Chávez and Nicholas Negroponte

"Negroponte was Bush’s representative at the United Nations, the US intelligence tsar, and finally under-secretary of State. Both he and Otto Reich, using different routes, were behind the coup in Honduras."

These are strong words by Hugo Chavez's mentor: Fidel Castro.

Now the Negroponte Fidel is talking about is John, not Nicholas, but they are brothers.

I do not move at those levels of power, I am just a lowly math professor in Chilpancingo. I can tell you the following, though.

I came back to Mexico last March, from a ten year stint in the US. After trying my luck there as a math professor, and a scientist for a small start up company, I decided to come back home, and do research.

One of my ideas was to start a Guerrero based effort for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation. I wrote to Prof. Negroponte, and he put me in touch with a Mexican software engineer working from Massachusetts. After that I was put in contact with a Mexican diplomat through an aide. The aide and I talked about the project and I told them of my interest to join this humanitarian effort.

Every poor kid of this very poor state, of a poor country, should have a laptop: Why not?

Then something weird happened. My emails were not answered, and I found out that Hugo Chávez had bought a bunch of netbooks from a competitor to OLPC. I don't think that that helped Negroponte, Nicholas, I mean.

Finally I received a response to a recent email. I invited my contact to Chilpancingo for a presentation of the project at the beginning of the fall semester. He accepted.

Today I went to Sam's, the big American discount chain here in Chilpancingo. Sure enough, they had a $200 netbook there. The gizmos made it to Guerrero!

My guess is that Chávez did not feel well partnering with John's brother, and that derailed my efforts a bit.

It seems that the dust is starting to settle, and therefore: let the chips fall where they may. I hope I get the opportunity to do some good for my country.

I was just an innocent bystander in this epochal shift in the computer industry (read below).

Of course what I write here, could just be the product of my active imagination.

"“Respect for the rights of others means peace”, said Juárez.

Fidel Castro Ruz

July 16, 2009

1:12 p.m."

I wonder if Obama knows who Benito Juárez was?