problem — just a bit more expensive — to be accompanied by a vehicle, reducing our hiking to about three or four hours a day and eliminating the need to carry our backpacks.

In early November, Rogelio met us at our hostel in Sucre, along with our driver, Luis Ibarra, known as Lucho, who was behind the wheel of a green Mitsubishi Montero. Rogelio was born in a village in the cordillera, and is Jalq’a himself. He was studying tourism, English and French in Sucre, and was Condor’s most experienced guide, having been with the company since it started in 2008.

Before we hit the trail, we stopped at a roadside stand to pick up bags of coca leaves. A mild natural stimulant that’s normally chewed or brewed as tea, and from which cocaine is derived, it’s considered to be a gift from the Inca sun god, Inti, and is the essential social currency of the region. “With coca, anything is possible,” Rogelio said.

 

We turned off the highway and followed a dirt road into the mountains, through pungent groves of pine and eucalyptus, until we reached a place called Chataquila, where a church sits atop the eastern ridge of the cordillera, at 11,800 feet above sea level. It was there, in 1781, that Tomas Katari, the leader of an indigenous rebellion against Spanish rule, was executed, adding to the spiritual and emotional potency of an important place of pilgrimage.

Local people flock there in August to make offerings of coca leaves, incense and alcohol to Pachamama — mother earth, in Andean religions — in a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. “We believe that if you feed Pachamama, she will feed you,” Rogelio explained.

From there, we began hiking into the heart of the cordillera, down the so-called Inca Trail, which is believed to have been built about 550 years ago (though may be much older) and was used during pre-Hispanic times for communication and trade. Paved with smooth stones, it descends some 2,300 feet, switchbacking down rocky slopes speckled with cactuses and shrubby trees, into the Rio Ravelo canyon. Skies were sunny, and temperatures were in the upper 70s.

In two hours, we reached Chaunaca. A patchwork of fields — some blanketed with purple potato flowers, others sprouting young corn stalks, and many barren and brown, waiting to be planted — terraced the hills and spread out on a plateau that overlooked the river about 25 feet below. Most of the villagers were campesinos, working small family plots, perhaps keeping goats and sheep along with rabbits, guinea pigs and cows.

After lunch at a nearby waterfall and an exploration of the grounds of a magnificently derelict adobe hacienda once owned by the 26th president of Bolivia, Gregorio Pacheco, we checked on a new project that Condor Trekkers was funding. Three men were trying to hoist one end of a black polyethylene pipe from the riverbank up to the plateau. Their goal was to span the canyon with a drinking water line that would run from the main village to households across the gorge. “The families over there haul their water from the river, and sometimes it makes them sick,” said Benigno Romero, one of the workers, who also happened to be Chaunaca’s mayor.

Condor bought the materials and the village supplied volunteer labor; other crews would dig a trench to the village’s main well and lay the pipe to the homes that needed water. Mr. Romero explained that being mayor was also an unpaid position, and that he saw it as a privilege. Jalq’a people, he said, work together for the good of the whole, and would not expect payment for doing so. It was just part of life.

 

We spent the night in a community-run tourist cabana, several of which have been built in villages in the cordillera. All are variations on a theme: whitewashed stone walls, ceilings of wood and bamboo, liberal amounts of dust and dirt, and bathrooms with a variety of plumbing problems, but comfortable enough, and equipped with simple kitchens. Rogelio proved to be an enthusiastic and talented cook, improvising recipes around pasta, potatoes or quinoa.

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The next day, a combination of hiking and driving brought us to the village of Potolo, set in an undulating, Martian-red landscape at the base of a sharply hewed massif. One of the largest towns in the cordillera, Potolo is well-known for the weavings that women produce there.

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Jalq’a weavings, called axsus, are made from sheep wool dyed black and red. In fact, the word Jalq’a means “two colors,” in reference to this distinctive palette. Few details are known about the evolution of Jalq’a weaving over the ages, but it’s clear that it was first used to decorate clothing before the idea of making tapestries took hold in the 1990s, when a Sucre-based nonprofit called Anthropologists of the Southern Andes (ASUR) began a program to revitalize Jalq’a textile traditions, which were on the verge of disappearing. It’s also known that, over the last few centuries, ancient geometric patterns were supplanted by representations of a psychedelic spiritual underworld called Ukhu Pacha.

Swirling chaotically across the tapestries, animals with wildly exaggerated features are shown alongside mythical creatures called khurus, which include hunchback dragons and griffin-like bird-things. Within larger animals, smaller animals — called uñas, or offspring — are woven, but earthly laws of biology don’t apply: Condors can give birth to cats, monsters can give birth to men.

According to the anthropologist Veronica Cereceda, the founder of ASUR, the Jalq’a believe that Ukhu Pacha is the locus of the world’s primordial creative energy, “a space of constant gestation of life,” which may stay in the underworld, or emerge into the surface world (Kay Pacha) or the sky (Janaq Pacha).

The ruler of Ukhu Pacha, who is often woven into the axsus, is a powerful spirit called Saxra or Supay. Often equated with the devil because of the location of his realm, Saxra is not evil, though he does have demonic aspects, derived in part from the fusion of Catholic ideas of hell with ancient Andean beliefs. If Saxra goes unappeased, he may kidnap people and bring them down to the underworld or cause mining accidents or other disasters. If the proper offerings are made — typically coca, liquor and cigarettes — Saxra can show people where to find silver and gold.

 

Though the underworld is a ubiquitous feature of the indigenous Andean cosmovision, the Jalq’a are the only people in Bolivia who depict it in their art. I was curious to talk to some of the weavers, so Rogelio led us to the homes of a few, including Juliana Choque, who looked to be about 30. She set her simple loom up against the wall of her adobe courtyard and began weaving finely spun yarn through the strands of the warp, adding to an axsu that was nearly finished. Ukha Pacha was taking shape before our eyes, and the effect was magical.

Juliana said that she had been taught to weave when she was 9 by her mother, who had learned her craft in workshops organized by ASUR in the early 1990s. While the motifs she works with are traditional, each design is unique, a product of her imagination.

Like other weavers I spoke with on the trip, Juliana said that, for her, weaving is not a spiritual act, it’s a purely artistic, and economic, one. There’s little doubt that the resurgence in Jalq’a weaving in recent decades owes much to the money that women earn from it.

If you’re interested in buying any weavings, as we did from Juliana (paying 900 Bolivianos — about $132 — for a medium-size piece), visit shops in Sucre before heading to the cordillera, to get a sense of what high-quality work and fair prices look like. A nonprofit cooperative of indigenous weavers called Inca Pallay runs a shop a block off Sucre’s main plaza, offering Jalq’a axsus and other regional textiles, as does the shop at ASUR’s excellent Museo de Arte Indigena.

After a night at Potolo’s tourist cabana, we set off for the village of Maragua, driving, then walking, then driving again. We hiked past dinosaur footprints, laid down some 65 million years ago by sharp-toed carnivores and round-soled herbivores, and Luke thrust his hands into the tracks with wonder.

It wasn’t hard to picture dinosaurs in the surrealistic setting that we were trekking through, with its layers of purple and green rock and oddly shaped boulders that seemed to have fallen from the sky. Even a khuru wouldn’t have seemed out of place, and the Jalq’as say that they may be seen when one is alone in a mountain mist, or in the crepuscular light of dusk or dawn.

 

To reach Maragua, a small farming community, we climbed to the top of a ridge, then dropped down into a bowl-like crater formed by an unusual combination of geologic uplift and erosion. Garnet-colored earth covers the floor of the crater, which is ringed by pale chartreuse walls with arched tops that resemble a series of massive flower petals — imagine a giant greenish-yellow daisy with a dark red center.

Since we had planned our extra day for Maragua, we had time to explore and visit with locals, including a self-taught historian named Crispin Ventura. In the modest museum that he runs in an adobe shed, he explained that since Maragua is set inside a crater, it’s thought to have a special association with the underworld, and he told tales of people who’d had encounters with Saxra and the khurus. With these legends fresh in my mind, it was easy to imagine that a nearby cave, the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat), which looks like an open, toothy mouth, might actually swallow anyone foolish enough to sleep there.

Rogelio also introduced us to the more earthly side of life in Maragua. We had breakfast at the home of Victoria Cruz, who taught Luke how to make buñuelos — Bolivian doughnuts — over a fire in a soot-covered, chimney-less room.

Later, we helped a family plant its potato crop. Following a pair of bullocks that pulled a wooden plow, a couple of the women dropped seed potatoes in the furrows, which the rest of us covered with manure. Though they had never worked their fields with foreign travelers, we quickly settled into a comfortable rapport and, as soon as Rogelio told them that he would bring them prints of my pictures, they were happy to be photographed.

We took several breaks to reload our cheeks with coca and to drink chicha, sprinkling fermented corn alcohol over the ground as an offering to Pachamama. It seemed as if our gifts had been received: A pregnant spider scurrying over a freshly planted row was seen as a sign of fertility, and an omen of a good harvest.

Ramphastos toucans of Bolivia

Ramphastos Toucans are the largest of the toucan family, related to the Asian/African hornbills, along with woodpeckers, barbets, jacamars and kingfishers.
These toucans are tropical and subtropical near passerine birds from Mexico, and Central and South America, which are brightly marked and have enormous, often colourful, bills.
This genus has a size ranging from 42 to 61 centimetres (17 to 24 in) in length. All have black wings, tails and thighs, but the colour of the remaining plumage depends on the exact species involved. All the species are basically fruit-eating, but will take insects and other small prey. They are arboreal and nest in tree holes laying 2–4 white eggs. They are essentially resident birds, but may take part in minor, local movements (e.g., to lower altitudes in the winter). 

There are 7 species in this genus, 4 of which are Bolivian:

Channel-billed Toucan, Ramphastos vitellinus
Green-billed Toucan, Ramphastos dicolorus
White-throated Toucan, Ramphastos tucanus
Toco Toucan, Ramphastos toco

In the case of the Channel-billed and the White-throated, supspp. are recognised as follows:

Channel-billed Toucan, Ramphastos vitellinus
        Citron-throated Toucan, Ramphastos (vitellinus) citreolaemus.
        Ariel Toucan, Ramphastos (vitellinus) ariel
        Yellow-ridged Toucan, Ramphastos (vitellinus/ariel) culminatus

White-throated Toucan, Ramphastos tucanus
         Red-billed Toucan, Ramphastos (tucanus) tucanus
         Cuvier's Toucan, Ramphastos (tucanus) cuvieri

The Bolivian subspp. of the Channel-billed is the R. vitellinus culminatus, called the Yellow-ridged Toucan, a short video of which may be seen here:

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/video/channel-billed-toucan-ramphastos-vitellinus/yellow-ridged-toucan-perched-showing-all-kind-head

The Bolivian subspp. of the White-throated Toucan is the R. tucanus tucanus, called the Red-billed.

Toucans are not  hard to see, some are tame and kept as pets. In Santa Cruz, one of the hostels - Residencia Bolivar, keeps Toco Toucans which can get quite playful with the residents.

In addition to Ramphastos Toucans, Bolivia also has toucanets and aracaris, with a total of well over a dozen in the toucan family, mostly in the departamentos of Santa  Cruz, Beni, Pando, Oruro, Chuquisaca, La Paz and Cochabamba. 

New York Times on Bolivia; journalism or malicious gossip?

For years we have passed information to the New York Times and other papers. They have ignored it, even when a Bolivian consul offered his house to a NYT journalist and offered to set up an interview with Evo Morales. A press reception in the Bolivian consulate in New York, on 30 June, 2010, was ignored by the NYT, the NY Post and the NY Daily News. A short cab or subway ride away from their offices, or a ten minute walk for any able bodied journalists, was too much to undertake.

Even when Bolivian officials visited this city and spoke at major institutions, such as Colombia University, the journalists here took no note. Morales too spoke, at a convenient midtown location, and they were nowhere to be seen.

Bolivia, twice the size of France, or Texas, with its great diversity ethnically and geographically, has great opportunity for any real journalist. Recently, much of this has been positive, with the great increases in minimum wage, education and living conditions, the creation of more infrastructure and tourism, etc.

But none of this reaches the pages of the New York Times. I seldom get a google alert on my email; but recently it has been a constant stream of alerts about NYT pieces on Bolivia; all hit pieces.

Here is a sampling:
17 Feb  (AP)  "6 Dead of Asphyxiation in Bolivian Protest"
19 Feb  (Editorial Board)  "Three Terms is Enough for Morales"
21 Feb  (AP)  "Ballot Question on Morales Re-election in Trouble"
22 Feb  (Nicholas Casey)  "Polls Show Bolivian Leader Losing Vote"
25 Feb  (Nicholas Casey)  "Morales Concedes Defeat"
27 Feb  (Nicholas Casey)  "Former Lover in Jail"

There is a great irony of all this coming from a town where the former mayor had three terms, and wanted more; Michael Bloomberg. He is a pressman, but there was no such hit campaign against his seeking re-election in the NYT. The public voted for term limits for him and for Morales, as they did with Roosevelt. But somehow the NYT makes this
seem like something terrible is happening in Bolivia, and specifically with Morales' administration, and probes into his personal  life, what with claims of a son who passed away but now there is someone claiming the son is alive and a former girlfriend whom he broke up with. No one is sure what is happening, but busybodies are spending their time consumed with it.

I thought such kind of reporting was in the National Enquirer, along with Elvis sightings and UFOs.

Singani 63 rocks in New York

Bolivian grapes are a well-kept secret; the French import a millions bottles of Bolivian wines every year, and none of it reaches New York. Years did we try in vain to find a bottle of any Bolivian spirits. Then Hollywood producer Steven Soderbergh, after imbibing a brandy made with Muscat grapes, liked it so much that he got an import certificate  and began selling the award winning Singani 63.
I tracked down a bottle at Park Avenue Liquor Shop ( www.parkaveliquor.com ), which is actually located on Madison Avenue (after having actually been on Park Avenue for decades). Next I  took it to some friends at Amigos de Bolivia, and they, with more experience than me in mixology, came up with a murky mahogany coloured concoctions, which we have yet to name.
We hope to have some more mixing parties for this wonderful brandy, along with some catas de vino for yet more Bolivian wines. New Yorkers have been sorely deprived over the years and it is time to remedy that situation. Let's hope we don't have to go to France to track down some bottles.

INGREDIENTS: 
[1] 2 oz Singani 63
[2] 1 oz Creme de Cassis 
[3] 1 oz Pineapple Juice 
[4] .5 oz Fresh Lime Juice
  
Add four ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into lowball glass.
Garnish with pineapple chunk.

INGREDIENTS: 
[1] 2 oz Singani 63 
[2] 1 oz Valhalla Liqueur
[3] 1 oz Pineapple Juice 
[4] .5 oz Fresh Lime Juice

Add four ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into lowball glass.
Garnish with sprig of mint.

Write up of the Bolivian Day Parade in Jersey City

Yesterday the Bolivian Independence Day Parade took place in Jersey City, and some members of Amigos de Bolivia crossed the Hudson to check it out.  One was so impressed he took the time to learn to take pictures with his smart phone, and in an hour had amassed 200, which we plan to put up as soon as we learn to transfer from phone to blog...and believe me, you will see a wealth of colour like no carnival, so next time you think of going to Rio, just wait till August and take the PATH train to Jersey City.


There were dozens of bands each with dancers in elaborate native costume, Andean rythms vibrating from Uhauls all the way from Hamilton Park to City Hall. Many of these groups had come from other states, including New York and Virginia, where small enclaves of the Bolivian community exist almost unnoticed by America as a whole.


Bolivians tend to work hard and not get into trouble, most are very family oriented and so the Bolivian community keeps together, flying under the radar screen; few people even remember that Jaime Escalante and Raquel Welch were Bolivians. It could be a suggestion to promote more culture and tourism at the parades, Bolivia is a country with little crime and great wildlife from harpy eagles to orchids, and a whole range of products that it exports without getting the proper credit for (Brazil nuts, for instance, come mostly from Bolivia, not Brazil...).


The parade was enjoyable, but sadly at the end there were no cookouts with seviche and parillas as there have been in previous years. Also absent were any tables selling any CDs of the music, so I noted some of the bands and will be contacting them soon to buy CDs etc.


Today in Manhattan there is another parade, one which I passed on the way to the library midtown, and while it has many more adherents, it will in no way come near what we saw in Jersey. But hopefully we will not have to cross the river to see it; Manhattan is host to a great number of parades and it would benefit greatly from having a Bolivian parade in the future, along, with I hope, la comida boliviana.


VIVA BOLIVIA!

Bolivian Parade in Jersey City 2015

Bolivian Parade

August 8 @ 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

| Free

 
 

000

The 12th annual Bolivian Parade will lite up Jersey City as the colorfully costumed marchers make their way from Hamilton Park traveling down Jersey Ave., turning at Newark Ave., then onto Grove St. and ending in front of City Hall.

Feast of the Great Power

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia's mix of Roman Catholic and indigenous traditions are on display across La Paz as thousands of costumed dancers perform during the annual feast of the Great Power, a raucous street party that celebrates a rendering of Jesus Christ with native features and outstretched arms.

Brass bands marched and onlookers cheered over the weekend as the dancers performed elaborate routines in their quest for prizes.

The gathering of faithful fun-seekers traces its origins to a religious painting from the 17th century that depicts the Christian savior — El Senor del Gran Poder, or The Lord of the Great Power — with indigenous Andean features.

Religious believers began parading the image through poor neighborhoods in the upper reaches of Bolivia's capital in the 1930s. The quiet, candle-lit processions eventually morphed into a full-blown dance festival that spilled into the wealthier valley below.

Today, the weeklong celebration is the city's largest festival and a major showcase of Andean folklore. It has become so big that Bolivia is offering the Carnival-like event as a candidate for recognition by UNESCO.

The 62 dance troupes that began performing last weekend reflect Bolivia's mix of traditions. Women in traditional bowler heats pounded down the street alongside people dressed as conquistadors, men prancing in brightly colored ponchos, and dancers with painted faces performing ceremonial Inca steps. The most prestigious troupes boast foreign diplomats and local politicians as members.

As many as 20,000 performers prepare for months, practicing moves, searching for flashy jewelry and embroidering elaborate outfits worth as much as $20,000 apiece. After the festival begins, hired bodyguards watch over the dancers to prevent robberies.

The individual troupes are often financed by a single leader. This year, Jose Gabriel Nina sponsored a group of men who wore giant masks and heavy handmade suits covered in pearly beads. They paraded down the street performing a traditional dance that is supposed to evoke the slaves who toiled in Andean mines under Spanish masters.

"The Lord of Great Power has given me blessings. I've spared no expense here because this is an act of faith," Nina said.

In the poor neighborhood where the festival was born, street vendors compete for attention, offering food as well as herbs, potions and llama fetuses to be used as offerings to the Pachamama, a pre-Colombian native Earth mother figure revered in Bolivia.

The festival rumbles on until Sunday.

Warning of attack in South America

This post is not about Bolivia, save for mention of one person who passed away there in 2012; Antonio Escobar, an Argentine diplomat. He, like Ivan Heyn, died in what some doubt was a suicide that winter. Heyn's death was more well known, as he was a finance minister accompanying the president to a conference in Uruguay. The press in the West ignored both. The public quickly moved on.

One person who had doubts about their deaths stayed around to look at his own list of suspects, one of whom is a Gringo. And quite a few Argentinians might not have a problem believing that a Gringo could be behind such a move.

A couple of years prior to their demise, a Gringo was behind some shenanigans in Bolivia and its neighbours - and in 2009 there was discovered a plot to kill Evo Morales, president of the country. Again, not much doubt that a Westerner could be involved in something against the country that is supposed to have stripped their ambassador and sent him packing on a mule.

But there is much more to this than the nationality of two ne'er-do-wells who happen to get involved in intel attacks on Latin America; the most famous of which is the Bay of Pigs, led by one spoiled brat named Richard M. Bissell of the CIA. Bissell trained Hispanics to attack Cuba to spite Russia, and this might have worked but for the sheer stupidity of just about everyone involved. They overrode advice from military men and cost the lives of many on both sides, along with Cuban civilians. What they thought was genius was the fact that it was supposed to look like it was Hispanic in origin and the real perpetrators could, using 'plausible denial', escape any responsibility while getting what they wanted out of it.

Fast forward to today, and the same things are planned. But having made such a pig's ear of the Cuban invasion, the powers that be in the US are not quite so stupid. Give them some credit; they do learn from their mistakes.

Presently, we have gotten wind of plans to attack Britishers and Falkland Island/Malvinas residents using Hispanics with Argentine accents, with the result that all hell breaks loose, the Brits and Argentinians going at it full force. And thus certain people step in and take advantage - people who have been hearing rumours of an accord between Whitehall and the Pink House that would give Argentina a percentage of the petroleum from the Falklands while giving Britain use of Argentine ports. Both sides could save a lot of time and trouble and end up making money, putting aside past grievances and going forward.  Not an official negotiation; maybe just a rumour. But enough to make some people nervous.

One could here jump to the conclusion that  this is a CIA job, but reflect; the CIA is an old dog not up to much. Not that it ever was. The best move they ever made was when Allen Dulles, and this is before there was a CIA, took the time to listen to Fritz Kolbe, the German diplomat who ultimately helped turn the tide of war by giving Dulles, then spy chief at the US Embassy in Zurich; Kolbe gave him intimate details of Nazi and Japanese military plans. Kolbe had first gone to the British Embassy, where their spy chief pompously turned him away. Lazy dog was he; but his action is common, in fact, the reason for the British losing the American colonies what that their commander, a Hessian, was too lazy to open a letter from a Tory informant. He died with the letter unopened in his pocket; had he read it, he could have anticipated the surprise attack on Christmas Day.

Dulles' move was simple and efficient; he listened to an informant, who, by the way, did not want to be paid. Dulles' agency, the CIA, later turned into a den of snakes staffed by former Abwehr agents, whose influence led to things like the Operation Northwoods plan. I'll leave the reader to google that one and see what I mean.

At some point, the US government took the move to source its covert ops to private agencies, thus creating plausible denial. And some of these private agencies, which change their names frequently, are completely ruthless. They are able to override executive orders and get US State Department waivers to do things around the world that are illegal by many standards.

Here I will stop, having said enough, huelga decir hay mas a decir, y nosotros vamos a decirlo si alguien va escuchar.