Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 13:51:09 -0800 From: Michael Pugliese <debsian at pacbell.net> Subject: Fw: Sipping champagne, licking boots
----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <rrozoff at webtv.net> To: <Activist_List at listbot.com>; <counterpunch at counterpunch.com>; <aymery at ix.netcom.com>; <yurbaco at aol.com>; <jaredi at aol.com>; <meisenscher at igc.org>; <paulwolf at icdc.com> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2000 8:53 AM Subject: Sipping champagne, licking boots
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Marquez in soup over dinner with Albright [NOTE: "Champagne socialist" sounds just about right:-) -DG]
While loved around the world for his writing that blends myth and magic with Colombia's gritty reality in a style known as ``magic realism,¥¥ Garcia Marquez has been dubbed a ``champagne socialist¥¥ by such newspapers as The Times of London, for his political views. __________________ ====================== REUTERS Friday, 14 January 2000 Garcia Marquez in soup over dinner with Albright -------------- BOGOTA -- Colombia's Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez has landed himself in the soup with his former left-wing allies over plans to dine with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday. The Communist Party lambasted Garcia Marquez, 72, once banned from the United States after setting up a branch of Cuba's official press agency, for accepting the invitation days after Washington unveiled a $1.6 billion aid offer to help Colombia fight drugs and Marxist rebels. ``Madeleine Albright is visiting the country to control and give orders,¥¥ said a statement on Friday by Colombia¥s small Communist Party, a close political ally of the main guerrilla group. ``Among her kowtowing subjects is our great Garcia Marquez who, in the autumn of his great life, is revelling in the luxuries of the oligarchs in this colony that has now become so important for the gringos,¥¥ it added. Garcia Marquez, hailed as Latin America's best-known living author, himself once railed against U.S. anti-drug aid as ``nothing more than an instrument of intervention.¥¥ Critics said the aid package -- the largest ever envisaged for Colombia -- will drag the United States deep into the country's long-running civil conflict that has cost more than 35,000 lives in just the last 10 years. A government source confirmed reports in the leading El Tiempo newspaper that the author, known affectionately as ``Gabo,¥¥ will attend the gala event for Albright alongside Pastrana and members of his cabinet. The dinner, just hours after Albright arrives for a 24-hour stopover, is in Garcia Marquez's adoptive hometown, the historic Caribbean port city of Cartagena. Gabo won the Nobel prize for literature in 1982. His seminal work, ``100 Years of Solitude,¥¥ has been translated into 36 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. In early essays Garcia Marquez expressed strong support for communism and a variety of leftist causes. He formed a close personal friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro and was barred from the United States for a decade after setting up a branch of Cuba's Prensa Latina press agency. Lately Garcia Marquez has also struck up a close friendship with U.S. President Bill Clinton. While loved around the world for his writing that blends myth and magic with Colombia's gritty reality in a style known as ``magic realism,¥¥ Garcia Marquez has been dubbed a ``champagne socialist¥¥ by such newspapers as The Times of London, for his political views. Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited ______________________________________________ ********************************************** * CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * * http://www.prairienet.org/clm * * and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * * Email us at clm at prairienet.org or * * Dennis Grammenos at dgrammen at prairienet.org * * To s*bscribe send request to listproc at prairienet.org * * s*bscribe clm-news Your Name * **********************************************