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the more serious and profound revolution that is occurring in the rest of the continent, led by Venezuela and the Bolivarians, who really are committed to social justice, with quite radical leftists (majorityists) getting elected, by big majorities, in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina. Uruguay and Brazil are also to the left of Chile. So is Nicaragua. And Paraguay will be soon (with the election this year of Fernando Lugo, the "bishop of the poor").
Chavez and the Bolivarians have touched something deep in South American culture--the desire for self-determination, after all these decades and centuries of often U.S.-instigated brutal oppression and U.S. corporate domination. It was absolutely fascinating what greeted Bush on his spring "tour" of Latin America. In country after country, from Brazil to Mexico, he was told to his face, in public, to butt out of Latin American affairs. Even the rightwing president of Mexico felt obliged to lecture Bush on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, and even mentioned Venezuela in this context. (I think the Latin American leaders know something we don't know, which is that the Bushites, from their launching pad in Colombia, were once again plotting to overthrow Chavez after the last Venezuelan election (Dec '06) which Chavez won with 63% of the vote. There are several bits of evidence that have come my way that strongly point to that, not the least of which is the lectures Bush received up and down the continent, about U.S. interference. Even Uribe in Colombia apparently refused to participate in plots against Chavez.
But back up a bit further to the knockdown dragout over Venezuela's seat on the UN Security Council. It was Venezuela's turn and the Bushites were frothing at the mouth about it, trying to prevent it. The leftists arm-wrestled the matter to a standstill. It wasn't going to be Venezuela. It wasn't going to be John Bolton's HORRIBLE choice (Guatemala). Panama was the compromise. And what happened during that fight was that Chile (Batchelet) ABSTAINED. Batchelet was later publicly criticized by her own ambassador to Venezuela (who got recalled because of it). Cuz it was the WRONG choice. Chile should have supported Venezuela--one leftist government to another. Condi Rice got involved and went down there and no doubt twisted Batchelet's arm. I remember thinking at the time, a) I wonder how Batchelet, who was tortured by Pinochet, feels about Ms. Guantanamo Bay, and b) I hoped that Batchelet, if she couldn't resist such pressure, drove a hard bargain and got something for her people--a kind of thin hope, based on sympathy for the victim.
Upshot: Chile has been playing games. So has Brazil, but Batchelet is not as good at it as Lula da Silva (it appears to me). And Lulu has also been a more heartful supporter of Chavez. In fact--just after Chavez's "devil" remark (Bush and the smell of sulfur) at the UN, a few weeks before the Venezuelan election in December (--a remark, by the way, that got laughs and applause at the UN and throughout Latin America, but was frowned upon by the Bush State Department and its black ops news teams, of course)--Lulu made a point of visiting Chavez, two weeks before the election, for a big splashy public event--the opening the new Orinoco Bridge between Brazil and Venezuela. Lulu didn't have to do that. He was showing solidarity with Chavez, obviously. And there was more to it than Bush being "el diablo." I am fairly sure it had to do with the Colombian plot. It has come out in a huge political scandal in Colombia, which has revealed death squad/drug trafficking of rightwing paramilitaries closely tied to the Uribe government--a government that is receiving billions of dollars in Bush/U.S. taxpayer largess for the phony "war on drugs." Even Uribe--and even the rightwing candidate running against Chavez in Venezuela--felt compelled to distance themselves from this plot. Rosales, Chavez's opponent, did so publicly.
So-o-o-o, Chavez and the Bolivarians and their goal of Latin American self-determination, and several actions toward that goal that South American countries have taken (for instance, creation of the Bank of the South, and regional trade groups, aiming at a South American "Common Market" and common currency), AND the Bushite plots AGAINST this movement, have created a huge political re-alignment in Latin America: If you are FOR "Latin America for Latin Americans," you are a Chavista, almost by definition (or at least you won't brook plots against him), and if you back the Bush Junta in their evil scheming against the Bolivarians, you are a dirtbag and nobody will invite you to state dinners.
And where has Batchelet positioned herself in this fight for Latin American sovereingty?: in the middle! You can't be a "centrist" on Latin American sovereignty. You are bucking the heroic, revolutionary culture of Simon Bolivar. Chile has always been somewhat, oh, Europeany--somewhat distant from the brown teeming masses of the continent. BUT, the same could be said of Uruguay (largely European population), and Uruguay's leftist government has made no such compromises. They don't like Bush. Period. And they told him to go jump in a lake when he came peddling "free trade."
I am not that familiar with internal Chilean politics, but if Batchelet's reaction to the Bush/Chavez fistfight is any indication, Batchelet and her government are far too "centrist" in the face of a leftist revolution that is sweeping the continent, and one can only presume that it is Bush/U.S. economic pressure that is behind it. Now is the time to finally crush the Pinochet faction in Chile--the traitorous, bullying, murderous rightwing fascists who are ever lurking in the shadows, and meeting with the Bolton's and Negroponte's and Rumsfeld's to plot the overthrow of democracy in South America. Now is the time to GO FOR IT, as to socialist democracy--to solidify already significant gains, and completely re-structure power to make the revolution irreversible. The political climate of the continent couldn't be more favorable. After Chile caved, and the U.S. succeeded in keeping Venezuela off the U.N. Security Council, the OAS then voted Venezuela ONTO the OAS Human Rights Commission, because they deserve to be there, and everybody knows it, and because the future of South America belongs to THE LEFT--not to the "center," not to the right (military dictatorships, torture, death squads). There IS no "center." (True in the U.S., also.) There is fascism and there is democracy. And in a democracy, the Left wins--because the working class, the poor, small business and altruistic professionals are the MAJORITY. The interests of the majority--fairness to the great mass of people--is the winner!
And if Batchelet and her socialist government don't realize this, they are going to be the losers. She is a child of the U.S. horror, decades ago, that saw the toppling of a previous socialist democracy--that of Allende--and installation of the evil Pinochet. She and her family suffered personal horrors at Pinochet's hands. History--and the courageous people of Chile--have given the socialists a second chance. Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarians have given them a second chance. Are they going to blow it again, this time by their own stupid collusion with Bushites and their global corporate predator puppetmasters?
The Chilean protesters are asking that question: Whose side are you on? And, so far, Batchelet's answer has not been the right one. "I am on the side of the people." Chavez answered this question the right way. So has Morales in Bolivia. So has Correa in Ecuador. So has Kirchner in Argentina. So has Vasquez in Uruguay. So has Lulu (essentially) in Brazil. So has Ortega in Nicaragua. And so have leftist candidates for president in Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Guatemala--who will eventually win. The future is on THE LEFT--with democracy, with social justice, with fairness, with the use of each country's resources for the benefit of the people who live there, with collective strength against U.S. capitalist predation, with workers' rights, with environmental protection, with the indigenous, with equitable taxation, with fair trade and with the heart and soul of Latin America: self-determination.
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