Chilean rap group Portavoz (“Spokesperson”) questions the “popularity” of the Piñera government. Here’s my translation of the lyrics: They want to crush you, kicked and tossed out like a plasta* Liquored up and doped until you say basta Anguished and drugged with cocaine paste, no doubt You’ve asked why a
Continue readingTag: Chile Sin Queso
Festive Left Friday Blogging: Two million and counting!
Ahem. Make that two and a HALF million… And now, the story from Aporrea: At 10:06 this morning, and three months shy of his second anniversary on Twitter, President Hugo Chávez made history as the most-followed head of state on the social network, with two and a half million followers.
Continue readingKeystone XL: Dirty oil barons threaten Obama
The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten
Continue readingThe state-sponsored murder of Pablo Neruda
The official version of Pablo Neruda’s death goes something like this: World famous Chilean poet and Nobel winner dies of metastatic prostate cancer, age 69. But recent investigative findings put the lie to that version. Here’s the story that’s got Chileans, and Neruda fans everywhere, buzzing: Poet Pablo Neruda did
Continue readingPiñera’s prostitute
Oh, Chile. What is happening to you? When the capitalist whores are literally coming out of the woodwork, you KNOW you’ve got a corrupt, ruined country. And look! Here comes one now: The famous “lady of company”, María Carolina, was invited to appear on the TV program, “True Lies”, where, true to her style, she […]
Continue readingKer-SPLAT!!!
How to deal with privatization and fascism in your midst? Take a lesson from Chilean students. They’ve been on strike for years against it, and this year things are coming to a head, with a right-wing Pinochetist president in office. And when one of the Pinochetist’s lackeys, a local mayor, illegally closed the schools, causing […]
Continue readingAugusto Pinochet: a bigger bastard than originally thought
I know…how is this even possible? (Well, I have an idea, but we’ll get to that in a moment.) While we’re on the subject of all things Chile and Chile-related today (a sheer, strange coincidence), how about this little item from the Beeb? A Chilean commission investigating human rights abuses under the former military leader […]
Continue readingEconomics for Dummies: Another horrible trapped-miner story
Yes, this is satire. But it has a very large, uncracked grain of truth in it. Can you spot it?
Continue readingCarmen Quintana: still protesting against neoliberal dictatorship
Chilean high school and university students are currently involved in a mighty struggle against their government’s unfair and inequitable privatized education policies, which date back to the neoliberal “reforms” of the Pinochet era, and their struggle has been going on for a very long time, as this woman’s own struggle makes clear. After all, she […]
Continue readingFestive Left Friday Blogging: A killer “Thriller” for free quality education
Chilean high school and university students got zombified and staged this brilliant protest against privatization and fee hikes that will put higher education out of reach for the non-rich majority of Chileans. This took place in the northern port city of Antofagasta. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Chile, this happened: A smoochathon! This lovely demo, in La […]
Continue readingAugusto Pinochet…marijuanero?
Pothead? For some odd reason, this article in Patria Grande makes me giggle uncontrollably: A marijuana plantation has been found in a sector of a hacienda where lie the ashes of the ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet, a property currently under legal sanction for illicit enrichment. Lucía Pinochet Hirart, the oldest daughter of the former dictator, told […]
Continue readingSurreal adventure in an Argentine lake
Who wants to scuba-dive in a weird grey moonscape? This Argentine dude apparently does. The moonscape is Nahuel Huapí, which is normally a nice clear alpine lake in southern Argentina, and it looks like that now because it got a liberal dusting of ash from the recently-erupted Puyehue volcano in neighboring Chile. The same has […]
Continue reading“Don’t keep looking for your brother, they threw him from a helicopter”
Pura Soto Rojas points to a headline: “SHOT”. It refers to the deaths, by secret firing squad, of leftist guerrillas during the “democratic” years of the Fourth Republic. Years which were not so democratic in fact, as the tragic story of her brother Víctor Ramón makes clear: “Víctor Ramón was born in Altagracia de Orituco […]
Continue readingFestive Left Friday Blogging: Ollanta Presidente!
My gosh, the dominoes are just tumbling in Latin America, aren’t they? It’s getting so that you’d hardly recognize the place anymore. First it was Venezuela, then Bolivia and Ecuador. Argentina and (for a while) Chile have had some progressive types, too. Brazil is now on its second one. And Paraguay got a “red” ex-bishop, […]
Continue readingSalvador Allende: Explosive new revelations from a Chilean demolition site
Do these sound to you like the last words of a suicidal man? They sound to me like the words of one who was determined to fight to the death, and did. Now, a new chapter is being written. It could put the lie to the notion that the great socialist president committed suicide, according […]
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