Saturday, December 29, 2007

Politics

Before I start I gotta say that if your a good down home redneck that believes in the US current foriegn policy then you might not like what your about to read so instead of writing me telling me about your thoughts of how Im a communist heathen...here is a thought for you...You can start your own blog.
In march I was lucky enough to have my mom and my brothers come and visit me here in Salvador. One night my mom and I were talking about the past and the war that swept the country from the late 70´s to the early 90´s. My mom was young back in 1979 and was working at a string factory here in San Salvador. She worked the night shift so she left the house at 7 and didnt come home till 5 in the AM. At this point the war was not "official" I guess the best term is, but the reasons why a war was on the horizon were evident. Now let me make one more pause.
If you know any salvadoran more than one will tell you that what I´m saying is bullshit, the problem with my fellow countrymen is that they are easly brain washed and others are the small precentage of rich folks in this country so they didnt see what Im about to write about. My mom is a christian, a God fearing woman and as honest if not more than Abe Lincoln.
As most of latin america my small country was prisoner to the military dictatorship and the North american intrests in the region. Human rights were overlooked in the name of capitalism. But thats another story. So my mom told me that one night on her way to work on the last buses that would do their runs she saw the national guard detouring the vehicles as so they would not go through down town. There was a protest of some kind and down town was going to be a battle field. Eventually my mom made it to her factory and began her work. Inside the factory you could hardly hear anything cuase of the heavy machinery.
At about 1 am my mom had her lunch break and she told me she and her friends from work went outside to take a breathe of air. While outside they could see down the slope where the factory was, the rest of San Salvador. Which seemed normal enough. What was askew was the gun shots comming from the down town area. Evidently something had gone wrong. My mother and her friends only stared at the lights of the city and looked onto the center of the city where the national cathedral was located. They went back to work.
When the shift was over my mom and her friends carded out and waited outside for the first bus to come by. Eventually one came by and they started their descent from the hill towards down town. Again the national guard was out detouring the buses. Down town was quite the mess as my mom told me. Eventually the bus stopped and the national guards man said that there was no passage for vehicles. Everyone on the bus had to get off.
At this point my mom and one of her friends from work were on the sidewalk, the sun starting to come out. Every entrance of down town was blocked off to any car. My mom told me that at that moment she saw a Red Cross ambulance and a man argueing with a major or something from the national gaurd. Cars were blocked off but people were walking and going through. My mom had to cross the downdown center area to get to another bus that would take her home, so did her friend. So they started walking towards the cathedral.
When they came to the plaza they came across a nightmare. There were things burning in the plaza. the cathedral was riddled with bullet holes. There were national gaurds guiding people and telling them not to stop and keep moving. To get to the other side of town my mom and her friend had to go through the cathedral.
"From outside all you could see is darkness through the front entrance of the cathedral but when we walked in and our eyes adjusted to the darkness we both gasped almost screamed. There were dead bodies everywhere. Men, women, young, old, children. I felt cold and fear was comming up my back. I was so afraid. Inside the guards where moving the bodies to a corner. A guard told us to keep walking and waved his rifle at us. I wanted to run but I couldnt, and I felt my feet heavy. We were walking into another room towards the back looking for the exit when Clara told me to speed up but not to run. The blood was everywhere and I could slip. I was trying to snap out of my shock when I saw I was stepping on the blood of a little girl who had been shot in the head. She was no older than 8. Near her hands a small basket with tortillas. I dont know how we got out but when I was aware again we were outside in the back of the cathedral."
It seems that a large number of protesters had taken the plaza. The national guard came in to supress them. When the bullets started flying some of the protestors took refuge in the cathedral. The national guard waited them out. Eventually they lost their patience and went in bullets flying. No one knows how many were killed.
That was the beggining. Why do I tell you this? These national guard members were trained by US advisors here in Salvador and by the school of the Americas in Atlanta Georgia. Their weapons their funding all US. Why? Cuase the United States has economic intrests. If it has to do with money the US will support any dictator. The same ass holes in power then are still here. The US government, especifically the republican party regard these extreme right wing governments as heroes. In 12 years of civil war here the US backed and trained salvadoran army were getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of farmers with AK 47s. The army had airplanes, choppers, tanks, the best weapons and still they couldnt win.
Now the problem at hand as I see it for the US government and it´s people is the war in Irak. The war in Irak is similar to the one here, as that it is a guerrilla war. Since Vietnam the US has not been able to understand and to fight a guerrilla war. In other words your army is fighting a loosing battle. Everyday there is at least one soldier dead on average. The other day I heard the so called president say that the best way to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers is to finish the objective. Well then why doesnt he send one of his crack smoking daughters to the front. In every war the United States has been in the poor of the poor are the ones on the battle front, not the rich. Bush talks a bunch about honor and tribute and defending freedom. But he hasn´t steped on the blood of a 8 year old little girl. I think its time that the citizens of the United States of America start living up to their reputation of a democracy loving nation. Eventually when the US pulls out of Irak, in the end this will happen, whats going to be left behind is a tirany.
I hear a lot of people saying that the 9 11 attacks justify this war. In international law the international comunity recognizes everyones right to self defence when attacked by another nation. The problem is that Irak didnt attack, the problem with Irak is that it has OIL. people are all worked up about terrorism and scared of another attack, well welcom to the earth situation. Every time the US didnt like a situation in Latin America a little organization called the CIA would over throw a government or instigate a war. Here are some examples: The over throw of the elected president of Guatemala in the 1950´s Jacobo Arbenz, The over throw of elected president Salvador Allende in Chile 1972, the war instigated and funded by the US in Nicaragua with the CONTRAS, The murder of Archbishop Romero in El Salvdor by death squads trained by the CIA, The MOZOTE massacre of 1000 farmers in el salvador by a batalion trained by the US military etc. This is the world we are used to. THIS IS TERRORISM TOO. I understand the people of the United States that they don´t understant, thats becuase your government hides things from you. Some people say that the US is the police man of the world. I think thats funny, cause there is a lot of police brutality going on. No one asked for the US to be policing the rest of the world.
I just wanted to provoke some thought into the situation that we, all of us, are living in our modern world.

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