Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)

[kpete]

Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)
By Nick Miroff



Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure?

At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional independence and self-determination. He's helped forge new trade partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that's sweeping the hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next.

Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? Venezuelan fireball Hugo Chavez? Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva? Bolivia's coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales?

¡Epa! It's George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary.

In the past five years, the swaggering Texan has inspired a leftward surge that is uniting Latin America and threatening to knock Che Guevara right off all those natty t-shirts.

more at:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=71996

[RufusEarl]

1. I find it surprising that only a few years ago,

most americans had no idea who the leaders of these countries were. But today most aware americans can name Hugo Chavez as the president of Venezuelan, that says volumes for these leaders and their populous politics.

[Peace Patriot]

2. And soon some other names will join Hugo Chavez's...

MICHELE BATCHELET, socialist, just elected the first woman president of Chile--suffered torture at the hands of the US-backed dictator Pinochet.

EVO MORALES, of course, the first indigenous Indian to be elected president of Bolivia--a country named after the great revolutionary hero and freer of the slaves, Simon Bolivar (whose name is invoked in the current Bolivarian Revolution). Morales campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck (sacred plant in the Andes), opposes the murderous US "war on drugs," and came to prominence with the grass roots rebellion against Bechel, which had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and jacked up the prices to the poor, and even tried to charge them for collecting rainwater! The Bolivians threw Bechtel out of their country and elected Evo.

OLLANTA HUMALA--soon to be the first indigenous president of neighboring Peru (ahead in the polls).

LULA DA SILVA ("Lulu"), former steelworker, president of Brazil, who led the third world revolt at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun.

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR (aka, "Amlo"), the leftist mayor of Mexico City, likely to be elected president of Mexico this year (ahead in the polls).

"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

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U.S. voters, take note: One of the keys to the peacefu, democratic, leftist revolution that is sweeping Latin America is TRANSPARENT elections.

Transparent elections = good government, of, by and for the people.

Non-transparent elections (i.e., Diebold, ES&S and other Bushite-controlled, electronic voting systems with "trade secret," proprietary programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls) = fascist junta.

It's a no-brainer.

:think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: :think: