The big news here the last week has been the reported death of Manuel Marulanda, the leader of the FARC (forces armadas de colombianos revolucionaries), the Colombian left-ist cum drug warlord group that has been fighting a guerrilla insurgency for decades. Marulanda’s death has been proclaimed about 10 times previously so yet to be determined whether this is for real. But if so, potentially huge news for that country.
In other news, President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega–whom John McCain lumps in with Hamas as leaders that want Obama to be president and that the rest of us should take our cues accordingly which is ludicrous if the Arizona Senator had ever spent five minutes in this country but there it is—is heading to Iran.
Ortega, former head of the Sandinista government in the 80s, blacklisted by the US. Quite ironic given the whole Iran-Contra affair, wherein the Reagan Administration illegally funneled weapons to Ayatollah Khomenei’s Iran (whom the US was and still technically is at war with) in order to help repeal a possibly loose cannon named Saddam Hussein whom the US also happened to fund and arm in order to attack Islamist Iran. The moneys from those sales went to fund the Contras, the anti-Sandinista, US-backed counter revolutionaries.
Rich in historical irony. Like Cuba blackballing a small little dinky Latin America country works extremely well.
