MORE ABOUT THOSE GUANTANAMO BAY PRISONERS WE SENT TO URUGUAY

This is the stuff of which mystery book plots are made!  My last post talked about former president Jose Mujica of Uruguay and his having facilitated the “immigration” of six former Guantanamo detainees to their “new home” in Uruguay.  Now, let me give you a few of the details.

Last December (2014) six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay were sent to Uruguay, where they were to be resettled as refugees.  This was a deal that had been in the works for a long time once we identified a country willing to take them.  It is part of President Obama’s overall strategy to finally close Guantanamo Bay prison once all of the detainees are resettled, deported, tried for their accused crimes, or otherwise offered alternatives to the limbo of indefinite incarceration without trial.   There was, of course, political opposition to accepting these individuals in Uruguay, but President Mujica’s view eventually prevailed.

URUGUAY UPDATE

Uruguay, as did most of South America, just had a presidential election.  Their campaigns don’t take two years and don’t cost billions of dollars for the candidates.  The process is quick and features much less negative advertising and partisan politics.   The former president Tabare Vasquez defeated the incumbent candidate Jose Mujica.  Tabare Vasquez is a professional politician.  What he lacks in charisma is compensated for by his acknowledged political and bureaucratic skills.  He was well known to the electorate from his previous terms as President.

Jose Mujica may not have been a very good president in the political sense, but he was probably the most colorful character to lead any country in a long time.  During his term in office Uruguay legalized marijuana and abortion.  He spoke against corporate and government abuses of power and spoke for the poor and impoverished members of society.  He offered asylum to several former Guantanamo detainees.  He gave a speech to the United Nations where he said, among other things, “We have sacrificed the old immaterial gods and now we are occupying the temple of the market god,” and “This god organizes our economy, our politics, our habits, our lives. It seems we have been born only to consume.”

And “There’s marketing for everything! There’s marketing for cemeteries, for funeral services, for maternity wards, for fathers, for mothers, grandparents and uncles! ... Everything is business! ... The average man of our time wanders between financial institutions and the tedious routine of offices ... He dreams of vacations and freedom. He dreams of being able to pay his bills, until one day, his heart stops.”

Before becoming president in 2009, Mujica had spent more than 10 years imprisoned in solitary confinement in a well!  He was a revolutionary Tucamaro during the military dictatorship of the 1970s and early 1980s. 

Another quote from Mujica, “You don’t stop being a common man just because you are president.”  He drove a VW beetle and commuted from his home to the office as president; 90% of his salary went to charity.

I met President Mujica a couple of times, once at a reception celebrating the opening of a new pharmaceutical company in Montevideo.  No Secret Service, no bodyguards, no police, no soldiers.  No entourage.  He was just another visitor at the event.  He spoke to me in rapid Spanish about the new jobs being created by the company for working men and women.  He didn’t seem to care whether I was a voter or a tourist.  His enthusiasm and charisma were evident in everything he said and did.  But that’s not enough in today’s complex world.  Uruguay’s economy, like almost all the South American countries in their region, is taking a big economic hit.  Not as big a hit as its neighbor Argentina, but still a hit.  Former President Mujica’s policies have taken the blame, and he’s now a former president.  His style and personality will be missed on the world stage and in his home country.

AFTER ROGER AND SUZANNE’S CRUISE: AN UPDATE ON THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

           For those of you who have already read The Origin of Murder, here’s an update on events in the Galapagos Islands at a couple of places Suzanne and Roger visited in the book.  Life seems to be imitating art here, or maybe it’s vice-versa.  The Galapagos Tortoise whose photo adorns the cover of the novel probably started his/her life at the Darwin Research Station.  For those of you who haven’t read the book yet, you should.  It’s really very good as you can tell from the reviews on the Amazon book page*.

           The Charles Darwin Research Station is threatened with closure because the Station and Santa Cruz Island seem to be having a fight over the money coming into the gift shop of the Charles Darwin Foundation, which has supported the Station financially since shortly after World War II.  There were complaints from local shop owners that the gift shop, in Santa Cruz’s “big city” of Puerto Ayora, takes away business from them.  This past summer officials on Santa Cruz Island ordered the Foundation to shut the gift shop.  According to the Foundation, that’s a loss of something like $8,000 (US dollars) per week, or as much as $200,000 for the second half of 2014.  This Research Station is the facility that breeds Galapagos Tortoises to release back to the island chain, and is essential for ensuring survival of the population of these huge tortoises in the wild.  It's also a base for visiting scientists studying the biology and geology of the Galapagos Islands, so hosts a lot of academic scientists from all over the world as part of its mission.

            Even though the gift shop provides just 10% of the foundation’s revenue, its closure threatens the continuing existence of the facility.  Donations to the Foundation are down, salaries aren’t being paid, research projects have been slowed or shut down, and staff members are resigning.

            A substantial amount of Ecuador’s tourist income comes from the Galapagos Islands, so it is likely the Ecuadorian Government will step in and stabilize the research station’s operations.  In the meantime, there’s a lot of drama occurring these days 600 miles west of Guayaquil, in the Pacific Ocean.

*A couple of quotes from reviewers: 

(1) “A fast-paced, exciting mystery I didn't want to set aside till finished... A great continuation of the series!”

(2)  “When a luxury cruise ship full of hard-to-predict eco-tourists is confronted with a murdered passenger, survival of the fittest takes on a whole new meaning.”

http://www.amazon.com/Origin-Murder-Suzanne-American-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00K4KDL3O/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399322637&sr=1-6&keywords=the+origin+of+murder

UK link:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Origin-Murder-Suzanne-American-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00K4KDL3O/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399265823&sr=1-7&keywords=origin+of+murder

“THE ORIGIN OF MURDER”---BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE NEWEST ROGER AND SUZANNE NOVEL

This entry will be posted to my blog when I submit “The Origin of Murder” to Amazon for publication.  It usually takes Amazon about 24 hours to publish a book after the author uploads it to KDP site, so wait till tomorrow before you check out the new book page.  I thought a bit of background, if not the book itself, might interest some of the readers of this blog.

In "The Origin of Murder", Roger, Suzanne, Robert, and Bruce take a vacation cruise through the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador. Of course, Suzanne finds another dead body floating in the Pacific Ocean and we're off to solve another deadly mystery.  Among the suspects are a mysterious travel agent, a bird watching couple from Germany, a newlywed couple on their honeymoon, two sisters from San Francisco, and couples from Uruguay and Australia.

Writing for Water: Authors for Water.org

Throughout 2014, independent authors are joining together into the Writing for Water team, pledging a share of their earnings for the cause of clean water worldwide.  I’m one of those who volunteered to donate half of any royalties I receive for book sales during the month of March to this worthy cause.  I’d also like to acknowledge fellow mystery author Carmen Amato for organizing this effort.  Our progress will be tracked monthly in The Water Diaries at http://carmenamato.net/blog.

We’ve all experienced some literary success and want to use it to make a difference in a fundamental way. That’s why we’re asking you to buy a book. Not only will you get some terrific entertainment, but you'll also help us help others.
Please support the effort to bring clean water and decent sanitation to those who need it by buying a book from one of the Writing for Water Authors. All titles available at Amazon.com:

AN EXPERIMENT WITH AMAZON KDP’S NEW BOOK PROMOTION, THE KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL

            Amazon KDP recently announced a new book promotion opportunity.  For up to seven days you can reduce the price on your KDP entry to any amount you want on any kind of staggered schedule you might care to try.   The incentives are (1) there’s a special promotional page on Amazon where your book is announced as a participant, and (2) you get the full 70% royalty on sales, even if the price is below the normal threshold for the 70% royalty.   It seemed a fun thing to try---the worst-case scenario was nobody would be interested in a book I put on this promotion.   That would have been OK, as I chose a book with low sales at this time but one that is an excellent entry point into my series because it features pretty much all of the recurring characters in five shorter stories.

            The new promotion started on a curious date, 11/12/13.   I announced the promotional price, $0.99, a substantial reduction from the normal price of $2.99 for this novel-length anthology, on a couple of dozen Facebook sites and on my own Facebook page.   The promotion was set to run for seven days, through the 18^th.