Letter to Horst von Wächter I

Save Gonzalo Lira!

Letters from Vienna #154

Letter to Horst von Wächter I

Save Gonzalo Lira!

Dear Horst,

Philippe Sands once wrote: “For me, your openness and willingness to engage is a magnificent thing. Perhaps we do not always agree on everything, but I value and cherish so very much your generosity of spirit, and your real decency.”

Knowing this to be true I hope you won’t take umbrage at what I write. As you put it a couple of years ago: “The most sacred thing we possess, without which our life makes no sense, is sincerity, which leads us to truth.” („Das Heiligste, was wir besitzen und ohne das unser Leben keinen Sinn ergibt, ist die Aufrichtigkeit, die uns zur Wahrheit führt.“).

Whether sincerity solely suffices is a moot point yet I heartily believe that we’re wholly and completely lost (especially in this “age of the golden calf”) without it. Another key concept, I like to think, is “integrity”. Other terms, which today are considered equally unfashionable but that you are undoubtedly familiar with are “noblesse oblige” and “honour”. Perhaps many of our current problems can be attributed to the absence of these ideas and perhaps it’s high time to reintroduce them into the vocabulary once more! Yet even without them I think it safe to say that we can agree on one point in particular, that for both of us the truth is sacred.

Philippe Sands also stated something very interesting indeed: “As you know, I hope, I treat each person as an individual. There is no equation, in my mind, between one person or another. But individuals are connected, and draw inspiration – or not – from each other.” 

One individual with whom I feel personally connected and who inspires me immensely happens to be a man by the name of Gonzalo Lira. I only found out yesterday that he’s been arrested in Kharkov and immediately decided to appeal to your generosity of spirit. After all, I reasoned: the name von Wächter carries considerable weight in the Ukraine and you might well be able to facilitate his release.

Given the fact that he’s Chilean (some say he also possesses an American passport) I can only assume that the Chilean embassy will intercede on his behalf once more. Whatever happens his real crime is that he’s spoken openly, honestly, and sincerely, something the powers that be fear with a passion; for them the very idea of truth is hateful.

According to the Business Insider: “Gonzalo Lira (born February 29, 1968) is an American novelist and filmmaker born in Burbank, California. He is the son of Gonzalo Lira Valdés and María Isabel López Hess and is a descendant of José Miguel Carrera (a Chilean general considered to be one of the founders of independent Chile).”

“He grew up in the San Fernando Valley, New York City, Miami, as well as Guayaquil, Ecuador, completed high school at St. George’s College in Santiago, Chile (in 1985) attended Dartmouth College (in 1991) and graduated with honors (in 1995) with a degree in history and philosophy.”

“His first novel was “Counterparts”, a commercial thriller published in 1997 and his first Spanish language novel was “Tomáh Errázurih”, a highly experimental coming-of-age story published in 1998.”

“After moving to lower Manhattan in 1998, Lira wrote, produced and directed a comic short film, “So Kinky”, and developed video games such as “Soldier of Fortune”. He wrote his next novel, “Acrobat”, in 2002, which was subsequently purchased by Miramax…”

“In 2002, he moved to Chile, began writing and producing Spanish language feature films and co-wrote, produced and directed the film “Catalina’s Kidnapping”, a Spanish language thriller in 2006.”

“Starting in 2010, Lira began contributing economic analysis to “Zero Hedge”, “naked capitalism” and “Business Insider”.”

Anger on the Web

As someone passionately interested in the wellbeing of the Ukraine you will hopefully grasp the implications of this act of sheer and utter madness, which only plays into the hands of the Russians. To give you an idea of the some of the reactions this disastrous event has provoked I’ve decided to quote a few comments to a recent Yahoo article:[1]

JS:

That’s too bad. He had really good interviews with people who were realists and not afraid to say the facts rather than feelings of what is going on in Ukraine. And he did it with respect to Ukraine soldiers and people. I hope he’s safe.

Reinhard:

I believe the arrest of this American blogger in Ukraine is a stark violation of human rights & freedom of speech. We need all the so called western human rights organizations to step in to help and free this poor man. Phone lines should literally glow right now in western capitals as the west is the champion and most fierce defender of human rights everywhere. The so-called west should be opposed to totalitarian regimes where bloggers get arrested for exercising their freedom of speech. If Ukraine doesn’t comply with requests to release this man immediately, the west has to sanction Ukraine by Monday at the latest for violations of basic human rights.

Bob:

Say what you want about him, but his analysis, along with the Duran and others, shows he turned out to be correct while the western media still lies about what is really going on in Ukraine.

Andrew:

He isn’t pro-Russian, he is trying to do real journalism. He doesn’t think Ukraine has a chance because Russia has a far more powerful military. He thinks the war is a disaster for Ukraine and that the US is sacrificing Ukraine and using its people as cannon fodder for its own geopolitical aims. The very fact that he was abducted for that is clear evidence that Ukraine is not a free and democratic country. He was very brave to say that in a country that has already thrown the political opposition in prison.

He did not have access to Ukrainian military secrets, so he is not committing espionage. He is getting most of his information from public information on the internet and from experts he had on his podcast. He was pretty much staying in his apartment when he wasn’t buying groceries. His YouTube channel is highly intelligent and he had podcasts with interesting people from around the world. They applied critical thinking to the available facts. They were doing their best to give facts when most of the media just gives us narratives fed to them by the Ukrainians or NATO.

Jesse:

As an American, if freedom of the press was taken by government, I would be furious as speech is a birthright. If political parties were banned and its supporters jailed, I would be furious as we live in a constitutional republic that thrives on the democratic process. If my freedom to worship my religion was stripped from me, I would be livid. If the ruler of my country did all three, I would expect a revolt by the people. I would pray that citizens of other countries would condemn the political individuals responsible.

Zelenski has done all three of those things in Ukraine. Gonzalo speaks out about these breaches of rights and most of this country doesn’t know. Half of the small group that hears about his arrest say vile things about the man. You don’t need to agree with him or his views. You just have to see that his crime was speaking out against a tyrant. Just because Putin is a tyrant doesn’t mean Zelenski isn’t and vice versa. When Putin jailed an American, there was pure outrage. The US handed over an arms dealer in exchange. I wonder, where is the outrage here?

andrew:

He thinks the Russian invasion is a disaster. The fact that he doesn’t think Ukraine has a chance of winning is not support for the invasion. The building next to his got blown up by a Russian missile. He didn’t support that. He thinks the Neo-Nazis who overthrew the democratically-elected government in 2014 are ruining Ukraine. The fact that they abducted him proves his point.

I would heartily recommend that you listen to the videos of Gonzalo, which can be found on his YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6Kdqw2zP6r0QnIxCAsUvw

Whether one agrees with him or not (and I for one disagree with much of what he says) I don’t think one can seriously question his sincerity, and without sincerity (as you rightly point out) there isn’t the slightest hope of truth.

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[1] Bottom of Formhttps://news.yahoo.com/pro-russian-blogger-gonzalo-lira-172900103.html