Lat/Am Daily » Uruguay

Uruguay fuels up

Peter Krupa — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:31:25 +0000

The Uruguayan selection, which has made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup, just received a shipment of half a ton of fine cuts of beef for the mother of all asados in preparation for a contest against Ghana on Friday: “450 kilos of lomo, 200 of entrecot, 75 of vacío, 75 of colita de cuadril, 150 of ojo de bife and 50 kg of picaña.” [link]

Guinea pig bets on Uruguay

Kissinger and Operation Condor

Peter Krupa — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:21:15 +0000

The good folks at George Washington University’s National Security Archive project report that recently-declassified memos show U.S. Secretary of State and Nobel Prize winner Henry Kissinger directly ordering underlings to cancel warnings against launching Operation Condor to military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay .

Four days later, a car bomb killed former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier and his secretary Ronni Karpen Moffitt as they drove through Washington, D.C.

Frankly, I don’t find these documents as scandalous as the NSA does, although the AP says controversy over this particular point of history has been raging for some time. Avoiding warning other governments against committing atrocities is not nearly as outrageous as directly participating in or encouraging those atrocities. I suppose the implication is that if you avoid issuing warnings, you’re probably involved somehow.

What is interesting to me is the tone of the State Department communications. To wit:

What we are trying to head off is a series of international murders that could do serious damage to the international status and reputation of the countries involved.

Really? That’s what you’re concerned about? The “reputations of the countries involved?” I would have been concerned about the people to be extra-judicially tortured and murdered.

Anyway, it’s not like we needed further proof that Kissinger is a war criminal. Can you un-nominate someone for a Nobel Peace Prize?

Tiff over a swastika

Peter Krupa — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:42:07 +0000

(Via Página/12)

A curious corner of South American history is bulging into something of an international diplomatic tiff. In 1939, after a sea battle with the British, Nazi battleship SMS Graf Spee limped up Río de la Plata to Montevideo and scuttled itself. There it sat, at the bottom of the bay just off shore from the capital of Uruguay, for almost 70 years.

Recently, however, some divers have hauled up a huge brass insignia from the wreck, featuring an eagle and a swastika. And Germany is pissed. They don’t want the piece sold or displayed because of its swastika.

As this blog post points out, that’s a little weird, considering the Germans fund World War II exhibits in other parts of the world. It almost sounds like they’re trying to extend their own laws prohibiting Holocaust denial and the display of National Socialist images to the rest of the world.

The ball is now in Uruguayan President Mujica’s court.

Here’s a short British propaganda video about the scuttling of the Graf Spee.

And here’s a longer documentary about the Graf Spee, if you’ve got an hour to kill. Good stuff.