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Edited on Tue Sep-18-07 04:26 PM by Peace Patriot
death squads that chainsaw union leaders and throw their body parts into mass graves, among other things) has felt obliged to distance himself from Bush plots against Chavez and the Bolivarians (leftist majorities who have won the presidencies in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina). I paid close attention to Bush's kneecapping visit to Latin America in March, and it appears to me that he is the one who got kneecapped--or at least strongly resisted on many fronts. For instance, Bush got publicly lectured by Latin American leaders, from Brazil to Mexico, on Latin American SOVEREIGNTY, and Fox's handpicked rightwing successor Felipe Calderon even mentioned Venezuela as an example! (I was amazed.) I think Latin Americans leaders, right and left, are aware of something that we got almost no news of here--a new Bush-backed plot to assassinate Chavez, that was hatched in Colombia among the rightwing paramilitaries that are now in such disrepute. (It was to have been launched just after the Venezuelan presidential election in Dec '06, with a false USAID/NED poll saying Chavez didn't win, to be followed by "riots" and another military coup attempt--a plot that the opposition candidate--to his credit--publicly disavowed.) The theme recurred again and again--to Bush's face: Latin American SOVEREIGNTY.
Calderon won the presidency of Mexico by a hairsbreadth--0.05%--in a disputed election. His opponent, Amlo, who, like the Bolivarians, is a strong and genuine advocate of social justice, almost won. Fox and Calderon, right at the moment of change of power, sent federal troops into Oaxaca to smash the six months old teachers' strike and peaceful community uprising. They came in on the side of the fascist governor, Ruiz (tied to death squads, like Uribe, who have kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of union leaders and other community activists, and openly shot and killed a U.S. indy media photographer, with the photographer catching his killers--identified Ruiz paramilitaries--on video as he died), and cs-gassed the town. So they (Fox, Calderon) are fascist shit-heads themselves, with pro-global corporate predator policies that are responsible for most Mexicans being poor to dirt poor, and migrating here for jobs. Any distancing from Bush, or pro-Chavez utterances, are likely purely cosmetic, with the left breathing down their necks. But still they are interesting, as gages of the democratic, social justice tsunami that is sweeping Latin America.
Latin American countries that have elected leftist (majorityist) governments: Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Nicaragua. Other countries likely to go leftist soon: Paraguay (Fernando Lugo, the "bishop of the poor," way ahead in the polls); troubled Guatemala (leftist in the lead, but there have been 40 campaign related deaths, mostly leftist candidates, family members or campaign workers, and people may be too scared to vote and to monitor the polls), and in the next election cycle (two years away) Peru (leftist made a strong showing, recently; corrupt "free tradist" in power now; great unrest).
Bush and Murder, Inc., has tried every bullying and dirty trick tactic imaginable to stop this leftist movement, from outright coup attempts (Venezuela 2002, peacefully defeated by the Venezuelan people), to pouring USAID/NED (our taxpayer) money into the rightwing opposition in Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, to pouring billions of dollars in military aid into Colombia for the development of death squads and the drug trade (for destabilization of the Andes democracies), to ordering South American leaders to "isolate" Chavez and Venezuela (which they all, right and left, refused to do), to strongarming Chile to abstain on the vote for Venezuelan membership on the UN Security Council (Venezuela lost the vote, but then the OAS voted Venezuela onto the OAS Human Rights Commission--'fuck you, Bush,' in other words), to "divide and conquer" tactics in South American trade groups (Uruguay gave Bush the finger on that one). And that ain't the half of it.
But one particular Bolivarian idea seems to be catching fire among all leaders, left and right: Latin American SELF-DETERMINATION. Chavez has even managed to become friends with Uribe, and I think this is how--an appeal to Latin American pride ('hey, amigo, why let the gringos control everything?'). In the countries with leftist governments, and strong democracies, this notion is manifesting in economic policy aimed at social justice, in local national control over resources (oil, gas, minerals, forests, fresh water, etc.) and use of revenues from those resources for social improvement (schools, medical clinics, help to the poor, low cost housing, etc.), in constitutional reform (to bust up entrenched and corrupt rightwing power, and spread power to more people), and in major long term structural change (evicting the World Bank/IMF, and creating a South American "Common Market" and common currency).
In the minority of Latin American countries that still have rightwing governments, it is manifesting in the governments' recognition of the benefits of regional cooperation (such as Paraguay joining the Bank of the South--a Venezuelan project), in exposure of rightwing paramilitary and Bushite plotting (--by courageous prosecutors, judges and human rights activists, in Colombia), and new and quite interesting resistance to U.S. interference in Latin American affairs, even among some leaders and elements on the right.
When Latin Americans hear a top-notch, world-class orchestra made up of STREET CHILDREN, from Venezuela's classical music school for the poor--initially a private project, but now receiving subsidies from the Chavez government and expanding--most Latin Americans must surely be deeply touched by the potential talent, creativity and social progress that has been so grievously stifled by vast poverty, greed and U.S. corporate ripoffs of these countries. This is what the Bolivarian revolution is all about, and why it is turning the tide in Latin America. It is genuine. And it is indigenous to Latin America. It is theirs. It is uniquely Latin American--a creative mix of democracy, socialism and enterprise, with an underpinning of Catholic "liberation theology"--and is unlike anything else (say, the Russian-model communism in Cuba). And the Bushites and their Democratic colluders (the DLC), and Exxon-Mobile, and Bechtel, and the World Bank, and the murderous U.S. 'war on drugs,' and "free trade" sweatshops and exploitation, cannot offer anything to be proud of--even to the rich. Corporate monoculture--imitating every ugly imported trend--and U.S. domination must ultimately disgust even the rich elites who profit from it. It is empty. It is soulless. It is ruinous and unjust. And it is, and always has been, a destructive imposition on Latin American culture.
You look at photographs of the rightwing elite in Venezuela--which has been so foolish and stupid in so many ways--and you see these heavily made-up women with their Gucci bags, and all these well-dressed, well-fed people, protesting a government that is committed to social justice, and that has done them no material harm, and you just pity them. Their pride in their riches, and in their whiter European skin, and their notions that they were born to rule, are so pathetic. They are imitation Bushites. That is nothing to be proud of. And it is no wonder they have failed, in highly monitored, transparent elections. They have nothing to offer, but a Bushite society in which street children go hungry, and are forced into crime, and end up in jail. The Bolivarian alternative is to train them to become world-renowned classical music conductors. What's to choose?
And I think that this elusive quality of the Bolivarian revolution is why even rightwing leaders like Calderon and Uribe are defending Chavez, beyond what their cynical, self-serving motives might be (given the heavy leftist pressure they must be feeling, on all fronts). It is home-grown, like the original Bolivarian revolution against Spain and Portugal. And it represents a deep Latin American desire for independence from the giant squid to the north, even among some elements on the right.
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