Important election in Paraguay this Sunday--another Leftist set to win!

[Peace Patriot]

The Earth Times reports that leftist Fernando Lugo (known as "the bishop of the poor") is set to overturn 60 years of rightwing rule in Paraguay--the latest in a series of disasters for the Bush Junta in South America, that is, democracy actually working and the vast poor majority coming into its rightful power, at long last. Not good for global corporate predators.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/199442,preview-paraguay-gets-closer-to-historic-leadership-change.html

Lugo's victory will mean that Paraguay will now join Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, in the remarkable and historic social justice movement that has swept most South American elections over the last several years, and is now moving into Central America, with the election of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and Alvaro Colom in Guatemala, last year. Also noteworthy: the almost-win--lost by a hair (0.05%)--of leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador ('Amlo') in Mexico in 2006--that loss amidst serious allegations of election fraud. Latin America's election systems--especially South America's--have proved sturdy and transparent in most cases, the result of decades of work by local grass roots civics groups and social movements, the OAS, the Carter Center and EU election monitoring groups. There are international election monitors in Paraguay, but the very entrenched, corrupt Colorado Party (rightwing) could still pull off election fraud, possibly with Bushite help. It is a high stakes election for the Bush Junta.

The election in Paraguay (this Sunday, April 20) is important to U.S. progressives for many reasons. One of them is that it will help foil Bush Junta plans to cause major trouble in South America, this year, in a desperate effort to regain global corporate predator control of the Andes oil fields. Bushite targets: Venezuela and Ecuador, both members of OPEC--also, big oil finds recently in Argentina and Brazil; and Bolivia has some oil but mostly gas--all five with leftist (majorityist) governments. Major Bushite-instigated trouble is likely in Bolivia next month, as the preliminary for Oil War II: South America, and the election in Paraguay (adjacent to Bolivia) may tell us how that will go for the Bushites.

Paraguay--one of the poorest countries in South America--doesn't have oil, but it is strategically important to Bushite war plans. It is adjacent to the gas/oil-rich eastern provinces of Bolivia, where I believe the Bushites are funding, arming and organizing white separatist landowners who intend to declare their "independence" (likely this May) from the central government of Evo Morales--the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country) and an ally of Chavez/Venezuela, Correa/Ecuador and other leftist governments. The Bolivian separatists want to deny benefit of the gas/oil resources to the poor majority of the country. The Bushites' rumored purchase of 100,000 acres on South America's main aquifer, in Paraguay, near a U.S. air base (recently upgraded for jet landings), is very near to these separatist provinces in Bolivia. Together, the area could serve as a fascist enclave for creating major trouble in the region, and for launching paramilitary forces--and even U.S. military forces--against democratic governments. The goal would be destabilizing democratic (i.e., leftist) governments with economic and military warfare, and creating the opportunity to grab more resources.

This is a Donald Rumsfeld specialty, and guess what? Rumsfeld weighed in, four months ago, with a Washington Post op-ed in which he urges "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America. Does he mean the Bolivian white separatists? I believe he does. The Bushites don't have many "friends and allies" in South America, except for the fascist thugs running Colombia, the corrupt "free traders" in Peru, the corrupt, entrenched Paraguayan elite, and fascist cells here and there plotting coups within leftist countries, as in Bolivia. Bolivia is the least stable of the many leftist countries because of the white separatist movement. Rumsfeld doesn't mention it, but I think he is in the thick of it. It is one of the few opportunities for the Bushites to gain strategic ground. See

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

He mostly talks about Colombia and urges economic warfare against Venezuela and others ("tyrants like Chavez")--i.e., leaders who were actually elected and who represent the poor majority) via the Colombian "free trade" deal. Naturally he favors Colombia, where rightwing death squads with close ties to the government have slaughtered thousands of union leaders, small peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists. Recently, the Bushites used their puppet in Colombia (Alvaro Uribe) to try to instigate a U.S./Colombian war with Ecuador and Venezuela. That plan failed. (The evidence is that Chavez talked a highly provoked Ecuador into not retaliating in kind). Next potential hot spot (opportunity for war and chaos)? Bolivia, next door to Paraguay.

Paraguay, run by a rightwing government with close ties to a past dictator (Stroessner), has been Bushite-friendly until now. Leftist Fernando Lugo will likely win with about 35-40% of the vote in a multi-candidate race, in which the two other main candidates are rightwing--which means that he will not have a huge leftist mandate (such as the leftists in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina have received). Lugo has expressed admiration for the Bolivarians' social justice goals, but also paid a friendly visit to Washington and has tried to forge a middle ground between the two. Lugo once said, "Paraguay is neither left nor right--Paraguay is poor!" His election will nevertheless be momentous--for Paraguay and for the region--with important implications such as the utter failure of the U.S. "neo-liberal" policy in South America, closer ties between Paraguay and the other new left governments, and restrictions of Bushite/Rumsfeld war plans.

At issue, also, is agrofuel soy production (by the likes of Monsanto) which is driving thousands of peasant farmers (the best food producers) off the land (into urban squalor), as well as inflicting environmental devastation. Another issue--but more subsurface, as an issue, than it has been in Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries--is the corrupt, failed, murderous, environmentally devastating, Bush-U.S. "war on drugs"--a "war" that the Bushites have tried to join with the "war on terror." The Bushites claim that the Paraguay-Bolivia-Brazil corner is a hotbed of "terrorism." But, of course, it is the Bushites who are the terrorists (and also, very likely, the drug traffickers).

Over the last several years, the rightwing government of Paraguay has done a number of things that indicate that it is very pressured from the left, both within Paraguay and in the region. For instance, they joined the Bank of the South (a Chavez-inspired project to keep development loans in local/regional control--as opposed to U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF control). They also rescinded Paraguayan immunity to U.S. soldiers (--although I believe their non-extradition law is still in place--making it a potential haven for Bushite war criminals). But Lugo will bring much more dramatic change. He is a lifelong advocate of the poor. He was bishop of the poorest region of Paraguay. He resigned his bishopric to run for president and pull together the fractious leftist parties, into a coalition--and has been very successful at it. He is highly revered, incorruptible and strongly committed to reform.

It is also possible that Lugo has had something to do with the activism of the Catholic bishops in neighboring Bolivia, who are trying to mediate the dispute between the Morales government and the white separatists. These are all overwhelmingly Catholic countries, we must remember, where liberation theology (social justice theology) was born. We secularists in the north don't understand this culture very well--but suffice it to say that what we are seeing--in the election of all of these leftist governments--is the successful convergence of democratic principles, Catholic liberation theology and the reverence for Mother Earth of the indigenous religion. It is a powerful mix, and it is transforming the southern half of the hemisphere.

The Bushites have tried all manner of dirty tricks, economic warfare, psyops, disinformation, direct political interference, and a military buildup in fascist Colombia ($5.5 BILLION of our non-existent tax dollars) which was recently used for direct provocation against Ecuador--to destabilize and overthrow the leftist governments in the oil-rich Andes region. And it is my opinion that the Bushites are not finished. They mean to bring the Oil War home to this hemisphere, and they mean to do it soon, because they need Bush in the White House for the "swift" U.S. "action" in support of "friends and allies" needed to get the war started. Once the U.S. is committed, it will be very difficult for a Democratic president to extricate us--as in Iraq. The Bushites have colossally loused up U.S. relations with Latin America, and, of course, have put us on the wrong side at every turn. I'm fairly sure they mean to louse things up even more by initiating active military hostilities, if they can. The Paraguay election this week is something of a marker for how successful they might be. If they lose that strategic ground as an easy launching pad for instigating civil war in Bolivia, they may have to go to a Plan B--for instance, a long war of attrition--psyops, disinformation, political interference, economic warfare--such as they have had to settle for in Venezuela--to wear these democracies down, and eventually regain corporate control of the oil. Oil is their first priority. Agrofuels is probably their second. And slave labor their third. And in among those resource priorities is the imperative of not have examples of real democracy in our hemisphere, that might give us North Americans ideas.

-------------------

Recommended:

www.venezuelanalysis.com
www.BoRev.net
"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (available at YouTube, and www.axisoflogic.com)

[Peace Patriot]

1. Thanks to Joanne98 for alerting me to the Earth Times article! nt

[mdmc]

2. thanks for the links

[Peace Patriot]

8. You will enjoy www.BoRev.net. It's very funny (as well as informative). nt

[Mika]

3. Hoping for an expansion of the 'Axis of Good'.

Axis of Good

-

[Peace Patriot]

10. Yeah, me, too! It is, indeed, a thrill to be watching this historic transformation in

South America. Who would have thought, a few years ago, that South America would turn out to be the best expression of democracy, social justice and good government on the planet!?

Amazing.

If they steal it from Lugo, it will be very obvious--and it will not turn out well for the (rightwing) Colorado Party if they do. Lugo has been ahead in the polls from the moment he announced, long ago. He has never faltered--even with various predictions that one or the other candidate could hurt him, or that he would fail to hold his fractious left coalition together. But he has simply sailed on. His candidacy has an inevitability about it--riding the great leftist tsunami that has swept South America. I know that it hasn't been easy, and that a lot of sweat goes into such an historic candidacy; also, his early relations with the Vatican were a bit rocky (seems smoothed out now, though), and I also read of death threats. And he has to be worried about the venomous Bushites, as well as dislodging a 60-year entrenched power structure with a fascist history. But the man seems made for the task. That is probably why he quit his bishopric and ran for president--he was the only unifying figure in the country who could make this necessary change possible.

Paraguay has one of the worst rich/poor discrepancies in the world. This simply cannot continue in a country surrounded by bright new leftist democracies, where the poor majority is finally gaining political power and social justice is the goal. If Paraguay wants to be integrated with the other countries of the continent, and wants to benefit from their Common Market, the Bank of the South and other positive projects, it has to change. And if it doesn't, it will either turn out like Colombia with the poor taking up arms in rebellion, or just wither away as a dusty old fascist backwater, exploited by Monsanto and other predators, and excluded from the great South American economic and political recovery.

It has some other serious problems. Brazil is taking too much profit from Paraguay's hydroelectric plant. Brazil is the giant of the continent--in size, resources and population, and it is economically aggressive. Paraguay needs better advocates--and a president who has more kinship with a man like Lula da Silva, the former steelworker president of Brazil, and a leftist but not averse to Brazilian advantage in "free trade." Again, Lugo seems the man for the job--a very simpatico figure but also with deep ethical strength. (I mean, how can you say no to a bishop when he begs on the behalf of the poor? He has a built-in advantage in a Catholic region.)

But whatever happens on Sunday--a stolen election or some unpredictable, genuine reversal of Lugo's fortunes, or a disputed election--his candidacy, like that of Barack Obama here, has changed everything. It has activated the PEOPLE. That is the most important ingredient for change. And that is what happened everywhere else, prior to the historic elections of leaders like Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa and Evo Morales. The people created the change.

[femrap]

4. Thx....great info

S. America is really kicking some RichWhiteBoy butt!

[Judi Lynn]

5. So glad to see your comments. That Paraguay air base should be overseen by someone who's not likely

to leave an open invitation to use it for right-wing aggression in the region against other South American countries. It was easy to get Stroessner's permission to build it, since he was an old Nazi patron for ages, even allowing Josef Mengele complete shelter in his country after the Second World War. As long as that collossal air base continues to exist, a vast expanse of concrete right out in the middle of the jungle, it's a landing pad for as many troops as an aggressor would care to land in Paraguay, to launch incursions against the neighboring countries.

~snip~
Five hundred U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons, and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction. Neighboring countries and human rights organizations are concerned that the massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is potential real estate for the U.S. military.

While U.S. and Paraguayan officials vehemently deny ambitions to establish a U.S. military base at Mariscal Estigarribia, the ICC immunity agreement and U.S. counterterrorism training exercises have increased suspicions that the U.S. is building a stronghold in a region that is strategic to resource and military interests.

The Mariscal Estigarribia air base is within 124 miles of Bolivia and Argentina, and 200 miles from Brazil, near the Triple Frontier where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. Bolivia’s natural gas reserves are the second largest in South America, while the Triple Frontier region is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world’s largest fresh water sources. (See Story #20.)

Not surprisingly, U.S. rhetoric is building about terrorist threats in the triborder region. Dangl reports claims by Defense officials that Hezbollah and Hamas, radical Islamic groups from the Middle East, receive significant funding from the Triple Frontier, and that growing unrest in this region could leave a political "black hole" that would erode other democratic efforts. Dangl notes that in spite of frequent attempts to link terror networks to the triborder area, there is little evidence of a connection.

The base’s proximity to Bolivia may cause even more concern. Bolivia has a long history of popular protest against U.S. exploitation of its vast natural gas reserves. But the resulting election of leftist President Evo Morales, who on May 1, 2006 signed a decree nationalizing all of Bolivia’s gas reserves, has certainly intensified hostilities with the U.S.1

When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay in August of 2005, he told reporters that, "there certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways."

Update:

Paraguay is the fourth largest producer of soy in the world. As this industry expands, poor farmers are being forced off their lands. These farmers have organized protests, road blockades and land occupations against this displacement and have faced subsequent repression from military, police, and paramilitary forces.

Investigations by Servicio Paz y Justicia (Serpaj), a human rights group in Paraguay, report that the worst cases of repression against farmers took place in areas with the highest concentration of U.S. troops. This violence resulted in the deaths of forty-one farmers in three separate areas.

"The U.S. military is advising the Paraguayan police and military about how to deal with these farmer groups," Orlando Castillo of Serpaj told me over the phone. He explained that U.S. troops monitor farmers to find information about union organizations and leaders, then tell Paraguayan officials how to proceed. "The numbers from our study show what this U.S. presence is doing," Castillo said.

The U.S. government maintains the military exercises in Paraguay are humanitarian efforts. However, the deputy speaker of the Paraguayan parliament, Alejandro Velazquez Ugarte, said that of the thirteen exercises going on in the country, only two are of a civilian nature.

This presence is an example of the U.S. government’s "counter-insurgency" effort in Latin America. Such meddling has a long, bloody history in the region. Currently, the justification is the threat of terrorism instead of communism. As Latin America shifts further away from Washington’s interests, such militarization is only likely to increase.

Throughout these recent military operations, the U.S. corporate media, as well as Paraguayan media, have ignored the story. Soccer, not dead farmers or plans for a coup, has been the focus of most headlines.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/431/1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fears mount as US opens new military installation in Paraguay

By Benjamin Dangl

10/05/05 "Excalibur" -- -- Controversy is raging in Paraguay, where the US military is conducting secretive operations. Five hundred US troops arrived in the country on Jul. 1, 2005 with planes, weapons and ammunition. Eyewitness reports prove that an airbase exists in Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay, which is 200 kilometres from its border with Bolivia and may be utilized by the US military. Officials in Paraguay claim the military operations are routine humanitarian efforts and deny that any plans are underway for a US base. Yet human rights groups in the area are deeply worried. White House officials are using rhetoric about terrorist threats in the tri-border region (where Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina meet) in order to build their case for military operations, which are in many ways reminiscent of the build up to the invasion of Iraq.

The tri-border area is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world's largest reserves of water. Near the Estigarribia airbase are Bolivia's natural gas reserves, the second largest in Latin America. Political analysts believe US operations in Paraguay are part of a preventative war to control these natural resources and suppress social uprisings in Bolivia.

Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel commented on the situation in Paraguay and warned, "Once the United States arrives, it takes a long time to leave. And that really frightens me."

The Estigarribia airbase was constructed in the 1980s for US technicians hired by the Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and is capable of housing 16,000 troops. A journalist writing for the Argentinian newspaper, Clarin, recently visited the base and reported it to be in perfect condition, capable of handling large military planes. It's oversized for the Paraguayan air force, which only has a handful of small aircrafts.

The base has an enormous radar system, huge hangars and an air traffic control tower. The airstrip itself is larger than the one at the international airport in Asuncion, the Paraguayan capital. Near the base is a military camp which has recently grown in size.

"Estigarribia is ideal because it is operable throughout the year ... I am sure that the US presence will increase," said Paraguayan defense analyst Horacio Galeano Perrone.

Denials and immunity
"The national government has not reached any agreement with the United States for the establishment of a US military base in Paraguay," states a communiqu� signed by Paraguayan foreign minister Leila Rachid. The US Embassy in Paraguay has also released statements officially denying plans to set up a military base in the country.
The Pentagon used this same language when describing its actions in Manta, Ecuador, now the home of an $80 million US military base. First, they said the facility was an archaic "dirt strip", which would be used for weather monitoring and would not permanently house US personnel. Days later, the Pentagon stated that Manta was to serve as a major military base tasked with a variety of security-related missions.
(snip)

In Paraguay, human rights and activist organizations have mobilized against the military activity. When Donald Rumsfeld visited the country in August, protesters greeted his entourage with chants such as, "Rumsfeld, you fascist, you are the terrorist!" as a military band welcomed him by playing the "Star Spangled Banner".

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2005/10/fears_mount_as.html

[Peace Patriot]

13. It's interesting how Rumsfeld projects his own crimes onto others...

"When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay in August of 2005, he told reporters that, 'there certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways.'"

Guess who has been involved in "the situation in Bolivia" in "unhelpful" ways?

Let's see. Cuba provides doctors to staff medical clinics in poor areas, free of charge. And Venezuela is helping Bolivia get out from under ruinous World Bank/IMF debt.

And what is Rumsfeld doing? Funding and arming the bloody-minded white separatists and their murderous militias with some of the billions stolen from our treasury in Iraq. Planning a civil war. Plotting how to get the country's resources out of the hands of the poor and into greedy clutches of global corporate predators.

He's right. Cuba and Venezuela are not being "helpful." They are giving the poor ideas about their basic human rights, about compassionate sharing, about how to solve problems. That is not "helpful" to Exxon Mobil, Bechtel and Monsanto et al.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Here's more on the Mariscal Estigarribia in Paraguay & Bush's likely intentions.

U.S. Military Moves in Paraguay Rattle Regional Relations
Sam Logan and Matthew Flynn | December 14, 2005

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc-online.org

On May 27, the Paraguayan National Congress signed an agreement with the United States that allows U.S. military personnel to train, work, and operate in different regions of the country for a period of 18 months. Within weeks the first U.S. troops began to arrive.

Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte said on August 30 that the U.S. government will never have a military base in Paraguay. But a visit by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to the South American country last August (16-18) and Paraguay's decision to grant legal immunity to U.S. personnel on its soil have stirred the fears of its neighbors that a longer term U.S. military operation may be imminent. For now, the U.S. military plans to send some 400 U.S. troops there before the end of next year.

Lieutenant-Commander Alvin Plexico, speaking for the Pentagon, claims that U.S. operations in Paraguay are only temporary and restricted to training activities and humanitarian missions. The purpose of the U.S. presence in Paraguay is “to strengthen the U.S.-Paraguay military-to-military relationship and improve joint training,” Plexico told the Council for Hemispheric Affairs, adding that, “ are not a response to real world events.”

There will be no more than 10-20 U.S. military personnel in the South American country at a time and they will not stay for more than a few weeks, Jose Ruiz, a public affairs officer with U.S. Southern Command, told the IRC Americas Program. While far from the 20,000 U.S. soldiers local papers had reported, many believe the new accord to be the groundwork for further U.S. penetration into South America.

Both U.S. and Paraguayan officials are emphatic in saying that there is no permanent base in the works, yet the construction of an airstrip in the northern region of the country suggests at the very least the possibility of a tighter military relationship. The airstrip at Mariscal Estigarribia, located close to the borders of Bolivia and Brazil, is 3,800 meters long and 80 meters wide—large enough to handle large transport aircraft and bigger than the national airport in Asuncion, the country's capital city. U.S. support for the construction since the 1980s had gone unnoticed until recently, but the immunity agreement and military training program have increased suspicions that the United States is building a stronghold in a region that is increasingly being defined as strategic to that country's interests.

New Operative Strategy for South America
Since before President George W. Bush's first administration, the Pentagon began shifting its strategy for operating U.S. military bases on foreign soil. Under Rumsfeld's direction, the Pentagon has pushed for a limited amount of large bases in exchange for numerous, smaller Cooperative Security Locations (CSLs), formerly called Forward Operating Locations.

These smaller military installations are referred to as “lily pads” for their capacity to permit leapfrogging from one location to another across the continent. This strategy reflects the Pentagon's increased reliance on advanced technology, such as the Patriot missile and unmanned surveillance aircraft, and its desire to relieve the strain global policing places on an all-volunteer military. Lightly staffed CSLs with often no more than a dozen permanent U.S. military personnel can maintain a discreet but potent U.S. presence over a much larger area, while minimizing political costs since the host nation formally retains control and ownership of the base on their land. http://americas.irc-online.org/am/2991

[Judi Lynn]

7. The Colorado Party's 61-year grip on power may be at an end

Liberation politics

Apr 17th 2008 | ASUNCIÓN
From The Economist print edition

The Colorado Party's 61-year grip on power may be at an end
EPA

IF THE poll numbers hold, the world's longest-ruling political party will be dismissed by Paraguay's voters on April 20th. The Colorado Party, which came to power two years before China's Communist Party, has governed for so long that Paraguay sometimes feels like a run-down country club that exists purely for the benefit of party members. Yet despite fielding a good candidate, the Colorados could well lose to a complete political novice.

Their main opponent is Fernando Lugo, a Catholic bishop who gave up his job preaching liberation theology to the poor in order to stand for office. In person, he is rather less charismatic than his story suggests. But since being chosen as the figurehead for a coalition of the biggest opposition parties, he has turned into a formidable candidate. Those close to him say he has struggled to switch from officiating at mass to talking confidently about fixing Paraguay. But he has cut his hair, had his teeth polished and embodies a fresh start—unlike his two main rivals.
(snip)

As the election draws closer, worries about fraud are increasing. Juan Carlos Cabezudo, a Patria Querida Party candidate for Congress, says his party has so far identified 25,000 people on the electoral register who are either dead, in jail, in the army or living abroad, and who therefore should be disqualified from voting. The electoral tribunal that oversees elections is dominated by the Colorado Party.

More:
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11060820

[Peace Patriot]

9. The Economist brings us the really important details--like he had his teeth polished!

What a shit rag they are!

"less than charismatic"

"his job preaching liberation theology to the poor"!

"being chosen as the figurehead."

They are as bad as ABC--and the Associated Pukes.

[Judi Lynn]

11. They are poisonous, aren't they? They've been less than objective with their Venezuela "news," as

well, from the early moments of Hugo Chavez's presidency. There are some HUGE British-owned latifundias still in Venezuela, and they are not well regarded when their huge tracts of idle land are needed for food production. They are super possessive of every square inch of British-owned land and not so willing to be bought out so the people themselves can be fed.

They all went around the bend when Venezuela required and bought some land from "Lord Spam."

From an article written in 2005:

Reforming the highly unequal ownership and control of farmland in Venezuela’s countryside is moving to the centre stage of the Bolivarian revolution in the country. In a country where 80% live in poverty, rural poverty is endemic. A census carried out following Chavez’s victory in the presidential elections in 1998 revealed that 60% of the land was owned by just 1% of the population.
(snip)

Two London-based publications — the Economist and the Financial Times — have run hysterical articles denouncing the new land reform offensive as a fundamental attack on the right to private property. The Economist headlined its article, “And now your ranch is ours”, while the editorial in the January 13 FT spoke of “what is likely to be a number of Zimbabwe-style expropriations of big estates”.

These papers are reflecting the outrage of the international agricultural elite, at a government denying them access to whatever land they want. One flash point, for example, is the landholdings of the British food company Vesty Group. Belonging to the family of Lord Vestey, this is a major meat and food multinational, which has been operating in South America for decades. It owns the El Charcote estate that produces 450,000 kilos of beef a year.

The Vestey Group claims that up to 80% of the El Charcote estate has been taken over by squatters: previously landless peasants who have moved in and started farming the land. The Vestey Group has insisted that the Venezuelan government take action against the squatters. However, the pro-Chavez governor for the state of Cojedes where the ranch is located, Jhonny Yanez, claims that the company does not have its papers in order and cannot prove it owns the land.

More:
http://lanr.blogspot.com/2005/01/venezuela-poor-reclaim-their-land.html

Here's a Wikipedia description of "latifundias:"

Today, latifundia are only found in Latin America and the term is often extended to describe the haciendas of colonial and post-colonial Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile (called latifundio or simply fundo) and Argentina. These originated under colonial law allowing forced labor recruitment and land grants for military services. In post-colonial times, ending the dominance of the latifundia system by implementing agrarian reforms became a popular goal of several governments in the region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latifundia

I learned disgust for these guys a long time ago. Really SNOTTY for a news piece, isn't it?

The polished teeth thing really had me stymied, too! Now how would they know that?

[alfredo]

12. So bush won't get to escape prosecution in Paraguay.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Fernando Lugo: the turbulent priest challenging a dynasty

April 18, 2008

Fernando Lugo: the turbulent priest challenging a dynasty

From The Times
April 18, 2008

Tom Hennigan in Asuncion

If opinion polls in Paraguay are correct, the 62-year reign of the world’s longest-serving ruling party will end on Sunday at the hands of a presidential novice.

The Asociación Nacional Republicana, known as the Colorados, has ruled this desperately poor and chronically corrupt country since 1946, through dictatorship and democracy. Now its freehold on power is threatened by a former Catholic bishop attempting to become president in his debut political campaign.

Fernando Lugo quit the Church in 2006, though Rome has refused his request for laicisation, and now leads an opposition alliance of 20 parties and political movements that have rallied to his candidacy.

Though his alliance’s programme includes plans to boost employment, clean up public life and implement land reform, his campaign essentially hangs on the promise of national renewal after decades of Colorado kleptocracy.

“These days a magical word is appearing in the north, south, east and west of Paraguay: cambio – change,” says the softly spoken 56-year-old politician, whose speeches still sound like the sermons he gave when bishop of the desperately poor region of San Pedro. “I believe the people are ready for a real change. I believe they are ready for a change not just in personal, parties, but a real structural change in Paraguay and its institutions,” he says.

Were he to win he would become the first opposition leader to come to power peacefully since Paraguay won independence from Spain in 1811.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3767932.ece

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

15. lol! Didn't the Bush Family just buy property in Paraguay right near Rev. Moonie's spread?

Maybe now Paraguay will have an extradition agreement with the US????

[warren pease]

16. And the whole damned Bush crime family, from top to bottom, isn't being impeached...

...and/or isn't under indictment for high treason, dismantling the Constitution and a growing list of war crimes because...?

The times cry out for courage and statesmanship and we get... Ms. Nancy and Mr. Reid.

They say we get the government we deserve, but honest to christ, I've never done anything in my life I would consider bad enough to merit two terms of BushCo, much less having to endure the death spiral of a democratic congress that was elected specifically to end the Iraq insanity and put a leash on these mad dogs so they can't continue to ruin the entire world.

And then they claim they promised no such thing, voters simply wanted a slight change -- nothing major -- and they have to support the troops by continuing to give even more money to the maniac who's trying to get them killed. And he just stuffs it all into the pockets of his favorite war profiteers and cronies and contemplates how much more money they could all scam out of the people if they could ever get around to nuking Iran.

What does it take to rid the planet of these vampires? Is it so damned difficult to call criminals criminals, and to treat them as such? It's not as though they're making a huge secret of it. And if it's impossible to lock them up long enough and far enough away to prevent them from poisoning everything they touch, what the hell good is the rule of law?

I realize it's a rigged game and that the Bushies have managed to transcend the law by either rewriting it, ignoring it, appointing judges who will ignore it for them, issuing illegal crap like signing statements, presidential directives and executive orders, indulging their pathologic lust for domestic snooping and obstructing justice as if it were the new national passtime.

Still, there are a lot of smart, skilled and dedicated people who've made it their life's work to get these bastards and lock them away in the darkest dungeon they can find. But they're not getting much assistance.

It would help if there were some political leadership on the subject of ridding the country of all things Bushean. The people seem pretty much OK with the idea. Unfortunately, congress doesn't seem to include more than a half dozen people who give a shit about the survival of the republic, and they're swamped by the sheer incompetence and conniving complicity of the DLC's very own hand-picked Vichy collaborationists, who sadly happen to hold leadership positions without actually possessing an ounce of leadership skills.

Are Americans so incredibly stupid that they're oblivious to this tidal wave of anti-Bushite revulsion? Or are they just so apathetic and alienated that they no longer believe in anything at all except the virtues of Coors Lite and a giant bag of Doritos?

Or have they just been bludgeoned by mass media for too many years, and been subjected to an overdose of meaningless celebrity worship and breathless reporting of screw-ups by D-List airheads, that they've finally had their brains turned into cottage cheese?

Somebody please tell me I'm not being unrealistic or that my expectations are set too high. What will ultimately cause the fall of the house of Bush? Since when is expecting that criminals will eventually pay for their crimes, or that, despite the current situation, the US is still subject to the rule of law just a silly, antiquated concept?

I'm not exactly Pollyanna, but I have certain things that I hold to be self-evident. One of them is the obvious, demonstrable and provable in a court of law that the Bush crime family -- including all the capos and the button men and the money managers, along with the world's worst son of a bitch himself, the capo de tutti capo, the cyborg vermin known as Cheney... that they're all guilty as hell of running a criminal enterprise so vast and so bloody that they make the Gambinos and the Gottis and all the rest of the legendary New York crime families look like pimps and muggers by comparison.

Other than that, they're reputed to be fine, god-fearing people, pillars of the community, devout church goers and, unfortunately, mad as hatters with the usual sociopathic traits common to mass murderers everywhere.


wp

[Peace Patriot]

17. Double lock--on the 'trade secret' voting machines and on the vermin news media

so that, we can say all this--what you just said--but it never gets a public airing (except on the internet to a limited readership)--and we literally can't do anything about it. We vote...and nothing happens. Same old heinous war goes on and on; same old fascist policies. The U.S. has gotten too big to have a pitchforks revolution in. What do we do?

Well, there's a lot we can and must do, but it will take time. Got to get rid of the rigged voting machines, first off. That will break the dam of reform. Then...use your imagination. There is so much that needs fixing.

Truly, most Americans agree with you. I know. I've followed the polls for a long time. And I had an instinct that this was true. Huge discrepancy between leaders and people, on all issues. Studying polls--issue polls, approval polls, corporate and independent (with the corporate polls showing a very rebellious American people back-paged, largely unreported and completely unreflected by corporate news/opinion)--has confirmed my view that the American people have been quite literally disenfranchised, and also kicked off our own public airwaves. We've suffered a fascist coup--but one that has been peculiarly designed just for us, in which the substance of democracy has been completely gutted, but the form and illusion of it has been maintained, although that illusion is wearing very thin, indeed.

People know. They just don't know what to DO about it. Most people. Some DO know. Election reformers, working hard at the state/local level (the only place we can get it done, cuz the officials are closer to home)--voting is the basis of our power, our sovereignty--we have to get it back under PUBLIC control--and, in my opinion, Obama's supporters, who are insisting on a candidate that is beholden to the people. Whether he will be or not is an open question. But that is what this greatly activated citizenry is demanding.

One other thing--the fascist coup that we have suffered has long roots back to the Reagan era, and includes many traitors to democracy in the Democratic Party leadership. Our problem is not just the Bushite criminals. Our problem is much deeper and more difficult to solve. Who we have actually been taken over by is a cabal of international corporate predators. We, the American people, are like free thinkers in the Middle Ages. How do you overturn the intellectual tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church which is everywhere, has talons in every institution, terrorizes all persons, great and not great, with the power to condemn you to Hell, has vast money, land, and power, and is always acquiring more, runs armies, runs inquisitions, burns "witches," has a special privileged status in every state, controls literacy, speaks its own special language which the illiterate common folks (most people) and even many illiterate royals don't understand, crowns kings--is "above"kings--is international in scope (with the seat of power inaccessible to most people), and even controls the content of the Bible (which, if people could read it, is pretty revolutionary).

It took a long time. The Global Corporate Predator Rulers are very like that Medieval Church. VERY like it. It's quite spooky, actually. We have to overturn a PARADIGM, to get our democracy back. It is not going to be easy, and it is not going to happen overnight. But, believe me, American Revolution II is boiling beneath the surface, and is already happening all over South America. That is exactly what is happening in South America: overthrow of the Corporate Paradigm. (That's why the Corporate Media lies about political developments in South America more even than they lie about Iraq.)

[warren pease]

20. Agreed on all points...

... and even in such exalted company, US mass media gets the lion's share of the blame. If they bother to cover news at all, they deal with it like high school treats history; an endless procession of people, dates and places, with absolutely no attempt to connect various events into some kind of cohesive pattern or supply some context.

So we get coverage of odd weather, but never a word about causation and global climate upheaval. We get mass slayings at schools and malls without any attempt to map this insanity back to issues like easy availability of guns, the role of the second amendment in all this, maybe a discussion on the psychology behind the free-floating rage and impulsive revenge that seem to be triggered these days by any of life's normal setbacks and insults, most of which used to be laughed off and forgotten in a minute or two

So of course we're not going to hear about an entire continent's seismic shift to the left. Nor are we ever going to see or read about Sibel Edmonds, except in media produced just about anywhere else in the world.

And we're apparently never going to hear a serious, issues-oriented question asked of presidential candidates at one of these faux debates, thus cheating the public out of hearing their positions and opinions on some pretty vital stuff. But by christ we're going to know everything possible about the Rev. Whosits and Hillary's crying jag and who's bitter today and, before media purged him from the public consciousness, Kucinich's opinion on UFOs or what he thinks of his wife's tongue stud.

Of all the institutions that have failed so miserably to fulfill their obligations to society -- and numerous examples abound -- the failure of American mass media to even attempt to act like the free press mandated in the Constitution is without doubt the most damaging betrayal of all and has produced the worst possible outcomes, the Bush administration being the most obvious example but hardly the only one.

They've screwed up everything they've touched, and then they have to gall to be proud of how they do their jobs. Never mind their mindless cheerleading for the Iraq invasion. Or their willingness to give Bushie's spokespeople, the whole list of serial liars from Ari to Ms. Fluffhead, a complete pass on their continuous and easily debunked distortions, spins, cover-ups, outright lies, democrat bashing and vicious character assassinations. The fact that the spokesdweebs have no credibility isn't really a problem; the fabled white house press corpse doesn't have any either, so they're made for each other.

And the press corpse returns to its coffins, pulls down the lids and settles in for another well-deserved rest, full of dreams of peaceful self-satisfaction, knowing they've done their jobs well because, come tomorrow's edition or newscast, nobody will have any idea what the hell actually went on anywhere in the world except in the white house briefing room.

Mission accomplished, fuckheads. And now, a word from our sponsors.


Thanks for this thread, btw. Lots of great information, distilled into bites that fit my limited brain. I used to be a Canadian immigrant in waiting, but these days South America is looking like the place to be. Plus, the older I get, the less I like freezing.

It's just about impossible to imagine living in a country whose leaders are actually on the side of the people. I'm so used to our kind of political "leadership," watching as our toadies and acolytes grovel for ever more corporate money.

Still, if democracy can actually survive and thrive in Latin America, I'd like to be there to see it.


wp

[Peace Patriot]

23. But the issue is POWER, warren pease. Our POWER resides in our VOTE.

So I place transparent vote counting FIRST on our priority list for restoring U.S. democracy. There is absolutely nothing we can do about the corporate media until we have restored our sovereign POWER and can begin to elected REAL representatives of the people who will REGULATE the media, bust up their monopolies, restore the Fairness Doctrine, reserve free time for real public debate, ban the filthy TV campaign ad system, etc. We can write, email, call, protest til we're blue in the face, and, just as with our so-called reps in Congress, the corporate news monopolies can shine us on, and have no reason to care what we think, because our sovereign power over them--our control over government policy--has been taken away, with rigged voting machines, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

It is a simple matter, really--practical, strategic, mechanistic--but it is the heart of the problem. Let me make an analogy. If you are a slave, and receive no salary for your work, and are owned by your employer, you have no rights, and, what is more, no self-confidence. You have nothing to bargain with. But if you have the status of a salaried worker, at the least you have your labor to bargain with. You can withhold it. You have SOME power. And, of course, if you organize, you can have considerable power--over salary, benefits, working conditions, etc. You have to get to step one--SOMETHING to bargain with.

We have been thrown back to before step one of democracy--counting all the votes. We don't even have counting of all the votes!

The highly insider riggable voting machines--run on code that we are not even permitted to review--is not the only thing that is wrong with our election system, of course--but it is the final blow; its is the absolute blockade to reform. We have proved that we can out-donate the Bushite money machine. The grass roots matched that money machine, dollar for dollar, in 2004--and now. We have also proved that word-of-mouth and the internet (our new "Committees of Correspondence") can overcome the corporate media propaganda. Back in Feb. '03, just before the invasion of Iraq, FIFTY-SIX PERCENT of the American people opposed the war. 56%! (NYT poll; other polls 54-55%). That is amazing in itself. Do you remember how intense the war propaganda was? People RESISTED it. 56% is a significant majority. It would be a landslide in a presidential election (and believe me, it was). And now it's SEVENTY PERCENT --an epochal, unprecedented anti-war majority.

But what we can't fight is the TRADE SECRET CODE in the voting machines--a system of invisible vote stealing that was fast-tracked all over the country during the 2002 to 2004 period, in order to foil that growing anti-war majority. The Anthrax Congress voted $3.9 billion for this NON-TRANSPARENT voting system in the same month--Oct. '02--as the Iraq War resolution! They are closely related. The IWR guaranteed unjust war; the "trade secret" vote counting provided the means to shove the unjust war down the throats of the American people, who were not buying it. And, of course, "trade secret" vote counting has other uses as well--for the rich and the corporate. They've had a field day getting everything they want from their hand-picked Congresses and their Diebold re-(s)elected President.

In Venezuela, they use electronic voting, but it is an OPEN SOURCE CODE system--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tallied--and they handcount a whopping FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. Know how much we handcount--in our TRADE SECRET CODE system? ZERO percent in many states; and a miserable, inadequate ONE PERCENT only in the best of states.

That is the crucial difference between having a democracy, and not having a democracy--transparent vote counting. That is the crucial difference between South America and the U.S. They've done the work to insure transparent elections, and we've let ours slip away, into RIGHTWING, PARTISAN corporate control with "trade secret" code.

Here are the lessons I've gleaned from studying the South American leftist revolution:

1. Transparent vote counting!
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.

And here are our problems, in priority order:

1. Non-transparent vote counting (prevents us from electing REAL representatives of the people).
2. Demoralization of the grass roots (but this is changing fast, with the Obama campaign; also Dean's 50-state strategy).
3. Fascist/corporate media control of the political dialogue (retards our communication with each other, as to thinking big).


I believe that that is the order in which our problem--the fascist coup we have suffered--has to be solved. The rigged voting machines have been the means of demoralizing the grass roots. (We vote, we raise money, we work our asses of--and nothing happens --no change.) The rigged voting machines have been the means of preventing us from reforming the news media, or anything else.

We can try to exert PRESSURE on the corporate media. But what we need is POWER. We have to FORCE them to reform, with our sovereign POWER as a people, expressed by VOTING.

Transparent vote counting and grass roots organization are the two "chicken and egg" items. Which comes first? Really, they have to proceed together. But WITH these two things, the corporate media becomes almost irrelevant. They have a TERRIBLE corporate media in South America--worse than our own, if you can imagine. And they have rendered it almost irrelevant. They really have.

In 2002, in Venezuela, the corporate media actually participated in the attempted righwing military coup (which kidnapped the president and threatened his life, and suspended the Constitution, the National Assembly, the courts and all civil rights). RCTV hosted the coup perpetrators, and broadcast lies and disinformation in support of the coup. Other stations also supported it. Word of mouth, community action, and grass roots organization triumphed over that "Iron Curtain" news. See "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"--the Irish filmmakers' documentary about those events.

Chavez denied renewal of RCTV's license to use the public airwaves in Venezuela, for their active participation in the coup (among other things)--the most well-deserved denial of many that routinely occur in countries around the world. (The disinformation about this in our corporate media has been...typical. They don't want us to be reminded that we, too, have the sovereign power to pull their licenses for failing to serve the common good.)

There are dissimilarities with our situation (we're a bigger country; we have less community solidarity), but the lesson is still pertinent: corporate media can be gotten around. They are not the problem; they are a symptom. The problem is that we don't have the power any more to elect presidents and other public servants who will act in the public interest. It started with infusions of big money into the political system, war profiteer lobbying and all the rest. But the final blow--the coup d'etat--has been "trade secret" vote counting, giving rightwing corporations secret power over our election results. And that is the dam that we must break, to let loose the floods of reform that the American people clearly want.

[warren pease]

24. Reply coming later. Actual thought is required here and I'm not used to that kind of effort. n/t

[bvar22]

18. OOPS! There goes the Bush Family Sanctuary for War Criminals!

I foresee Paraguay joining the International Criminal Court.

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/

Looks like the BFEE will have to go live in the UAE desert (Hell on Earth despite the money) to escape prosecution for War Crimes.
No more luscious tropical paradise compound for the Bush criminals.

:rofl:

VIVA Democracy!!!
I pray democracy spreads to El Norte!
The Mexican Right Wing got away with a theft in 2006.
That won't be happening again.

[Kurovski]

19. Hehehe...

Let us hope so.

Good one, bvar22, but "you are now dead to me!!" :D

[otherlander]

22. Wouldn't it be great

if the land * bought got "redistributed"?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Bwa-ha-ah, let's hope they sign an extradition treaty with the U.S.

so that the Bushies have nowhere to run. :evilgrin: