Reply #65: I haven't seen ANY "settling of accounts" mentality in the peaceful,

[Peace Patriot]

democratic revolution that is sweeping Latin America. In fact, I've found the absence of anger and divisive rhetoric on the part of the leftist (majorityist) movements remarkable. It seems to me to be a very positive, as well as inclusive, movement, and very forward-looking--to a time when these countries, by mobilizing ALL the resources of their societies, achieve regional political and economic strength, and self-determination. For instance, in Venezuela, they aren't taking anybody's jaguars away, or confiscating property. It's just that the people who drive jaguars and hold property are the minority, and their interests are not catered to, in a truly democratic country where most of the people are poor. The majority is creating a mixed economy with a strong element of social justice, with forward-looking goals--education, technical advancement, seeding enterprise among the poor with small business loans and grants, widespread availability of health care, free university education, promoting Venezuela arts (as opposed to corporate monoculture), and food self-sufficiency.

There is no anger in these policies--they are very constructive, and much needed for a healthy society and economy. Any decent government would be implementing many of them. It's a stretch to call these policies "leftist." But we in the U.S. has such a screwed up idea of the political spectrum that we hardly recognize decency and social responsibility any more.

Example: One of the needs of the poor in Venezuela is low-cost housing. The shanties that many people are forced to live in regularly slide off the hills of Caracas in heavy rains. Recently, the mayor of Caracas proposed confiscating two country clubs/golf courses in the city, to use the land for low cost housing. The Chavez government nixed this idea because the Venezuelan Constitution PROTECTS PRIVATE PROPERTY. This is no extremist government. It is a government of measured DECENCY and progressive goals.

And, in my research and readings, I see similar governments and policies in all the countries that now have what we call "leftist" governments (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Bolivia)--and in the countries with strong new "leftist" movements (Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua) (--virtually the entire continent of South America, and parts of Central America). What we are looking at is simply MAJORITY government, transparent elections, and democracy (--with majority rule denied in only two cases--Mexico and Peru--but with strong democracy movements in progress there, which will eventually succeed). We are not looking at a race war--nor even at "racial tensions" that I have been able to discern. To call this a "settling of accounts" is to stir up trouble where there doesn't seem to be any.

The protest in Oaxaca is a good example. It is largely an indigenous-led protest, and ALL the violence (including at least a dozen murders) has been perpetrated by the fascist governor and his thugs (and, recently, by the Fox/Calderon federal army), with NO retaliation by the protesters. They are not "angry" and violent--the connotations of the phrase "settling of accounts." They have harmed no one. They took over the state capitol and established an alternative government in an entirely peaceful and orderly way, and maintained their own peacefulness despite huge provocations. They are simply asking for justice. And they have to numbers to eventually get it (--but not without some struggle, obviously). (This is also apparent in the campaign of Lopez Obrador and the events in Mexico City--millions of people gathered in protest, with NO violence!)

Race is a visceral matter--an ugly sort of tribalism that seizes people who are angry, greedy, jealous and vengeful. I simply don't see this in the Latin American democracy movement. Brown-skinned people are naturally arising as community and national leaders as democracy and fair elections do their work of empowering the majority. It's not anti-white or anti-European. It's pro-democracy. And I have to say that only ONE of these elected leaders is 100% indigenous (Evo Morales in Bolivia). Hugo Chavez is mostly Spanish, with some indigenous and black heritage. And the other Latin American leaders are also mixed heritage, or mostly European. I've personally felt joy seeing brown faces at last representing largely brown populations. But it's not racism on my part. (I'm nearly 100% white northern European--with just a touch of American Indian.) It is DEMOCRACY that I am celebrating, not vengeance, and not any kind of "settling of accounts." And I've yet to see evidence that the inspiration of this movement is negative in this or other ways. On the contrary, it seems to be a liberation of the energies, talents and genius of Latin American society. As such, it cannot be decapitated (for instance by nefarious rightwing/Bushite assassination plots), nor stopped with other kinds of violence. It is unstoppable, rather like our civil rights movement in the 1960s. As Evo Morales has said, "The time of the people has come." And I'm sure he did not mean "settling of accounts." He meant the success of democracy at last.