Pakistán (Continuación)

EuropaMundoOriente Próximo,

Take one huge, troubled country, a land of lawless provinces, criminal chieftains and constant tension. Its history is full of destruction and conflict. Today, It falls prey again to the most violent terrorism. A strong man rules, but nobody who lives in his shadow can rule out corruption or state-sponsored assassination. There's an election coming, yet its probable outcome is regarded with deep cynicism. Democracy has shallow roots in this soil. And, just for luck, let's toss nuclear capability into the mix. What could be more alarming?

Possibly another country in much the same condition. Alternative B, Pakistan, is ruled by President Musharraf, and the "world community" is desperate for him to hold an election.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

With the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan's survival depends on the outcome of a struggle between the army and Bhutto's Pakistan People's party, now headed by her 19-year-old son Bilawal. The protagonists are mismatched and the odds are that Pakistan will not make it.For all its flaws, the PPP is Pakistan's only true national institution. As well as overwhelming support in the Bhutto family's home province of Sindh, it has substantial support in Punjab and North-West Frontier Province. Like many south Asian political parties, it is a family affair, but it has an enduring platform: opposition to military rule.

Pakistan's army has long defined itself as the guardian of the nation, and successive generals have used this role as their excuse to seize and hold power.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

El asesinato de Benazir Bhutto, la primera mujer que gobernó un país islámico, es un duro golpe contra las perspectivas democráticas de Pakistán e incluso su viabilidad como Estado. Mientras el caos y la confusión se apoderan del país, no debemos perder de vista la responsabilidad parcial del presidente Pervez Musharraf en este giro de los acontecimientos. Como mínimo, Musharraf no puede ser absuelto del hecho de que su gobierno no proporcionó a Benazir Bhutto suficiente seguridad.

Benazir Bhutto tuvo que pagar con la vida su valor al desafiar a extremistas de todo tipo: Al Qaeda, los talibanes, los partidos políticos religiosos y los militares de la línea dura.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Como suele ocurrir con los grandes personajes cuyas vidas excepcionales exceden los límites de la vida misma -he aquí a alguien que supo desde muy pequeña lo que quería decir larger than life-, la existencia de este bello animal político, de esta atractiva y carismática mujer cuyo último asalto al trono del poder quedó ahogado en sangre el pasado jueves, mientras esparcía las semillas de la democracia y el racionalismo en el territorio más árido para esa siembra que imaginarse quepa, puede ser contada de dos maneras.

En la primera versión vemos a una joven abnegada e inteligente, en cuya formación han confluido los mejores vientos del este y del oeste, que de vuelta a su país, tras dejar huella académica y una estela de corazones rotos en los campus de Harvard y Oxford, ve a su padre encaramado al puesto de primer ministro por las urnas y derrocado, encarcelado y condenado a muerte por los militares.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

With half her adult life spent either in exile or in prison, Benazir Bhutto might have lived like a medieval princess, but she died like an ordinary, modern Pakistani. When the assassin struck, Ms. Bhutto, the former prime minister, was doing what so many Pakistanis most love to do: electioneering.

Two months earlier, when she had arrived in Karachi after eight years in exile, there were legitimate questions about her democratic credentials. Even her die-hard supporters were embarrassed by her blatant deal with Pakistan’s military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, the very man who had publicly vowed that she would never return to the country.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

El trágico asesinato de la ex primera ministra Benazir Bhutto va a sumir Pakistán en el luto y el caos. Su muerte simboliza el desastre general que nos envuelve a todos, sobre todo en Oriente Próximo y Asia, pero también en Estados Unidos y parte de Europa. Lo significativo de este último asesinato -y de los que seguramente vendrán a continuación- es lo común, casi inevitable, que se ha hecho este tipo de suceso en nuestra zona del mundo.

Si queremos poner fin a este horror que está devorando cada vez más regiones árabes y asiáticas y absorbiendo ejércitos de Estados Unidos y otros países occidentales, debemos empezar por hablar seriamente sobre qué significa y por qué ocurre.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

El asesinato de Benazir Bhutto ha desestabilizado Pakistán hasta el confín del caos, hasta el punto de que la tensión desborda el escenario de la nación surgida de la partición india, trasmite precariedad a todo su marco geopolítico y arriesga el improbable orden mundial que venía realquilando el vacío posterior a la guerra fría. Un sistema mundial más o menos estable habitualmente no deja de convivir con la existencia de focos de caos y anarquía pero la magnitud de la circunstancia pakistaní tras el atentado contra Benazir Bhutto es algo más, de un potencial capaz de alterar factores y resultados de orden global.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Rarely in situations of such volatility as Pakistan faces today is the objective so clear. Pakistan needs stability. The greatest threat to the country derives from internal terrorism, lawlessness and fractured regional politics.

Can national stability best be secured through a strongman government of the kind offered by President Pervez Musharraf? Or is stability best guaranteed through a democratic election that restores civilian rule committed to cracking down on extremist violence, building the rule of law and delivering services to the people? Benazir Bhutto promoted the second option. Tragically, she died doing so.

The former prime minister's assassination is being called a victory for the forces of extremism and a heavy setback for the cause of democracy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Like a large rock dropped from a great height into a murky pond, Benazir Bhutto's murder has sent shockwaves rippling outwards from Pakistan across the region and the wider international community.

The full impact of this political tsunami may take months to assess. But decisions made in the next few days will be crucial in preventing an immediate, nationwide descent into chaos. As so often in the past, all eyes are on Pervez Musharraf.

The assassination is widely seen as having further weakened Pakistan's embattled president. Some of Bhutto's aides accuse him of complicity in her death or, at the very least, failing to ensure adequate security.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Who killed Benazir Bhutto? Despite formal admission of responsibility by al-Qaeda, we may never know for sure. In one recent conversation she told me that she had “solemn warnings” from a dozen groups who saw her as the main obstacle to their dream of transforming Pakistan into an “Islamic state”, whatever that means.

I first met Benazir in 1971 when I was a house guest of her father, the Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in their home town of Larkana, Sind. From the deference Bhutto showed his daughter, it was clear that Benazir, then barely 16, was meant to carry the mantle of the political dynasty that he hoped to start.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Benazir Bhutto's assassination leaves slim possibilities for a democratic transition that now matters more than ever to the United States. Bhutto and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) illustrate what's best and worst about Pakistani politics. The party and the drive for democratic politics are remarkably resilient. The PPP boasts a nationwide following, with a dedicated core in Sindh and southern Punjab. But the tragedy of Pakistan is that the PPP and other major parties are family fiefdoms, built on personal loyalty, with no record of developing new leaders or permitting opposition within the ranks. This structure strengthens the tendency to view political office as a possession.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has left a huge political vacuum at the heart of this nuclear-armed state, which appears to be slipping into an abyss of violence and Islamic extremism. The question of what happens next is almost impossible to answer, especially at a moment when Bhutto herself seemed to be the only answer.

Pakistanis are in shock. Many are numb, and others are filled with unimaginable grief. Thousands have taken to the streets, burning vehicles and attacking police stations in an explosion of violence against the government. Bhutto's death yesterday will almost certainly lead to the cancellation of the Jan.…  Seguir leyendo »

, MundoOriente PróximoReflexionesTestimonios,

Try to imagine a young Pakistani woman bounding into the newsroom of the Harvard Crimson in the early 1970s and banging out stories about college sports teams with the passion of a cub reporter. That was the first glimpse some of us had of Benazir Bhutto. We had no idea she was Pakistani political royalty. She was too busy jumping into her future to make a show of her past.

I saw this effervescent woman many times over subsequent years, and I never lost the sense of her as an impetuous person embracing what was new -- for herself and for her nation.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Even those of us sharply critical of Benazir Bhutto's behaviour and policies - both while she was in office and more recently - are stunned and angered by her death. Indignation and fear stalk the country once again.An odd coexistence of military despotism and anarchy created the conditions leading to her assassination in Rawalpindi yesterday. In the past, military rule was designed to preserve order - and did so for a few years. No longer. Today it creates disorder and promotes lawlessness. How else can one explain the sacking of the chief justice and eight other judges of the country's supreme court for attempting to hold the government's intelligence agencies and the police accountable to courts of law?…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia,

Assassination may be the most extreme form of censorship, but it is not necessaily the most effective. Political murder changes history, but it seldom changes minds.

America would not be the same place today if John F. Kennedy had lived. The murders of Anwar Sadat and Yitzhak Rabin are central to any understanding of the course of modern Middle Eastern history. The world would be quite different if Reagan had been shot and killed, or Lincoln had not.

Yet it is undoubtedly true that political assassination rarely achieves the goal the assassin hopes for, and sometimes produces effects that are the reverse of those intended.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

El brutal atentado (como si hubiese de otro tipo) contra la dos veces ex primera ministra de Pakistán, nos ha encendido, como siempre a destiempo, todas las alarmas. Son muy pocos los países que desde Occidente en general y Europa en particular, se percatan de la enorme importancia que para la paz y la estabilidad mundiales tiene el País de los Hombres Puros, que es la traducción de su nombre en urdu al español. Lo que está en juego en ese país no es sólo su tipo de régimen, la permanencia o no del general Musharraf, la victoria electoral, con más o menos transparencia, de tal o cual candidato, lo que está en juego es el futuro de la región y, muy posiblemente, la mismísima paz mundial.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

La lucha por la libertad tiene un alto coste en vidas humanas y en sufrimiento. Aquellos que en Pakistán no están dispuestos a aceptar que la mayoría vote en favor de un régimen político democrático se han adelantado asesinando a la candidata que más posibilidades tenía de ganar las próximas elecciones. Lo sucedido es un desastre para su familia, sus correligionarios y para todo aquel que se sienta comprometido con la defensa de los valores universales que dan sentido a la democracia.

Benazir Bhutto era una mujer sobresaliente. Nació en el seno de una rica familia de terratenientes y su padre fue Presidente y Primer Ministro.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

La han matado, ¿pero quién? Los islamistas son los sospechosos obvios, pero tras el atentado anterior ella dejó muy claro que acusaba al actual dictador militar, el general Pervez Musharraf. Benazir Bhutto era lo que en Europa llamaríamos una princesa. Los Bhutto son una rica y poderosa familia de la oligarquía paquistaní. Crearon un partido cuya retórica estaba calculada para atraerse a la vez a las clases medias ansiosas de un régimen liberal pero estable y también a las masas depauperadas de Pakistán. Ese camino les llevó muy lejos porque en un país donde la población se ha triplicado en poco más de 40 años, y sigue creciendo al mismo ritmo, lo que sobran son masas depauperadas.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and his family have been detained in their house, barricaded in with barbed wire and surrounded by police officers in riot gear since Nov. 3. Phone lines have been cut and jammers have been installed all around the house to disable cellphones. And the United States doesn’t seem to care about any of that.

The chief justice is not the only person who has been detained. All of his colleagues who, having sworn to protect, uphold and defend the Constitution, refused to take a new oath prescribed by President Pervez Musharraf as chief of the army remain confined to their homes with their family members.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Tema: Se analizan la declaración del estado de excepción en Pakistán y el cese del general Musharraf como jefe de las fuerzas armadas y su investidura como presidente, así como la convocatoria de elecciones para el próximo 8 de enero.

Resumen: Este análisis examina el actual escenario político en Pakistán a raíz del establecimiento del estado de excepción en noviembre, que se prolongó a lo largo de casi mes y medio. Durante este período se creó un clima turbulento en el que tuvieron lugar cientos de detenciones de opositores al régimen (incluido el arresto domiciliario del presidente del Tribunal Supremo) y se produjo una amplia censura informativa.…  Seguir leyendo »