US to Extradite Ex Bolivia Minister
La Paz, Nov 20 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia's ombudsman Waldo Albarracin confirmed Tuesday former Government Minister Luis Arce Gomez will be extradited from the US, where he is imprisoned for drug trafficking, in line with reciprocal treaties signed by the two governments.
According to Albarracin, the former minister should be sent back on November 23, under maximum security measures, to then serve another 30 years in the Chonchocoro prison, with no right to pardon.
He explained that a group of lawyers is in Washington arranging the expatriation to Bolivia of the so called ó cocaine minister, ó who served during the military dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza (1980-1981).
Arce Gomez is charged with genocide, murder, and damage to the State economy.
~~~~ link ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Luis Arce Gómez:
Colonel Luis Arce Gómez was a Bolivian military officer. Of strong conservative, anti-communist persuasion, in 1980 he backed the bloody coup (sometimes referred to as the "Cocaine Coup") that brought to power the infamous General Luis García Meza. Indeed, Arce served as García Meza's right-hand man and Minister of the Interior.
Arce Gomez's tenure as Bolivia's chief repressor including the passing of such measures as the banning of all political parties, the incarceration and/or exile of most political opponents, the repression of the unions, and the censorship of the media. Among García Meza and Arce's collaborators were former Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, and professional torturers allegedly imported from the murderous Argentine dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla. Some 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Bolivian security apparatus in only 13 months. Apparently, Arce Gomez meant it when he cautioned that all Bolivians who may be opposed to the new order should "walk around with their written will under their arms." The most prominent victim of the dictatorship was the congressman, politician, and gifted orator Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, murdered and "disappeared" soon after the coup. Quiroga had been the chief advocate of bringing to trial the former dictator, General Banzer (1971-78), for human right violations and economic mismanagement.As if all this were not enough, the García Meza government was also deeply involved in drug trafficking activities, and may have come to power financed directly by the drug cartels. The main link of the regime to the drug dealers seems to have none other than the notorious Colonel Arce. The impunity with which he and García Meza operated led to the complete isolation of their government. Even the new, conservative U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, kept its distance and seemed to prefer better options. Eventually, Arce Gómez was forced to resign, as was his boss, García. In the late 1980s, Arce was extradited to the United States, where he is currently in jail, serving a lengthy sentence for drug trafficking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Arce_G%C3%B3mez On edit:
As for Miami, a few thousand more fascists will just get lost in the fascist crowd! I read an article once which described the transplanted culture there as looking as if Latin America had vomited up its murderous dictators and death squads on the shores of Florida. Any time a country has managed to shake off the muderous claws of some former SOA-trained, U.S.-maintained tyrants, they always take the first plane out to Miami.
It's getting pretty crowded there, from what I've heard.
An infuriating feature of recent news from Miami is the fact that the Cuban right-wing Congresscritters have been trying to ram through legislation in Washington which would allow the wealthy Venezuelans who are pouring into South Florida to also be able to get the Cuban Adjustment Act extended to other Venzuelans so they'll ALL be able to cash in on the U.S. taxpayer gravy train, and ALL of them receive things like instant legal status the moment they arrive here, instant social security, work permit, welfare, food stamps, Section 8 U.S. taxpayer financed housing, medical treatment, educational assistance for schooling. This would be a whole LOAD of freebies which would kick in and even help them bring their employees here.
It's a BIG deal in Miami for Cuban "exiles," with the final straw being a story of Florida "exile" State Congressman Rudy Garcia's cranky old grandmother, her trip to the local food stamp place, and the subsequent firing of SIX EMPLOYEES when someone didn't jump high enough to suit her tastes:
Stalin Would Be Proud
And only Kafka could have dreamed up a character like Rudy Garcia
By Tristram Korten
Published: May 1, 2003
The dismissal of six workers from a local office of the Department of Children and Families is one of the most surreal governmental dramas to play itself out in some time. Certainly you recall the incident. On March 4 an aide to state Sen. Rudy Garcia was accompanying the senator's 94-year-old grandmother to the Hialeah DCF office to inquire about her food-stamp eligibility. The aide, Francis Aleman, claims she and Garcia's abuela were treated rudely. She complained to DCF brass in Tallahassee and voilà, everyone up the chain of command got the axe. Garcia happens to sit on two committees that fund and supervise DCF, and the senate is about to vote to confirm DCF Secretary Jerry Regier's permanent appointment.
Two of the fired employees had not even worked at the Hialeah office for one and a half months. They never saw, heard, or talked to the grandmother. The day they were canned they must have felt like characters in a Kafka novel, complete with self-important politicians (and their aides), obsequious bureaucrats, and a labyrinthine system so mindless that once set in motion, it couldn't be stopped.
This is as absurd as it gets. First, what the hell is the grandmother of a state senator doing on food stamps? Much less a senator who in 2001 listed his net worth as $100,212, and his income as $63,829. "She's an American citizen and she wants her independence," Garcia explained to me. "I can't tell her what to do. This is a nominal amount, around $30 a month."
(snip/...)
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-05-01/news/stalin-would-be-proud/The story has also appeared in the Miami Herald. It's enough to make a maggot gag. Lincoln Diaz Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have been attempting to get these same privileges extended to the incoming Venezuelan community.