“An explosive new book by David Talbot, Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years … reveals that Robert Kennedy, who was Attorney General during his brother’s presidency, believed that JFK was killed by an insider conspiracy of powerful players who didn’t like some of the president’s actions. ”

DT: Well, you know, the assassination of JFK is a dark labyrinth. It’s possibly the darkest labyrinth in my lifetime, the biggest mystery. Many books have been written about it and I didn’t want to go down that same tunnel. But I wanted to follow Bobby’s footsteps, because Bobby Kennedy was the Attorney General of the United States and one of the most aggressive investigators in American public life in his day. And he was utterly devoted to his older brother, President Kennedy. So I wanted to know what he really thought.

I thought doing that would shed light on this case. And the truth is, starting from the afternoon of that terrible day in Dallas; Bobby Kennedy believed that his brother’s assassination was a conspiracy. He looked immediately at the CIA and its secret war on Castro as the source of the plot.
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“Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, a 50-year-old former teacher and senior official of a socialist political party supporting Correa, died in the crash in a Pacific coastal province east of Quito.” Link.

Ecuador’s defense minister dies in helicopter collision

Ecuador’s first female defense minister was killed in a mid-air collision of two helicopters [January 24, 2007] after only nine days in office, government and military officials said.

… Defense Minister Guadalupe Larriva, a 50-year-old former teacher and senior official of a socialist political party supporting Correa, died in the crash in a Pacific coastal province east of Quito, Correa told reporters.

Correa gave no specific details on the cause of the collision that killed Larriva, her teenage daughter and five military personnel aboard the Gazelle helicopters.

… Ecuadorean Vice President Lenin Moreno said he received a report from the military saying it was an unfortunate accident. Other Cabinet members dressed in black gathered inside Moreno’s home in Quito to mourn Larriva’s death.

Correa wanted Larriva, one of a few civilians to lead Ecuador’s 176-year-old military, to control an institution that has played a part in the ouster of three presidents in the last decade by publicly withdrawing its support when street protests erupted.

Larriva, one of the most popular members of the Cabinet, had promised to strengthen presidential control of military ranks, improve salaries for the armed forces and make the promotions system more transparent.

[CNN - January 25, 2007]

Ecuador army chief sacked over errors leading to defense minister’s death

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa sacked armed forces chief Gen. Pedro Machado on Friday [Feb. 2, 2007], citing security errors which led to a helicopter crash that killed the defense minister and six others in January.

“General Machado has been removed from his post, not so much due to the accident in itself, nor due to speculation over a possible murder, but because of the administrative and security decisions he made ahead of the flight,” said Ricardo Patino, acting defense minister.

Machado, who only took office on Jan. 14, will be replaced by Guillermo Vasconez, head of the joint chiefs of staff.

… Patino said that Ecuador will also launch an official investigation into Col. Rene Vazquez, who was in charge of the exercise.

“Vazquez will have to fulfill the official requirements relating to an investigation of his actions and decisions ahead of the accident,” said Patino.

Patino said President Rafael Correa had appointed Lorena Escudero as the country’s new defense minister. Escudero, a 41-year-old college professor, is to take charge late Friday. She will become the second woman defense minister in Ecuador’s history.

[Xinhua - February 3, 2007]

History of Ecuador - mid to late 20th century

Recession and popular unrest led to a return to populist politics and domestic military interventions in the 1960s, while foreign companies developed oil resources in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In 1972, the construction of the Andean pipeline, which brought oil from the east to the coast was completed, making Ecuador South America’s second largest oil exporter. That same year a “revolutionary and nationalist” military junta overthrew the government, remaining in power until 1979, when elections were held under a new Constitution. Jaime Roldós Aguilera was elected President, and he governed until May 24, 1981, when he died in a plane crash. By 1982, the government of Osvaldo Hurtado faced an economic crisis, characterized by high inflation, budget deficits, a falling currency, mounting debt service, and uncompetitive industries, leading to chronic government instability.

Many years of mismanagement, starting with the mishandling of the country’s debt during the 1970s military regime, had left the country essentially ungovernable. By the mid 1990s, the government of Ecuador has been characterized by a weak executive branch that struggles to appease the ruling classes, represented in the legislative and judiciary. The last three democratically elected presidents have failed to finish their terms during the period 1996-2006.

[Wikipedia]

Jaime Roldós Aguilera

Jaime Roldós Aguilera (b. November 5, 1940 in Guayaquil, Ecuador - d. May 24, 1981) was President of Ecuador from 10 August 1979 to 24 May 1981. He was a reformer, and was threatened more than once by personal enemies. Roldos and his wife founded the People, Change and Democracy Party or Partido Pueblo, Cambio y Democracia in Spanish. He was President during a brief military encounter with Peru in 1981. He died in an airplane crash later in 1981 when his Air Force plane (variously identified as either a Beechcraft King Air or an Avro turboprop) crashed in heavy rain near the Peruvian border. All eight other passengers and crew died as well.

Many Ecuadorians claimed that Roldós’ death was actually an assassination carried out by the United States. American businessman John Perkins alleges in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man that Roldós was assassinated by a bomb located in a tape recorder in order to serve American interests in Ecuadorian oil prospects (Perkins originally claimed Roldós died in a helicopter crash; this has since been corrected). Roldós died just months before Panamanian head-of-state Omar Torrijos also died in a plane crash. Other Ecuadorians believed that Roldós had been killed by the Peruvian government.

[Wikipedia]

Press Release

Our dearest friend, our brother, the editor in chief of AGOS newspaper Hrant Dink has been assasinated ruthlessly.

There are no words to explain our pain.

Our deepest condolences for those who can still feel themselves as human beings.

[AGOS Members]

Three Arrested in Turkey for Murder of Outspoken Journalist Hrant Dink

Istanbul governor Muammer Guler said three people were arrested in connection with the murder of journalist Hrant Dink earlier on Friday, CNN-Turk television reported.

No further information was provided on the arrests. Earlier in the day, two people were arrested, only to be released when officials decided they had no connection to the crime. Dink was one of the most prominent voices of Turkey’s Armenian community, and a frequent target of nationalist anger.

[FoxNews.com]

Prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink murdered

Journalist Hrant Dink, one of the most prominent voices of Turkey’s Armenian community, was killed by a gunman Friday [January 16, 2007] at the entrance to his newspaper’s offices, police said.

Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent, had gone on trial numerous times for speaking out about the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. He had received threats from ultra-nationalists, who viewed him as a traitor.

Dink was a public figure in Turkey, and as the editor of the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos, one of its most prominent Armenian voices.

In his last column for Agos, Dink complained that he had become famous as an enemy of Turks and wrote of threats against him. He said he had received no protection from authorities despite his complaints.

… Turkey’s relationship with its Armenian community is fraught with tension, controversy and painful memories of a brutal past. Much of Turkey’s once-sizeable Armenian population was driven out beginning around 1915.

During World War I, as the Ottoman Turkish empire fought Russian forces, some of the Armenian minority in eastern Anatolia sided with the Russians.

In May 1915, the Armenian minority, one or two million strong, was forcefully deported and marched from the Anatolian borders towards Syria and Mesopotamia (now Iraq). Many died en route.

Armenia says 1.5 million Armenians were killed in this period, either through systematic massacres or through starvation.

It alleges that a deliberate genocide was carried out by the Ottoman Turkish empire.

Turkey acknowledges that many Armenians died, but says Turks died too, and that massacres were committed on both sides as a result of inter-ethnic violence and the wider World War.

Dink had been convicted of trying to influence the judiciary in 2005 after Agos ran stories criticizing a law making it a crime to insult Turkey, the Turkish government or the Turkish national character.

The conviction was rare even in a country where trials of journalists, academics and writers have become common. Most of the cases, including that of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk last year, were either dropped on a technicality or lead to acquittals.

… A colleague at Dink’s newspaper, Aydin Engin, said Dink had attributed the threats to elements in the “deep state,” a Turkish term used for alleged shadowy, fiercely ultra-nationalist and powerful elements embedded in the government and security establishment.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry released a statement quickly after the shooting Friday saying it was deeply saddened by the killing.

“The actor or actors will be caught in the shortest possible time and delivered to justice,” the statement vowed. The Foreign Ministry offered condolences to the people of Turkey, its press, and particularly to the Armenian community and Dink’s family.

[New Anatolian]

Hrant Dink Received Threatening Messages

“We are in deep sorrow due to the murder of Hrant Dink, editor of Agos newspaper. We strongly condemn this cruel act. Dink, a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin, wrote in his column on January 10th that he was receiving threatening messages,” says the press release of ARI MOVEMENT NGO received by PanARMENIAN.Net. In the words Director Rana Birden, he also wrote that he felt like a fearful dove but “knew that the people of this country would not hurt a dove”.

“Unfortunately, he was wrong. We call for restraint in social reactions at this sensitive time and relate our condolences to Dink’s family, his loved ones, and the staff of Agos Newspaper,’ the release says.

[/PanARMENIAN.Net/]

FACTBOX: Turkish journalist Hrant Dink

• Dink, born in Malatya, southeast Turkey in 1954, was a member of Turkey’s small ethnic Armenian community, and a Turkish citizen.
• He was editor-in-chief of the bilingual Turkish and Armenian weekly Agos (www.agos.com.tr).
• Dink had been convicted of insulting Turkishness — under the controversial article 301 of Turkey’s penal code — and handed a six-month suspended sentence in 2005. The case was prompted by an article he wrote in which he referred to an Armenian nationalist idea of ethnic purity. The European Union has repeatedly called on Ankara to change the law and the government has promised to revise it.
• Of his conviction, Dink told Reuters: “I may be paying the price for this, but Turkish democracy will gain from it, I hope.”

[Reuters.com]

See Also

• Hrant Dink @ Armenipedia

April 4, 1668: Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.

“Martin Luther King, Jr., was “murdered by an intricate plot that included government agencies,” according to a December 1999 jury in Memphis Tennessee, ruling in a civil wrongful death suit. On March 15, 2000, The Christian Century Magazine (p. 308-313) published an article by James W. Douglass summarizing the evidence on which this startling verdict was made. The chronology which appears below is primarily based on the evidence presented in this article.” [Link]
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