January
15, 2002
Narco News '02
Meet
Luis Gómez
Andean
Bureau Chief
for
Narco News
By Al
Giordano
Publisher, The
Narco News Bulletin
Luis Gómez has
established a space
for Authentic Journalism in the Andes, writing for many of the
leading Latin American newspapers and magazines. He went to Bolivia
years ago as a correspondent for the Mexican daily Reforma.
There, he rapidly established himself as one of the leading journalists
in the region reporting on political prisoners and social struggles.
He has played key roles on the editorial staffs of the national
magazines, Cosas, and El Juguete Rabioso
(the most important Independent news source in the country) as
well as filing dispatches for newspapers in Argentina and throughout
our América.
Gómez was the first
journalist in Bolivia to break the news, locally, in October
2000 that the longtime Associated
Press bureau chief, Peter McFarren, had been caught in an $80
million conflict-of-interest and had fallen from power. Another of Gómez's
reports, linking US Ambassador Manuel Rocha to the controversy
over the arms-trafficking and money-laundering scandals of ex
Argentine president Carlos Menem, caused Rocha (around here we
call him Viceroy because he behaves more as autocrat than diplomat)
to fly into a rage about Gómez's report. The Viceroy,
according to our sources, called a meeting of his staff and threw
a copy of El Juguete Rabioso on the table, outraged that
the Bolivian press had dared to expose his dark record. (Interestingly,
both Rocha and the disgraced McFarren attended the same elite
private grade school together - in the United States - one of
the interesting histories that will shortly be expanded upon
in an upcoming Narco News investigative report about the
Viceroy Rocha and his anti-democracy networks.)
As publisher of Narco
News, I have been looking to expand this project of Authentic
Journalism for some time now. With our recent victory over Banamex-Citigroup
in the New York Supreme Court, we finally have the breathing
space to pursue our mission - "reporting on the 'war on
drugs' from Latin America" - with more focus. I chose Luis
Gómez from an impressive roster of Latin American journalists
who were considered for this position because he is an initiative-taker
who won't sit around waiting for orders from headquarters before
taking action. Our recent "Live from Bolivia" coverage
would not have been possible without Gómez's wide connections
throughout the country and the initiative he took to introduce
this correspondent to the key players in the various regions.
Luis Gómez - now with an email address of narconewsandes@yahoo.com -- today becomes your correspondent,
too. Write to him, welcome him, offer him your sources and scoops
as you have with me. There's no gatekeeper here: Immediate journalism
requires the direct relationship between the correspondent and
the reader. He's got talent, instinct, ethics and commitment
as a social fighter and Authentic Journalist.
The first expansions of
the Narco News project, with Luis on board, will include:
-- Expanded Andean coverage
from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and the rest of South America,
including:
-- The $2 billion dollar
US military intervention called Plan Colombia, the escalating
civil war, and the upcoming national elections in that country;
-- The political situation
in Perú, where President Alejandro Toledo awkwardly tries
to serve the United States government and his former bosses at
the World Bank while keeping the lid on information that suggests
the U.S.-sponsored Narco-State of exiled ex-president Alberto
Fujimori and imprisoned ex-military boss Vladimiro Montesinos
marches on with impunity and within the Toledo administration;
-- Filling the vacuum
of news coverage from the strategic country of Bolivia, swept
by social protests and revolts, and ignored by the U.S. media
because the news is inconvenient to its spin that Bolivia was
the only "success story" in the US war on drugs;
-- Increased attention
to fast-moving events from Ecuador to Argentina as they pertain
to the drug war in Latin America;
-- Increased publication
of Narco News stories and commentaries in Spanish at www.narconews.com;
-- The opening of The
Narco News Agency, to fill the information vacuum caused
by the neglect of other news agencies. Narco News will shortly
make certain reports available, in Spanish and in English, to
newspapers and magazines from Buenos Aires to Berlin, from Oaxaca
to Washington, for global syndication. In sum, we are going into
direct competition with AP, Reuters, UPI, other wire services,
and even certain commercialized agencies of the "alternative"
press, to break the information blockade from our América.
It has been the failure of these commercial news agencies to
report the hard news from Latin America, and we are building
strategic alliances with other global networks to replace the
tired old institutions of commercial journalism with the vibrant
authentic news coverage that we have pioneered on these web pages.
With the historic ruling by the New York Supreme Court
that "Narco News, its website, and the writers who post
information, are entitled to all the First Amendment protections
accorded a newspaper-magazine or journalist" under United
States law, we have buried the efforts by official media to place
itself, desperately, in a caste above us. To the contrary: We
continue to show, through sweat and blood, that we represent
the renaissance of Authentic Journalism, and they, the commercial
press, are the ones who behave as something "alternative"
or "other" to the best traditions of investigative
journalism and reporting.
Luis Gómez is our
first full-time regional bureau chief at Narco News. We hope,
as this project expands, he will be the first of many in a Pan-American
network of Authentic Journalism that we are weaving "from
somewhere in a country called América."
And you, kind readers:
If you are an authentic citizen-journalist, a student of journalism,
or a communicator of news, we invite you to collaborate with
us, too. With our headquarters remaining in Mexico, and our Andean
Bureau opening in Bolivia, we will continue to expand. Do you
have an idea of where we should open our next bureau? Do you
have news to report from somewhere in América about the
US-imposed war on drugs and its impact upon democracy, human
rights, the environment, peace with justice, dignity and sovereignty?
Join the Narco News Team and stay tuned for the news to come.
We begin, today, with
Luis Gómez's first report for Narco News on the interview
that he and I conducted last month in La Paz, Bolivia, with indigenous leader Felipe
Quispe of the Aymara Nation, published here in English and Spanish. If you would like to republish
this interview in your own periodical, write to us at narconews@hotmail.com -- we're sure we can work something
out. It's easy when, like us, you're not in it for the money
but are in it for the news. Put on your seatbelts and watch what
is possible, now, in 2002, the year we break the mold and proclaim
the renaissance of Authentic Journalism in our América.
Most importantly, participate. The future belongs to those who
take it.
From somewhere in a country
called América,
A Message
from Your
Andean
Bureau Chief
By Luis
Gómez
One morning in Cochabamba, Alberto Giordano asked me to
form part of Narco News. The first thing he asked me is
whether I could do anything useful in this project… And
Giordano just said to me: "Think it over." That night,
with some beers as counselors, I decided that in this war, yes,
many things can be done from "the Heart of the Andes"
(Giordano dixit).
When I came from my land
to Bolivia (I was born in Mexico City), I came dreaming of what
I did not know. Now, after various years of living here, I know
my dreams better… and they seem a lot like those of Alberto.
So here we go. At 35, the least you can know is your dreams and
if you have guts, to pursue them fearlessly, without blinders.
I have been a journalist
for the past 13 years, and for the next 12 months I will dedicate
my craft to you, the readers... and to those bastards with white
collars and their hands always clean who play at being gods and
masters. But that's not all. In addition to developing the bilingual
section of Narco News (one of our plans is to to make
our reports have more impact on this Spanish-speaking side of
the planet), we are going to report more continuously about the
social movements here (believe me, it's heating up on all fronts)…
Justice, peace, dignity…
those little words… for me still mean a lot (if you think
not, just ask the Argentines). I've known of Giordano and Narco
News since when, in 2000, I used this page as my source to
publish the news in Bolivia about the case of the corrupted journalist
Peter McFarren. That's why I know that in this place there is
a home for these wanted words. Nothing more to say… for
now… onward…
Questions, doubts, agitations,
proposals:
for
more Narco News, click
here
Authentic
Journalism for the Millenium
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