Whereas many times when Indymedia servers, which the IMC Brazil is part of, suffered attempts of censorship by being kidnapped by the FBI and other authorities, we also received support from several organizations that fight for freedom of speech.

Whereas when IMC San Francisco published leaked documents from Diebold proving that their electronic voting machines were not secure, the Indymedia network received a takedown notice trying to censor these documents and with the support of EFF and other organizations we were able to keep the information online.

Whereas when our volunteers are attacked, imprisoned and even murdered, as the case of volunteer Brad Will, we received support and solidarity from groups and movements around the world who struggle for the democratization of information.

And considering thousands of other examples like these, the Independent Media Center of Brazil, states its public support for the Wikileaks site and its founder Julian Assange.

Read the Full Note

On the morning of 12/11/2010, the community received another visit from a bailiff informing the start of the demolition of homes "empty," always in quotes because many of them, though unfinished, its occupants are living next door, in wooden shacks that were not registered by the City and may come down the same way.

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Apparatus of the state and city government is preparing to dump Taboinhas Village (RJ)

Shock Battalion is currently invading the favela Taboinhas

Despite the brutality, resistance Village Taboinhas can win

This Saturday, March the 13th, the City of Mexico held the Resistances Festival, in which 12 bands and musicians helped gathering 10 thousand and 400 people against the criminalization of social movements and to strengthen and give notice of 9 movements of indigenous, farmers and workers: the Autonomous Regional Council of the Zona Costa de Chiapas, Council of Ejidos Communities Opposed to the Parota Dam, Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magon, Regional Coordinator of Community Authorities - Community Police, People's Front in Defense of the Land of San Salvador Atenco, Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front ? UNOPPI, Ñomndaa Radio, SME and the Widows of Pasta de Conchos.

At the same time, free and community radio stations of at least 4 countries (Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina) interconnected their playlist to the Festival and themselves, trading contents and retransmitting by the internet and in electromagnetic waves. In Brazil, the movement counted with the free radio station of the Federal University of São Carlos, in São Paulo. The Porto Aérea radio station, in Rio de Janeiro, had its first trial transmission this Saturday, and not only did it participate of the Festival but it also organized a meeting with free radios of many groups, intending to rearticulate the rhizome of free radios in the area and to propose actions to the Urban Social Forum. In the same place there was also a meeting with the Flor da Palavra rhizome, of Zapatista influence, which acts in terms of making the communication and solidarity easier between social movements and other groups, especially the ones ?from under?.

Festival?s Site: Youth in Alternative Resistance

Movements already occurred in Brazil: (2006) Rede Arrastão de Rádios ? A little story | (2006) Arrastão de rádios livres ? this weekend | (2006) International rhizome of free radios in action this saturday | (2006) Rádio Movement, now, here, in any radio (or computer connected to the internet) internet) | (2005) Sunday?s Schedule of the Rede Arrastão | (2005) Saturday?s Schedule of the Rede Arrastão

In the night of the 10th day of October of 2009, the Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, gave the police order to invade and occupy the electric state company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LyFC) and close the company. An illegal act, for the decree that liquidated the firm was only published the following day (11/08/09). Overnight 44.000 workers lost their jobs. They are part of the Electricians Mexican Syndicate (SME), which originated in 1914 when the forces commanded by Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa occupied the city of Mexico. The government?s offensive against the syndicate has a clear objective, which is to weaken the state company LyFC to then privatize it.

The story dates back to July of 2009, when the SME elected its new board. Whe a syndicate elects a new board in Mexico, it must notify the Secretariat of Work and Social Prevention, which then issues the so called ?note-taking? to validate the existence of the syndicate. The thing is that the secretary, Javier Lozano Alarcón, didn?t emit the ?note-taking? and that way made the SME unrecognized by the government. Javier Alarcón claimed that there were irregularities in the SME?s elections, but never got to prove them.

From that moment on a media attack begun against the workers from the SME and the LyFC. The corporative media started to report that the LyFC was an inefficient company and to complain about the amount of money invested by the government on it. Also, the big means of communication ridiculed the benefits the workers from the SME had, reporting them as ?excesses?. For example, the access to therapy with dolphins, which deals with special children and kiss with physical deficiencies. Some members of the SME have children who need this therapy and thus the syndicate fought for such benefit, but in the TV news it became a joke and another form of attacking the syndicate.

Read the full article.

Links:(in portuguese) SME?s Blog | Audio from the speech given by Humberto Montes de Oca Luna from SME

As dawn arose on Wednesday February 24th Greece found itself totally paralyzed by a general strike spurred by rigorous methods adopted by the socialist government in attempt to save the country from a budgetary financial crisis.

The streets of the Greek capital were covered in posters and pamphlets requesting Greeks to protest their motto: "People and their needs before markets!".

Around 40 thousand people participated in a march in the centre of Athens, with protestors wielding posters with slogans such as, "tax the rich", "don't pay for the crisis of the rich", and, "don't touch our pensions".

During the morning various altercations between youths and police were reported in downtown Athens. Protestors wearing masks threw molotov cocktails at the police and broke the windows of some banks, luxury stores, multinational companies, as well as other targets. A corporate bookstore was raided and its books distributed en masse to the protesters and transients. Other corporate establishments were also expropriated.

Read the article in Full

Image Gallery: 1 | 2

Other Texts: (portuguese) Latest news | ""I want you to know that I will always be at your side"" | prisões ocorridas no início do mês de fevereiro | one more police execution | Greece: Massive Participation in General Strike | General strike mobilizes Greeks and thousands protest in Spain | Greek fascist Goverment capture another journalist (english | General Strick and confrontations |

After almost two years Free Radio Xibé (of Tefé in the Amazon region) will return to their daily programming schedule. On the 11th the collective contributors of the radio station reunited. Among those participating are 14 volunteers from Tefé's Center for Independent Media, the Regional Directory of Students (DRE in portuguese), the Amazon State Teachers Union, the Organization of People for the Indigenous People's Land Barrier Mission, the Ribeirinha Communications Network, and the (rap) group Explosão do Funk (Explosion of Funk). The proposal to unite various movements of the city in support of the radio station's return to daily program was ratified with the understanding that the groups will participate in the daily programming and management in a collective and vertical (rather than top-down) fashion. In addition to the movements educators, students and citizens from all walks of life, especially those who suffer in silence imposed by the numerous and varied processes of oppression, discrimination, and exploitation, hope to be invited to participate. This saturday is Carnaval in Xibé, with the "ajuri" (native for cooperative collective) installing anew the radio station in the University, this time in a space recently won through the mobilization of the DRE.

The radio station was originally born October 27th 2006 and cordially occupied a classroom at the Amazon State University at Tefé, soon winning the sympathies of many in the community both within and outside of the academic sphere; eventually, coming to have almost completely free daily programming schedule with some 30 people in participation. At the same time many video and lecture workshops took place in the majority of schools in Tefé and in community action extending to the university. Broadcasts continued daily until the commencement of classes in March of 2007 when the class was requisitioned due to the rising number of matriculated students. Afterwards, the radio continued broadcasting on weekends until June when their antenna was stolen during an Environment Week transmission. Thus commenced the "amateurish" phase wherein borrowed antennas from the Ribeirinha Network, and afterwards a small purchased antenna, were used. Ribeirinha gave free workshops on live broadcast radio as well as "word blossoms" (wherein a radio program abdicates it's programming to sum the actions of other groups) in neighbourhoods, communities, and native villages within the Tefé, Alvarães, Uarini, and Maraã communities and even lectures and courses in other states.

The university supported these actions through a research project taught as an extension called, "Laboratory of Free Communication", which fostered interconnection between these reflexive actions on culture, democracy, and anti-colonialism in the classroom, enabled the use of university equipment, won student grants from the state through which volunteers and students were able to fund the study of segregation in Tefé and of the processes of democratization of communications and sciences. The grants also allowed the creation of free and open mini-courses in community radio, documentary filmmaking, open software and others with the aid of visiting volunteer professors. In 2009 this project won second place in the FINEP prize for innovation in the northern region in the "Social Technology" category; this aided, along with the strengthening of the student movement, to create a favourable environment for the return of Radio Xibé's daily broadcast. Radio Xibé intends to request a community radio grant to guarantee at least one secure bastion of free expression exists in the city. However, the collective also has ideas to acquire more transmitters to start new free radio stations, as a network or not, and even a free Television station.

Photo History of Xibé's Radio: Roots of Xibe's: 2004 | 2005 | Birth of Xibé's: 2006 part 1 | 2006 part 2 | Xibé mambembe 2007 part 1 | 2007 part 2 | 2007 part 3 | 2008 part 1 | 2008 part 2 | 2008 part 3 | Xibé na Flor do Rock 2009 part 1 | 2009 part 2 | 2009 part 3 | I Festa do Movimento Cultural da Xibé (2007)

Vídeos e áudios (in portuguese): Chuva de Mídia Independente | Primeiras Entrevistas da Xibé | I Festa da Xibé | Camisetas do Cmi-Tefé | Jornal academico: entrevistas e debates com Francinete Chota | Explosão do Funk na Internet

Artigos (in portuguese): A universidade e a necessidade de rádios livres | Transformação e Reprodução Social na Experiência do Centro de Mídia Independente de Tefé | Disseminação da comunicação através de uma rádio comunitária na comunidade de Porto Braga da Reserva de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá | O Centro de Mídia Independente de Tefé: mídias livres na educação e na organização coletiva | Rádio na escola: uma proposta pedagógica para a democracia | Um laboratório de comunicação livre no Médio Solimões | A Flor Indígena: Artes de Fazer e Mídias Livres na Barreira da Missão | A fronteira virtuosa: universidade, mídias livres e diálogo intercultural

Editoriais antigos (in portuguese): Rádio Xibé ocupa Câmara dos Vereadores de Tefé e Anatel é contactada | Rádios livres do norte se mobilizam | Flor dos Movimentos Rurais (Tefé 2006) | Flor Indígena (Tefé 2007) | Flor da Vila Pescoço (Tefé 2008) | Flor das mulheres indígenas (Tefé 2008) | Flor da Palavra e Rock na Rua (Tefé 2009)

On Monday the first of February 2010 the Rastafarian community Cajazeiras 10, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) suffered a form of torment at the hands of local media and government only experienced in poor communities: repression and humiliation. Police officers from Cajazeiras 10's police precinct, during an unprovoked morning raid, invaded the houses of residents without cause for suspicion. That afternoon, with a crew from the television program "Na Mira", police conducted one such invasion into the home of a resident who had cultivated two marijuana plants producing a horrific spectacle used to serve as a deterrent to others. The man and his wife were forced to lay on the ground and publicly humiliated.

The television program "Na Mira" [in sight], is one of several popular sensationalist programs which frequently exhibits police incursions, cadavers, as well as arguments and fights (always among those on societal margins) as well as interviews with prisoners in a tone of grotesque humour thus, making a mockery of what most would describe as serious. These shows invariably suggest an inherent association between violence and poverty and, therefore, a need for the state to violently repress the poor.

Although followers of the Rastafari religion (or philosophy) follow a disciplined and peaceful way of life they are victims of an enormous amount of prejudice due to they fact that they are mostly Black (of African descent) and often use Marijuana and "Dreadlock" their for religious regions. Nothing can justify the degrading spectacle promoted by the media and police nor the prejudice and common use of violence by the state to maintain control over the poorest members of the population; it is always the poor and black who are "in sight".

As of 08/02 the resident whose home was invaded remains imprisoned despite having been able to provide a fixed address and profession.

Read the Manifest letter of the comunity (just in portuguese)

Links in Portuguese:
- MP entra com ação contra programa que defende tortura | Ministério Público coíbe abusos em programas na Bahia | PROGRAMA 'NA MIRA' NÃO VAI SAIR DO AR
- Genocídio de população negra como política de Estado | Entidades responsabilizam Estado brasileiro por política de extermínio
- O Caso de Robson Freitas, rastafari e ativista | RASTAFARI: Cultura de Resistência | SEMINÁRIO - RASTAFARI e CONSCIÊNCIA SOCIAL (2007)

As was denounced in the last CMI editorial on Honduras, in which we said that the national press stopped following the happenings in that country with the assumption that a fraudulent election under a military coup could resolve problems in the area, aggression and violations of human rights have risen. In an interview with CMI, Jose Luis Baquedano, of the National Front of the Popular Resistance, alerted that the repressions would ramp up and that Hondurans in resistance would running the risk of losing their lives. Baquedano himself and his son have already received various telephone calls threatening their lives. We publish here the translation of the communication made on the 15th of February 2010 by the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in HOnduras (CODEH in Spanish):

We of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Honduras (CODEH), are extremely worried by the systematic persecution, temporary disappearing, tortures, rapes, and murders currently directed to cause terror in those who have resisted the attack on dignity and moral abuse promoted by media and complicit in the (coup government's) harassment policy, which constitute crimes against humanity. The persecution, today, has transformed itself into selective aggression against any person who rejects with stoicism and emancipatory conscience those who today continue to enjoy impunity and commit grave crimes to legitimize those who today give continuity to the coup regime created after the military coup of June 28th 2009.

For the record CODEH has observed with profound concern:

1. - The temporary disappearing of artists Hermes Reyes, member of the Movement of Artists in Resistance by Divinity and by Justice. Three men participated in his imprisonment, supposedly paramilitaries who forced him into a vehicle where they beat him while telling him they knew that members of the National Front of Resistance against the Coup d'Etat were found meeting that Friday, the 12th of February 2010, in the city of Siguatepeque. In the torture, according to statements from those who assisted Hermens, barbed wire was used and seriously damaged one of his eyes.

*Read the complete communique*

Struggle for Justice, Freedom and Repair!

We, the families of victims of state violence Brazilian youth black and black residents of slums and suburbs, militants and citizens who are struggling and are in solidarity, we raise our voice on 10 December, International Day of Human Rights.

Once again we denounce the genocide, summary executions, the torture, mass imprisonment, the brutality of the police and prison officers (state agents). Brazil, presented as a tropical paradise where they will be held at the World Cup 2014 and 2016 Olympics, it seems more a giant concentration camp and extermination.

We denounce the racism and economic interests of elites, political corruption and police are behind so much death and violence.

We express our solidarity with social movements fighting for rights of the people and are thus criminalized and persecuted, as the landless, homeless, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendent communities threatened with eviction, trade unionists.

The judiciary can not contribute to the extermination of the black population poor! The Brazilian judicial system (judges, justices, promoters, etc.) has a wide share of responsibility in this situation.

Read the full article

Kent Police had e-mailed imc-uk-contact in the morning requesting that personal information about the judge in the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial be removed from the site. However this information had already been quickly removed in line with IMC UK policy. The e-mail also requested information relating to the poster be retained. Indymedia as an open posting news service does not log such information about its sources.

The warrant, as yet not seen by Indymedia, was we believe, specifically for this one server colocated in Manchester which is a mirror of the site. So it can only be concluded that the judge didn?t check the legality and validity of the request to remove it, and that the police wanted to attack the infrastructure within the UK.

Other sites that have been affected as a result of this seizure include London Indymedia, the global Indymedia documentation project server, la Soja Mata ? an anti-GM soya campaign focusing on South American development, Transition Sheffield and a Canadian campaign against the 2010 olympics.

Other Coverage: The Register | SchNews

Márcia Regina de Andrade Prado, 40, have died this Wednesday, january 14th, after being hit by a bus while bicycling at Av. Paulista. Member of the bicicletada paulistana (paulistan critical mass), she was one of the signatories of the Manifesto dos Invisíveis (Manifest of the Invisibles), in which bicyclists says that what is missing are not bicycle lanes, but the understanding that bicyclists are also part of the traffic and should have their lives respected.

"Streets are public spaces and should be shared by all vehicles (...) Instead of bicycle lanes, the installment of bicycle stands should come accompanied by a traffic education campaign and a work of street signalization, to inform drivers that bicyclists can and should ride on the streets of our city. In the driver?s license courses there isn?t a single paragraph about protecting the bicyclist, about the zeal of the higher vehicles for the smaller ones. Eventually, one quotes the legislation to be temporarily recorded, without ever explaining it adequately. And the signalization, when exists, forbids the bicycle; it never tells drivers about the sharing of the street, never regulates its uses or indicates alternative ways to the bicyclist. The absence of signalization uneducates drivers because doesn?t legitimate the presence of the bicycle on public streets".

Márcia was an experienced bicyclist and was pedaling on the right lane, destined to slower vehicules, near the Fundação Cásper Líbero (Cásper Líbero Foundation). The bus?s driver, Mário José de Oliveira, 53, told the press that he ?had no blame for the accident? and that he was with his ?conscience clear?. A witness said that the bus started to overtake the bicyclist and the driver threw the vehicule at her before finishing the overtake. The blogger Vendedor de Bananas (Bananas Salesman) outlines the situation this way: ?The fact is that there are many drivers who thinks it is funny to almost touch the bicyclists with their cars, intimidating us on a criminal way to show their irrational and arrogant discontent?. According to the traffic code, drivers should keep themselves 1,5 meters away from the bicyclist, at all sides. If this law had been respected, Márcia would still be with us. Em 2006, year of the last surving published by CET, 85 bicyclists have died in Sao Paulo?s traffic.

We from the Independent Media Center deeply mourn Márcia?s death and manifest our solidarity to all bicyclists. For a city where the streets belong to everybody ? bicyclist, pedestrian, scavengers, wheelchair users, skatists, strollers, etc. ? and not just to the motorized vehicules!

Public acts on January 15th and 16th
Last Thursday, 15th, around 18h, took place a homage to Márcia at Praça do Ciclista (Bicyclist Square), symbolically located at the same avenue where she was murdered. The act had the presence of her family, friends and participants of the critical mass. On Friday, 16th, the bicyclists have done an extra bicycling, leaving from the same Bicyclist Square, with a concentration around 18h and departure at 20h. The Bicyclist Square stays close to the corner of Paulista Avenue and Rua da Consolação (Consolation Street). The critical mass is a manifestation of bicyclists that support the use of bicycles in towns, against the automobile?s society.

Manifesto dos Invisíveis (Manifest of the Invisibles)

FOTOS
ato do dia 14/01: luto na Paulista parte 1 | parte 2 | ato do dia 15/01: flores e velas | ato do dia 16/01: bicicletada, plantação de pitangueira na Praça do Ciclista e ghost bike

TEXTOS
Bicicletada do Pará homenageia a cicloativista Márcia Prado | Sua pressa vale uma vida? | Chamado para a manifestação contra a morte da ciclista

Links externos:
Vivemos uma guerra, aqui na cidade | O motor venceu | Sempre Marcia | Marcia Regina de Andrade Prado | Ciclista Márcia, presente!

Situated on the proximities of the military fortress of same name, the Imbuhy community lives in state of war with the army since 1995, due to an action of reintegration of possession impetrated on Justice by the militaries, that wish to expel from the place 32 families that live there from more than a century. Now, the village?s residents have less than 50 days to leave the place.

According to the community, the army disguises its reasons arguing that their presence inside the military fortress?s area constitutes a ?threat to nacional security?. However, the army itself organizes barbecues and general parties in the location.

As if the action of reintegration of possession wasn?t enough, the coexistence itself of the villagers with the army exposes them to a lot of randomness and duress for a long time. Nowadays, the fishing that was for decades the activity responsible for the sustain of most of the habitants it is almost never done. That?s because the militaries have restrained the fishing time, and have forbid the entry of fishing trucks on the fortress. Besides, they suffer misuse of authority from the militaries and omission of help.

[Photos]: Action of Support and Solidarity to Imbuhy Community

Sign the Petition

Blog - Em defesa da Aldeia Imbuhy

The Zapatista inspired network "Flor da Palavra" ("blossom of words", in a free translation) invites everyone to participate in a "ajuri" (gathering) to build the first "caracol" (snail) of Brasil, in the island of Caratateua (Outeiro), in Belém, Brasil, starting in January 2009. These "snails" are the bases for the organization of autogestion in the Zapatista's regions in Chiapas (Mexico), creating unity between its autonomous municipalities and communities and facilitating the communication of the native folks with national and international civil society solidarity. The ajuri is a traditional practice of the indigenous people and of the caboclos (brazilian descendants of white and indians), in which groups and individuals unite in solidarity to, for example, clean and prepare the land for cultivation. In Outeiro, the purpose of the "ajuri" is to buy a piece of land and then begin the physical and human construction of a permanent area which can be used by volunteers and inhabitants to cultivate local autonomy and communication with other struggles.

One way of expressing your solidarity is donating for the acquisition of the land, through paypal:

There are already initiatives for the caracol to be also a place for the gathering of autonomous groups, free radios, Indymedia groups and other collectives. The network reminds that the revolution, for the EZLN, is the result of "the struggle in many social fronts, with many methods, under different social forms, with diverse degrees of compromise and participation", and stands out the importance that the main gathering happens with the people that live and frequent the island. Caratateua (Outeiro) is administrated by Belém, and is connected to the center by an 18km bridge, inaugurated in 1986. It has a population of 16.665 (data from the Belém City Hall, 1997) distributed in the quarters of Brasilia, Itaiteua, Tucumaeira, Fama, Fidélis, Água Boa, Primavera and Água Cristalina, which combine aspects of riverain rural life (as fishing and production of açaí -- a fruit from the amazonic region) with urbanization connected to the expansion of popular turism. It suffers with infra-structure and basic sanitation problems, as well as others linked with its "poor" region profile (in the "rich" point of view) and low priority for the State.

Conexões: Mapas de Belém e Outeiro | Fotos de Outeiro | Zapatistas explicam o que é um caracol | Artigo sobre os pescadores de Outeiro | Digna Raiva condena massacre na Palestina

Flores já realizadas: Flor da Digna Raiva (Cidade do México 2008) | Flor do direito à moradia (Curitiba 2008) | Flor das mulheres indígenas (Tefé 2008) | Flor em assentamento do MST (Maringá 2008) | Pré-Flor da Palavra Curitiba e Floripa (2008) | Flor da Vila Pescoço (Tefé 2008) | Flor Casa das Pombas (Brasília 2007) | Flor Indígena (Tefé 2007) | Flor Punk (Brasília 2006) | Flor Anti-Calderón (Marília 2006) | Flor dos Movimentos Rurais (Tefé 2006) | Flor Sampa (2006) | Flor Rizoma de Rádios (Campinas 2006)

The global action day in solidarity to the resistence anti-G8 took place on the last July 12th, in Japan.

On July 5th, in Sapporo, 3 manifestants were detained and accused of ?violating the traffic laws and special orders to manifestations in Sapporo? and also of ?obstructing the police?s work?. One of the detainees is an Indymedia activist.

Ativistas internacionais que participaram nos protestos disseram que "o sistema criminoso judiciário Japonês lhe permite manter presas pessoas por 23 dias sem acusação. Aliás, o sistema legal Japonês impõe punição coletiva; e os organizadores podem ser punidos pelas ações dos outros". International activists who have participated in the protests told that ?the Japanese criminal judiciary system allows to keep detainees for 23 days without charges. Besides, the legal system in Japan imposes colective punishment, and that means that the organizers can be punished for the actions of others activists?.

The call transmitted by Indymedia Japan says that the homeless people of Sapporo and activists from Osaka were detained: ?We?ve reported the police?s repression against the manifestation and the homeless activists, and the request of immediate freedom for all of them?. On July 12th, simultaneously protest actions happened at 3pm in Sapporo, Tokyo, Osaka, etc., against the ?police?s capitalism?.

Demonstrations held [from IMC Japan]: in San Francisco | in Berlin | in London

Other newswires: Milhares protestam contra encontro do G8 no Japão | Punks alemães e indígenas acampam perto da sede do G8 no Japão | Manifestação Contra G8 em Porto Alegre

Blog G8 à mesa - um mundo à fome

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In order to understand the "rescue operation" of Ingrid Betancourt and the Northrop Grumman Corporation mercenaries who were released with her, it is necessary to piece together articles published in the media, filter the content and out of this is formed a true understanding of the facts of what happened here.

1. On June 3rd, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba revealed that she possessed information that the government of Colombia was negotiating a deal with FARC to trade money for the release of Betancourt and the mercenaries. The official policy of the United States is that they don't "negotiate with terrorists," even as many leaders of Latin American countries accuse President Uribe of supporting the AUC paramilitary death squads and accuse the United States of providing safe harbor to known terrorists such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.

2. Careful observers began to question the strange circumstances under which the "dramatic rescue" of Ingrid Betancourt happened. Some guys with Che Guevara t-shirts simply showed up and redirected them into another helicopter? If it were that easy, why didn't they do that years ago? The French media also found strange the fact that Betancourt didn't resemble the gaunt and hungry images we have been seeing in the media -- she seemed well-fed and healthy, as if she were being prepared for release.