Of rats and sinking ships: Aponte in Costa Rica

A little over a year ago I was writing about "justice" Aponte Aponte, promising him history's judgement.  This one came faster than expected as Aponte has now fled the country, and from Costa Rica promises to deliver to the DEA and other US agencies all sorts of compromising documents, presumably so that the US does not try to arrest him.  Let's resume briefly that latest affair that illustrates so well the stench emanating form the decaying Chavez regime.

Eladio Aponte Aponte made his career in the military justice system which like military music is not what it is supposed to be.  From there, when Chavez needed safe folks in his packing of the judicial system a few years ago, he jumped into the presidency of the penal chamber of the high court, TSJ.  Once in place obligingly he made sure that many political opponents would find their rightly undeserved punishment.

So far so good, you may say, par for the regime.  But that was not enough for the man.  When Makled, noted narco-businessman of the regime, was finally caught in Colombia we learned among other things that Aponte had issued him security and clearance badges even though by then the unsavory relationships of Makled were more than rumored.  Translation: Aponte was into just more than punishing opposition folks, he was into the narcobusiness.  I suppose that the regime thought that sending to the public opinion scaffold Aponte would be a token big enough to pacify international agencies fighting drug trafficking.  After all, many figures of the regime have opted for the well rewarded silence, or even light jail with silence.  Amen of an easy embassy job in a far, far away galaxy.  Aponte was disbarred a few weeks ago and did not even take the chance to go to the National Assembly to defend himself (the National Assembly in Venezuela names and removes justices under certain conditions).

Today we have learned that he not only has left the country, but that he is in talks with the FBI et al.  Times are changing my friends, and self-immolation for the micomandantepresidente is becoming a "how many of them I can take down with me".

Titanic versus Congo

I just read there are all kinds of "memorial services" for the Titanic tragedy of 1912. The thing is that not only the producers of the Titanic film and the guys selling memorabilia are onto that but a lot of other people in the West.

While the Titanic tragedy led to the improvement of security standards for navigation I wonder what's the point on the whole thing. I wonder why nobody seems to remember the nearly 1 million deaths of the Second Congo War - a war that is still not quite finished - or the over 300000 deaths of the current Somali conflict - almost nobody, that is, outside those living there and those who fled from those places.

Perhaps it's time for us to think about that while we are eating some delicious fish caught in Somali waters by some EU, US or Chinese crawlers or while using some device that contains Congolese cobalt.

Can we ask the deputies of our constituencies about what our countries can do for sustainable development in those places?