Mandela y CELAC, complices de la dictadura cubana

El Colombiano

JUAN DAVID ESCOBAR VALENCIA

En 1991, Mandela, que visitaba Cuba para saludar a su amigo y camarada Fidel, a quien consideraba como una inspiración y una “torre de fuerza”, respondía lo siguiente a los miembros del exilio cubano en Miami que le pedían que se refiriera sobre los derechos humanos en la isla prisión más grande del mundo: “¿Quiénes son ellos para estar instando a que se cumplan los derechos humanos en Cuba?… ¿Quiénes son ellos ahora para estar tan preocupados por los derechos humanos? No les preocupa la violencia que ha causado la muerte de 10.000 personas nuestras en Sudáfrica. ¿Quiénes son ellos para dictarnos lecciones acerca de los derechos humanos?”.

¿Qué tal la argumentación del difunto Mandela? Huelen a venganza, más que a convicción profunda de valores, las palabras de Mandela, quien defendía a Fidel, y a Gadafi, porque según él, la intervención cubana en Angola y Namibia fue un acto desinteresado del dictador cubano que quería la libertad de los pueblos oprimidos de África; sabiendo de sobra que Fidel, como diría su clon bolivariano, actuó como un “cachorro del imperio”, en este caso soviético, obedeciendo las órdenes de Moscú de exportar la revolución comunista a África, Medio Oriente y América Latina, a cambio del sostenimiento de la economía cubana con la compra a precio artificial de su azúcar.

La semana anterior fue la segunda “cumbre” de la CELAC, tal vez el peor engendro institucional que dejó el nefasto dictador venezolano, Hugo Chávez, que se suma a la ya larga lista de organismos subcontinentales cada vez más inútiles, donde el mar de babas hacer ver como un sapero al Mar Caribe, donde todos hablan pero nadie escucha y donde las declaraciones finales ya se consiguen preimpresas en cualquier papelería, solo con unos espacios en blanco para poner la fecha y la firma de los asistentes.

Que una reunión supuestamente para fortalecer la democracia se haga en el epicentro de la violación de los derechos humanos, la convierten en la “cumbre” del cinismo y de la indignidad, y hace a sus asistentes cómplices de los peores carceleros y dictadores de este continente.

Cuando concluía este repulsivo evento, el dictador Raúl Castro, con un cinismo patológico decía al leer la declaración final: “Reiteramos que nuestra Comunidad se asienta en el respeto irrestricto a los Propósitos y Principios de la Carta de las Naciones Unidas y el Derecho Internacional, la solución pacífica de controversias, la prohibición del uso y de la amenaza del uso de la fuerza, el respeto a la autodeterminación, a la soberanía, la integridad territorial, la no injerencia en los asuntos internos de cada país, la protección y promoción de todos los derechos humanos, el Estado de Derecho en los planos nacional e internacional, el fomento de la participación ciudadana y la democracia. Asimismo, nos comprometemos a trabajar conjuntamente en aras de la prosperidad para todos, de forma tal que se erradiquen la discriminación, las desigualdades y la marginación, las violaciones de los derechos humanos y las transgresiones al Estado de Derecho”. Y todos tan campantes, aplaudieron al diablo que hace hostias.

Con razón el indigno gobierno colombiano escogió a La Habana como escenario de la farsa disfrazada de paz.

Sculptors Hide Rabbit in Mandela's Ear

breitbart

By Joel B. Pollak 

The artists who created a new statue of Nelson Mandela outside South Africa's administrative capital in Pretoria secretly sculpted a rabbit into Mandela's ear that has only recently been noticed. Sculptors Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, when confronted, admitted putting the rabbit in Mandela's ear after the government told them they were not allowed to add their signatures to the 9m (28 ft) bronze statue at the Union Buildings.

According to a local Afrikaans-langauge newspaper, they also added the secret detail as a joke: the Afrikaans word for rabbit is "haas," which also means "haste"--a reference to the tight deadline under which they had worked. The statue was unveiled in December after Mandela passed away at age 85. According to the South African Press Association, the government declined to comment because it had not yet examined the rabbit.

Photo credit: Herman Steyn/RSG

Is there a Muslim Mandela?

Israeli Documents Show Mossad Gave Mandela Weapons Training

breitbart

AP

JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 (UPI) --
Nelson Mandela received weapons training from Israel's secret service, the Mossad, in the early 1960s, documents in Israeli archives show.

Mandela was identified in the documents as David Mobsari, an alias, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday. He worked with staffers who were almost certainly Mossad agents at the Israeli Embassy in Ethiopia.

At the time, Mandela, already a leader in the African National Congress, was being hunted by the apartheid regime in South Africa, which used the code name "the Black Pimpernel." Not long after his encounter with Israel, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

In the early 1960s, Israel was trying to cultivate newly independent states in Africa and supported groups trying to oust colonial or whites-only regimes, Haaretz said. After the 1967 Six-Day War and the occupation of the West Bank, many African leaders supported the Palestinians and Israel developed close ties with South Africa's apartheid government.

Israeli documents describe Mandela as expressing sympathy with Israel and interested in the tactics used against the British in the struggle for nationhood.

"He greeted our men with 'Shalom,' was familiar with the problems of Jewry and of Israel and gave the impression of being an intellectual," a staffer in the Ethiopian embassy and probably a Mossad agent, said in a letter to the Africa desk of the Israeli foreign office, the newspaper reported. "The staff tried to make him into a Zionist."

Nelson Mandela: Terrorist or Hero?

Wretched

Also:

Nelson Mandela - The Bombing Record | CENSORBUGBEAR.org >>

Mandela was not Gandhi: Mandela's freedom fighter days not part of 'saintly' image

World News

By Jim Maceda, Correspondent, NBC News

All week long, the tributes have soared for the man who South Africans say created their country, but an important chapter seems to have gone largely missing from the testimonials.

This “giant of history” was compared to Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Jesus Christ – often wrapped into one.

But only a few, like Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s current president and himself a former militant, touched on Mandela’s controversial embrace of violence and his plan to topple the apartheid regime through a campaign of potentially lethal sabotage.

“To him,” Zuma said during the large memorial service in Johannesburg on Tuesday, “for South Africa to attain peace, the armed struggle was inevitable, but it was a means to an end but not an end in itself.”

Not part of the ‘saintly’ image
But some South Africa experts say there’s a clear reason why the details of Mandela’s freedom fighting have been largely airbrushed out of the memorializing. 

“If you were to ask, was the armed struggle an essential component to the defeat of apartheid, the answer would have to be ‘yes.’ One that doesn’t sit comfortably with the saintly images the media wish to portray,’’ said Wayne Dooling, Professor of History at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Many argue that the Sharpeville massacre on March 21, 1960, when police opened fire on a peaceful protest in a black township killing 69 people, was the turning point when black resistance went from a non-violent campaign to an armed resistance movement. 

The icon of the anti-apartheid movement and international human rights leader died December 5. He was 95 years old.

Mandela, far from remaining a passive, non-violent activist, became the first commander in chief of the African National Congress' military wing, called the “Umkhonto we Sizwe,” or “Spear of the Nation,” (and better known as “MK” - the South African version of the IRA) after Sharpeville. 

Inspired more by the writings of Mao Zedong and Che Guevara than Gandhi, Mandela built up from scratch a small insurgent force, trained in blowing up easy targets, like electricity transmission towers and rail lines. His recruits learned to make primitive bombs from ingredients normally found on South African farms.

The ‘Black Pimpernel’
By 1962, Mandela was already an underground “terrorist,” wanted by the police and living an outlaw existence who the media had dubbed the “Black Pimpernel” — a twist on the fictional “Scarlet Pimpernel” who struck at will and, Zoro-like, always avoided capture. 

That year, according to multiple historical accounts, he made a secret, six-month-long trip to a dozen African states, seeking political support and money from other African revolutionary armies. He returned to South Africa with about $30,000 in funds and a revived enthusiasm for guerrilla warfare.

He even underwent his own military training, having spent weeks on the firing range and perfecting his explosives skills in Moroccan and Ethiopian military camps. The night before his arrest on charges of treason and sabotage, Mandela was reportedly seen at a party in Durban proudly sporting khaki fatigues, with pistol at his side.

“He openly talked about the necessity to move toward guerrilla warfare,” wrote Max du Preez in his book, “The Rough Guide to Nelson Mandela.”

But Mandela, the guerrilla commander, said he intended to target the apartheid regime’s infrastructure, not the people.

“Now all over South Africa we had buildings that said ‘Non-Europeans and Dogs Not Allowed,’” Ahmed Kathrada, one of Mandela’s earliest surviving comrades, recalled to NBC News this week. “So the recruits had to lay bombs, but an oath had to be taken that when the bombs are placed, there’s no injury to human beings. So this had to be done at night, when nobody was around.”

But “Plan M” — Mandela’s plan for insurgent victory — left many good intentions in its wake. Over the next 30 years, the MK launched more than 3,000 attacks and killed at least 100 people, mostly civilians, according to subsequent reports from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

And while Mandela himself spent most of those years in prison, he never gave up on the armed struggle, keeping in touch with successive MK commanders on tactics by secret messages passed through occasional prison visitors, including his (then) wife Winnie Mandela and lawyer George Bizos.

“Mandela was not Gandhi,” said Dooley, the South Africa historian. “Once he had committed himself to armed struggle, he did not waver until the onset of political negotiations in 1990.” 

During that era, both the U.S. State and Defense departments dubbed Mandela’s political party, the African National Congress, a terrorist group, and Mandela’s name remained on the U.S. terrorism watch list till 2008. The U.S. government described it as a “bureaucratic snafu” when it was finally removed 14 years after he was elected president and nine years after he had left power. 

Prison life offered path to peace
As Anthony Sampson pointed out in his book, “Mandela, The Authorized Biography,” it was prison life that prepared the hot-tempered militant for his eventual path to peace.  

“Constantly up against other prisoners, he became more sensitive to other people’s insecurities and resentments,” Sampson wrote. “He seemed much less arrogant, no longer the chiefly autocrat, but the flexible democrat who could listen and take note….Trying to find common ground in the context of the nation.’’

Zuma, in his tribute to the man, expressed the belief that Mandela may have been a terrorist to a white separatist minority, but was a hero to the rest of South Africans.

“This freedom fighter had always stated that the ANC had resorted to arms because of the intransigence of the apartheid regime, which responded with violence, bannings and detentions to simple demands for equal citizenship, human rights and justice,” Zuma said.

Mandela's "long walk" included many stops along the way: passive resistor, firebrand revolutionary and, finally, forgiving statesman. At every stage, many of his peers say, he led from the front. 

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London who covered South Africa frequently in the 1980s.

5 out of 6 “foreign dignitaries” listed on the official Mandela memorial service are known Marxists

Trevor Loudon's New Zeal Blog 

By: Cliff Kincaid*
Accuracy in Media

If President Obama’s handshake with Cuban dictator Raul Castro is news, Castro’s featured presence at the Nelson Mandela memorial service and what the South African government said about him are equally newsworthy. South Africa was described as “joined at the hip” to Cuba and in its debt for “liberation.”

Yet, this part of the memorial service has been carefully edited out of most of the “mainstream media” coverage of the event.

The service was organized and orchestrated by officers of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party of South Africa which operates as a front for the South African Communist Party. Baleka Mbete, ANC chairperson, introduced Raul Castro’s speech by saying, “Comrades, we will now get an address from a tiny island—an island of people who liberated us, who fought for our liberation in Cuito Cuanavale—the people of Cuba.”

Cuito Cuanavale refers to the foreign intervention of thousands of Cuban military troops on behalf of communist Angolan government forces in Africa under the guidance of Soviet military officers during 1987 and 1988. This was a critical time when communist forces backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba and China were determined to crush the non-communist pro-freedom movement UNITA (The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola).

As part of his effort to turn the tide against communism in Africa and elsewhere, the “Reagan Doctrine,” President Ronald Reagan strongly supported UNITA and its leader, Jonas Savimbi.

In the end, the communists solidified control of Angola, assassinated Savimbi (shot 15 times, twice to the head and once to the throat), and then took over Namibia and South Africa as the white population—fearing extinction in the face of the onslaught—made deals with the communists.

Mandela, in commemorating the 20th anniversary of the battle in 2008, referred to it as “a turning point for the liberation of our continent and my people.” This helps explain why the Cuban regime is held in such high regard by the South African government. The ANC and SWAPO (the South West Africa People’s Organization) communists in Namibia greatly benefitted from the Cuban imperialistic intervention. Of course, Mandela’s communist movement also enjoyed the support of Libya and the PLO.

After Raul Castro’s speech, during which he highlighted Mandela’s visit to Cuba to meet with and thank Fidel Castro, ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa said, “Thank you President Castro. We thank you for all the support and help that we continue to get from the people of Cuba during our years of struggle, and our countries continue to be joined at the hip in the areas of development…”

AIM noted in our column about current South African President Jacob Zuma that he traveled to Cuba in 2010 to receive the top Communist award from Raul Castro himself. Zuma also told a meeting of young communists in South Africa, “Work begins today in earnest to improve the quality of life of all our people and to build Cuban-style patriotism and internationalism within our ranks.”

Of the 6 “foreign dignitaries” listed on the official Mandela memorial service program as giving a tribute to Mandela, five are known Marxists: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (a former terrorist herself); Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao; Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba; Cuba’s Raul Castro; and of course President Obama. The other speaker was President Pranab Mukherjee of India, described as a “close friend” of Marxists in India who has “remained a friend” of the Communist Party of India during his political career and leadership in the United Progressive Alliance. Indeed, he has been labeled a “communist agent.” The Indian delegation to the memorial service included Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Earlier in the memorial service, Andrew Mlangeni, identified as a Mandela “family friend,” spoke on Mandela’s behalf. Now considered an “elder statesman” in the ANC, he had studied “military science” and “guerrilla theory” in China. The Stephen Ellis book, External Mission, confirms that Umkhonto we Sizwe, which became the military arm of the ANC, was launched by the South African Communist Party after negotiations with Chinese Communist mass murderer and dictator Mao Tse-tung. The cover of the book, which also reveals that the East German secret police trained the ANC’s security personnel, shows a photograph of Mao Tse-tung meeting with SACP leader Yusuf Dadoo, a Muslim Indian South African communist.

Mandela ran Umkhonto we Sizwe, which carried out violence and terrorism, and he went to prison as a result. He was never a “political prisoner.” He refused to renounce violence in order to be released early. He could have been hanged for his conviction for terrorism.

Although Mandela is being widely praised for his spirit of “forgiveness” and “reconciliation,” the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, was never fully accepted as a legitimate partner and actor in South African politics by Mandela’s ANC. The IFP advocated the abolition of apartheid, or racial segregation, but refused to engage in violence and terrorism against innocent people. It also had an anti-communist orientation.

“The armed struggle, and Inkatha’s refusal to engage it, had driven a wedge between our organizations,” Buthelezi says. “Propaganda against me and Inkatha was rife and there were many attempts on my life.”

But the U.S. government under Obama is in complete support of the South African government and provides an estimated $500 million a year in foreign aid to the regime.

The United States ambassador to South Africa, former Democratic Party operative and radical organizer Patrick Gaspard, recently announced that American taxpayers would provide an additional $100,000 in U.S. government funding for the purpose of the “preservation of documents” relating to Mandela. The money was given to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, the official home of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. This is the same group offering a poster featuring a quotation of Mandela under an image of communist murderer and Castro henchman Che Guevara.

In supporting South Africa, the U.S. is supporting Cuba. Obama’s handshake with Castro only confirms this fact.

-------------------

*Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism

Mandela era amigo de Castro ¿y qué? Y qué. Ha dicho. ¿Y qué? Cómo que y qué/ Juan Abreu

Juan Abreu

blog.panampost.com

En el barullo de la muerte de Mandela la prensa occidental, siempre tan siniestra (en la primera acepción de la palabra) oculta y minimiza todo lo que puede la amistad de Mandela con los Castro y el apoyo de Mandela a la dictadura de los Castro.

Cuando mencionan esta relación, a todas luces degradante para Mandela, suelen echar mano de la “fidelidad” de Mandela. Sí, un Castro, pero es que Mandela era tan fiel a sus amigos. Hay que comprenderlo, era tan fiel, bendito. Es decir convierten la canallada de ser amigo de los Castro y de apoyar a Castro en una mota de polvo en la inmensidad moral de Mandela.

Hasta mi estimado Carlos Alberto Montaner, eterno aspirante a la presidencia de Cuba, y periodista notable, ha dicho que sí, que Mandela era amigo de Castro ¿y qué? Y qué. Ha dicho. ¿Y qué? Cómo que y qué. Ese apoyo y esa amistad y esa complicidad hacen de Mandela otro hombre. Otro hombre menos admirable y menos honrado, naturalmente. ¿Le parece poca cosa? ¿Qué hubiera pasado si Mandela, ese ídolo, ese faro moral de la humanidad, públicamente, hubiera denunciado la crueldad de las cárceles castristas y el horror de casos como el de Mario Chanes de Armas o Ernesto Díaz Rodríguez? Si le hubiera dicho a su amigo Castro, agradezco tu ayuda, pero no puedo ignorar el sufrimiento de esos hombres. Me rebaja, humanamente, ignorarlo. Qué. Qué hubiera pasado. ¿Los hubiera salvado o al menos aliviado de alguna manera? No lo sabemos. Pero Mandela tenía el imperativo moral de intentarlo.

Es un hecho innegable que la integridad de Mandela se resquebraja ante la evidencia de que ignoró el horrible destino de presos como él en circunstancias más duras y humillantes que las suyas, simplemente por conveniencia o por complicidades ideológicas.

Es decir por politiquería y por oportunismo.

’Fake’ sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela memorial provokes anger

By Alexander Smith, NBC News contributor

Deaf people watching the Nelson Mandela memorial were bemused and shocked by a "fake" sign language interpreter on stage whose gestures were unintelligible, activists said Wednesday.

The interpreter was watched by millions as he stood beside speakers at the event including President Barack Obama.

Hundreds of people took to social media to express their anger at the interpreter's gestures, and several deaf groups confirmed his signing did not reflect the comments being made to honor the anti-apartheid icon.

Paul Breckell, chief executive of the U.K.-based charity Action on Hearing Loss, told NBC News: "We are shocked by the quality of sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela’s memorial -- if it could be called interpretation at all."

He added that "the limited number of signs, the amount of repetition, lack of facial expressions and huge gaps in translation meant that deaf or hard of hearing people across the world were completely excluded from one of the biggest events in recent history."

Among the first to express their dissatisfaction was Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, the first deaf woman to be elected to the South African parliament, who tweeted that the signing was "rubbish," adding: "He cannot sign. Please get him off."

More >>

Did Obama know date of Mandela’s death was June 26, 2013?

canadafreepress/ Judi McLeod

President Barack Obama may have already known the real date of Nelson Mandela’s death and studiously planned funeral when he made his June 2013 African trip—and was even able to take the photo he would later Tweet on the day of Mandela’s officially announced death while he was still in South Africa.

Claiming to defer to Mandela family members on visiting the ailing Mandela during his June 28-30 whistle-stop trip through Johannesburg, Obama instead met with South African President Jacob Zuma. 

Zuma was one of the key figures who kept the news that doctors had been keeping Mandela alive in a vegetative state, a top world secret.

Among thousands of news outlets,  only one newspaper made a valiant attempt to get the true story out and keep it there.

According to the read-by-millions Las Vegas Guardian Express, Mandela died on June 26th, 2013, but was kept on life support until December 2013.

On December 5,  2013, the White House tweeted a picture showing Obama behind the bars of the Robben Island prison, where Mandela had been incarcerated for 27 years.  The picture tweeted on Dec. 5, 2013 had been taken on June 29, 2013, when Barack and Michelle Obama visited the world famous site.

As president and first lady of the USA,  the Obamas make pretty good vultures.

This is the story of Mandela’s June 26 death following his persistent vegetative state as reported by the Guardian Express:

“On the morning of June 26, we received a message from one of our South African correspondents, Laura Oneale that Nelson Mandela had passed away the previous evening. The news had come to her in the form of a text message from an acquaintance who was well-placed in the South African media. It should be understood that this organization was not authorized to break the news. Clearly, the South African government and the Mandela family had already decided that the news would not be made public. Undoubtedly, this decision had been made even before his death; at least, that’s what we were thinking.
“Our assumption, at the time, was two-fold: firstly, we doubted that such news would not long escape the attention of the international media, even if the South African media was being muzzled. As is the nature of the news media industry, we saw that we had been handed a major scoop and that our window of opportunity to be the first to break this news was limited. Cynical? Perhaps, but we did not doubt the integrity of the source, given that individual’s position. We are in the news business. What other publication – given the gravity of the story and the knowledge of Mandela’s health condition – would not have immediately prepared to publish? We began both to work on a couple of articles and to seek out verification. We found no other corroborating evidence. We wrote our stories.
“In the interests of being completely honest, we cannot say that we did not second – guess ourselves. Did we have direct, first-hand proof that Nelson Mandela was dead? No, we didn’t. One must look at how news stories are broken, though: A media publication receives information from a trusted source; every good faith attempt is made to verify the information. In the absence of verification, the editor or editorial team must make a decision to publish or not to publish. What we did have was the best source we could have, other than first-hand, eye-witness testimony. Moreover, Mandela was seriously ill; according to reports, the icon and former African leader was on his deathbed; hooked up to medical devices that enabled him to breathe.
“We published.
“Now, we were walking on eggshells; our reputation was at stake. What were we thinking? Other news outlets actually published stories announcing Mandela’s death; they quickly retracted, without actually justifying why they had done so. To us, that in itself indicated that they had been told to retract, rather than doing so because they had discovered that Mandela was still alive. The Las Vegas Guardian Express, however, was a relatively new and completely independent publication with no government ties and no corporate owners or shareholders. We could not be pressured into retracting, other than through legal action. In addition, we were a tiny speck on the world news radar.
“Naturally, it was in our own interests to quickly verify Mandela’s condition. Is that an admission that we published news of his death without being sure? No, it is not; we were sure and we could clearly see that an official announcement could be kept under wraps for any number of reasons; a visit by US President Barack Obama was already scheduled and there were obvious security implications. Additionally, the South African government is absolutely capable of using such news for political purposes. Our only misgiving was that we had failed to uncover any corroborating source. The strength of our conviction is proven by the fact that, even as the days went by and no word of his death came from official or family sources, we maintained our position. It seemed logical enough that there was no reason to retract without absolute proof that Nelson Mandela still lived.
“As the few articles we published drew attention – along with numerous comments – it became self-evident that both the South African government and the Mandela family were aware of our reports. Had we been wrong – and had the family been able to prove that Mandela was still alive – it is beyond doubt that the Las Vegas Guardian Express would have received some form of legal threat. Not only did such action never transpire, but our publication was subjected to cyber-attack: Denial of Service attacks, originating in South Africa, disabled our site on more than one occasion. We took this as proof that we were reporting something that the South African government did not want us to report.
“It should be remembered that our publication was relatively small and generated only modest revenue through advertising. Nevertheless – and at considerable expense – we dispatched a senior editor to South Africa. During his time there, Michael Smith uncovered intriguing details of the situation regarding Nelson Mandela, the family, the African National Congress and South African President Jacob Zuma. Our investigations opened a door into the corruption and dishonesty of the aforementioned parties. During a Mandela family legal battle, documents emerged which stated that doctors had advised the family to turn off Mandela’s life support as he was brain-dead. At a later point, Zuma made a statement denying this, but we noted carefully that, while other news organizations were reporting that the doctors themselves had retracted their claims that Mandela was brain-dead, no such retraction had been made; Zuma himself claimed that the doctors had retracted this assertion.
“Now that it has been officially announced that Nelson Mandela has passed away, our position on the matter has not changed in any way. Inevitably, his passing had to be revealed. Many of our South African readers have believed us from the start; those that have criticized us have presented not one shred of evidence that we were wrong. The idea that we are proven wrong because the official announcement comes only now is absurd.
“This article has not detailed every piece of evidence that fell into place during our investigation into why Nelson Mandela’s death was covered up. One of the most compelling discoveries was brought back from South Africa by Michael Smith: He returned with an audio tape of a recorded telephone conversation Between a South African Defense Force officer and a private security contractor. The audio can be found in the first of the links listed at the foot of this article. For the reader who wishes to get the full story of our reporting on this story, each of those articles listed provide, collectively, the complete picture. During the call, the officer details the circumstances of Mandela’s death – which, according to him, occurred even earlier than we reported – and the possible implications of it, as well as the Mandela family’s motives for not releasing the news.
“Even now, the South African government, it seems, is attempting to prevent the Las Vegas Guardian Express from revealing the truth to the people of South Africa. Our Facebook page received a telling comment today. The comment reads:
Hallo
I am from South Africa and for some reason I cannot view your website or any articles regarding Nelson Mandela. Is it possible that your site being blocked by our country?
could you kindly send the the articles you recently wrote.
Kind regards
“Nelson Mandela is now officially dead – but he was already dead. Nothing has transpired between our initial June 26 reports and the present time to prove otherwise.
“Nevertheless, we would be remiss if we did not convey to the South African people, that we have the utmost respect for Madiba and the great legacy he has left the world. However, as a publication, read by millions across the globe, we have an obligation and responsibility to report the truth and what we were thinking.”

On the White House.gov website, the itinerary for Michelle Obama’s June African trip is still online.  The links from her page to Barack Obama’s page with information of the South African trip produce an error advising viewers that the page they’re looking for can’t be found.

Mandela un hombre grande que no le llegaba ni a la suela de los zapatos a Mario Chanes de Armas/ Juan Abreu

Juan Abreu

joanantoniguerrero.blogspot.com

Mario Chanes de Armas estuvo preso treinta años en las cárceles de los Castro. En jaulas, en gavetas, en agujeros, golpeado y torturado y esclavizado, quiero decir condenado a trabajo forzado como un esclavo. Treinta años. Más tiempo que Mandela. Treinta años. En condiciones mucho peores que las que padeció Mandela. Treinta años. Y siempre digno, y siempre honrado, y siempre firme y generoso y valiente en medio de aquel infierno. Abundan los testimonios.

Tuve el honor de conocer a Mario Chanes. Un hombre sorprendente, dulce, amigo del perdón y amigo de la reconciliación. Como Mandela. Un hombre que combatió la dictadura de Batista y la dictadura de Castro. Un hombre que no apoyó ni fue amigo de ningún dictador.

Mario Chanes ya estaba en la cárcel cuando nació su único hijo, y seguía en la cárcel cuando su hijo murió a los 22 años. En la cárcel también supo de la muerte de sus padres y de su hermano. No llegó a conocer a su hijo. Castro, el amigo de Mandela, negó siempre el permiso para que se conocieran.

Hablo de Mario Chanes de Armas porque ha muerto Mandela y están en lo de honrarlo. Y como todos hablan de lo grande que fue Mandela me parece necesario hoy decir aquí que sí, que seguramente es verdad que Mandela fue un hombre grande. A pesar de su amistad con Castro. A pesar de su silencio cómplice y miserable respecto a las víctimas de su amigo Castro.

Un hombre grande, Mandela, sí. Pero un hombre grande que no le llegaba ni a la suela de los zapatos a un hombre como Mario Chanes de Armas.

Palabras de Obama a los opresores durante funeral de Mandela

Joel García

Obama shakes hands with Cuba’s Castro at Mandela service

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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

President Barack Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro.

By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Briefly laying aside differences hardened over decades, President Barack Obama on Tuesday shook the hand of the president of Cuba at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.

The handshake appeared to be the first between American and Cuban presidents since 2000, when Bill Clinton and Fidel Castro greeted each other at a United Nations luncheon in New York, and only the second in history.

Tuesday, it was Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul, named president of Cuba in 2008, who shook Obama’s hand. The moment came just before Obama delivered a eulogy for Mandela in a Johannesburg soccer stadium.

Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

Minutes later, Obama offered implicit criticism of governments like Cuba's when in his speech he said too many people embrace Mandela's legacy of racial reconciliation but passionately resist economic and other reforms. 

"There are too many who claim solidarity with Madiba's struggle for freedom but do not tolerate dissent from their own people," Obama said, referring to Mandela by his clan name. 

On his way to the rostrum, Obama also shook the hand of Robert Mugabe, the strongman ruler of Zimbabwe, and hugged Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, who has stridently opposed spying by the National Security Agency and criticized the U.S. government.

Leaders of almost 100 countries turned out for the service for Mandela, who died last week at age 95.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who was also in Johannesburg for the Mandela service, shook hands with Fidel Castro on a visit to Cuba in 2002, long after Carter’s presidency. That trip was the first by a sitting or former American president to Cuba since Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Obama stirred controversy with a handshake in the past. In 2009, the president shook hands with the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez  — who called the United States "the biggest menace to our planet," among other criticism — at the Summit of the Americas.

El funeral de Mandela fuerza un apretón de manos entre Obama y Raúl Castro

Karel Becerra Hernandez

Diario de Cuba

El presidente estadounidense, Barack Obama, estrechó este martes la mano de Raúl Castro como parte de saludos protocolares en el funeral Nelson Mandela, que se realiza en el estadio FNB, de Soweto.

Obama saludó a los mandatarios y personalidades que se encontraban en el camino a la tribuna de oradores. Entre ellos estaba el dictador cubano, ubicado junto a la presidente brasileña, Dilma Rousseff.

El general sonrió al presidente estadounidense y le dirigió una frase. Aunque forzado por un protocolo, el saludo no tiene precedentes.

Miles de personas asisten bajo una constante lluvia al funeral del Premio Nobel de la Paz, fallecido el jueves pasado. Como los otros oradores, Obama dedicó sus palabras a resaltar la figura de Mandela y su legado.

"A día de hoy, hombres y mujeres siguen encarcelados por pensamientos políticos. Hay muchos líderes que muestran solidaridad por la lucha de Mandela pero que no liberan a su propio pueblo", dijo Obama.

El saludo entre Obama y Raúl Castro coincide con la celebración del Día Internacional de los Derechos Humanos, que el régimen cubano suele acompañar con la represión de los disidentes que intentan realizar actividades por la fecha.

Confirma Granma que Mandela era un terrorista

no me simpatizan los personajes que no solo no tienen enemigos sino ni siquiera rivales. es mas, desconfio. no me refiero a lo personal sino a lo politico. el background intelectual del terrorista madiba pero sobre todo su capacidad de controlar a las enardecidas hordas de soweto all the way around al parecer fue lo que inclino la balanza para que occidente construyera el patriarca buena gente y pacifista que homenajean hoy. hay por lo menos 22 atentados probados en los que participo el hijo de nonqaphi nosekeni fanny la tercera esposa del nieto del rey ngubengcuka y cientos [sino miles] de millones de dolares desaparecidos por los cuales no fue cuestionado, pues se le paso las "fallas" contables a la nalga alegre de winnie que segun afirman algunos tenia derecho de pernada con mas de 500 de los mas briosos bodyguards. de acuerdo a las buenas costumbres de la dinastia del clan madiba se hacia necesario una 1ra dama presentable en occidente, que no pudo ser otra que la viuda oportunista del aquel samora machel que le trocaron los sistemas de navegacion del avion a pesar de los pilotos sovieticos que le asignaron.

hoy sudafrica afortunadamente sin el oprobioso apartheid no es mas prospera aunque pudo ir a hacer yunta con el zimbawe del mugabe, pero los herederos del clan controlan como en angola y en tantas otras partes una buena parte no solo de las cuantiosas donaciones sino del producto interno bruto.

pero el tema no viene por ahi, sino porque la megalomania cayuela protesta porque nadie menciona que les corresponde el 50% de los homenajes que se estan tributando, aunque no este claro si se le habra podido informar de las nuevas al napoleoncito en jefe en adidas. la queja es airada, aunque ciertamente le dan la tareita al atilio "m"oron y al granma que siempre pueden ser descalificados y no como "nota oficial" del gobierno "revolucionario".------------------------
ATILIO BORÓN

Sudadrica 1998

La muerte de Nelson Mandela ha precipitado una catarata de interpretaciones sobre su vida y su obra, todas las cuales lo presentan como un apóstol del pacifismo y una especie de Madre Teresa de Sudáfrica. Se trata de una imagen esencial y premeditadamente equivocada, que soslaya que luego de la matanza de Sharpeville, en 1960, el Congreso Nacional Africano (CNA) y su líder, precisamente Mandela, adoptan la vía armada y el sabotaje a empresas y proyectos de importancia económica pero sin atentar contra vidas humanas.

Mandela recorrió diversos países de África en busca de ayuda económica y militar para sostener esta nueva táctica de lucha. Cayó preso en 1962 y, poco después, se le condenó a cadena perpetua, que lo mantendría relegado en una cárcel de máxima seguridad, en una celda de dos por dos metros, durante 25 años, salvo los dos últimos años en los cuales la formidable presión internacional para lograr su liberación mejoraron las condiciones de su detención.

Mandela, por lo tanto, no fue un "adorador de la legalidad burguesa" sino un extraordinario líder político cuya estrategia y tácticas de lucha fueron variando según cambiaban las condiciones bajo las cuales libraba sus batallas. Se dice que fue el hombre que acabó con el odioso apartheid sudafricano, lo cual es una verdad a medias.

La otra mitad del mérito le corresponde a Fidel y la Revolución Cubana, que con su intervención en la guerra civil de Angola selló la suerte de los racistas al derrotar a las tropas de Zaire (hoy, República Democrática del Congo), del ejército sudafricano y de dos ejércitos mercenarios angoleños organizados, armados y financiados por Estados Unidos a través de la CIA. Gracias a su heroica colaboración, en la cual una vez más se demostró el noble internacionalismo de la Revolución Cubana, se logró mantener la independencia de Angola, sentar las bases para la posterior emancipación de Namibia y disparar el tiro de gracia en contra del apartheid sudafricano.

Continuar leyendo en el Granma >>

Breaking News: Nelson Mandela has died at age 95

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By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home. He was 95.

"He is now resting," said South African President Jacob Zuma. "He is now at peace."

"Our nation as lost his greatest son," he continued. "Our people have lost their father."

A state funeral will be held.

Though he was in power for only five years, Mandela was a figure of enormous moral influence the world over – a symbol of revolution, resistance and triumph over racial segregation.

He inspired a generation of activists, left celebrities and world leaders star-struck, won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes.

South Africa is still bedeviled by challenges, from class inequality to political corruption to AIDS. And with Mandela’s death, it has lost a beacon of optimism.

Feb. 1990: NBC's Robin Lloyd reports on Nelson Mandela on the eve of his release from prison in 1990. Mandela's name has become a rallying cry for the overthrow of apartheid, but no one but prison guards and visitors have actually seen him since he was jailed 27 years ago.

In his jailhouse memoirs, Mandela wrote that even after spending so many years in a Spartan cell on Robben Island – with one visitor a year and one letter every six months – he still had faith in human nature.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion,” he wrote in “Long Walk to Freedom.”

“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” 

Mandela retired from public life in 2004 with the half-joking directive, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you,” and had largely stepped out of the spotlight, spending much of his time with family in his childhood village.

His health had been fragile in recent years. He had spent almost three months in a hospital in Pretoria after being admitted in June for a recurring lung infection. He was released on Sept. 1.

In his later years, Mandela was known to his countrymen simply as Madiba, the name of his tribe and a mark of great honor. But when he was born on July 18, 1918, he was named Rolihlahla, which translated roughly – and prophetically – to “troublemaker.”

South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela turned 93 today, as 12 million school children celebrated his life in song. Brian Williams reports.

Mandela was nine when his father died, and he was sent from his rural village to the provincial capital to be raised by a fellow chief. The first member of his family to get a formal education, he went to boarding school and then enrolled in South Africa’s elite Fort Hare University, where his activism unfurled with a student boycott.

As a young law scholar, he joined the resurgent African National Congress just a few years before the National Party – controlled by the Afrikaners, the descendants of Dutch and French settlers – came to power on a platform of apartheid, in which the government enforced racial segregation and stripped non-whites of economic and political power.

As an ANC leader, Mandela advocated peaceful resistance against government discrimination and oppression – until 1961, when he launched a military wing called Spear of the Nation and a campaign of sabotage.

The next year, he was arrested and soon hit with treason charges. At the opening of his trial in 1964, he said his adoption of armed struggle was a last resort born of bloody crackdowns by the government.

“Fifty years of non-violence had brought the African people nothing but more and more repressive legislation and fewer and few rights,” he said from the dock.

“I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

April, 1994: Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela is on the verge of being elected South Africa's first black president.

He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to Robben Island. As inmate No. 466/64, he slept on the floor of a six-foot-wide cell, did hard labor in a quarry, organized fellow prisoners – and earned a law degree by correspondence.

As the years passed, his incarceration drew ever more attention, with intensifying cries for his release as a global anti-apartheid movement gained traction. Songs were dedicated to him and 600 million people watched the Free Mandela concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in 1988.

In 1985, he turned down the government’s offer to free him if he renounced armed struggle against apartheid. It wasn’t until South African President P.W. Botha had a stroke and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk in 1989 that the stage was set for his release.

After a ban on the ANC was repealed, a whiter-haired Mandela walked out prison before a jubilant crowd and told a rally in Cape Town that the fight was far from over.

“Our struggle has reached a decisive moment,” he said. “We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait.”

Over the next two years, Mandela proved himself a formidable negotiator as he pushed South Africa toward its first multiracial elections amid tension and violence. He and de Klerk were honored with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.

When the elections were held in April 1994, the ex-prisoner became the next president and embarked on a mission of racial reconciliation, government rebuilding and economic rehabilitation.

Philip Littleton / AFP - Getty Images, file

Springbok captain Francois Pienaar receives the Rugby World Cup from South African President Nelson Mandela at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on June 24, 1995.

A year into his tenure, with racial tensions threatening to explode into civil war, Mandela orchestrated an iconic, unifying moment: He donned the green jersey of the Springboks rugby team – beloved by whites, despised by blacks – to present the World Cup trophy to the team captain while the stunned crowd erupted in cheers of “Nelson! Nelson!”

He chose to serve only one five-year term – during which he divorced his second wife, Winnie, a controversial activist, and married his third, Graca, the widow of the late president of Mozambique.

After leaving politics, he concentrated on his philanthropic foundation. He began speaking out on AIDS, which had ravaged his country and which some critics said he had not made a priority as president.

When he officially announced he was leaving public life in 2004, it signaled he was slowing down, but he still made his presence known. For his 89th birthday, he launched a “council of elders,” statesmen and women from around the world who would promote peace. For his 90th, he celebrated at a star-studded concert in London’s Hyde Park.

As he noted in 2003, “If there is anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.”

In April, de Klerk was asked on the BBC if he feared that Mandela’s eventual death would expose fissures in South Africa that his grandfatherly presence had kept knitted together.

De Klerk said that Madiba would be just as unifying a force in death.

“When Mandela goes, it will be a moment when all South Africans put away their political differences, take hands, and will together honor maybe the biggest South African that has ever lived,” he said.