Scott Stump Today contributor
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta drogas. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta drogas. Mostrar todas las entradas
jueves, agosto 29, 2013
lunes, agosto 26, 2013
sábado, agosto 24, 2013
Canada's Trudeau smoked pot while an MP
Canada's Liberal leader and strong candidate for prime minister, Justin Trudeau, admitted Thursday that he has smoked marijuana since being elected to parliament, after recently calling for legalizing its use.
The eldest son of late prime minister Pierre Trudeau told the Huffington Post that he smoked pot five or six times in his life, the first while on a trip to the Caribbean with university classmates and most recently three years ago with friends over for a dinner party while his children were staying overnight with their grandmother.
The admission was made in an interview with the news website, which was conducting a survey of Canadian lawmakers' drug habits.
"One of our friends lit a joint and passed it around. I had a puff," he said.
On previous occasions, "when the joint went around the room, I usually passed it around to the next person," he added. But "sometimes throughout my life, I've had a pull on it."
"Sometimes, I guess, I have gotten a buzz, but other times no. I'm not really crazy about it."
Trudeau was elected to parliament in 2008.
Earlier this year he was picked to lead and resurrect a party that held power for most of the last century but was relegated to the margins as the country's number three political force in the last election.
Polls now put Trudeau ahead of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and if the numbers hold until the next election, expected in 2015, the young Trudeau and his Liberals could form Canada's next government.
A self-described teetotaller, Trudeau has reportedly never smoked cigarettes and doesn't drink coffee.
He told the Huffington Post that he also once tried to smoke hashish at an Amsterdam caf?? but called it a "total disaster," and suspects friends may have slipped hallucinogenic mushrooms into his spaghetti once.
Trudeau also revealed in the interview that his late brother, Michel, was facing marijuana possession charges for a "tiny amount" of pot before his death in an avalanche in 1998 and that the experience influenced his decision to call for legalizing and regulating cannabis in hopes of eliminating criminal control of the pot trade and limiting teenagers' access to it.
"I'm not someone who is particularly interested in altered states, but I certainly won't judge someone else for it," Trudeau said. "I think that the prohibition that is currently on marijuana is unjustified."
Main opposition New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair told the Huffington Post that he also has smoked pot but refused to say when. The prime minister's office said Harper's asthma prevented him from ever trying cannabis.
Canadian police chiefs earlier this week urged a legislative change that would allow them to hand out fines for small amounts of pot possession instead of laying criminal charges, in order to reduce policing and court costs, and to do away with such convictions affecting Canadians' travel, employment and citizenship.
An estimated one million Canadians regularly smoke marijuana, according to the latest surveys.
jueves, agosto 01, 2013
When did A-Rod turn into a villain?
Joe Posnanski/
My best guess is that this happened in May 2002, but the thing is it could have been one of a half-dozen other days. I clearly remember it was the day when Alex Rodriguez hit two home runs against the Kansas City Royals. But when I went back into the archives to find that particular game, I saw that Rodriguez actually hit two home runs against the Royals SEVEN times. That doesn’t include the time he hit three home runs against the Royals.
Fun (or not so fun) fact: Alex Rodriguez had 60 multi-homer games in his career. SIXTY. That’s more than Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder COMBINED. It’s more than Mickey Mantle and Roberto Clemente COMBINED. It’s a lot.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure this game happened in May 2002 because, as I scramble for details in my mind, I think Kansas City had just hired Tony Pena to be it’s manager.
Ah, Tony Pena: one of my all-time favorites. You know, the day he took the job he told the Kansas City players: “I’m the new DJ. I play the music. You are to dance. If you don’t know how to dance, get off the dance floor.” No, nobody knew what the heck he was talking about, but it was inspiring all the same.
A few days after he started, the Royals went down to Texas to play in a weekend series against the Rangers -- who were lousy -- but A-Rod was their shortstop. Friday night, the Royals’ starter was Jeff Suppan, and in the first inning Rodriguez launched a long home run -- one of those high fly balls that sail deep into the stands.
Then, in the fifth inning, Rodriguez came up again against Suppan and he hit another home run. If I have my date right, this is the homer I think about all the time. Rodriguez was kind of fooled by the pitch, did not get a good cut at the ball and he appeared to pop it up.
Only, the ball would not come down.
The outfielder -- Carlos Beltran, I think -- coasted back for the ball like he was going to make an easy catch. Then he kept going, but still in an unhurried way, as if the ball was going to come down on the warning track. Beltran kept going, now getting ready to time his jump, climb the wall and try to steal the home run. However, the ball probably went 25 feet over Beltran’s glove and landed in about the 33rd row.
It remains one of the most amazing things I have ever seen on a baseball diamond. I think about it all the time -- the easy swing, the way the ball repelled off that bat, the way that baseball kept going like it was one of those remote control helicopters. Yes, of course, I know that Alex Rodriguez was cheating. Yes, I know that his strength was, literally and figuratively, unnatural. Yes, I can -- everyone can -- draw a pretty simple timeline from that moment when A-Rod was a superhero to the present, where Alex Rodriguez is disgraced, despised and doomed.
2003: Alex Rodriguez hits 47 homers, wins a Gold Glove at shortstop and takes MVP award for last-place Texas Rangers. He is, at this moment, making a clear case for himself as one of the 10 best players in baseball history.
2004: A-Rod willingly takes a large pay cut so he can be traded to the Boston Red Sox. The Players Association scotches the deal. Instead, A-Rod is traded to Yankees. He moves to third base in deference to Derek Jeter.
2005: A-Rod hits .321 with league-leading 48 homers and 124 runs to win MVP for the Yankees. He becomes the Yankees first MVP in two decades. But he hits .133 in playoffs as Yankees are beaten by the Los Angeles Angels in five and he is booed.
2006: A-Rod hits 35 homers, makes All-Star Team, and hits .071 in playoffs as Yankees lose to Detroit. He develops a reputation -- fair or unfair -- as a postseason choker. He is booed.
2007: He wins his third MVP Award in five years with 54 home runs. He also goes on 60 Minutes to say that he never used steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug because, “I’ve never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I’ve always been a very strong, dominant position.”
At the end of the year, Rodriguez opts out of the richest contract in baseball history to go for an even richer one -- an announcement made right in the middle of Game 4 of the World Series between Boston and Colorado. Eventually, he signs a 10-year, $275 million deal making nobody on earth happy, except himself and his agent.
2009: Sports Illustrated reports that Rodriguez tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003. Two days later, Rodriguez admits that he used steroids while in Texas because, essentially, he felt overmatched on the baseball field. But he’s quick to say he no longer feels that way and did not use when he was with the Yankees.
The Yankees win the World Series for the first time in almost a decade, and A-Rod hits .365 with six home runs in the postseason.
2010: A-Rod hits .190 in the playoffs. He is booed.
2011: A-Rod hits .111 in the playoffs. He is booed.
2012: A 36-year-old and obviously-injured Alex Rodriguez hits .120 in the postseason and is pinch-hit for twice and finally benched. Yes, of course, he is booed.
2013: The Biogenesis stuff. The injury stuff. The squabbling. At last check, it is being reported that Major League Baseball has evidence Rodriguez not only used PEDs but steered others toward it and tampered with the Biogenesis investigation.
The Yankees, stuck with an insane contract they never should have signed, want Rodriguez out. Major League Baseball, stuck with a player who is even more unpopular than Barry Bonds (at least HOMETOWN FANS like Bonds) want A-Rod out. Fans want him out, of course. Story after story advise him to get out. Baseball is reportedly threatening Rodriguez with a lifetime ban if he doesn’t leave quietly. There are conflicting reports about what Rodriguez will do, though the latest suggest that he will cut a deal to salvage as much of his contract and self-respect as he can. It seems the prudent move if MLB really has as much evidence as they suggest.
After all that, we are left with a shell of the superhero. There never was going to be a happy ending for Alex Rodriguez, but now (and this is true no matter where this goes from here) he is doomed to be discharged from the game as one of baseball’s all-time villains.
On that day in May, just more than a decade ago, Alex Rodriguez was unlimited. He was 26 years old. He was a brilliant defensive shortstop. He could draw “oohs” from the crowd by simply throwing a baseball across the diamond -- that’s how strong his arm was. He could run. He was a .300 hitter. He was seemingly invulnerable -- playing every day.
And he could hit fly balls that just kept going and going and going. He was as thrilling to watch as anyone. We will never know how much of that genius for baseball was his own talent and hard work and how much of it was in the chemicals he injected into his body. The sad part is that most people don’t care to know. They don’t care enough about him to think about it. They just want him to go away.
jueves, junio 27, 2013
Cantante de la Charanga Habanera se apaga en una cárcel peruana
Cubanet
El ex vocalista de la orquesta La Charanga Habanera, Michel Maza Márquez, cumplió dieciséis meses de prisión en la cárcel El Lurigancho, en Perú. El reporte del programa Primero Noticias dio cuenta de la condena de 25 años que extingue el músico, quien espera un perdón del gobierno.
Maza considera injusta la pena que ahora purga en el centro de reclusión más poblado del Perú y ha negado todo el tiempo la acusación de secuestro, intimidación y robo a mano armada que le imputaron en el año 2012, pero reconoce los tropiezos que lo llevaron al mundo de las drogas y de ahí al infierno que hoy vive.
Maza considera injusta la pena que ahora purga en el centro de reclusión más poblado del Perú y ha negado todo el tiempo la acusación de secuestro, intimidación y robo a mano armada que le imputaron en el año 2012, pero reconoce los tropiezos que lo llevaron al mundo de las drogas y de ahí al infierno que hoy vive.
La cárcel de Lurigancho es una de las más peligrosas del mundo, por su población penal, y por el nivel de violencia que encierra, tiene capacidad para 2,500 personas y, de acuerdo al Instituto Nacional Penitenciario del Perú, alberga a 6,431 personas de las cuales sólo 2,728 han sido sentenciadas.
El reporte televisivo peruano descubre a un Michel con grandes ojeras, la voz apagada y la mirada triste. Aunque las condiciones carcelarias son difíciles para cualquier reo, el joven Maza se pasea por las áreas del penal entre los saludos de los que comparten su destino.
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| Cárcel Lurigancho, Peru |
Michel Maza es hijo de la cantante Beatriz Márquez y después de un estrellato con La Charanga Habanera, que lo puso en la cima de los timberos y la preferencia de los melómanos, fue despedido en 1999 por incumplir con los conciertos y mostrar actitudes públicas que fueron censuradas por la prensa cubana y las autoridades, quienes al verlo trepar descamisado por andamios emprendieron una diatriba en los medios de comunicación (a la derecha su álbum como solista).
Los vecinos del barrio La Victoria tienen el mejor testimonio de Maza, reconocen su adicción a las drogas, pero rechazan de plano su implicación en actos criminales, e incluso acusan a la comisaría local de estar involucrados en lo que consideran una manipulación del caso.
miércoles, junio 19, 2013
miércoles, junio 05, 2013
From 'dude' to dividends: the budding industrialization of pot
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| www.columbian.com |
The pot industry isn’t being cultivated with grow lights behind blacked-out windows anymore. Despite federal drug-enforcement and tax laws that render it illegal — and hard to turn a profit as a mainstream business — the economics of pot are becoming closer to what one advocate dubs “Big Marijuana.”
“It’s been an industry for a long, long time. It’s just been an underground industry,” said Jeffrey A. Miron, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University.
Pot has a trade association, and is planning its third annual lobbying day in Washington, D.C., for this week, signaling that the industry is growing up, said Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.
"The most interesting thing about what’s happening to the marijuana marketplace right now is it’s moving from the underground to essentially being just any other commodity that’s sold in a regulated market," she said. "So you’re going to see the same kind of business and political functions that happen with any other product."
And it’s not just the activists taking an interest: Hedge funds and venture capitalists are starting to see the potential pot offers as a business opportunity in spite of occupying a legal gray area.
Private equity and venture capitalists bring expertise raising money, making money and lobbying for the interests of their business in the political arena, said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of The Drug Policy Alliance. “More and more of the players ...are coming out of the hedge fund world, the real estate world,” he said, and applying the same skills they’ve used to grow other industries.
“This experiment in democracy that’s taking place in Washington and Colorado is going to continue to evolve in other states... it’s just a matter of time and waiting for the federal government and bureaucrats and politicians to catch up to the changing tide of American public opinion,” predicted Brendan Kennedy, CEO of private-equity firm Privateer Holdings, which focuses on the marijuana industry.
“It’s a mainstream product and our investors see that, and they also see it’s inevitable that it will be legalized and it’s inevitable that there will be a real industry,” Kennedy said.
There is a broader cultural shift under way. Americans’ attitudes about marijuana are changing, a survey published last month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found. For the first time, a majority of Americans support legalizing pot. Half of Baby Boomers and roughly two-thirds of millennials say marijuana should be legalized, and just under half of Americans say they’ve tried it.
“You do have a lot of people saying the genie’s out of the bottle despite what the federal government does,” said Chris Walsh, editor of Medical Marijuana Business Daily.
Professional investment capital means the industry can shed 'stoner' stereotypes and tie-dye clichés, Kennedy said, and start implementing quality standards, cohesive marketing and branding strategies and industry-wide leadership.
“It’s still an industry that’s remarkably young,” Kennedy said. Pot is a fragmented, decentralized business with very little standardization — not unexpected, in a field where entrepreneurs can get their start palming baggies at music festivals.
Former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively wants to turn pot into a national, branded commodity in one fell swoop. Last Thursday, Shively held a news conference in Seattle, accompanied by former Mexican President Vicente Fox, to announce that he is raising $10 million in start-up capital to build a chain of retail marijuana stores, a down payment on what he said would be a $100 million investment in three years.
“Yes, we are Big Marijuana," Shively said. He outlined a plan to build a national brand of retail marijuana stores, which would be supplied by regulated trade with Mexico.
If Shively found pot’s illegal status to be a bit of a buzzkill, he didn’t show it. “We believe the writing is on the wall that marijuana will become legal in the entirety of the U.S. in the next decade or so,” says the website of Shively’s firm, Diego Pellicer.
Shively’s announcement came two days after Colorado’s recreational-use legislation officially became law. As voters in more states pass referendums legalizing medicinal and, less commonly, recreational pot use, states are interested in the revenue potential that could come from legalizing and taxing marijuana.
A report published last month by the Colorado Futures Center at Colorado State University said recreational pot use in the state is a $605.7 million market that will generate $130.1 million in state tax dollars for fiscal year 2014-15.
In 2010, Miron estimated that, nationwide, pot could generate $8.7 billion in federal and state tax money annually if it were taxed like other “vice” products such as alcohol and tobacco.
But he is skeptical that Big Marijuana is on the horizon in the immediate future. “I think a lot of people are putting the cart before the horse,” Miron said. “It’s still an illegal commodity.”
Starting a pot business even in states where it’s legal is an uphill battle. Aldworth said 1980s-era tax code legislation prevents marijuana dispensaries, even in states where they operate legally, from being able to deduct many of the standard expenses other small businesses can. And since banks or credit unions generally won’t work with them, pot businesses are cash operations, without the access to financing sources other businesses take for granted.
Pot might have been the catalyst behind Harold and Kumar’s fateful trip to White Castle, but when it comes to making pot as ubiquitous as fast food, “It’s going to be a lot harder than some people make it sound,” Walsh said.
“It will really depend how the federal government responds,” he said.
But even if early efforts like Shively’s fail to bear fruit, Walsh said, “This is a good thing for the industry.” It attracts the interest of the investment community, and “it is starting the conversation,” he said. “People have been talking about a tipping point for years. They could be right this time.”
jueves, abril 25, 2013
Report: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Dealt Drugs for Spending Money
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspected Boston Marathon bomber who was captured alive last Friday, reportedly dealt drugs on the side for spending money while in college.
Students at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and three people who bought marijuana from Dzhokhar who did not want to be named told the Boston Globe that Dzhokha "earned at least some cash selling marijuana."
Another person said "there was a permanent stench of marijuana in his room." Dzhokhar reportedly sold what he did not smoke himself, according to friends.
The students describe Dzhokhar, who received a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge, as a scholarship student who had money for food and expenses but did not live a lavish lifestyle. He "drove his father’s green 1999 Honda Civic" and also may have had a "mysterious" side business helping friends fix cars.
lunes, abril 01, 2013
La viuda de un narco boliviano relata la conexion Cuba
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De las confesiones que Roberto me hizo en Tamarindo acerca de su reciente viaje a Colombia, Cuba y Panamá, sin lugar a dudas la más sorprendente fue la razón de su visita a La Habana. La relación entre el régimen comunista y los narcotraficantes colombianos se inició a comienzos de la década de los ochenta. El Departamento América, en cumplimiento de una orden expresa de Raúl Castro, mandó como embajador en Bogotá a Fernando Ravelo, uno de sus mejores agentes. La misión principal del “diplomático” era hacer las gestiones que fuesen necesarias para conectarse con la cúpula que manejaba el tráfico de drogas en Colombia. En el año 1981, como dije antes, la intermediación del gobierno de Cuba ante los guerrilleros del M-19 y el MAS fue determinante para la liberación de Nieves Ochoa y fue, además, el primer puente de confianza tendido por los comunistas a los narcotraficantes. El primero en ser contactado por Ravelo fue Carlos Lehder. Las negociaciones que éste realizó con las autoridades cubanas durante su larga visita a la isla lo convertirían a la postre en el conducto perfecto que los llevaría hasta sus principales objetivos: Roberto Suárez y Pablo Escobar. Desde el año 1982 Lehder les había manifestado a mi marido y a Escobar, en reiteradas oportunidades, las persistentes invitaciones del embajador Ravelo para que lo visitaran en Bogotá, pero no aceptarían ninguna. No los necesitaban todavía.
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En el mes de mayo de 1981, ante las cuantiosas pérdidas que les ocasionó la marina cubana en el Paso de los Vientos, y cansados de los continuos cambios de humor de las autoridades de las Bahamas para dar su visto bueno a las naves marinas y aéreas que llegaban desde Colombia y Costa Rica para reabastecerse de combustible en sus islas, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, a nombre del cártel, conseguiría al fin la venia de las autoridades estatales de Quintana Roo para que sus transportistas, que partían del puerto de Barranquilla, reabastecieran sus barcos y aviones en la isla de Cazumel. Desde la Riviera Maya atravesaban el Golfo de México hasta las aguas de los Cayos de la Florida, donde realizaban el trasbordo o bombardeo de la mercancía. Pero casi dos años más tarde llegaría el boom del narcotráfico mexicano. El incremento progresivo de los volúmenes de droga que éstos transportaban por aire, mar y tierra les permitiría tomar el control total de las rutas del Golfo.
Ése fue el motivo para que, en el mes de enero de 1983, Roberto y Escobar aceptaran al fin reunirse en Bogotá con el representante del gobierno cubano. Ravelo los recibió en la embajada, acompañado por el jefe del Departamento MC (Monedas Convertibles), dependiente del Ministerio del Interior, el coronel Antonio de la Guardia, quien les transmitió la invitación del general Arnaldo Ochoa para visitar Cuba. No había más tiempo que perder. Fijaron la fecha del viaje para el día siguiente. Al salir de la residencia, Pablo dijo en tono burlesco: “¿Departamento MC, Marihuana-Cocaína? Los tenemos donde queríamos, mi don. Estos cubanos están apestados por plata. Cada vez las limosnas que reciben de los rusos son menores. Se las dan con cuentagotas”
Ése fue el motivo para que, en el mes de enero de 1983, Roberto y Escobar aceptaran al fin reunirse en Bogotá con el representante del gobierno cubano. Ravelo los recibió en la embajada, acompañado por el jefe del Departamento MC (Monedas Convertibles), dependiente del Ministerio del Interior, el coronel Antonio de la Guardia, quien les transmitió la invitación del general Arnaldo Ochoa para visitar Cuba. No había más tiempo que perder. Fijaron la fecha del viaje para el día siguiente. Al salir de la residencia, Pablo dijo en tono burlesco: “¿Departamento MC, Marihuana-Cocaína? Los tenemos donde queríamos, mi don. Estos cubanos están apestados por plata. Cada vez las limosnas que reciben de los rusos son menores. Se las dan con cuentagotas”
A la mañana siguiente se embarcaron en el aeropuerto El Dorado junto al coronel cubano en un jet Comander propiedad de Escobar, quien no se cambiaba por nadie. El vuelo hasta la isla duró más de dos horas y media. En el aeropuerto de Varadero fueron recibidos con bombo y platillo por René Rodríguez, presidente del Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP), y el almirante Aldo Santamaría, jefe de la marina de guerra cubana. Durante el trayecto al Comando de Operaciones Navales, Rodríguez y Santamaría les comentaron acerca del marcado interés que tenía Fidel y su entorno en usar el narcotráfico como un arma contra el imperialismo yanqui, y apoyar con los fondos provenientes del tráfico a los grupos guerrilleros colombianos, en especial a los M-19, quienes serían los encargados de velar por la seguridad de los laboratorios del cártel. “En el comando nos esperó el coronel Humberto Francis Pardo, una simpatía de negrazo que se las sabe todas. Se puso a nuestra entera disposición y nos mostró hasta el último rincón del complejo naval. Lo que más nos impresionó fue el alcance de unos modernos radares recién llegados de Rusia, que te dan la ubicación exacta de los guardacostas gringos”. Mientras más se explayaba Roberto en su relato, yo entendía menos su intención de volver conmigo. Cada palabra suya alejaba en forma diametral esa mínima posibilidad.
Por orden de Fidel, en La Habana los hospedaron en una de sus mansiones en el barrio del Vedado, la misma donde habría reposado junto a su comitiva Leonid Brézhnev durante su visita a la isla, en la década anterior. Esa noche los generales Arnaldo Ochoa y Patricio de la Guardia les ofrecieron una recepción en el Club de Yates de la Marina Hemingway, donde compartieron con los miembros de la Nomenclatura y otras personalidades relevantes del régimen hasta entrada la madrugada. El general Ochoa se encargó de escoltarlos en persona hasta la fortificada casona de la calle 11. Al despedirse, les dijo: “Hermanos, como dicen ustedes que al que madruga, Dios lo ayuda, mañana temprano tendremos un desayuno de trabajo para hablar de negocios. Los mando a buscar con Tony a las siente en punto”. Cuando quedaron solos en el búnker, Escobar le preguntó a Roberto: “¿Qué irán a decir los gringos cuando se enteren de que estuvimos negociando por acá?” Mi marido le respondió, tajante: “Me tiene sin cuidado lo que diga la CIA. Te repito lo mismo que le dije a Manuel el otro día: les vamos a enseñar a jugar a dos puntas”.
Al día siguiente, el coronel estuvo puntual a la hora indicada para llevarlos a las dependencias del Ministerio del Interior, donde los esperaban para desayunar el mismo José Abrantes y el general Ochoa. Después de un par de horas de regateos, llegaron al fin a un acuerdo. Pagarían un millón de dólares diarios para tener la cobertura del gobierno cubano y el libre acceso a sus aguas territoriales y espacio aéreo, lo que les permitiría usar sus puertos y aeropuertos a su antojo para reabastecer sus barcos y aviones. Y, por supuesto, el acuerdo incluía la escolta oficial de la flota y de la aviación cubana en todas sus operaciones. Después de felicitarse mutuamente, Abrantes se comunicó con un colega, el ministro de Defensa: “Raúl, hemos llegado a un acuerdo satisfactorio con los señores Suárez y Escobar”. Mientras, el general Ochoa les decía, en referencia a Fidel: “Señores, ahora viene la mejor parte, vamos a ver al Caballo”. Roberto dijo para sus adentros: “Primero el gusto, después el susto”.
En el aeropuerto de La Habana abordaron un helicóptero Mig-24 que los trasladó hasta el Cayo Piedra. Al sobrevolar la paradisíaca propiedad, quedaron deslumbrados ante la magnificencia de la construcción. Aterrizaron en el helipuerto, donde fueron recibidos por el ministro de Defensa. “Sean ustedes bienvenidos, señores, mi hermano los está esperando arriba”, dijo Raúl Castro, quien los condujo en medio de una fuerte vigilancia de decenas de guardias civiles y francotiradores militares hasta la sala principal de la mansión. “Gracias por haber aceptado finalmente la invitación de Ochoa. Ustedes serán el misil con el que agujerearé el bloqueo y el injusto embargo que sufre mi país”, les dijo, mirándolos fijamente a los ojos mientras les estrechaba la mano. Luego continuó: “Pepe me ha informado sobre los detalles del trato. Es menos de lo que yo esperaba. Pablo habría replicado: “Treinta millones al mes es un mundo de plata, presidente, son como trescientos sesenta…” El dictador no lo dejó terminar y en tono jocoso les dijo: “Tienes razón, Escobar, eso es mucho dinero para nosotros. En cambio, para ustedes son centavos. Lo ganan de un solo envión”. Se acercó hacia ellos frotándose la barbilla y les dijo sonriendo: “Mejor cambiemos de tema. No hay por qué hablar más del asunto. La palabra empeñada por el ministro Abrantes tiene casi el mismo valor que la mía”.
Luego se dirigió a Roberto para pedirle que interpusiera sus buenos oficios ante el gobierno del presidente Siles Zuazo, para que de una vez por todas iniciara la búsqueda del cadáver del Che. Mi marido no le prestaría mucha atención a su charla. Seguiría pensando en la última frase dicha por el dictador, mientras que éste le mostraba los informes erróneos que manejaban sus servicios de inteligencia, según los cuales el guerrillero argentino-cubano estaría enterrado en las proximidades de la población de Vallegrande. De acuerdo con informes, fidedignos que el general Mario Vargas Salinas le proporcionó a Roberto, el Che habría sido enterrado debajo de la pista de aterrizaje del aeropuerto de Vallegrande. Su hermano Raúl notó la falta de interés de Roberto sobre el asunto y prefirió finalizar diciendo: “Lo único que pretendemos es repatriar sus restos para darle una sepultura digna junto a los otros héroes de la Revolución”. La reunión se extendió por un lapso de media hora más, en la cual ajustaron algunos detalles logísticos y definieron comenzar sus operaciones de inmediato. Luego de despedirse, cuando se disponían a abordar el helicóptero, Fidel le dijo a su general: “Ochoa, me cuidas a estos señores con tu vida. A partir de hoy, ellos valen más para Cuba que Vasili Kuznetsov y el Sóviet Supremo juntos”.
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Fotos: www.taringa.net
Mexican drug cartels reportedly dispatching agents deep inside US
CHICAGO – Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States -- an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits.
If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels' move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering.
Cartel activity in the U.S. is certainly not new. Starting in the 1990s, the ruthless syndicates became the nation's No. 1 supplier of illegal drugs, using unaffiliated middlemen to smuggle cocaine, marijuana and heroin beyond the border or even to grow pot here.
But a wide-ranging Associated Press review of federal court cases and government drug-enforcement data, plus interviews with many top law enforcement officials, indicate the groups have begun deploying agents from their inner circles to the U.S. Cartel operatives are suspected of running drug-distribution networks in at least nine non-border states, often in middle-class suburbs in the Midwest, South and Northeast.
"It's probably the most serious threat the United States has faced from organized crime," said Jack Riley, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Chicago office.
The cartel threat looms so large that one of Mexico's most notorious drug kingpins -- a man who has never set foot in Chicago -- was recently named the city's Public Enemy No. 1, the same notorious label once assigned to Al Capone.
The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-government agency that tracks crime trends in the region, said it considers Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman even more menacing than Capone because Guzman leads the deadly Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in Chicago and in many cities across the U.S.
Years ago, Mexico faced the same problem -- of then-nascent cartels expanding their power -- "and didn't nip the problem in the bud," said Jack Killorin, head of an anti-trafficking program in Atlanta for the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "And see where they are now."
Riley sounds a similar alarm: "People think, `The border's 1,700 miles away. This isn't our problem.' Well, it is. These days, we operate as if Chicago is on the border."
Border states from Texas to California have long grappled with a cartel presence. But cases involving cartel members have now emerged in the suburbs of Chicago and Atlanta, as well as Columbus, Ohio, Louisville, Ky., and rural North Carolina. Suspects have also surfaced in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania.
Mexican drug cartels "are taking over our neighborhoods," Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane warned a legislative committee in February. State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan disputed her claim, saying cartels are primarily drug suppliers, not the ones trafficking drugs on the ground.
sábado, febrero 09, 2013
Avital Ronell: The Day Off [forgiveness, drugs, ontic, ontological, friendship, blush,...]
egsvideo
Avital Ronell discusses the concepts of forgiveness, drugs, ontic,
ontological, friendship, blush, nausea, otherness, alterity, referring
to Heidegger, Holderlin, Levinas, Susan Sontag, Lyotard, Kleist,
Nietzsche, Wagner, Derrida, Lacoue-Labarthe, Alfred Hitchcock, Hegel.
Free public open lecture for the students and faculty of the European
Graduate School EGS Media and Communication Studies Department Program
in 2012. EGS, Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, Avital Ronell 2012.
Avital Ronell is Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University, where she directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project. She is a member of the faculty of the European Graduate School, interested in Literary and other discourses, feminism, philosophy, technology and media, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, performance art, and has also written as a literary critic, a feminist, and philosopher.
Avital Ronell was born in Prague to Israeli diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She received a B.A. in 1974 from Middlebury, studied with Jacob Taubes at the Hermeneutic Institute at the Free University of Berlin, received her Ph.D. under the advisement of Stanley Corngold at Princeton University in 1979. Avital Ronell taught at the University of California at Berkeley from 1984-1995 and at New York University from 1995 to the present. She served as Chair of the Department of German from Spring 1997 to Spring 2005. She taught an annual seminar in Literature & Philosophy at NYU with Professor Jacques Derrida and has taught with Professor Helene Cixous at Université of Paris VIII. She regularly teaches at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland and in Mexico. She was invited by the Humanities Council to offer a seminar at Princeton University in spring 2006.
Avital Ronell has produced English translations of Derrida's work.Her books and works include: The Uber Reader: Selected Works of Avital Ronell Ed. Diane Davis. 2006; 2005 The Test Drive, 2001 Stupidity, 1998 Finitude's Score Essays for the End of the Millennium , 1993 Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania, 1993 Dictations: On Haunted Writing, 1989 Telephone Book Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, 1989 The Ear of the Other, trans., Jacques Derrida, and Dictations: On Haunted Writing 1986.
Avital Ronell is Professor of German, comparative literature, and English at New York University, where she directs the Research in Trauma and Violence project. She is a member of the faculty of the European Graduate School, interested in Literary and other discourses, feminism, philosophy, technology and media, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, performance art, and has also written as a literary critic, a feminist, and philosopher.
Avital Ronell was born in Prague to Israeli diplomats and was a performance artist before entering academia. She received a B.A. in 1974 from Middlebury, studied with Jacob Taubes at the Hermeneutic Institute at the Free University of Berlin, received her Ph.D. under the advisement of Stanley Corngold at Princeton University in 1979. Avital Ronell taught at the University of California at Berkeley from 1984-1995 and at New York University from 1995 to the present. She served as Chair of the Department of German from Spring 1997 to Spring 2005. She taught an annual seminar in Literature & Philosophy at NYU with Professor Jacques Derrida and has taught with Professor Helene Cixous at Université of Paris VIII. She regularly teaches at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland and in Mexico. She was invited by the Humanities Council to offer a seminar at Princeton University in spring 2006.
Avital Ronell has produced English translations of Derrida's work.Her books and works include: The Uber Reader: Selected Works of Avital Ronell Ed. Diane Davis. 2006; 2005 The Test Drive, 2001 Stupidity, 1998 Finitude's Score Essays for the End of the Millennium , 1993 Crack Wars: Literature, Addiction, Mania, 1993 Dictations: On Haunted Writing, 1989 Telephone Book Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, 1989 The Ear of the Other, trans., Jacques Derrida, and Dictations: On Haunted Writing 1986.
martes, enero 29, 2013
MLB investigating Alex Rodriguez, Miami clinic
The league statement was issued in response to a report published in the Miami New Times, which cites files obtained from a former employee of Biogenesis, a now-closed South Florida clinic, that show Rodriguez was one of several athletes to purchase HGH and other substances.
"We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances. ... Through our Department of Investigations, we have been actively involved in the issues in South Florida," MLB's statement said.
ALSO ON THIS STORY
Rodriguez, the New York Yankees slugger currently recovering from hip surgery, has admitted using steroids from 2001-03 but insisted he stopped after that. Rodriguez issued a statement denying having a link to Anthony Bosch, the owner of the South Florida Clinic.
"The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true," the statement read. "Alex Rodriguez was not Mr. Bosch’s patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story -- at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez -- are not legitimate.”
Other players named by the New Times as appearing in the records at Biogenesis include Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon and Nelson Cruz. Cabrera, the All-Star game MVP for the San Francisco Giants last season, was suspended 50 games in August for failing a drug test. The outfielder has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent.
Colon, a pitcher for the Oakland A's, was also suspended 50 games in August.
Gonzalez, who went 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, and Cruz, who hit 24 home runs for the Texas Rangers, had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
The Rangers said in a statement that after being contacted by the New Times late last week, they notified Major League Baseball. The club said it had no further comment.
Gonzalez posted on his Twitter feed: "I've never used performance
enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance."
enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance."
The report said that Bosch's notes list the players' names and the substances they received, including human growth hormone and steroids. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professionalthletes but they never saw the sports stars in the office.
Any player found by MLB to use banned, performance-enhancing substances, is subject to suspension.
sábado, enero 19, 2013
viernes, enero 18, 2013
jueves, enero 17, 2013
Armstrong: 'Yes,' he used performance-enhancing drugs
"Yes."
That was Lance Armstrong's response to Oprah Winfrey's initial question in her much-publicized interview with the former seven-time Tour de France winner on whether he used performance-enhancing drugs to aid his victories in all seven of the prestigious races.
Armstrong said a "win at all costs" mentality and "arrogance" were behind his cheating, and accepted blame for his mistakes, saying he deserves the scrutiny he's now come under in the wake of being stripped of his titles.
Armstrong answered "yes" to separate questions about whether he used EPO, whether he partook in blood transfusions, whether he used took human-growth hormone and whether he used performance-enhancing drugs in all seven of his Tour de France victories. He answered "no" when asked if he felt his accomplishments were possible without the assistance of banned substances.
Armstrong did insist that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs beyond 2005, and that his third-place finish in his 2009 comeback to the Tour de France was clean.
Reflecting back on his era of cycling dominance, Armstrong said that "the winning was almost phoned in," and he did not feel bad about using banned drugs, and furthermore did not feel that using banned drugs was cheating, revelations that he now, in hindsight, finds "scary." In a moment of contrition, Armstrong said that his longtime supporters "have every right to feel betrayed," and that he'll spend the rest of his life apologizing to make it up to them.
On the topic of illegal testosterone use, Armstrong had a controversial excuse, saying he used it because he was running low on his natural supply of the hormone due to his battle with cancer.
Armstrong insisted that there was no directive within his U.S. Postal Service team requiring riders to conform with the doping program in which he and other riders partook. That stands in contrast with statements from former teammates, notably Christian Vande Velde, who says he was threatened with being kicked off the team before partaking in the program.
Armstrong also confessed to being "a bully," and wanting to control the narrative, reacting negatively to statements he didn't like. It's a pattern of behavior Armstrong said has followed him his entire life, and one evident in Armstrong's frequent denials of doping over the years before and since his retirement.
When asked pointedly whether he required or expected teammates to dope for the sake of achieving a certain level of team success, Armstrong responded, "absolutely not."
Armstong hesitated before responding, "No," when asked if Dr. Michele Ferrari was at the head of the team's doping program, but also said he was reckless to be involved with the Italian physician and cycling coach, who's been issued a lifetime sports ban by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for multiple anti-doping violations. Armstrong characterized the entire period of his life as "reckless."
Armstrong said a donation made to UCI, cycling's chief organizing body, was made "because they asked me to," and not in an attempt to bribe officials to hide positive test results.
Winfrey pressed Armstrong on the topic of lawsuits filed against people who spoke out against Armstrong, among them Emma O'Reilly, a former masseuse for the U.S. Postal Service team. "It's a major flaw," Armstrong said of lawsuits against O'Reilly and others who were speaking the truth. "It's a guy who expected to get whatever he wanted and control every outcome. It's inexcusable."
The International Olympic Committee didn't wait to listen to Armstrong's interview.
The IOC on Wednesday stripped Armstrong of his 2000 bronze medal, sending him a letter asking him to return it, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced.
For others who will tune in Thursday, it's not just what Armstrong said that matters. How he said it, whether angry, tearful or matter-of-fact, will be judged as well.
"I left it all on the table with her and when it airs the people can decide," Armstrong said of his interview in a text sent to the AP on Wednesday. He dismissed a story earlier in the day that described him as "not contrite" when he acknowledged doping while dominating the cycling world.
Livestrong, the cancer charity Armstrong founded in 1997 and was forced to walk away from last year, said in a statement it expected him to be "completely truthful and forthcoming." A day earlier, World Anti-Doping Agency director general David Howman said nothing short of a confession under oath — "not talking to a talk-show host" — could prompt a reconsideration of Armstrong's lifetime ban from sanctioned events. And Frankie Andreu, a former teammate that Armstrong turned on, said the disgraced cyclist had an obligation to tell all he knew and help clean up the sport.
"I have no idea what the future holds other than me holding my kids," Armstrong said in the text.
Armstrong has held conversations with officials from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, including a reportedly contentious face-to-face meeting with USADA chief executive Travis Tygart near the Denver airport. It was USADA's 1,000-page report last year, including testimony from nearly a dozen former teammates, that portrayed Armstrong as the leader of a sophisticated doping ring that propelled the U.S. Postal Service team to title after title at the Tour de France. In addition to the lifetime ban, Armstrong was stripped of all seven wins, lost nearly all of his endorsements and was forced to cut ties with Livestrong.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Armstrong has information that might lead to his ban being reduced to eight years. That would make him eligible to compete in elite triathlons, many of which are sanctioned under world anti-doping rules, in 2020, when Armstrong will be 49. He was a professional athlete in the three-discipline sport as a teenager, and returned to competition after retiring from cycling in 2011.
That person also said the bar for Armstrong's redemption is higher now than when the case was open, a time during which he refused to speak to investigators. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a confidential matter.
Armstrong, who always prized loyalty on his racing teams, now faces some very tough choices himself: whether to cooperate and name those who may have aided, abetted or helped cover up the long-time use of PEDs.
Armstrong left his hometown of Austin, where the interview was taped at a downtown hotel, and is in Hawaii. He is named as a defendant in at least two pending lawsuits, and possibly a third. The Justice Department faces a Thursday deadline on whether to join a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping.
That suit alleges Armstrong defrauded the U.S. government by repeatedly denying he used performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong could be required to return substantial sponsorship fees and pay a hefty fine. The AP reported earlier that Justice Department officials were likely to join the lawsuit.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
martes, enero 15, 2013
OPRAH ON LANCE: He Did 'Not Come Clean in The Manner' I Expected
Oprah Winfrey said Lance Armstrong, who she said confessed to her that he used performance-enhancing drugs during his string of Tour de France victories, did 'not come clean in the manner' she expected, Reuters reported.
Winfrey went on to say that she would leave it to others to decided if the former champion was contrite during the interview that was taped on Monday in Texas, but she did call him thoughtful and serious.
A group of about 10 close friends and advisers to Armstrong left a downtown Austin hotel about three hours after they arrived Monday afternoon for the taping. Among them were Armstrong attorneys Tim Herman and Sean Breen, along with Bill Stapleton, Armstrong's longtime agent, manager and business partner. All declined comment entering and exiting the session.
Soon afterward, Winfrey tweeted: "Just wrapped with (at)lancearmstrong More than 2 1/2 hours. He came READY!"
In a text to the AP on Saturday, Armstrong said: "I told her (Winfrey) to go wherever she wants and I'll answer the questions directly, honestly and candidly. That's all I can say."
Speaking on "CBS This Morning," Winfrey said she had not planned to address Armstrong's confession before the interview aired on her OWN network but, "by the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had already confirmed it."
Armstrong was stripped of all seven Tour titles last year following a voluminous U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that portrayed him as a ruthless competitor, willing to go to any lengths to win the prestigious race.
USADA chief executive Travis Tygart labeled the doping regimen allegedly carried out by the U.S. Postal Service team that Armstrong once led, "The most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen."
Cycling's governing body urged Armstrong on Tuesday to testify before its independent commission on doping.
The International Cycling Union, or UCI, said it was aware of media reports that Armstrong had come clean and confessed to doping during an interview with Oprah Winfrey taped Monday.
"If these reports are true, we would strongly urge Lance Armstrong to testify to the Independent Commission established to investigate the allegations made against the UCI in the recent USADA reasoned decision on Lance Armstrong and the United States Postal Service (USPS) team," the federation said in a statement.
The UCI said it would not make any further comment until it has viewed the interview, which is to be broadcast on Thursday night.
The UCI set up an independent panel in November to investigate the Armstrong case and what role the governing body had in the scandal. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency raised suspicions of UCI collusion with Armstrong in its damming report that led to the cyclist being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life.
The UCI has been accused of covering up suspicious samples from Armstrong, accepting financial donations from him and helping him avoid detection in doping tests.
Armstrong is reportedly considering testifying against UCI officials.
Former UCI President Hein Verbruggen said Tuesday he wasn't ready to speak about the Armstrong case.
"I haven't seen the interview. It's all guessing," Verbruggen told the AP. "After that, we have an independent commission which I am very confident will find out the truth of these things."
The three-member independent commission is chaired by retired British judge Philip Otton. He is working alongside Australian lawyer Malcolm Holmes and Tanni Grey-Thompson, a 10-time Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair racing who is now a lawmaker in the upper chamber of Britain's Parliament.
The three-member panel will meet in London from April 9-26, with a June 1 deadline to deliver its report.
The cycling body has said the three will have access to "all relevant documents in the control or possession of the UCI," including bank and telephone records and laboratory test results.
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¨Saturno jugando con sus hijos¨/ Pedro Pablo Oliva
Liborio
A la puerta de la gloria está San Pedro sentado y ve llegar a su lado a un hombre de cierta historia. No consigue hacer memoria y le pregunta con celo: ¿Quién eras allá en el suelo? Era Liborio mi nombre. Has sufrido mucho, hombre, entra, te has ganado el cielo.
Martha Colmenares
Un sitio donde los hechos y sus huellas nos conmueven o cautivan
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