articles that are attempting, with Donald Rumsfeld, to slander vital new South American leaders like Hugo Chavez, and are trying to justify Bushite billion dollar U.S. taxpayer spending for military aid to Colombia - one of the few U.S.-dominated fascist regimes in South America - and expanding its civil war and turning it into Oil War II.
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.htmlAmnesty International report (Colombian government death squad activity against union organizers - 2005)
http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/26e626d7-a2c0-11dc-8d74-6f45f39984e5/amr230012007en.htmlGood discussion of Bushite/fascist activity in South America, and good links
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3148749 -------------------
There is, indeed, a vast, peaceful, democratic movement against U.S./global corporate predator control of South American economies - with leftist governments elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua (and likely this year, Paraguay), and edging into central America, with the election of the first progressive government of Guatemala, only a few weeks ago, and leftists losing by only a hair in Mexico (0.05%) last year. And the leaders of these governments - underpinned, as they are, by strong grass roots support and representing the majority - are both far-thinking and well-grounded in practical initiatives and strategy. And they are showing ever more signs of unity, of common purpose - in all spheres.
For instance, the recent Bush/CIA "dirty trick" caper to "divide and conquer" Venezuela and Argentina fell flat on its face, for its absurdity and utterly failed purpose. This was the "suitcase full of money" caper - a rich Miamian - dual-citizen of the U.S. and Venezuela - caught at the border of the two countries, coming into Argentina on a private plane with a suitcase full of $800,000 in U.S. currency. Argentinian customs confiscated the money, because they didn't know what it was for, and sent the CIA operative back to Miami - where he turns up as the "informer" in the Miami U.S. Attorney's ridiculous case against 4 patsies (3 Venezuelans and a Uruguayan), who are charged with failing to register with the Attorney General as "agents of a foreign government." The US Atty claims he has "tapes" implicating them in a effort to convince the "informer" to cover up the real source and purpose of the money, which he says was intended by the Venezuela government for the political campaign of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (--a Chavez ally, who won the presidential election in Argentina handily, a few weeks ago - and didn't need the money to do it).
Cristina Fernandez immediately blasted the Bush Junta for trying to play such a trick, and said that Argentina's alliance with Venezuela couldn't be more solid. And Venezuela's VP pointed out the obvious hole in the story. Chavez was flying to Argentina the next day for a state visit. If he wanted to convey cash to Fernandez, why didn't he put it on his own state plan, with diplomatic immunity - rather than send it on a private plane to be caught at the border?
This is the sort of shit - and far worse - that the Bush Junta has been up to, in South America - and South Americans are really, REALLY tired of it. I began noticing their rejection of it - and their impatience (and occasional humor) about it, a couple of years ago. When (U.S.-educated, leftist economist) Rafael Correa was running for president of Ecuador in 2006, he was asked his reaction to Hugo Chavez's then-current remark at the UN about Bush being "the devil." Correa's reply: "It's an insult to the devil." Correa was running about even in the polls to that point, against Ecuador's big banana magnate. I don't know if it's related, but his numbers soared after this remark, and he won the race with a 60% margin.
(Correa is a card. When he was asked about his plan to evict the U.S. military from its base in Ecuador, he said that he would be glad to permit a U.S. military base on Ecuadoran soil--when the U.S. permits Ecuador to have an Ecudoran military base in Miami!)
Similar remarks - serious or funny - have come from other South American leaders (Lula da Silva, prez of Brazil, Evo Morales, first indigenous prez of Bolivia, Nestor Kirchner, former prez of Argentina) - and there have been some statements even by some rightwing leaders, all to the point of asserting Latin American SELF-DETERMINATION. I was really struck by the mood of all Latin American leaders, when Bush visited selective countries in March 2006. The president of Mexico - a righwing corporatist - publicly lectured Bush on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, and used Venezuela as an example! (Bush got this public lecture elsewhere as well.)
What did these leaders know that I didn't know? - I wondered at the time. What the heck is going on here? Our corporate news monopolies, of course, didn't pick up on it. But I've since concluded that it must have the more recent of the Bush Junta plots against Hugo Chavez - the assassination plot that was uncovered among Uribe's close associates - the rightwing paramilitaries and cocaine traffickers in Colombia. Uribe, prez of Colombia - a country where rightwing death squads control the voting - is a corrupt winger who is the beneficiary of billions of dollars in Bushite - our taxpayer - money for military and other aid. The rightwing death squads are out of control in Colombia, and have murdered thousands of union organizers and others - on behalf of corporations like Chiquita, and to intimidate leftists (people who feel the poor should have a voice). Courageous prosecutors, judges and others have been investigating all this - and kicked over the plot against Chavez in the highest echelons of the Uribe government. It was totally hush-hush in our corporate press, but apparently well-known in Latin America.
This - and past nefarious Bush Junta activities (such as their support for the violent rightwing military coup attempt against Chavez in 2002) - have apparently pissed off - and worried - all Latin American leaders, and someone like Calderon (Mexico) can see the value in asserting sovereignty, and has been emboldened, for instance, to seek more Mexican control of Bushite "war on drugs" money to Mexico. It may not matter that much, to the rebellious poor in Mexico, WHO is oppressing them with police state tactics (the real purpose of "war on drugs" funding), but then again it puts those police activities just a bit closer to the people, for potential remedy. Also, this new concept of Latin American sovereignty, vis a via the U.S., might result in somewhat better use of local resources (i.e., Mexico's oil) for the benefit of local people, and better labor/environmental and economic deals re "free trade." I stress "somewhat." I doubt it will be much help to the poor, but could benefit some of the middle class. It is nevertheless a fascinating political development. Frankly, I was floored when I read what Calderon has said to Bush, in public.
The fact is that Venezuela's, and Chavez's, leadership in creating the Bank of the South - and other institutions and new initiatives for regional cooperation - represent a significant, historic break from U.S. domination, which can only be good for most Latin Americans. This IHT article explains why. Latin America has suffered extensive economic damage at the hands of the U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF. Contrary to the promises of the "free traders" (like Bill Clinton), of prosperity for all, countries like Argentina went under - suffered total economic meltdown - and others developed huge, poverty-stricken, landless populations, concentrated in urban shantytowns - as small peasant farmers were pushed off their land (from which they had fed their families and small local communities), and all helps to the poor - education, medical care, social services - and to small business - evaporated, as the draconian measures demanded as conditions for World Bank/IMF loans - including opening the country to vast global corporate predator profiteering from natural resources and cheap, unprotected labor forces - were imposed. This devastation was compounded by the fact that rich rightwing elites often just stole the money off the top - leaving the poor to pay the debt.
The rebellion against this economic warfare, by the U.S. and other first world countries, in collusion with local rightwing forces, against the poor majority, has been smart, practical and strategic. And Hugo Chavez and Venezuela have been the key to it. They have generated and promoted the key ideas, and, from their oil wealth, have provided big chunks of funding to get things started. A very important item in this rebellion - something this article just touches on - is that loans to countries be used for LOCAL development - both of infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities. I was astounded to learn, for instance, that Venezuela, with all its oil wealth, has to IMPORT machine parts for its oil industry. All those potential jobs are ELSEWHERE. And the culprit, in almost every case, throughout the continent, is rich, lazy, uncreative, selfish, egotistical, local fascist elites, who have neglected everything from basic manufacturing and food production to education for the poor, to build a better society. Typical of this rich minority is the rightwing opposition in Venezuela, which waits on Washington to provide it with multi-millions in political money - and a friendly hand in coup attempts - and even provides the ideas and organizing principles for coup plots and other efforts (through the USAID/NED and nefarious Washington operatives like Penn and Schoen (Hillary Clinton's PR people), as well as CIA and other budgets).
You look at photos of these people, with their Porsches and their Gucci bags, while tens of thousands of other Venezuelans have no shoes for their kids to wear to school - and, in many areas, before Chavez was elected - no schools - and the callousness that comes across is similar to the callousness in faces like those of George Bush and Dick Cheney. They even make Bush-like jokes at U.S. Embassy parties (where they had theater entertainment, portraying Chavez as a gorilla - on the night of the 2002 coup attempt). Sickening people - but then who are we to cast stones? Our fascists are far more lethal, and have long since stopped looking raw with greed for power. They look rather like Nazis at the end of the Nazis' ropes - cold, depraved, fangs dripping with blood, almost irredeemable (although I hate to say that about any human beings).
The viciousness of their attacks on Hugo Chavez, in particular - and the Bush/CIA-written texts we see in our corporate news monopolies - that Chavez is a "dictator," or a cocaine trafficker (Bush "drug czar," yesterday), or a money-launderer ("suitcase full of cash"), or a "terrorist" (because he got 2 hostages released from FARC) - would be laughable, if there wasn't such awful bloodshed and suffering that they are the intended preliminary to. (Rumsfeld wants war on South America.) Understanding the CONTEXT of their fury at Chavez - such as revealed by this brilliantly written IHT article, mostly about the Bank of the South - helps us "read between the lines" of our corporate press, and figure out what's really going on, when we see these corporate/CIA "memes" against Chavez. IMF loan sharking in South America has dropped from 80% to 1% of its portfolio since 2005. So it isn't just Rumsfeld, and Exxon-Mobile, and Occidental Petroleum, and the "war on drugs" boondoggle, that the South Americans are challenging, it's global corporate predators in the market for slave labor, and first world profiteering of every kind, which cannot proceed when people assert their sovereignty.
The vigorous new leftist democracies that are joining hands with each other in South America, and accomplishing this amazing change for the better, are inspiring, and should be studied by us poor saps up here in the north, as our country is turned into the biggest "banana republic" on earth. And I will say only one thing about how the South Americans are accomplishing their revolution: transparent elections. (U.S. voters, take note!)
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