OK, so there’s this Il-76 with something called “East Wing” stuck a week in northeastern Brazil on its way from Dakar to Cochabamba in Bolivia. Not the busiest route, you might think.
But “East Wing” was formed as a successor to none other than GST Aero, sez ATDB.aero; and out of their six aircraft, three are immediately ex-GST and another is none other than 23442218, the former ST-AQA of Phoenix Aviation and before that, GST. UP-I7622 has even more form. Serial number 3426765, she clocked up time at Air Cess, Air Pass, Centrafrican Airlines, and GST Aero – thus linking up the whole history of the Bout system, from the Swazi to the Central African to the Kazakh registry. Just to sign the lot, East Wing’s ICAO code is EWZ – Air West/East West’s was AWZ.
Further, Russia Today interviewed VB, and apparently the BBC broadcast something – anyone see it?
And this photo is a work of art. Jazz for the eyes, as someone said.
Update: Thanks to Matthieu in comments for this link to a New York Times story on Cochabamba, the place.
Cochabamba is on the western edge of the Chapare, the main coca-growing region in an otherwise impoverished country that is the world’s second largest producer of cocaine. Farmers and chemicals for processing cocaine stream out of Cochabamba into the Chapare jungle. Awesome wealth flows back. ”The cocaine is without doubt the thing that yields the most money to this area,” said Alfonso Canelas, a co-director with his father of Los Tiempos, Cochabamba’s leading daily newspaper.
Some of the major figures in the cocaine world have built mansions here and peasants have begun buying color television sets. The average Bolivian earns $500 annually. Some legitimate businessmen and some of the old families of Cochabamba say they resent the cocaine money. But the cocaine barons have nonetheless gained entry to the city’s elite social clubs.
People still talk about the gala wedding a few years ago of a daughter of Roberto Suarez, a powerful drug dealer who was the subject of a cameo appearance in the violent film ”Scarface” and who is now in jail. ”Almost everybody who counts was there,” said a woman at the center of Cochabamba society. ”People who didn’t get invited were really mad.”
Klaus Barbie, who was the Gestapo chief in Lyons, lived quietly in Cochabamba until shortly before he was deported in 1983 to France, where he was tried and sentenced to life in prison.
Klaus Barbie? Now that’s a detail that should be on the interwebs, the spiritual home of the lurid. Meanwhile, someone wants to know about Imtrec, in Russian.
Update Update: Look who’s reading the blog.
inetnum: 92.54.151.112 – 92.54.151.119
netname: UK-VTL-AVIENT-LTD-00184232
descr: Avient Ltd
country: GB
admin-c: GH2118-RIPE
tech-c: VINO3-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: VIATEL-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
And something called finansolymp.ru, which turns out to be a small ISP.
Meant to record it but forgot. Luckily, you linked to the iPlayer page! So… what did you think of it? (My guess? Like any mass media outlet addressing a subject with which one in intimate, they’ve simplified it too much and missed out some of the really important bits…)
I’ve been reading lately about west africa becoming a hub for narcotics transports. Also found this in an article in the new york times (http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D9163AF930A15756C0A96F948260), so it looks indeed strange.
“Cochabamba is on the western edge of the Chapare, the main coca-growing region in an otherwise impoverished country that is the world’s second largest producer of cocaine. Farmers and chemicals for processing cocaine stream out of Cochabamba into the Chapare jungle. Awesome wealth flows back. ”The cocaine is without doubt the thing that yields the most money to this area,” said Alfonso Canelas, a co-director with his father of Los Tiempos, Cochabamba’s leading daily newspaper”