leskovarlm.com

Friday, January 20, 2006

A recently created Danish clothing company is selling on the internet T-shirts in order to support the clandestine radio station of the Colombian guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the graphical workshop of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In fact the money will be used by these groups to carry on their terrorist activities. FARC activities include kidnappings, masacres, bombs, extortions and the drug trade.

Fighters and Lovers is selling the T-shirts at 170 DKK (US$27.6), from which 35 DKK (US$5.7) are to be destinated to support both armed groups.

Anna Duever, Fighters and Lovers PR chief, said to Spanish news agency EFE that their objective is to “defend freedom and social justice, which is FARC and PFLP are fighting for”. Duever believes the fact the FARC has been included by the EU in its terrorist group list is a “political game”. “We pay our taxes in Denmark, and that money is used for financing the troops our government has sent to Iraq. That’s terrorism. Besides, in Colombia there’s a regime oppressing population and torturing and killing its people”, she said.

Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolina Barco, said to local media that “financing terrorist groups is unacceptable and goes against all the international norms. Yesterday [Tuesday 19] our ambassador contacted the Danish government, we sent a protest note and have demanded an explanation.”

A year ago, a Danish NGO named Oprør (“Rebelion”) stated it had donated money to the Colombian guerrilla. A new antiterrorism law in Denmark may punish it.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Edison Peña, one of the 33 miners who had been trapped underground in the San José copper-gold mine in Copiapó, Chile, participated on Sunday in the 41st annual New York City Marathon. Peña had arrived at the city on Thursday, and had been invited by the New York Road Runners, organizers of the marathon.

Before the marathon began, Peña and Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg saluted the runners from a stage in Staten Island. The event started at 09:40 local time (14:40 UTC; 11:40 Chile time), and Peña finished at 15:30 (20:30 UTC; 17:30 Chile time), approximately five hours and fifty minutes after the race began. The length of the marathon was about 43 kilometres (26.7 miles). According to Radio Cooperativa, the marathon had a record attendance.

“It was worthwhile for me to come this far to run a marathon, because I want to motivate people,” Peña said. “In this marathon I struggled. I struggled with myself, I struggled with my own pain, but I made it to the finish line,” he added.

Peña, aged 34, is a fan of Elvis Presley, and asked for some of Presley’s music while he was underground. Peña also entertained his fellow miners by singing Presley’s songs. On October 13, he became the twelfth miner to be rescued from the mine.