Apparently, this is the "soldiers will be soldiers" excuse

President José Mujica referred today to the rape of a youth by Uruguayan navy personnel in Haiti and described response to the event as “a hard road to travel” (“un viaje de arena gruesa”) for Uruguay.

The president said in a press conference that “this kind of thing has been happening as long as the world has existed” and added that “among soldiers there is always a fringe of rowdy gangs, it is inevitable.” Mujica recognizes that the incident has to be analyzed from the Uruguayan point of view but also from the point of view of “the weaker ones,” the Haitians.

“The commitment was to form a force inside Haiti of Haitians who would take charge of the situation... I believe we have to achieve that objective,” the president stated. Mujica said the topic will be analyzed tomorrow in the meeting of defense and foreign relations ministers from countries with troops in Haiti.

“We are not in Haiti until retirement,” but in order to “lend a hand so a body of Haitians can be formed to take charge of internal security,” the president declared.

— "Mujica quiere mantener las tropas en Haití pese al escándalo", translated from Spanish

See. If only Haiti would reform its army, MINUSTAH can leave! ( Another article )

Thought for the Day

This is the version of "do for self" that Obama delivers -- a palatable black nationalism, inoffensive to, and uncritical of, white people. Obama's a smart dude, with a serious knowledge of black history. I suspect he knew what he was doing when he went on his bamboozled riff. I suspect he knows exactly what he's doing now.

I am not unsympathetic to his dilemma. There's simply no way he can be president and be honest with the country about race. The one time he tried it, during Gates-gate, he paid for it.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates, "Black Nationalism for White People"