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The Tears of Peru
A chain of events. An independent filmmaker's group in Honduras uploads a video to YouTube. It's a short clip of protesters and cops in an unnamed poor barrio in Tegucigalpa, but towards the end someone picked up a spent tear gas canister and pulled out its ID label: Policia National de Perú. Last Wednesday, the ever vigilant Al Giordano posted the video in a story on his NarcoNews web site, with this comment:
Then three major news services in Brazil and Perú lift the story from NarcoNews and publish it. La Republica in Perú asks: "How could these gases arrive in Honduras if they belong to the Peruvian police?" This leads Octavio Salazar, Peruvian Interior Minister, to issue a threat of legal action against the perps of the story, and La Republica edits the story this way:"How could these gases arrive in Honduras if they belong to the Peruvian police?"
It gets much better, and I encourage you to read Giradano's complete story. For example:
We can also see in that video the revelation that the tear gas canisters shot by the National Police yesterday were stamped as property of the government of Perú, suggesting strongly that Peruvian President Alan García is a participant in smuggling arms to the Honduran coup regime. Something he will now have to answer for to the Organization of American States in general, and his neighbor Brazil in particular.
Then three major news services in Brazil and Perú lift the story from NarcoNews and publish it. La Republica in Perú asks: "How could these gases arrive in Honduras if they belong to the Peruvian police?" This leads Octavio Salazar, Peruvian Interior Minister, to issue a threat of legal action against the perps of the story, and La Republica edits the story this way:
That's fútbol, Narco News style, in which the information ball bounces from Honduras through somewhere in América, ricochets through Sao Paulo then Lima then, GOOOOOOLLLL¡
Reporting for the Peruvian daily La Primera, Raúl Weiner wrote:
"The story is very serious, to have clandestine relations between a government that daily proclaims itself democratic and the coup plotters condemned by the world, behind the backs of all Peru. The situation rarifies even more because a country as important as Brazil has taken a decisive role in the current phase of the Honduran crisis, decisively pushing the return of President Zelaya, and Peru appears to be in the opposing camp, providing the weapons to save Micheletti."
The moral of this story? Be careful what you blog. Ha.
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You left out a SIGNIFICANT part of the La Republica edit! Replacing the strike-through line you highlight, they put the following text:
So it turns out to have been a legitimate purchase by the Honduran government from the US. I'm not sure what the big story here is except maybe that Narcosphere managed to get their article picked up in more mainstream media outlets by making accusations against the Peruvian government that turn out to be untrue. IMO, that just means mainstream outlets will be more careful before publishing information based on his "journalism" knowing that he doesn't check with all parties before running allegations.
Giordano was just a bit sloppy as a journalist by publishing without seeking comment from Peru, but did actually assert accurately the markings on the canister. The article you quote clearly acknowledges that the Peruvian government had nothing to do with the tear gas in Honduras. Your post selectively edits Giordano's article to generate the demonstratively untrue impression Peru supplied the canisters. If your intent was to make a different point, it is not immediately apparent to me. It is also not apparent to me why you'd want people to think badly about Peru.
September 27, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, Giordano's piece does not acknowledge that the grenades had nothing to do with Honduras - it left the question open. I don't know why you believe that the "official government response" was true, especially as Girodano's story goes on to tell us that:
“The Congress of the Republic has filed a motion for the Interior Minister, Octavio Salazar, to appear at a hearing and explain the presence of Peruvian tear gas bombs in the hands of the de facto government of Honduras.”
This is a congressional investigation, right? If the Peruvian Congress doesn't accept the official denial, why should you?
As for my own motives, I thought it was clear: It is interesting how a story on a blog can inflate into an international incident in today's mass media culture. Did I not conclude: "The moral of this story? Be careful what you blog. Ha." How could my intent be clearer?
BTW, I hope you read the comments section below the article - often the comments are as good as the blog, I find. I'm referring to Bill Conroy's comment. Conroy has some experience on the US laws governing arms exports due to his investigative reporting several months ago on the issue of US arms appearing among Mexican DTOs (narcos) which concluded with the claim that State was remiss on the oversight of legal arms shipments to Mx. Here's his comment in full:
----------------begin quote------------------
Dazed and confused
Submitted September 26, 2009 - 11:03 pm by Bill Conroy
I'm not breathing easy with the officialdom smokescreen on all of this.
The U.S. company that exported the tear gas projectiles to Latin America would have needed approval from the U.S. government to do so, via an export license.
If, as it seems is being alleged by Peruvian officials, the tear-gas cannisters carrying markings for Peru were somehow sent to Honduras after Peru canceled its contract, then the U.S. Department of Commerce would have to have a papertrail on that change of export destination — assuming the rules were followed.
I guess that's possible, but it doesn't sound immediately convincing given a separate export license would be needed for Honduras, which would take time [and likely involved harsher scrutiny given the originally approved destination was being altered], certainly enough time to change the labels on the tear-gas cannisters before shipping them to Honduras.
The law:
Chapter 2
Crime Control/Human Rights
(Sections 742.7, 742.11, 742.17)5
Export Control Program Description and Licensing Policy
As required by Section 6(n) of the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended, the United States controls the exports of crime control and detection items because of human rights concerns in various countries of the world. The U.S. Government requires a license to export most crime control and detection instruments, equipment, related technology, and software to all destinations, except Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). A license is required to export certain crime control items, including restraint type devices (such as handcuffs) and discharge type arms (such as tasers) to all destinations except Canada. ... In addition, the U.S. Government maintains concurrent export license requirements for certain crime control items in furtherance of the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and other Related Materials.
... The Department of Commerce controls certain tear gas formulations on the Commerce Control List for crime control reasons. The Department of State controls other tear gas formulations on the United States Munitions List (USML).
... These controls seek to ensure that U.S.-origin crime control equipment is not exported to countries where governments fail to respect internationally recognized human rights, or where civil disorder is prevalent. Denial of export license applications to such countries helps to prevent human rights violations and clearly signals U.S. concerns about human rights in these countries. The license requirements for most destinations allow for close monitoring of exports of certain crime control items that could be misused to commit human rights violations.
----------------end quote---------------
September 27, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough, but I don't see how the comment you highlight about export requirements is germane to anything. You do realize that until 90 days ago Honduras was considered a close ally, certainly closer than Peru? They would have been eligible to import as much tear gas as they wanted. Also, if the company had the licensing to export to Peru isn't it absurd to assume they weren't licensed to export to Honduras? Since the Peruvian order was canceled in 2007 the stuff was likely purchased by Zelaya himself.
Honduras has given the name of a specific American company from which the gas was purchased. Pretty ballsy move if the company didn't really sell the shit. Giordano also confirmed that a Peruvian order for the exact product in question was canceled precisely when they said it was - and even gave the whole backstory around that canceled purchase. In most journalism, that means you don't make direct assertions of involvement without further information ... which is EXACTLY what Gordinio did:
He then goes on to a general vilification of Peru with an unstated (and unfounded) implication that Honduras acquired the gas since the crisis began. But he carefully makes no further assertions about the origin of the canisters. Honestly, it's a pretty snappy piece - he limits his liability by doing journalistic diligence (if belated) - while blustering for the audience "bring it on". He is indeed a master propagandist.
September 27, 2009 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read the Galeano quote.
September 27, 2009 8:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Zelaya will do nothing to change that dynamic. He is a ghost of the 20th century. An era when two now-failed ideologies dueled across the globe racking up corpses like deadwood. My generation can do better than falling into the discredited faux class-war struggle of the generation past. What Zelaya, the puppet of an imperialist dream, represents is no solution. The time has come to put the old ideas to pasture and find a new way to pursue the goals of equality and economic justice. IMO it will come through true solidarity not ideological polarization in thrall to a cult of personality.
September 27, 2009 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I advised you several blogs ago that you shouldn't be obsessed with Zelaya. You just can't seem to let go.
September 27, 2009 11:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting advice from someone who out of 40-odd posts has made only four on any other topic. An obsession you claim as yours alone?
Besides, I thought you said I shouldn't be obsessed with Chavez. No matter, both are just symbols: the yin to the corporatist yang. Each half promising freedom and prosperity, neither honestly willing nor capable of delivering. Desperately dependent on each other as justification to achieve and hold power. There can be more than one species of snake in the garden, the venomous nature of one makes the other no less deadly. You prefer the bite of a cobra to that of a rattle snake - I prefer to cage both and try something new.
September 28, 2009 1:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
These are great blogs. It is almost like revisiting the tales in Eduardo Galeano's Stories of Almost Everyone in real time.
September 27, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The Nobodies
Fleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on
them---will rain down in buckets. But good luck doesn't rain down yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. Good luck doesn't even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms.
The nobodies: nobody's children, owners of nothing. The nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way.
Who are not, but could be.
Who don't speak languages, but dialects.
Who don't have religions, but superstitions.
Who don't create art, but handicrafts.
Who don't have culture, but folklore.
Who are not human beings, but human resources.
Who do not have faces, but arms.
Who do not have names, but numbers.
Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the police blotter of the local paper.
The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them."
— Eduardo Galeano (Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent)
September 27, 2009 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The nobodies.
I know those people.
I'm one of 'em.
September 27, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
More and more of us are, these days. All over the US, if you listen closely to the din from both sides of the political spectrum, you can hear the words "I use ta be somebody!" over and over.
Trouble is, we can't agree on who the nobody-makers are.
September 28, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thought you'd like to know ... the government officially suspended constitutional guarantees in Honduras and declared a state of emergency ... reportedly in response to Zelaya calling for insurrection.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.tiempo.hn/secciones/crisis-politica/4568-gobierno-ordena-suspender-garantias-constitucionales&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhiuWcdC50jsO75Mx-BlkX88RyPORQ
September 28, 2009 3:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http://www.elheraldo.hn/Especiales/Honduras%2520en%2520contra%2520de%2520la%2520ilegalidad%2520del%252004%2520de%2520septiembre%2520de%25202009/Ediciones/2009/09/28/Noticias/Estado-de-excepcion-en-Honduras&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhh5x-m2aD5FI_4L8eLsUx1brbq4eA
September 28, 2009 3:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Awhile back, I saw an article about a major arms dealer, now in Israel, who was working out of Peru. Could this have been the source of the gas?
September 28, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink