nv1962

Transcripción de la entrevista con Aznar: Irak, en “una situación muy buena”

Ya que puse la transcripción en inglés del segmento correspondiente a la entrevista con el ex presidente del Gobierno José María Aznar de la periodista Sanchia Berg para el programa Broadcasting House en la Radio 4 de la BBC , ¿por qué no su traducción? Pues aquí la tienen… Y si les parece que Aznar habla rarito, imagínese la impresión que dejó entre el público de habla inglesa.

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[El presentador de Broadcasting House] Paddy O’Connell: Em, son las, eh, diez menos cinco. Sólo unos días antes de la invasión de Irak hace cinco años, Gran Bretaña, los Estados Unidos y España celebraron una cumbre en las Azores, en medio del Atlántico. Fue un acontecimiento extraño: la reunión duró sólo una hora. Los tres líderes - George Bush, Tony Blair, José María Aznar - salieron diciendo que ésta era la última oportunidad para que Saddam Hussein cumpliera con resoluciones de la ONU. Le dieron un día más. En la última entrega de sus noticia sobre la cuenta atrás a la guerra, aquí en Radio 4, Sanchia Berg habló con el entonces presidente del Gobierno de España.

[Campanadas del Big Ben]

[Locutora no identificada] Los líderes de los Estados Unidos, Gran Bretaña y España están en los Azores para una cumbre presentado como la última oportunidad para la paz con Irak, pero la presión para una guerra aparenta irresistible.

Sanchia Berg: El recuerdo de José María Aznar de esa reunión es que era “serena”.

José María Aznar: Muy sencilla, muy corta, serena, y luego tuvimos una cena con más tiempo para hablar de preguntas diferentes. Pero recuerdo esta, eh, reunión con una intensidad especial, porque para el mundo, para las gentes, para nosotros, es transcendental.

[Locutor no identificado] Mientras los tres líderes llegaron aquí a la base aérea más grande para su encuentro de cara a cara en pleno Atlántico, crecieron constantemente las señales de que piensan que se agotaron la diplomacia y las inspecciones armamentísticas en Irak.

JMA: Compromiso muy fuerte. Una relación personal muy fuerte, eh…

SB: [Interrumpe] Entre usted y Blair…

JMA: Sí, sí…

SB: …¿o entre usted y Bush?

JMA: Sí, los tres. Y creencia muy seria de que tenemos motivo. Que actuamos en el interés de muchas personas ¿no? Y, eh, tenemos que tomar una decisión muy difícil, ma [sic] esto es nuestra responsabilidad. El destino en el Oriente Medio es extremadamente importante para nuestros europeos, esto es extremadamente importante para un español, para establecer un alianza muy cercana y sólida, eh, con nuestros amigos ¿no?

[Voz del entonces líder del Partido Liberal-demócrata] Charles Kennedy: Si el Presidente y el Primer Ministro en serio buscaban una solución pacífica, estarían en Nueva York hablando con Kofi Annan, no hablando entre ellos en las Azores.

[aplauso]

[Locutor no identificado] Irak estaba usando los días siguientes para intentar persuadir a los inspectores de armas, y por ende al Consejo de Seguridad, que está libre de armas biológicas y químicas. Por supuesto, el Presidente Saddam Hussein dejó bien claro ante su mando del ejército, que también emplea aquel tiempo para los últimos preparativos para la guerra.

JMA: El mundo es mejor sin Taleban, y el mundo es mejor sin Saddam Hussein. Eh, ¿todos los problemas en el mundo han desaparecido? No. Simplemente, es mejor. Es la responsabilidad de los líderes razonables.

SB: ¿Aunque la situación en Irak sea difícil, más difícil para muchos Iraquíes comunes?

JMA: Malo en este momento, es cierto. Pero es menos difícil que en los tiempos de San-Saddam Hussein. La gente puede participar en, en unas elecciones, la gente puede hablar libre, hay libertad en el país, hay posibilidad de establecer una democracia en el país, la seguridad es mejor. No es situación idílica, pero esta es una situación muy buena.

[Locutor no identificado] Tony Blair, el Presidente Bush y el presidente del Gobierno español José María Aznar han dado una última oportunidad a Saddam Hussein para el desarme, y a las Naciones Unidas un día más para concertar una nueva resolución sobre Irak. Tras una cumbre en las Azores que duró poco más de una hora, el Presidente Bush dijo que quedaría claro al final de mañana si la diplomacia funciona. Advirtió que era un momento de la verdad para el mundo.

SB: Al recordar esa cumbre, en ese tiempo, ¿hay algo que usted desea que hubiese hecho distinto? ¿Desea por ejemplo que se le hubiera dado más tiempo a Saddam Hussein?

JMA: No. Realmente, actué, eh actuaré en la misma forma. Pero, bueno, esto es un momento muy difícil, para mi, personalmente, pero cuando mi convicción, y mi… conciencia, mi mente, está despejada. Tomamos la decisión correcta.

Paddy O’Connell: Informa Sanchia Berg.

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Por si quieren escuchar el sonido del segmento en cuestión, aquí lo tienen:

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Tags: Aznar, azores, bbc, blair, Bush, guerra, irak, radio 4, transcripción

Aznar, 5 years after the invasion of Iraq: “this is a very good situation”

So the present day situation in Iraq, five years after the invasion of that country, is “very good”, according to Aznar…

I’ll forgive him his embarrassingly poor command of English, but not his flouting of common sense and decency.

Here’s the transcript of the corresponding section:

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[Presenter of Broadcasting House] Paddy O’Connell: Um, it’s eh, five to ten. Just days before the invasion of Iraq five years ago, Britain, the US and Spain held a summit on the Azores in the mid-Atlantic. It was an odd event: the meeting lasted only one hour. The three leaders - George Bush, Tony Blair, José María Aznar - came out saying that this was the last chance for Saddam Hussein to comply with UN resolutions. They gave him one more day. In the latest of her reports on the countdown to war, here on Radio 4, Sanchia Berg talked to Spain’s then Prime Minister.

[Sound of Big Ben]

[Unidentified female voice] The leaders of the United States, Britain, and Spain are in the Azores for a summit being billed as the last chance for peace with Iraq, but the pressure for war appears irresistible.

Sanchia Berg: José María Aznar recalls that meeting as “tranquil”.

José María Aznar: Very simple, very short, tranquil, and then we have a dinner with more time to talk about different questions. But I remember this, eh, meeting with special intensity, because for the world, for the people, for us, is momentous.

[Unidentified male voice] As the three leaders arrived here at the largest field airbase for their face-to-face mid-Atlantic rendez-vous, the signs were growing all the time that they believe diplomacy and the weapons inspections in Iraq have run their course.

JMA: Very strong commitment. A very strong personal relationship, eh…

SB: [interrupts] Between you and Blair…

JMA: …yeah, yeah…

SB: …or between you and Bush?

JMA: Yeah, the three. And very serious conviction that we have reason. That we act in the interest of a lot of people, no? And ah we must take a very difficult decision, ma [sic - he's apparently throwing in the Italian word for 'but'] this is our responsibility. The destiny in the Middle East is extremely important for we Europeans, this is extremely important for a Spaniard, to establish a very close and solid alliance eh with our friends, no?

[Unidentified male voice] If the President and the Prime Minister were serious about finding a peaceful solution, he’d be in New York talking to Khofi Annan, not talking to each other in the Azores.

[applause]

[Unidentified male voice] Iraq there was using the next few days to try to persuade the weapons inspectors, and by extension the Security Council, that it is clean of biological and chemical weapons. Of course, President Saddam Hussein made clear to his army command, it’s also using that time to make the final preparations for war.

JMA: The world is better without Taliban, and the world is better without Saddam Hussein. Eh, all the problems have disappeared in the world? No. Simply, is better. It is the responsibility for reasonable leaders.

SB: Even though the situation in Iraq is difficult, more difficult for many ordinary Iraquis?

JMA: Bad in this moment [sic], it’s true. But is less difficult than in the times of sam-Saddam Hussein. The people can participate in, in an election, the people can speak free [sic], there is freedom in the country, there is possibility to establish a democracy in the country, the security is better. Is not a idyllic situation, but this is a very good situation.

[Unidentified male voice] Tony Blair, President Bush and the Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar have given Saddam Hussein one last chance to disarm, and the United Nations one more day to agree to a fresh resolution on Iraq. After a summit in the Azores that lasted little more than an hour, President Bush said it would be clear by the end of tomorrow whether diplomacy would work. It was, he warned, a moment of truth for the world.

SB: When you look back on that summit, on that time, is there anything that you wish you’d done differently? Do you wish for example that more time had been given to Saddam Hussein?

JMA: No. Really, I-I acted, eh, I will act in the same form. But, well, this is very difficult moment, for me, per-personally, but if my conviction, and my… conscience, my mind, is clear. We take the right decision.

Paddy O’Connell: Sanchia Berg reporting.

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In case you’re not entirely sure whether you should trust either your own darn lying eyes or my transcription abilities, here’s the audio recording of the corresponding segment, snagged from the BBC’s Radio 4 Sunday program Broadcasting House:

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Tags: Aznar, azores, bbc, blair, Bush, iraq, radio 4, transcript, war

English translation of El País analyst’s take on the Chavez-Aznar-Zapatero row

I just came across a great write-up by senior El País journalist Ernesto Ekaizer — the same one who wrote the analysis accompanying the publication of the now famous Aznar-Bush transcript — who casts a clinical eye on the widely misunderstood spat between Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and the Spanish government. Instead of focusing on the well-known royal outburst (which is hugely popular in Spain, becoming an overnight cell phone ringtone hit) he looks at what might be behind this quickly escalating flap. I liked it so much that I decided to translate and post it in its entirety, below. So here it is - the contents are clearly of/by Ernesto Ekaizer / El País; the translation into English is my own contribution to (hopefully) dispelling some of the more ridiculous “explanations” that I’ve seen floating out there, as illustrated in this utterly ridiculous presentation delivered by an “expert” interviewed on (I think) the BBC.

Oh yeah - one more thing: I’ve added a few (hopefully) helpful links, and some [clarifying comments in square brackets] neither of which, of course, are part of Ernesto’s article posted on El País.

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Incident at the Ibero-American Summit

The strategy of “Hugo Bolivar”

The Venezuelan president uses the Spanish King for his own referendum

By ERNESTO EKAIZER / EL PAÍS
11/15/2007
Madrid

Hugo Chavez arrived in Santiago de Chile with a single idea: to use the Ibero-American Summit to strengthen the yes vote for his greatly expanded powers and his perpetuated stay in power, as proposed by the referendum held next December. He didn’t achieve that in the conclusions of the summit, but Chavez left the Chilean capital for Caracas with a trophy that is perhaps even more profitable for his enterprise: the head of the King.

After his return from the summit, Enrique Iglesias, the secretary-general [of the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat, coordinating organ for the yearly summits] still thinks the same as he maintained, shortly after the summit ended, while the spat among [Spanish prime minister] Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. “This is the summit with the best harvest to date, with the social security agreement having been approved.” Old fox that he is, Iglesias doesn’t step into the political fray that is going on behind the scenes: the constitutional referendum held this coming December to give Chavez extensive powers, and the general elections held March 9 in Spain. “What matters is social security, or the drinking water project, among others.”

According to Iglesias, the six months of preparation work forecast a peaceful summit. “The Venezuelans preferred the notion of social justice over [that of] social cohesion in the final comunique. But it’s not a fundamental debate. Social cohesion is much more than reduction of inequality,” Iglesias points out [note by nv1962: one of the key results is that the government leaders attending the summit agreed on freeing up pension across all participating states, currently 22, so that migrant workers can retire in any participating country of choice without suffering a "pension penalty"]. So then, how did the seed of the recent clash in Chile come to germinate?

It is a fact that the U.S. network Fox, owned by mogul Rupert Murdoch, maintains a systematic campaign against Hugo Chavez, as is the propaganda crusade [against] him by Spanish ex prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, a board member of that media conglomerate.

No new facts have come out, either, about the genesis of the coup in April, 2002. The Aznar government acted in coordination with the U.S. State Department. The Spanish and U.S. ambassadors met at the presidential palace with the leader of the coup, the businessman Pedro Carmona, and they issued a statement taking for a fact that Chavez, who [at that moment] was imprisoned in army barracks, had been permanently taken out of commission. In Madrid, the P.P. [the People’s Party] was celebrating his fall too soon.

The content of the summit wasn’t giving Chavez fuel for his campaign, and on Friday morning the Venezuelan president underscored as much: the summit was irrelevant. Everybody, he explained, should embrace the “Bolivarian Project” for Latin America. And he also attacked Aznar.

Neither Zapatero, the King, or junior minister [of Foreign Affairs] Trinidad Jimenez were sitting at the table [in their chairs]. They were holding meetings with other presidents, outside the room. Only Nicolas Martinez Fresno, secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, was listening. He took notice and passed the information on. Zapatero, who was getting ready to attend lunch with the presidents, gave [his minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Angel] Moratinos instructions to express his displeasure that same afternoon. And so he did.

King Juan Carlos, who was informed on everything, ran that same Friday into the Venezuelan president.

“At your orders, Your Majesty,” Chavez said sympathetically.

The King took him upon his word:

“Yes, at my orders… If you are at my orders, don’t say that type of things anymore…”

The next day, during the closing session, Chavez returned with his fireworks of choice: Aznar. Zapatero didn’t let that slip past him, but the King’s accumulated anger surfaced au naturel.

The underlying idea that this summit should serve to bolster the yes vote for the constitutional reforms didn’t materialize. However, the King’s gesture turned the fiction, by which Chavez aspires to win the referendum, into reality – at least, for the time being. [South American liberation hero] Simon Bolivar has come alive again under the skin of Chavez against the Spanish Crown.

And the worst yet: that the Spanish right wing is ready to complement Chavez’ game, by strongly betting on such fiction.

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Tags: Aznar, Hugo Bolivar, Hugo Chávez, Ibero-American Summit, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, shut up, Zapatero