Reply #1: The stakes are high for the Bush Junta, which MUST retain some client states

[Peace Patriot]

in Latin America, as South America is swept by a leftist (majorityist) revolution, centered in the Andes democracies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina), but also including Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile (and Nicaragua to the north), with big, active leftist movements promising yet more victories for democracy and social justice in the future (in Peru and Mexico, and possibly Guatemala this year). Paraguay is a small, landlocked country, sandwiched between four leftist democracies (Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Brazil), with only one U.S. client state on its border (Peru). It thus could be a crossroads of healthy regional development of the kind contemplated by Mercosur (a South American "Common Market" and common currency) and the Bolivarians (the Bank of the South--which is evicting U.S.-dominated loan sharks, such as the World Bank/IMF, from the region). Clearly, the current center/right leadership of Paraguay is aware of these possibilities. To my surprise, they joined the Bank of the South--although they are so corrupt, I can't imagine they joined it to benefit the country's vast poor population. And if they steal the election, and put a fascist and murderer in charge (Lino Oviedo), they will certainly try to rip off the money and leave the poor to pay the debt (as with World Bank lending). The Bank of the South will have to be careful about such lending (and I'm sure they will be).

But to get back to the Bush Junta. They have much motive to interfere in Paraguay. They are not only short on client states in South America, they desperately need a base of operations from which to launch fascist ventures against the leftist democracies, particularly in the Andes. Client states are Latin American countries where U.S. global corporate predators can dump U.S. Ag and other products, can find cheap, unprotected labor, can operate freely as to killing union organizers, can continue to rip off the country's natural resources, and--importantly--can infuse U.S. military and police state money, and U.S. military (and mercenary) presence, at U.S. taxpayers' expense, for the phony, murderous "war on drugs." Countries like Colombia and Mexico are boondoggles for the U.S. military and police state industries. The military resources and money are then used to brutally suppress social justice movements, to entrench rightwing power, and to militarize and brutalize the entire society, with enhanced (NOT reduced) illicit drugs and weapons trading. The U.S. "war on drugs" is also an excuse for maintaining U.S. military bases in Latin America.

The Bolivarian countries are actively rejecting the U.S. "war on drugs," for all of these reasons. Ecuador is evicting its U.S. military base. Bolivian president, Evo Morales, made opposition to the U.S. "war on drugs" a major part of his platform. He campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck, in solidarity with the poor peasant farmers who are being oppressed and destroyed by "war on drugs" activities (including toxic pesticide spraying). Morales comes from such farmers. He WAS a peasant farmer and coca leaf grower himself, as were his parents, and rose to power as a union organizer of the small coca leaf farmers, who are also important producers of local food supplies. (He is also 100% indigenous--the first indigenous president of Bolivia; the coca leaf is the sacred plant of the Andes mountains--essential to survival in its frigid climate and high altitudes). Addressing the drug problem sensibly, cheaply, and humanely--and successfully--is NOT the U.S. policy. U.S. policy is to militarize, loot and kill, and enhance and profit from the trade in dangerous drugs like cocaine (different from chewing coca leaves). And its main victims are the poor.

So, with many countries beginning to reject this ruinous U.S. policy, the Bushites are anxious to hang onto client states (and drugs and weapons markets), and would have good reason, for instance, to bribe the judge who is permitting this fascist murderer (Oviedo) to run for president. They have reason to have operatives in the country to steal the election. They have used USAID/NED funds (our taxpayer dollars) to support the rightwing opposition to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and are, no doubt, using such funds (and black budget funds as well) in Bolivia, against Evo Morales, and in support of the big landowners (who want to split off the resource-rich (oil, gas) provinces from the central government), and throughout the region--to undermine, destabilize and overthrow democratic government. It follows that they would be doing the same thing in Paraguay--to prop up the extremely corrupt and decrepit Colorado Party regime, and to push it toward hard right fascism.

There was a rumor about a year ago that the Bush Cartel had purchased a huge swath of Paraguayan territory--200,000 acres, if I recall correctly--on a major aquifer, near a U.S. military airbase that the Bushites were upgrading with U.S. tax dollars. The rumor has not been verified--as far as I know--but it occurred to me at the time that this could be a rightwing paramilitary enclave where mercenary forces could be mustered in particular against Bolivia, perhaps in coordination with U.S. military, mercenary and local paramilitary forces operating in Peru and Colombia against Ecuador and Venezuela.

One certainly has to wonder what nefarious schemes Donald Rumsfeld is up to, these days, and how the Bush Cartel is going to continue its world domination game, if they are going to relinquish power over the U.S. military and the looted U.S. federal budget, to cooperative 'Democrats.' Re-conquest of South America could well be high on their agenda. I also suspect that major Bushite players remaining immune from prosecution and jail may be part of the bargain. The global corporate predators (oil corps, and those who require oil for global tanker traffic and products--the "free traders"--and myriad other predators, such as World Bank financiers) can't be happy with the Bush Junta's "loss" of South America, on top of the disastrous chaos in the Middle East. Re-gaining ground in South America may be a condition of their immunity.

Why would Bush undertake a kneecapping trip to Latin America--as he did last March--in the midst of a two-front war (Iraq, Afghanistan) and plans for a third front (Iran), not to mention political meltdown at home (a 25% approval rating)? It was weird. To appearances, it was not very successful, from a Bushite point of view. In fact--to appearances--it was a fiasco. But we don't know what its hidden purposes may have been--for instance, as to re-organizing the fascist forces to operate more successfully against a tidal wave of leftist victories. And Paraguay would be very important--and perhaps even central--to such a plan. The Bushites desperately NEED a fascist victory in South America, and desperately need to PREVENT another leftist one--such as the election of the very popular "bishop of the poor," Fernando Lugo, to the presidency of Paraguay.

Thus, two questions need to be asked, by U.S. taxpayers and by any real representatives that we may still have in the U.S. Congress: 1) Are Oviedo and his operatives receiving U.S. taxpayer money (through USAID/NED or other budgets)?, and 2) DID the Bush Cartel purchase this enclave in Paraguay (and how much U.S. taxpayer money have they spent on the nearby U.S. military air base)?

Long term, the leftist movement in South America will succeed. It is not only an overwhelmingly popular movement, it has some very shrewd leadership, who are taking the steps necessary for South American economic independence, regional cooperation, social justice and connection to the rest of the world. Colombia, Peru and Paraguay are isolated dinosaurs, who stand to lose, big time, if they continue as U.S. client states. It is likely that they, too, will eventually be transformed by the Bolivarian Revolution. But this doesn't mean that the the Bush Cartel--with a corporate-friendly 'Democrat' in the White House--can't cause a lot of grief and suffering in the meantime, in their efforts to destroy South American democracy, and to hang onto, and expand, their looting ground. They have been more successful in Central America, and the ravages of their "success" are plainly visible in countries like Guatemala and Mexico--major killing grounds in the drugs and weapons trades; vast poverty; vast injustice; stolen elections; and, in Guatemala, 50 political candidates, campaign workers or candidates' family members assassinated during this year's election alone, as the fascists try to hold onto power through bloodshed and chaos.

This is what Paraguay has in store for it, if the fascists succeed. And we can be sure that the Bushites are doing everything they can to make that happen.