Statement by the family of Franklin Brito

Following the tragic and wasteful death on Monday of Venezuelan hunger-striker, Franklin Brito, his family issued a statement which this blog would like to see publicly branded on the foreheads of Messrs Chomsky, Pilger, Stone and Penn.

It follows in full….

It is with immense sorrow that we inform the Venezuelan people and the world of the following:

Today, August 30, 2010, the exhausted body of our husband and father, Franklin Brito, stopped breathing. After a struggle of more than six years, more than eight hunger strikes, the mutilation of a finger and unlawful deprivation of liberty, the body of Franklin Brito today ceased to perform its vital functions.

All this does not mean, however, that Franklin Brito has died. Franklin lives on in the struggle of the Venezuelan people for property rights, access to justice, for life in liberty and respect by government for collective and individual human rights. Franklin Brito, no longer flesh, becomes a symbol, a banner for all who are trampled by abuse of power, for those offended by the arrogance of their rulers, for those who believe that truth and justice are always above circumstance and convenience.

The body of Franklin Brito died in a military institution where he was kept detained against his will. The government of President Hugo Chávez ignored Franklin’s petitions, the cries of his family and the pleas by international agencies to allow access to trustworthy medical care of his own choosing. Therefore, the Brito family at this time abstains from issuing opinions about the direct cause of death because of the unusual and inhumane circumstances surrounding it.

However, what we can say with certainty is that Franklin Brito’s struggle continues. We, his family, will fight for his children’s heritage. His conscious sacrifice will not have been in vain while the children of Venezuela are also willing to defend the moral and physical heritage of the nation.

At a later date, when the pain permits, we will issue a new statement. For now, know, Venezuela, that violence could not defeat Franklin Brito, could not frighten him, could not threaten, bend or corrupt him. For this and much more in these times of death and pain, Franklin Brito is a symbol of decency in life.

We are certain that Franklin’s soul, through the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, will follow us in light, because his struggle, which should be the fight of everyone, CONTINUES!

Elena Rodriguez de Brito
Ángela Rodríguez Brito
Brito Rodríguez Francia
Franklin Brito Rodríguez
Franklin Jose Brito Rodríguez

Hospital Militar, Caracas

Monday, August 30, 2010. 10:20 PM.

Absolutely nothing to add.

Franklin Brito….another victim of Oliver Stone’s ego

Today this blog would like to tell you about Franklin Brito, someone whose name most of you will almost certainly have never heard.

For those who are unfamiliar with Brito’s story, he had a productive livestock farm in Venezuela until a certain Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías decided to “expropriate” it, declaring property rights to be at an end at that henceforth, “all Venezuelan land (would) belong to the people.”

Brito tried to recover his property through the legal system, a herculean task in Latin America generally and all but impossible in Venezuela, where matters of right have been settled at the whim of the regime for years. He was unable to get an explanation, let alone a hearing.  So, in desperation, Brito resorted to a  hunger strike, which until yesterday had lasted nine months. I say until yesterday because that’s when his body and spirit gave up the unequal struggle for justice.

Franklin Brito

The poor fellow really should have known better than to expect a dictator to pay the slightest attention to a hunger-striker. No doubt we’ll be hearing more weasel words about “bandits” today from Mr Chávez’s friend, President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, who, as the crocodile tears cascade down his cheeks like the Iguaçu Falls, will doubtless also be fielding further awkward questions about his Workers Party’s support of the FARC in Colombia.

This blog would be particularly intrigued to know the thoughts of Noam Chomsky, John Pilger Sean Penn and Oliver Stone, four men who would no sooner live in Chávez’s Venezuela than they would on Jupiter (but are quite happy, it seems, for others to do so) on this most Latin American of outrages.

Brazil has a presidential election in October. It will probably come as no surprise to anyone with more than two functioning synapses that Lula’s anointed successor is Dilma Roussef….

Before....after....

You got that, right? Sean Penn thinks people who refer to Chávez as a dictator should be jailed.

*UPDATE*

No prizes for guessing whose side the MercoPress Agency is on in the Brazilian election….

José Serra

Lula and the cornered Caudillos

It’s been a busy few days for Brazil’s peripatetic President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Last week he was in Cuba for a cozy chat with the Hermanos Castro, and this week he attended the Latin American Summit in Cancún, on which occasion President Felipe Calderón of Mexico gave him this glowing reference….

President Lula is the undisputed leader of our region. He gives balance and strength to Latin America.

Robert Ménard, Secretary-General, Reporters Without Borders clearly shares Calderón’s high expectations of Lula….

Dear Mr. President,

On the eve of your visit to Cuba, the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders would like to draw your attention to the lack of press freedom in that country. As you know, 75 dissidents were arrested during the crackdown which the Cuban government began on 18 March. They included 26 independent journalists. Accused of carrying out actions “against the independence or territorial unity of the state,” they were given summary trials and sentenced to up to 27 years in prison. Four other journalists were already in prison prior to the crackdown. With a total of 30 detained, Cuba is the world’s biggest prison for journalists.

Meanwhile, on the very day of Lula’s arrival in Havana, the emaciated corpse of hunger striker, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a bricklayer and plumber sentenced to 36 years (later “reduced” to 25) for the crime of calling for democracy on the island, was on its way to the cemetery. On February 18th, although Zapata was close to death, the dissident Cuban economist, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, had attempted to deliver a letter to Lula via the Brazilian Embassy in Havana, asking him to intercede on his behalf with the brothers Castro. He was bluntly informed that it is not embassy policy to receive Cuban dissidents.

Lula’s response to Zapata’s death was typically mealy-mouthed….

If they are dissidents of Cuba and now want to be dissidents of Lula I see no problem. People need to stop writing letters, keep(ing) them to themselves and then saying they sent them to other(s).

Someone would only be able to say that he sent a letter to the president if the letter was filed and recorded. Actually I didn’t get any letter. If someone had asked me to talk I would have talked. We do not refuse to talk.

We have to regret, as a human being, someone who has died, who decided to go on a hunger strike, which you know I’m against because I’ve done it myself.

Gimme five, Chefe Máximo!

Welcoming a beaming Lula, Raúl Castro didn’t point the finger at the recently deceased. No, the target of his revolutionary ire was, guess who? The United States.

The Cuban leader said Zapata’s death is “the result of the relationship with the United States” and said there’s no torture in the island. Torture, he stated, is practiced in Guantanamo by the Americans.

“We are very sorry,” said Raúl. “He was sentenced to three years (three?) and had problems in prison. He was taken to our best hospitals, but died. We are very sorry” he said. “This is due to the confrontation we have with the US, we have lost thousands of Cubans.”

Later, in an interview with Brazilian news weekly, Veja, Chepe said….

I thought that Lula, having been unjustly imprisoned himself would have shown some solidarity. His reaction was a surprise to everyone.

Now wouldn’t that have been a triumph of hope over experience?

Comments on the affair from Castro cheerleaders, John Pilger and Noam Chomsky….

….have so far been in short supply.

In a move that will surely gladden the hearts of Messrs. Calderón and Ménard still further, Lula will be dropping in on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in May.