Reply #2: This is an excellent example of a new phenomenon in Latin America--

[Peace Patriot]

most highly developed in South America--of the strong, cooperative use of economic agreements, and economic clout, for good political purposes.

The South Americans have been working on this very hard for a long time--starting with trade groups like Mercosur and ALBA, and culminating in the formation of UNASUR last year--the new South American "common market." As with the EU, there are political standards for membership. For instance, Paraguay had to rescind its non-extradition law, and its law immunizing the U.S. military, before joining one of these groups. (I think it was Mercosur.) The legal system has to meet certain standards, and has to be compatible with other legal systems.

But the biggest example, prior to this one, was the U.S. funded and organized white separatist coup in Bolivia in September '08. The white separatists wanted to secede from Bolivia, which is now headed by Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country). And these white separatists happen to be located in Bolvia's gas/oil-rich provinces. What they were trying to do was set up a fascist mini-state in control of Bolivia's main resources. They rioted; they took over an airport and wouldn't let the President's plane land; they beat up the indigenous; they murdered some 30 unarmed peasants. I don't know if it was a Bushwhack plot gone awry, or possibly mostly a test-run for other U.S. instigated civil wars (planned for Ecuador and Venezuela). In any case, the fascists in Bolivia disgraced themselves. And, in the middle of this crisis, UNASUR held a meeting--its first meeting since it was formed (in summer '08)--called by their first executive, Michele Batchelet of Chile, to address the crisis in Bolivia. The white separatists whined and cried that they had a right to attend this meeting. Batchelet said, "No, you don't. You are not a government." UNASUR voted unanimously to condemn the coup and took other measures to support Evo Morales, who had just thrown the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia for their collusion with the white separatists. But perhaps most important of all, Brazil and Argentina made it very clear that they would not recognize or trade with any coup government of part of Bolivia. And, as Brazil and Argentina are Bolivia's chief gas customers, and Bolivia is land-locked, the saner elements among coupsters realized that they had to change their tune and start cooperating on peace talks and constitutional compromise.

UNASUR furthermore decided to put its headquarters in La Paz, Bolivia! The country that UNASUR helped save, in its first act as an organization! Another outcome is that Batchelet negotiated Bolivian access to the Pacific with Morales, and Brazil, Venezuela and others pledged the funds to build a new highway from Brazil's Atlantic coast, all the way to the Pacific Ocean, through Bolivia, which will make Bolivia a major trade route.

Cooperation for good political purposes. It is not unprecedented in Latin America, but it has never been such a strong, and well-organized, force with so many governments on board whose goals are democracy and social justice. So many like minds. So many smart people. So many leaders--like Batchelet in Chile, Lulu in Brazil and Chavez in Venezuela--who have personally suffered from fascism and lawlessness.

These 10,000 automobiles, that are now going to be bought from Argentina instead of Colombia, may not turn back the U.S. war machine, but it's a start. This is the sort of collective power, and the sort of decision, that is capable of changing the dynamics of the situation--and possibly solving this even more serious crisis (the U.S. surrounding Venezuela's Caribbean coast oil reserves and facilities with seven new U.S. military bases in Colombia, the one the U.S. just preserved in Honduras and the U.S. 4th Fleet in the Caribbean). In any case, the tide is going in the right direction, toward sovereignty and social justice, instead of going the other way, toward U.S. client states and gross injustice.

Imagine economic decisions serving democracy and social justice! It can happen here, believe me, if it can happen in Latin America.