Unasur Report Questioned

From La Razón comes word that Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Paraguay have registered objections to Unasur investigator Radolfo Matarollo's report on the Sept. 11 massacre in Pando, Bolivia, in which at least 16 people died, according to Brazilian newspaper O Estado de São Paulo:

The report "was considered hasty and partial by Peru, Colombia, Uruguay and Paraguay," the newspaper said, adding that sources in Brazil "admitted that there was an incident in which 16 people died, but described the action of the UNASUR commission as rubber-stamped and partial."
Besides these flaws, there are three omissions: "The first two victims of the 'slaughter' were opposition activists. The second was that the Minister of the Presidency ... was in Porvenir before the confrontation to mobilize pro-government demonstrators ... Another omission was that many rural supporters of Evo were armed at the time of shock."

I do not see how any of these three "omissions" (if they are in fact omitted from the final report--which we have not seen yet) change the fact that Morales' supporters were gunned down. There are people from the opposition that insist that Presidential Minister Juan Ramon Quintana had a hand in the attacks, claims which I find absurd. That opposition people were also killed--if true--is immaterial to the case (if they were, though, justice demands accountability from their assailants). Which leaves the claim that Morales' supporters were armed before the attack. I bet they were--with stones, clubs, and machetes, which any peasant in Bolivia usually carries when there might be a confrontation with the opposition, which is known for being extremely violent.

No, They Did Not Kill Themselves . . .

. . . No matter what the opposition thinks.

The Unasur commission released a report on the Sept. 11, 2008, massacre in Pando. (Interestingly enough, nothing's been mentioned in papers from the States. Only the Times of India, Reuters, and Prensa Latina have any English-language coverage.) From Reuters:

Unveiling his findings on behalf of the 12-member panel, commission head Rodolfo Mattarollo said some of the 20 mostly Morales supporters killed in Pando province were murdered.

Mattarollo, an Argentine lawyer and Human Rights expert, said that some of the killers worked for Pando's opposition-controlled provincial government.

Now, will the opposition lunatics quit insisting that Venezuelan commandos did it? Or that they killed themselves? Or that Morales did it with his bare hands?

No, I doubt it.

Urg. I'm going back to bed. (Cough, cough.)

Oh, yeah, Bina's got a video in Spanish.

Pando Massacre Report

Lighting people on fire? Check. Beating infants and shooting them in the head? Check. That's the opposition. Just sick.

Otto's got the dirt on the preliminary Unasur presentation on the Sept. 11 Pando massacre investigation.

"¡Somos Asesinos!" Just Doesn't Cut It

Thanks to Otto for pointing it out: An Unasur commission, headed by Argentinian lawyer Rodolfo Mattarollo, is set to investigate the massacre in Pando. There are many conflicting reports of what actually happened there, some of them absolutely insane. But most, including AP's account, indicate that militants from the anti-Morales opposition machine-gunned Morales supporters. Opposition leaders, whose supporters regularly shout "¡Evo Asesino!", obviously want to blame this on the peasants; their slogan depends on it.

Jokes aside, it's a pretty impotant step to clear this up, find the responsible party (Leopoldo Fernandez, former prefect of Pando, looks to be the likely instigator), and mete out some justice--as much, anyway, as can be salvaged from this unfortunate, brutal, and cowardly event.