Ingrid Betancourt foi finalmente libertada!!!

É verdade, soube-se há um pouco: a libertação da senadora pacifista colombiana Ingrid Betancourt ocorreu hoje mesmo, por resgate militar. Ufa, já não era sem tempo!!!

Na mesma ocasião foram libertados vários outros reféns proeminentes. A ver vamos se este gesto pode ser o princípio da pacificação da Colômbia.

Mais informação disponível aqui ou aqui.

Uma verdade inconveniente

Enquanto todos aguardam a libertaçao dos 15 elementos da marina britânica capturados há mais de uma semana pela Guarda Revolucionária Iraniana - e enquanto todos se legitimamente preocupam pelo bem-estar dos reféns, é altura de reflectir como as forças aliadas, e em muito particular os EUA em Guantánamo, tratam os elementos que mantêm presos. Ronan Bennett, no The Guardian da passada sexta-feira, coloca o dedo na ferida.

"It's right that the government and media should be concerned about the treatment the 15 captured marines and sailors are receiving in Iran. Faye Turney's letters bear the marks of coercion, while parading the prisoners in front of TV cameras was demeaning. But the outrage expressed by ministers and leader writers is curious given the recent record of the "coalition of the willing" on the way it deals with prisoners.
Turney may have been "forced to wear the hijab", as the Daily Mail noted with fury, but so far as we know she has not been forced into an orange jumpsuit. Her comrades have not been shackled, blindfolded, forced into excruciating physical contortions for long periods, or denied liquids and food. As far as we know they have not had the Bible spat on, torn up or urinated on in front of their faces. They have not had electrodes attached to their genitals or been set on by attack dogs.
They have not been hung from a forklift truck and photographed for the amusement of their captors. They have not been pictured naked and smeared in their own excrement. They have not been bundled into a CIA-chartered plane and secretly "rendered" to a basement prison in a country where torturers are experienced and free to do their worst. (...)"