LatinRadical has a refit

Among RatbagMedia's many projects is LatinRadical  where I handle the webside existence of Warrick Fry's weekly radio program. All good stuff it is too -- interviews focusing on Latin American politics  with occasional detours to Timor Leste.

Since I was in web makeover mode, LatinRadical has had a refit and now offers some kick ass internal engineering that makes audio an easy to use listening pleasure.

The internals -- a Yahoo code -- takes online audio  to a new level of possibility. I'll be adding the feature here to LeftClick so that any mp3 file link can be played by clicking on a player button automatically located next to it.

AUDIO Guatemala and Mining Rape

5.6Mb 128kbps 6 minutes 7 seconds.

Graham Russel of Rights Action talks to community radio about the latest outbreaks of violence in Guatemala - no it isn't guerilla or terrorist acts - they have been commited by the 'security' guards paid by a Canadian mining company, that has been in cahoots with a corrupt Guatemalan military establishment that goes back to the 1960s.

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Original audio source (RightsAction_GrahameRusselGuatemala22_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Timor - Guns in the Parliament?

6.2Mb. 128 kbps mono 6 minutes 42 seconds

Jose Texeiro, Fretilin Parliamentarian questions the need for armed gunmen inside the Parliament of Timor Leste.

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Original audio source (JoseTPt1_21_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO: Timor - Budget debate up for grabs.

2Mb. 128 kbps 2 minutes 11 seconds

Jose Teixero, Fretilin Parliamentarian comments on the budget debate in the Timorese Parliament, that does not seem to be fulfilling the needs of the majority of the Timorese people.

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Original audio source (JoseTPt2Budget21_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO El Salvador - Pacific Rim gold mining intimidation

6Mb. 128 kbps. mono 6 mins 34 seconds.

Alexis, spokesperson for CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) talks about the activities of the Pacific Rim Mining Company in El Salvador, currently sueing the government for closing down its operations after the deaths and disappearances of anti-mining activists.

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Original audio source (CISPES21_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO El Salvador - Ex - guerilla in politics, visiting Australia (Spanish/Espanol)

14.5Mb. 128kbps. mono 15mins 51 seconds (Spanish Language)

En jefe del editorial del Tasmanian Times , James Dryburgh hizo este entrevista con David Rodriguez Noviembre 16 2009, en Hobart. David esta visitando Australia como un Diputado de la Asamblea de El Salvador, y representante del FMLN. James pregunta - como es, ser politico despues de tantos anos como guerillero? Pueden las experiencias de vivir como guerillero informar el comportamiento politico?

Editor at large of the Tasmanian Times James Dryburgh interviewed visiting Salvadoran Parliamentarian David Rodriguez on November 16 in Hobart. James has some interesting questions for David, especially how his experience as a guerilla fighter informs his role as a politician. Something our more comfortable Australian pollies might want to think about.

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Original audio source (David_RodriguezConverted.mp3)

AUDIO Andres Conteris - from inside the Brazilian Embassy, Honduras

6.72Mb. 128kbps mono 7 minutes 20 seconds

Andres Conteris, journalist for Democracy Now has been inside the  Brazilian Embassy with President Zelaya since day one. A month and a half later the one hundred or so inside the Embassy is down to 30. Nevertheless, the commitment to resist the coup regime honestly and calmly is as strong as ever. President Zelaya is counting on the international community not to recognise the illegal, and heavily compromised 'elections' of November 29 to bring some kind of social equity and natural justice to the Honduran people.

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Original audio source (AndresConteris12_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras coup regime reneges on agreement - with US support.

7Mb 128kbps mono 7mins 36 secs

Toni Solo reflects on the shocking retraction of the US' professed commitment to recognise the November 29 elections in Honduras if President Zelaya is reinstated. De facto president Micheletti signed an agreement brokered by the US to reinstate President Zelaya on October 30, but refused to convene the Honduras Congress to ratify the agreement. President Zelaya is still a virtual prisoner trapped inside the Brazilian Embassy, even though it was assumed that he could resume the Presidential seat after the November 5 deadline.

On the weekend of November 7 the US unexpectedly announced that the US would recognise the November elections, whether Zelaya was reinstated or not - thus conferring a spurious legitimacy on the regime and dividing the Organisation of American States in its original position of not recognising the elections if Zelaya was not reinstated beforehand.

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Original audio source (ToniSoloPt1_10_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras - - Karen Spring on the people's preparations

7 Mb. 128kbps mono 7 mins 34 seconds.

Karen Spring with Rights Action talks with community radio about the response of the people to efforts by the coup regime of Honduras, and the US to legitimise the elections of November 29. The Resistance Front claims that conditions for a free and fair election do not exist, and that hold the elections before President Zelaya is reinstated is in contradiction of the spirit agreement signed on October 30. The US appears to be in compliance with the position of the regime.

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Original audio source (karenjspring_11_Nov_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras - more breaking news from Ricardo Salgado

Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras on the withdrawal of Resistance Front Representative from the 'dialogue' between President Zelaya and the coup regime. A positive outcome is not likely, and it seems that repression of the Honduran people by the coup regime is growing proportionately. The interview was paused while Ricardo went out to investigate the sound of shooting in the streets - a sound he says, the Honduran people have become all too used to.

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Original audio source (RicardoSalgado14_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras - more breaking news from Ricardo Salgado

10.4 Mb. 128 kbps. mono. 11 minutes 21 seconds.

Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras on the withdrawal of Resistance Front Representative from the 'dialogue' between President Zelaya and the coup regime. A positive outcome is not likely, and it seems that repression of the Honduran people by the coup regime is growing proportionately. The interview was paused while Ricardo went out to investigate the sound of shooting in the streets - a sound he says, the Honduran people have become all too used to.

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Original audio source (RcardoSalgado09_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO: Honduras Tensions Grow

 

15.6Mb. 128 kbps mono 17 minutes 7 seconds

(Photo courtesy of Radio Gualcho)

Toni Solo returns to Nicaragua after a week in Honduras where he has picked up disturbing stories that someone is returning fire on the police. By most accounts the 'gangs' or 'maras' (closely involved with the narcotics trade in Central American countries) guarding their 'turf' - but in this case the police were pursuing and firing on a street demonstration that took refuge in a poor neighbourhood, or 'barrio'. But there was also another armed group defending the demonstrators who were clearly not gang members - this just a week after a report that a police station had been overrun and weapons taken.

While the demonstrations are well disciplined and strictly non violent, if the coup regime does not respond positively to the deadline offered this October 15 - after 115 days of non violent protest, some elements might be forgiven for thinking of armed struggle as an option.

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Original audio source (RcardoSalgado09_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras - breaking news from Ricardo Salgado

 

3Mb. 128 kbps mono 3minutes 18 seconds

(Photo courtesy of Radio Gualcho, Honduras)

While proclaiming to the international community and media that they are 'prepared to negotiate' the coup regime of Honduras has made it obvious that there is one point that they will not negotiate - that is the reinstatement of President Zelaya, who is sheltering in the Brazilian Embassy. The Micheletti coup regime set up a hydraulic lift with two snipers wearing night goggles on a level with the second story of the Embassy, in a clear attempt at further intimidate the President and his supporters inside. Ricardo Salgado reports from Honduras in an exclusive interview with community radio 2NimFm.

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Original audio source (RcardoSalgado09_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO:Honduras - Toni Solo Pt. 2 - The regional context; Nicaragua's economy

7.2Mb. 128kbps mono 7 minutes 50 seconds

Part 2 of Toni Solo (tortillaconsal)  interview on the regional context of the Honduras crisis. In this section Toni discusses the lessons learned from CAFTA after he spent an hour with the Nicaraguan Minister for Finance.

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Original audio source (Pt2tortillaconsal_10_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO:Honduras -- Toni Solo - Regional Issues

25 Mb. 129kbps. mono 28 minutes

Toni Solo travels frequently between Nicaragua and Honduras. In this in depth interview he talks about the Honduras situation, 110 days after the coup, the latest developments, President Zelaya's deadline to break the impasse with the de facto coup government, and what the implications of the Honduras crisis are for the region.

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Original audio source (Pt1tortillaconsal_10_Oct_2009.mp3)

AUDIO Honduras update - Andres Conteris and Mel Zelaya from inside the Brazilian Embassy

7Mb 128kbps mono 7 minutes 23 seconds

Andres Conteris and others say that there may be a 'light at the end of the tunnel'. Elements within the military and business community that originally backed the coup are putting pressure on the Micheletti de-facto government to be less intransigent and negotiate.

The President and his supporters in the besieged Brazilian Embassy had high morale and were in good spirits, having just celebrated the birthday of the President's grandchild. He sent a gruff 'Saludos' to community radio in Australia.

But for the people of Honduras the issue now goes far further than reinstating Zelaya. They are demanding the Constitutional reform and determined to defy the suspension of Constitutional guarantees that has unleashed a wave of repression.

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Original audio source (CorterisZelaya04_Oct_2009Con.mp3)

AUDIO: The Siege of Honduras - Ricardo Salgado, update September 30

12.7 Mb 128 kbps. mono 14 minutes

Ricardo Salgado has just returned from the Brazilian Embassy where President Zelaya is defying three police lines and attempts by the coup regime to dislodge him and his supporters in contravention of international law. The Honduras Resistance movement is planning mass marches for tomorrow, and will attempt to retake Radio Globo that was shut down by the coup regime yesterday. Radio Globo is still broadcasting through the internet, and a network of smaller community radio stations. Will the resistance movement cause the de facto coup regime collapse under its own weight of repression sooner, or later?

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Original audio source (rricardo.salgadobonilla_30_Sep_2009.mp3)

AUDIO:Siege of Honduras -- Andre Conteris from inside the Brazilian Embassy

5.5 Mb.128kbps mono 6 minutes

Andres Conteris, journalist for "Democracy Now" is inside the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras with President Zelaya who has taken refuge there until restored to his legitimate role. The Brazilian Embassy is under siege by the Honduran armed forces who have attempted to cut food supplies, water and electricity, jam communications and set up sound boxes designed to emit high pitched, irritating high decibal noise inside the Embassy grounds.

A week later, and the coup regime has declared a suspension of all constitutional rights and put an ultimatum to the Brazilian government. International reaction to this disturbing move has been disappointingly slow, especially from the US. The toll of casualties is mounting, the latest a woman who died from the effects of the teargas assault on the Brazilian Embassy. Radio Globo is no longer transmitting, but has maintained its internet stream. The Honduran coup regime is reacting hysterically and with typical excessive force against the popular outrage that has only grown over the last three months, with hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions, of people out in the streets in protest on a daily basis.

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Original audio source (AndresContrenasEmbassy29_Sep_2009.mp3)

LATINRADICAL AUDIO: Honduras coup ups the ante

Andres Conteris, journalist for "Democracy Now" is inside the Brazilian Embassy in Honduras with President Zelaya where he has taken refuge until he is restored to his legitimate role. The Brazilian Embassy is under siege by the Honduran armed forces who have attempted to cut food supplies, water and electricity, jam communications and set up sound boxes designed to emit high pitched, irritating high decibal noise inside the Embassy grounds.

Andres speaks with community radio station 2NimFM and Latin Radical
describes the situation there just a few hours after the Honduran military pumped some kind of noxious gas into the Embassy grounds.

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Original audio source (Andre_Contrinas26_Sep_2009.mp3)

AUDIO: LatinRadical's Honduras Coverage

I have had an opportunity to listen again to LatinRadical's coverage of the situation in Honduras. I think Warwick Fry has outdone himself.I play a supplementary role in LatinRadical's web presence but the network of correspondents that Warwick has been able to generate -- in Central America especially -- has ensured that the interviews he has published are second to none in capturing the import of the political situation there in English.

Tony Solo's five part interview is especially rich source of considered analysis of the political consequences of the coup and what that means for the forces of reaction in Latin America.

So make sure you check out these reports:

• LatinRadical's Honduras coverage.

Toni Solo 5 part Interview



Toni Solo (of Tortilla con Sal Nicaraguan web magazine) analyses the 65th day of continual protest in Honduras, by hundreds of thousands of protesters almost daily. They are protesting in a non violent way, against the coup regime who abducted their legally elected President and preventing his return. Police and military repression against the non violent protesters is mounting, but going unreported in the mainstream media. The popular resistance has grown so strong that by now, the reinstatement of President Zelaya is just one aspect of a massive demand for social justice. Honduras will never be the same.

Part 1

Original audio source (TortillaPt1270809.mp3)

Part 2
Original audio source (TortillaPt2_270809.mp3)

Part 3
Original audio source (tortillaconsalPt3_27_Aug_2009.mp3)

Part 4
Original audio source (tortillaconsaPt4l_27_Aug_2009_11_57_06_2.mp3)

Part 5
Original audio source (tortillaconsaPt5_27_Aug_2009.mp3)