If Coach had citizenship in Cuba or Venezuela, the foreign ministry would be a lot more noisy about the Ukrainian government allegedly assassinating one of their citizens.
If Coach committed a crime, he should have been arrested.
You can’t just disappear people – unless you’re a democracy of our values, like the Ukraine.
RT:
Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira was last heard from in Ukraine almost a week ago. He was reporting from the Ukrainian city of Kharkov and has been a critic of President Volodymyr Zelensky and of Ukraine’s conduct during the conflict.
The Chilean foreign ministry said that it was aware that “those close to the Chilean Gonzalo Lira Lopez, who was in the Ukrainian city of Kharkov,” had lost contact with him since April 15. According to the diplomats, they remained in touch “with the relevant entities, to stay informed regarding any news about the location of [our] compatriot.”
Lira, who is a Chilean-American author and movie maker who used to work in Hollywood, was to appear on former UK MP George Galloway’s radio show Mother of All Talk Shows (MOATS) on Sunday, but ended up missing the program.
“It’s with great regret and even greater sense of concern and anxiety and more, that I have to tell you that there is still no sign of our first guest Gonzalo Lira,” Galloway said on his show.
Other independent journalists, including Dan Cohen and Max Blumenthal, have also sounded the alarm over the blogger’s disappearance and have expressed fears he could have been kidnapped, even tortured. They have added, however, that this wasn’t confirmed or verified.
Tweets from Ukrainian Nazi Sergei “Botsman” Korotkikh, who has now made his account private, say Gonzalo Lira has been kidnapped, tortured and might be beheaded. Impossible to verify, but this is plausible. SBU is known to torture and murder its victims. https://t.co/PaJGKsmyM9
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) April 18, 2022
If @realGonzaloLira has indeed been disappeared by Ukraine's SBU, he joins a long list of dissidents, leftists, human rights activists, and local officials kidnapped, tortured and even assassinated by Zelensky's death squads – and with Kiev's open support https://t.co/Z18eVLu9HF
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 18, 2022
Lira has been living in Ukraine for the last several years. After the start of the Russian military operation, he moved from capital Kiev to Kharkov in the east of the country to do his reporting from there.
The 54-year-old has been a staunch critic of Zelensky and Ukraine’s conduct during the conflict, speaking about far-right tendencies among the Ukrainian military and debunking what he saw as false reports by Kiev about events on the ground. He was active on YouTube, posting under the nickname ‘Coach Red Pill,’ as well as on Telegram and Twitter.
According to Lira, both the Ukrainian authorities and the radicals have been increasingly unhappy with his reporting. He had earlier claimed that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) had made at least two attempts to “disappear” him, but he was lucky to escape capture.
The blogger had also blamed news outlet the Daily Beast for attracting Kiev’s attention to his work and revealing his location to the law enforcers. The accusations were made in a video entitled ‘The Daily Beast is trying to get me killed.’
The US outlet dedicated a large article to Lira on March 21, in which he was labeled “a Pro-Putin shill in Ukraine.” In the piece, Daily Beast journalists said they’ve contacted the Ukrainian authorities to clarify if the man was still in Kharkov.
In late March, Lira posted a list of the names of Ukrainian opposition figures who have died or been detained since the outbreak of the conflict, on his Twitter page, insisting that “if you haven’t heard from me in 12 hours or more, put my name on this list.”
You want to learn the truth about the Zelensky regime? Google these names:
Vlodymyr Struk
Denis Kireev
Mikhail & Aleksander Kononovich
Nestor Shufrych
Yan Taksyur
Dmitri Djangirov
Elena BerezhnayaIf you haven’t heard from me in 12 hours or more, put my name on this list.
GL
— Gonzalo Lira (@realGonzaloLira) March 26, 2022
His last tweet is dated April 15.
According to the unconfirmed accounts on social media, he could’ve been abducted by the members of the Kraken unit, part of the notorious Azov battalion. One of the accounts, purporting to belong to a Ukrainian nationalist, wrote on Twitter that it was ironic that the Chilean national ended up being apprehended by a fighter whose nickname is “Chile.” He also said that he was eagerly awaiting the video of the blogger’s execution to pop up online.
Canadian journalist Eva Karene Bartlett, who exchanged messages with Lira a week ago, confirmed to RT that “he was definitely quite worried about his own safety.”
As I’ve said, I think it’s more likely that the intelligence services disappeared him than that Azov killed him.
Of course, as the Azov guy says, if Azov did it then they will post the execution video online. That is their style.
Because those are our values of democracy.
We can’t let tyranny win and that is why people have to be secretly disappeared by intelligence agencies and neo-Nazi groups. It’s who we are.
Today we learn that many in Mariupol will be blocked & left to starve to death. I am in Kyiv at an arc that should mean friendship between Ukraine & Russia. We must speak up. We must never let tyranny win. The world must fight for freedom & democracy! For the people of Mariupol! pic.twitter.com/52kIduhapj
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) April 21, 2022
It’s time for all of us to stop talking and put our money where our mouths be at, and start killing Russians and their supporters.
Malcolm Nance is doing it.
SALUTE MSNBC Miltary Analyst
Malcolm Nance for stepping up to defend democracy in Ukraine. #TheReidOut #inners #Maddow #LastWord pic.twitter.com/01cPKYHQPh— 🏳️🌈MADE MAN™️ (@EenuffCed) April 19, 2022
Malcolm Nance may well have killed Coach Red Pill himself. He says he joined a month ago. Maybe he killed Coach to prove his mettle to the Ukrainians?
He is definitely in the thick of it, vowing to slaughter any and all enemies of democracy.
Malcolm Nance
Ukraine pic.twitter.com/aHlGHAqVan
— Rondalee Iowa (@Maga4Justice) April 19, 2022
He’s never seen a fast mover.
What he been meant to be said is that he ain’t never seen no nigga could outrun he ass.
Maybe the Chilean foreign ministry should have a word with Nance?