South American summit bars new Paraguay leader after ‘parliamentary coup’
Source: Agence France-Presse
South American summit bars new Paraguay leader after ‘parliamentary coup’
By Agence France-Presse
Sunday, June 24, 2012 18:59 EDT
Paraguay’s new president was barred Sunday from participating in a summit of South American presidents next week, deepening the country’s isolation over the ouster of former president Fernando Lugo.
Argentina’s foreign ministry said the move was adopted by the other members and associate states of Mercosur, a South American trading bloc that is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday in Mendoza, Argentina.
The statement expressed the group’s “most energetic condemnation of the rupture of the democratic order that occurred in the Republic of Paraguay, for not having respected due process.”
The summit had loomed as a key test for Paraguay’s President Federico Franco, who has so far failed to gain international recognition for the government that replaced Lugo.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/24/south-american-summit-bars-new-paraguay-leader-after-parliamentary-coup/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Apr 27, 2007
First thing's first: in early 2005 Paraguay passed a law that allowed the country to harbor international criminals--alright, the more diplomatic phrasing is that they
granted immunity to U.S. military, (thus, including Commander-in-Chief Bush) from the International Criminal Court if indicted for war crimes or crimes against humanity. (Another link here concerning military moving in to Paraguay.) This was around the same time (May 2005) 400 US Marines were allowed to operate in the country in exchange for aid for 18 months.
Bush allegedly bought land in Paraguay in 2006, a roughly 98,840 acre parcel in the Paso de Patria area called "Chaco", close to the intersections of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Brazil. Apparently, it's a gorgeous spot. The land is close to the Bolivian wetlands, is situated near natural gas reserves, and sits atop one of the largest aquifers in the world, the Guarani indigenous water region. Part of the property has been designated an ecological reserve. And wow, they think of everything, it's close to the US Mariscal Estigarribia Military Base. The U.S. officially denies having troops there except for "exercises", and vigorously denies rumors of having its own base there.
snip
Apparently, Bush Sr. owns roughly 173,000 acres in the same area, although there are no confirmed reports. But, here is the strange part: none other than the Reverend Sun Myung Moon was the first to buy a huge chunk in 2000, in that very area. The Moonies have big plans: they want to develop ports, universities, an eco-tourism resort (will his an Bush's intersect?), and reinvigorate the timber trade to Asia. They are in Argentina already, but it seems they are branching out. And it seems like the Bushes followed him.
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This is what gave me pause: the next year after the immunity deal was made, the Paraguayan government revoked U.S. military (and Presidential) immunity from the ICC, taking effect when their contract ended in December 2006. The U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay threatened to discontinue aid to the region unless immunity was reinstated--then, for maybe just maybe a bro' deal, Bush then signed a waiver that continued military aid in countries that have refused to sign immunity agreements with the US. Bush's waiver affects 21 countries, including Paraguay. It seems as though Paraguay was forced into revoking immunity, as it is a member of the MercoSur trade block, which includes Venezuela, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. Paraguay's President Nicano Duarte Frutos is center right, elected in 2003, and his relationship with Bush is said to be a "good political marriage."
snip
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/04/28/328588/-Resurrecting-the-Bush-Huge-Land-Acquisition-in-Paraguay-Story
and ouster was done within the law.
New York Slimes?
Associated Pukes?
Wall Street Urinal?
Miami Hairball?
Slime?
Newswake?
The Economyst?
The BBCon?
Surely not Faux News?
Who else is there?
ABCNBCCBS?
El (non) Universal?
They lie, you know--especially about the Latin American Left. They told a great big fat one about Honduras--and are still telling it (--that President Zelaya tried to extend his term in office, a total and complete fabrication). They publish Washington P.R. firm concoctions as "news." They publish CIA faxes as "news." And they do it in concert--all telling the same goddamn lies, over and over and over again.
So it is not surprising, if you use these 1%-er propaganda entities as your sources of "news," that you think that an overnight impeachment and removal from office--with no public hearings, no investigation, no reports, no discussion--is "legal" in Paraguay. It is not. And that is why the rest of South America will not recognize this government.
Fernando Lugo is one of the most popular presidents in the region, and certainly the most beloved--and that includes some of the most popular figures in Latin American history (for instance, Evo Morales, right next door in Bolivia; Cristina Fernandez, next door in Argentina; and Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Lula da Silva, next door in Brazil). Lugo is a former bishop who lived his entire life with the poor in stark poverty and had to be drafted to run for president, as the only leader in Paraguay who could pull the traditionally fractious leftist parties in Paraguay together--for a presidential victory but not a legislative one. The fascist Colorado Party, which had ruled Paraguay for 60 years, including a heinous fascist dictatorship, retained their entrenched and corrupt power over the legislature, bided its time and has now made its move--naturally a coup, because, just like their brethren in Honduras, they do not rule by consent, and do not include the vast poor majority (Paraguay is the poorest country in South America) in their idea of government.
At stake are control of the Guarani aquifer (biggest aquifer in South America) and its hydroelectric infrastructure (hydroelectric power is Paraguay's biggest export after soy), pesticide poisoning of poor farm workers in the soy fields, women's rights and the rights of the poor (all championed by Lugo) and--further--whether Paraguay will permit U.S. boots on the ground in its phony, corrupt, murderous, failed "war on drugs" to create a launching pad for causing trouble in the region (Honduras' traditional role, visa vis the U.S., in Central America). Lugo opposes U.S. troops on the ground in Paraguay.
There is nothing more important to the U.S. government, and to the transglobal corporations and war profiteers that it serves, than "dividing and conquering" South America, the "hotbed" of a remarkable leftist democracy revolution over the last decade, which has seen strong leftist governments elected in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru and, until this week, Paraguay, and has further seen them strongly pull together to pursue goals of social justice and independence and to prevent or stop U.S.-instigated, fascist coups (as they did by unified action on Bolivia in 2008, and tried to do on Honduras). The U.S. "war on drugs" is one of the chief weapons of U.S. conquest in LatAm. Under the auspices of the U.S. "war on drugs" in Colombia, for instance, thousands of trade unionists, teachers, community activists and peasant farmers have been murdered and FIVE MILLION peasant farmers have been brutally displaced from their lands. These horrors favor the wealthy and the corrupt, but, most of all, they favor U.S. transglobal corporations.
Paraguay's fascists support U.S. militarism and corporatism and believe in rule by the wealthy elite. They are extremely corrupt and entrenched. Lugo is ill (he has lymphoma, but I don't know which kind, whether fatal or not). This probably weakened his ability to hold his coalition together and to fight off these entrenched forces and their dastardly coup. Cheap, cowardly thugs, is my opinion of them--generally the only kind of leaders that the U.S. approves of and allies with in LatAm. They couldn't face the people with their behavior. They had to sneak around with midnight actions, just like their compadres in Honduras. But I don't think they are going to get away with it in South America.
One other caution as to the Corporate "news": U.S. fascists (John McCain, Jim DeMint (SC-Diebold), John "death squad" Negroponte, Otto Reich, the Miami Mafia and others) worked closely with the Honduran coupsters, to spring that coup on Obama only six months into his administration, and at least part of their motive was to embarrass and trap him, and to prevent implementation of his stated policy of "peace, respect and cooperation" in LatAm. THIS coup puts Obama into yet another dilemma. I don't know how sincere he was about that initial policy statement, but, to whatever extent he may have really meant it, he is now trapped again between the far right, here and there, and the requirements of democracy (which the U.S. allegedly supports). On the other side is the entire leftist democracy movement in South America and, possibly also, even centrist and rightwing governments that are sensitive on U.S. interference issues (almost all LatAm governments and peoples). Though the U.S. has become, on the whole, subtler in its interference in LatAm (probably due to Panetta CIA policy), this will be seen as yet another U.S. coup because that is what the U.S. has done in LatAm for half a century--supported, instigated fascist coups--whether Obama/Clinton/Panetta wanted it or not.
One way to tell if it is a U.S. coup is how the Corporate press reports on it. They seem to be buying the rightwing bullshit out of Paraguay (or is it out of a Washington DC P.R. firm again?). So that puts rightful suspicion on the U.S. BUT, who in the U.S. government or political establishment--which has many secret powers and players--is really behind it? Our "powers that be" are not unified on LatAm policy. I think Honduras demonstrated that pretty well. Is this ANOTHER effort to suborn Obama policy in LatAm? Beware. We live in a sort of Byzantium, you know--or should I say "Wonderland" (as in "Alice in Wonderland"
?--and things are not always what they seem and sometimes are the upside-down, inside-out opposite of what they seem.
Paraguay Seeks to Stop Itaipu Power Sales to Brazil -Report
June 26, 2012, 2:55 p.m. ET
SAO PAULO--The new Paraguayan director of Itaipu, the hydroelectric dam straddling the Brazil-Paraguay border, said the country wants to stop selling to Brazil the energy Paraguay doesn't use from the dam, Jornal da Energia reported Tuesday.
Franklin Rafael Boccia Romanach, who was chosen as the Paraguayan director of the dam operated by the two countries, said "no more to the sale of electric energy, even if it brings us money. We want total use of our energy in Paraguay, driving industry and jobs," according to the Jornal da Energia news service. Romanach was named by Federico Franco, who took over as Paraguayan president after the impeachment of Fernando Lugo.
Itaipu, the world's biggest hydroelectric dam with a generating capacity of 14,000 megawatts, produces about 17% of Brazil's power and 73% of Paraguay's electricity. The two countries each have rights to half of the energy produced at the dam, but Paraguay has historically consumed just 10% of power produced by Itaipu and sold the rest to Brazil, generating about $360 million of annual revenue from the sale.
An agreement between the two countries prohibits Paraguay from selling that power to a country other than Brazil.
Government-controlled utility Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras, or Eletrobras (EBR, ELET6.BR), controls the Brazilian part of the dam, and government officials choose the Brazilian directors of the dam. Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry didn't respond to a call from Dow Jones Newswires seeking comment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120626-711624.html
Images of the Itaipu dam, shared by Paraguay and Brazil, during low flow and high flow:
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Two images from the street after the coup:[center]
"Out Franco fascist" [/center]
