U.S. still holding on to Posada

The U.S. is refusing to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, suspected of plotting the downing of a Cuban plane in 1976 that resulted in the deaths of 73 people, to Venezuela.

Reuters reports today that "Two weeks ago, Washington rejected Venezuela's request that Posada be arrested with a view to extradition, citing a lack of supporting evidence."

Venezuela provided extradition evidence today.

Some more background from the article:

Posada, 77, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities in Miami last month and has denied any involvement in the bombing.

The Cuban-born anti-communist militant, who has dedicated his life to opposing Cuban President Fidel Castro, will go before a U.S. judge in El Paso, Texas, on Monday to face charges he entered the United States illegally.

Interestingly, "Chavez has also warned that if Posada is not extradited, he will revise relations with the United States, oil-exporter Venezuela's biggest energy client."

Left reaction to pharmacists and birth control

Progressives have been scandalized by the recent movement among some pharmacists to refuse take an action, filling birth control prescriptions, they find immoral.

The issue is, I think, a little more complex than it's made out to be. The Washington Post recently had an article on the topic. An excerpt:

The American Pharmacists Association recently reaffirmed its policy that pharmacists can refuse to fill prescriptions as long as they make sure customers can get their medications some other way.

"We don't have a profession of robots. We have a profession of humans. We have to acknowledge that individual pharmacists have individual beliefs," said Susan C. Winckler, the association's vice president for policy and communications. "What we suggest is that they identify those situations ahead of time and have an alternative system set up so the patient has access to their therapy."

The position of the APA seems about right in principal. The article goes on to note that a functioning and hassle-free alternative system often doesn't exist. This, I believe, is where we on the left should focus our energy - ensuring that an easy, alternative way of obtaining the pills exists - not on denying that individuals should have the right to follow their consciences.

Such a principal should be cherished on the left. All too often people must put their jobs at risk for causes that we sympathize with. To denounce this phenomenon when it comes from people with warped ideologies is just hypocrisy.

It should be added that people may have all sorts of crazy moral beliefs that could interfere with their jobs (actually I think one should have some moral objections to most jobs in our society). I think that an employee should be protected as long as adhering to one's ethical beliefs does not conflict with the essence of the job and can be reasonably accommodated.

The Nation article I linked to at the top received the following important comment from a reader that deserves wider attention:

I work for CVS as a pharmacy techncian so I have some perspective on this issue first hand. While I have never seen a case of outright pharmacist refusal to fill a prescription, it is standard policy at our store not to stock emergency contraception and methergine, a drug used to stem bleeding after abortions. I have even heard pharmacists say that EC is basically chemical abortion, although it is clearly contraception and is ineffective if taken by someone already pregnant. This opinion from a supposed medical professional. I have never seen any of our pharmacists offer any assistance to someone seeking PLAN B other than to tell them we don't carry it. The real issue is that the stores do not stock EC and will do everything in their power short of outright refusal to not have to dispense it. While this practice will surely not generate the sensational coverage of pharmacist refusals, it is far more detrimental to women's health as it effectively denies access to emergency contraception and stigmatizes the patient seeking the drug.

Posted by NOTHING_117 05/31/2005 @ 12:23am

Bolivia and the American taxpayer

Events are developing so quickly in the Bolivian uprising, most notably being reported on by Jim Shultz of Democracy Center at his blog that it's difficult to keep up.

The armed forces are now out on the streets to keep the peace. They promptly shot and killed a demonstrator on Thursday.

If the government decides to attempt to violently put the rebellion down it will be doing so with some U.S. trained soldiers. The Bolivian military has many graduates of the Fort Benning, Georgia-based Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in its ranks.

A few excerpts from an email circulated by School of the Americas Watch on Thursday:

There are rumors that the conservative powers around the Bolivian Senate leader Hormando Vaca Diez could call out the military to put a violent end to the protests and blockades. Diez could rely on hundreds of SOA graduates within the Bolivian armed forces to take action against their own people.
***

In January of 2000, just months after it took over control of the water system of Bolivia's third largest city, Cochabamba, the California-based Bechtel corporation hit water users with enormous price increases. These increases forced some of the poorest families in South America to literally choose between food and water.

Thousands took the streets, and in response the Bolivian President and former military dictator, SOA graduate Hugo Banzer, sent out the armed forces to attack civilians. A plainclothes officer, behind a line of uniformed soldiers, fired into the crowd. Victor Hugo, 17, was killed with a bullet through his face. The sniper, Captain Robinson Iriarte de La Fuente, attended a combat weapons training course at the SOA.

Iriarte and Banzer aren’t the only SOA graduates. According to the Andean Information Center, Cochabamba’s new military governor, Gen. Walter Cespedes Ramallo, is also an SOA grad. He was the Commander of the Joint Task Forces (a combination of military and police forces) in the Chapare coca-growing region in 1998. During road blockades and resistance, 15 farmers were killed, others were brutally tortured and many were wounded.