“Germán Medina (above) is not a hooker-themed blackmailer like J.J. Rendón.”
A good horse runs even at the shadow of the whip. — Zen koan.
Fads can be incredibly lucrative: mass hysteria and stupidity can make a real difference to a business’ bottom line. … –Rhymer Rigby. “Craze Management.” Management Today. London: Jun 1998. p. 58
‘J.J. Rendon no es mi asesor’, afirma el candidato a la alcaldía de Medellín, Alonso Salazar: “J.J. Rendon does not advise my campaign,” says Medellín mayoral candidate.
The report is from El Tiempo (Bogotá), which also reports that the “king of black propaganda” may soon have his contract terminated by the La U political party. More on that in a bit.
An aide to a La U legislator reportedly got the Zen master of gabbling nonsense on tape threatening to create a hooker-themed scandal if the legislator did not accede to a political bargain Rendón’s client was proposing to him.
On Rendon — or Rendón — see also
Semana magazine, meanwhile, reports that opposition leader Carlos Gaviria is now attributing the astonishing incident of a U.K. Guardian op-ed, published under his byline but not authored by him, to the work of the Bolivarian Donald Segretti.
The thought had occurred to me, too.
Also in Semana: “Risk of political violence in 576 townships in upcoming municipal elections.”
An El Tiempo headline to the same effect today cites “76” townships.
Gaviria explica esta serie de acusaciones al hecho de que detrás del gobierno hay hombres como J.J. Rendón especializados en hacer montajes, difamar, calumniar de sus adversarios políticos para que estos inviertan su tiempo más valioso en aclarar cosas que no ha hecho. Calumnia, calumnia que algo quedará, dice el refrán.
Gaviria attributes these events to the fact that behind government there are people like J.J. Rendón who specialize in frame-ups, defamation, and slander of political opponents, in a bid to force them to waste valuable time explaining [nonexistent facts]. Slander, slander, slander until something sticks, as the saying goes.
A saying most often attributed to Joseph Goebbels.
De hecho, en las últimas horas Gaviria recordó el caso del entonces candidato a la Presidencia Rafael Pardo cuando también Juan Manuel Santos dijo que estaba en asociación con las Farc para evitar la reelección del presidente Uribe. Luego se demostró que todo era falso.
In recent hours, Gaviria has also recalled the case of presidential candidate Rafael Pardo, whom Juan Manuel Santos said was in [cahoots] with the FARC in order to prevent the reelection of Uribe. This was later shown to be totally false.
In Brazil, they like to say that the PCC — the nasty drug-trade FIESP (trade association) of São Paulo — is a Marxist organization that kills policemen in order to get out the vote for Lula.
Which is an astonishing thing to claim without any evidence whatsoever.
To the mayoral race in Medellín, meanwhile:
Desmintió afirmaciones de sus competidores, los ex alcaldes Luis Pérez y Sergio Naranjo, sobre supuesta guerra sucia promovida desde su campaña contra ellos, con la asesoría de Rendon.
The candidate denied statements by his rivals, former mayors Pérez and Naranjo, about an alleged dirty war against them by his campaign, with Rendón’s advice.
Ayer, en rueda de prensa, Salazar reconoció que se reunió con el polémico consultor venezolano, pero que esos encuentro tuvieron lugar hace más de un mes, en medio de “definiciones sobre un posible candidato único del Partido de ‘La U’ a la Alcaldía de Medellín”.
In a press conference yesterday, Salazar acknowledged he has met with the controversial Venezuelan consultant, but that these encounters took place more than a month a go, in the context of “discussions of a possible La U candidacy for the mayor of Medellín.”
“En ese entonces el ex representante Carlos Ignacio Cuervo, que también estaba en ese proceso, no quiso participar y hasta ahí llegó la relación con Rendon. Desde eso mi campaña es asesorada por Germán Medina”, dijo Salazar y añadió que su estilo no es la guerra sucia. “Esa no es mi política”, enfatizó.
“In this meeting, former legislator Cuervo, who is also part of this process, did not want any part of it, and that was as far as we went with Rendón. Since then my campaign has been advised by Germán Medina,” said Salazar, adding that the “dirty war” is not his style. “That is not my policy,” he said.
Medina is credited (credits himself) as the inventor of a kind of “election campaign in a bos,” or software “kit,” used by candidates all over Latin America.
El inventor de este kit electoral siglo XXI es el publicista Germán Medina, quien con su empresa Medina y Asociados completa 15 años de experiencia en la asesoría de 150 campañas para aspirantes a todo tipo de cargos públicos, desde Presidente de la República hasta alcalde, pasando por senador y representante a la Cámara. Con el SACP su mercado se ha diversificado a tal punto que está en negociaciones para trabajar con Óscar Arias, candidato a la presidencia de Costa Rica, con un candidato a la Alcaldía del Distrito Federal de México y otros de Venezuela y Ecuador. No importa si el cliente es liberal, conservador, de izquierda o derecha, él está abierto a todo tipo de ideologías.
The inventor of this 21-st century campaign “kit” is publicist Germán Medina, who along with his firm Medina & Associates has fifteen years’ experience advising 150 campaigns for all kinds of public office, from the Presidency of the Republic to mayoral races, as well as candidates for the lower house of Congress and the Senate. With the SACP, his market has diversified to the point where he is in negotiations to work for Óscar Arias, candidate for the presidency of Costa Rica, with a candidate for the governor of the federal district in Mexico, and others in Venezuela and Ecuador. He does not care if his client is liberal or conservative, left or right. He is open to all kinds of ideologies.
Back to the man who would be Medellín mayor:
Agregó que el candidato al Concejo Diego Corrales, por el movimiento Jóvenes Fajardistas, y que lo apoya, demandó por injuria y calumnia a Pérez y Naranjo.
He added that city council candidate Diego Corrales, from the Fajardista Youth movement, who supports him, has sued his opponents for slander and liberl.
Ambos aseguraron que Corrales obtuvo de forma fraudulenta los datos de una encuesta que será revelada en octubre y en la cual Salazar aparece, por primera vez, en el primer lugar.
Both Pérez and Naranjo said Corrales obtained a poll to be released in October — in which Salazar, for the first time, is shown to be leading the race — by fraudulent means.
An October surprise!
I assume we are to understand that the poll numbers are cooked?
Lies, damned lies, and Latin American public opinion polling. You will not lose money betting on that adage, where credible survey methodology and an audit trail on the raw data are absent.
There was another case with the same smell to it in Paraguay recently, in which the popularity of the leading candidate to put an end to Colorado Party rule after six decades suddenly crumbled in the polls with the release of a heroic coup-plotting generalissimo wannabe from prison …
More on Medina:
En Colombia ha trabajado con cuatro candidatos presidenciales, dos de ellos han llegado al poder (César Gaviria y Ernesto Samper) y dos no (Noemí Sanín y Horacio Serpa). Según él, el software político no era tan determinante como lo es ahora.
In Colombia, Medina has worked for four presidential candidates, two of them who managed to get elected — Gaviria and Samper — and two who did not — Sanín and Serpa. According to him, his political software was not as effective then as it now is.
Todavía no ha definido con quién trabajará para las elecciones presidenciales del 2006, debido a la incertidumbre política que genera la espera mientras la Corte Constitucional decide si va a haber reelección presidencial o no.
He has still not decided who he will work for in the 2006 presidential elections, given the political uncertainty over whether the Constitutional Court will permit presidential reelection or not.
This blurb is from 2005, obviously.
Sin embargo, Medina es cercano a Álvaro Uribe, ya que trabajó con él en sus campañas al Senado y a la Gobernación de Antioquia. Además, es el creador de la imagen del movimiento prouribista Patria Nueva, que lideran Óscar Iván Zuluaga y Juan Manuel Santos.
However, Medina is very close to Álvaro Uribe, having worked on his campaigns for the Senate and the governorship of Antioquia, and created the public iimage of the pro-Uribe New Fatherland movement led by Óscar Iván Zuluaga and Juan Manuel Santos.
In which office Uribe put his seal of approval on CONVIVIR groups made up of people who turned out to be drug-running death-squadders, as the political opposition has been pointing out lately.
Santos is the defense minister who made that huge stink over the phony Gaviria op-ed in the Guardian.
See
The Santos clan owns El Tiempo. Or used to, anyway.
¿Cuánto cuesta su arma estratégica? Medina calcula que la inversión total de una campaña presidencial puede estar en el orden de los 20 mil millones de pesos y los honorarios por ofrecer el paquete integral, corresponden al 5% de esta cifra. Las tarifas varían. El servicio para una campaña a alcaldías como las de Bogotá o Medellín (asesoró a Enrique Peñalosa y a Sergio Fajardo) puede costar unos 200 millones de pesos y para ciudades intermedias 120 millones.
How much does this strategic weapon cost? Medina calculates that the total investment in a presidential campaign can be on the order of 20 billion pesos, and the fees for his complete package would be about 5% of that. His fees vary. A mayoral campaign such as those in Bogotá or Medellín (he advised [the American-born] Peñalosa and Sergio Fajardo) might cost some 200 million pesos. For midsize cities, 120 million.
Divide by about 2,000 for US$, last I checked.
Peñalosa, according to his Wikipedia entry — originally posted by this guy — is “currently in a technical tie for reelection as mayor of Bogotá with the PDA candidate.”
Writes the Wikipedia author of Peñalosa’s profile:
La CIA destruye la credibilidad de Wikipedia : Algo que ya se sospechaba, pero ahora tenemos la prueba, que la Wiki era muy apetecida por la agencia de espías quienes introducen desinformación en los artículos que más las interesan, como los de líderes internacionales, Mahmud Ahmadineyad Fidel Castro, etc. El problema con el Wikiscanner es que también se puede usar contra los usuarios decentes.
The CIA is destroying the credibility of Wikipedia: Something long suspected, but which we now have proof of, is that the Wiki is very appealing to the spy agency, which introduces disinformation into the articles that interest it, such as those on world leaders like Ahmadinejad and Castro. The problem with Wikiscanner is that it can also be used against decent users.
The photo purporting to show that user depicts what looks an awful lot like a rustic campesino with teeth worn down from chewing coca leaves.
The New Market Machines 