Bitácora Herren

The Venezuelan government has begun a national disarmament plan in which they pay ?Ǩ205 (euros) for each automatic pistol turned in to government, and ?Ǩ123 for each revolver. The funds will be paid by the Venezuelan Economic and Social Development Bank.

Guns lacking identification, or which have been identified as having been used in a crime will not be accepted. The program begins in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and will be expanded to encompass the nation as a whole.

See the El Pa??s article here.

If only the US had the constitution to do the same…

The President of Spain, Jos?© Luis Rodr??guez Zapatero, today announced that he believes the ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) cease fire (alto el fuego) announced on March 22 is real and permanent:

?ÄúEl alto el fuego cubre todos los aspectos, es real?Äù

According to Zapatero, if the cease fire lasts through the remainder of the spring, his government plans to begin talks with the Basque separatist group in the summer.

See the El Pa??s article.

The editorial cartoonist for El Pa??s, Romeu, regularly comments on global economic affairs. Today’s is very thought provoking:

The radical Islamic straw in the eye of the foreigner doesn’t allow him to see the radical capitalist in himself

…but it’s still felt!

The parent company which owns El Pa??s, Prisacom, has launched a series of blogs written by various of the El Pa??s correspondents. I have found two of them of particular interest (and they are now linked in the “Blogs I read” section of the sidebar).

Javier del Pino is an El Pa??s journalist based in the US. Mart?? G??mez is another journalist formerly based in the UK and now, I believe, back nearly full time in Spain.

The two blogs are of interest because they write back and forth to each other. del Pino writes from a slightly left of center perspective (with some surprising exceptions with a conservative bent), while G??mez appears to be mostly a conservative (in the Spanish sense–most center and near right conservatives in Europe would be considered liberal in this country in the current reactionary right wing climate).

(a parenthetic note is that Prisacom is using the same blog engine, WordPress that the Fair Haven High School site uses for all of its website.)

American Friends Service Committee