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Edited on Sat Nov-17-07 12:02 PM by Peace Patriot
government, so as to hoard all profit from Bolivia's gas, oil, mineral and other resources for themselves and their corporate predator pals, and deny any benefit of the country's resources to the millions of poor Bolivians whom these rich landowners and previous rightwing governments have driven off the land, into urban shantytowns. They don't want to live in the same country with the poor whom they have slaughtered, tortured and impoverished for decades and centuries. They don't want to share the wealth. They don't want to share power. And they are fundamentally flawed and cowardly people--like Bush--the spoiled spawn of the rich who think they are born to rule, but rely on violence and bullying to get their way. Bush and his ilk use the U.S. military, Blackwater and other mercenaries, and no doubt other operatives whom we can't even see, to torture and slaughter their way to gas reserves, and into countries where they have no right to be. The South American rotten elite call on their bully big brother to the north, for billions in military aid, weapons, weapons systems, high tech gear and other boondoggle items like helicopters and toxic pesticides--things they can't make, things they can't be bothered to pay for themselves--to torture and slaughter their poor countrymen, and to plot against democratic leaders in their own and neighbor countries.
One horrible impact of these spoiled rich people who must rely on others to maintain power is the moral and financial corruption that they encourage among people who don't belong to their class, and whom they undoubtedly despise--U.S. and local soldiers, mercenaries, drugs and weapons traffickers, thugs, spies, USAID/NED, CIA and other operatives, and even their little cadres of middle class supporters who "protest" on cue, and, in the case of Bush, their 'christian' fanatics. The horrible moral corruption that occurs, when people are required to lie, torture and kill, for advancement, permeates society, and creates tragic moral failure. I'm thinking of a 15 year old boy in Colombia who participated in torture and later confessed. His heart, his soul, were broken. But it is no less tragic when the person is 20 or 30 years old, or any age, and "authority" figures permit or require brutality towards others. Even seasoned soldiers and intelligence personnel, who have some standards of behavior, and loyalty to the law and to human decency, can be, and have been, corrupted by this fascist culture which is finally being ousted in South America, but has seized power in the U.S.
It is ugly beyond belief, and perhaps, if north Americans had paid more attention to events in Latin America over the last half century, they wouldn't be so stunned by the ascendance of this fascist culture here, in the Bush Junta (and in the lame response to it by the Democratic leaders, who are also privileged people, for whom the sufferings the poor, the helpless, the unpowerful, are a matter of little concern). It's BEEN active within our government for decades, but more as a cabal, than as official policy. And, as long as it was not official policy--and not part of a general corporate predator coup that has seized our government (the Bush Junta)--it was possible to combat it, to resist it, to expose it, as happened with the illegal war on Nicaragua and other horrors.
Well, open your eyes and look at naked greed. It ain't pretty. And it should be no surprise whatsoever that 'little dictator' Bush and his "ambassador" in Bolivia are conspiring with the local spoiled rich and their thugs, to topple a truly democratic government, and restore murderers and torturers to power.
The only question remaining for the north American majority is when are we going to join forces with the Latin American majority to remove this pestilence of fascism from power throughout the hemisphere?
We need a massive public education effort on this matter. That is happening, to some extent. One of the few values of the Bush Junta is the clarity that it inspires as to just who is ruling over us and how. These fascist activities and alliances are not new. But the Bushites and their corporate predator puppetmasters are so howlingly greedy, violent and openly immoral, and their "Big Lies" are so transparent, that our own citizens have become skeptical of everything they say, and are learning that they lie about EVERYTHING--whether Iraq or South America--and are committing nefarious deeds EVERYWHERE, not just in the Middle East.
That's one reason that the Corporate Rulers are going to revert to the 'Democrats' next year. Things have gotten way out of hand, and there is a leftist revolution boiling beneath the surface in THIS country. They've got to pull the fascist project back behind the curtain to some extent. They cannot control this country, if we get our dander up, the way they have controlled individual countries in Latin America ("divide and conquer"; install fascist rulers--thus, with smaller patches of fascist ground to defend, the local fascists can manage the transfer of wealth to the north, through the fingers of the local rich elite). The U.S. is just too big, and too multi-cultural, to be ruled by the fascist boot. They are ruling over us mostly by means of this "grand delusion" that we are still a democracy--by disempowerment and disenfranchisement--while slowly putting into place 'fascist boot' powers to deal with open rebellion if it occurs. But they would prefer to keep the repression here under the radar. An open revolt in the U.S. could get very messy, and they would probably, ultimately, lose everything, in a dismantling of the war machine and the corporate state. So they have to be careful, as long as there is something here to loot, and a military that can be used for corporate resource wars.
One of the most brilliant concepts of the Bolivarian Revolution in South America is regional cooperation, on both the political and financial fronts, to strengthen individual countries in their dealings with the U.S. and global corporate predators, and to evict these foreign entities from the region, if they will not respect the rights and sovereignty of local democratic government. As Evo Morales has said, "We want partners, not bosses."
This new notion of regional solidarity harks back to Simon Bolivar's dream of a "United States of South America." What a powerhouse South America can be--and is becoming--if they pull together. Thus we see financial and political alliances being forged among the core Bolivarian countries--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina--and between the Bolivarian countries and other leftist governments in the region (such as Venezuela and Brazil). Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador have the common problem of the rightwing elite being in cahoots with rightwing paramilitaries and other fascist forces (funded by U.S. tax dollars) in Colombia, with U.S. military presence for the "war on drugs" exacerbating this and other problems. Together they can work to tighten their borders against these paramilitaries, and their associated drugs and weapons trafficking (which is enhanced by the U.S. "war on drugs," not diminished by it). Individually, they are vulnerable to encroachment. Working cooperatively, they can stop rightwing operatives from crossing their borders, and causing trouble on their borders, often under cover of the "war on drugs." Rafael Correa, for instance, is not going to renew permission for the U.S. military base in Ecuador, where high tech equipment is no doubt being used to aid rightwing forces. This will help the OTHER Bolivarian democracies to better control their borders, and keep murderous paramilitaries out of the mix of U.S. destabilization plots.
And on the positive front, Venezuela has led the way, on financial independence, by freeing Argentina from ruinous World Bank/IMF debt, and organizing the Bank of the South, so that, when the U.S. squeezes and threatens a country like Bolivia, Bolivia has a LOCAL institution it can apply to for help.
And critical to the independence of all of these countries is local control of resources, such as oil, local control of the infrastructure to exploit them, and the creation of new, independent, cooperative infrastructure (such as pipelines). This is another point on which local rich elites--like the Santa Cruz fascists--are traitors to their own countries. They have been engaged in selling their country's sovereignty to Exxon-Mobile--and Bechtel! The common policy of Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, on local control of resources, helps each country to regain its sovereignty, and inspires other countries--even those with right, and center/right governments--to seek independence through cooperative action, and a common commitment to local control.
BECAUSE the Bolivarians are so strongly asserting this principle, a country like Mexico--with a rightwing government--can insist on Mexican control of U.S. "war on drugs" aid. It's ironic, for sure, because Calderon will no doubt use that aid to oppress the poor, but at least it's Mexican oppression, and can be remedied through political activism in Mexico--rather than having a distant and unaccountable power spraying toxic pesticides on peasant farmers, and torturing and killing union organizers and community leaders.
This is a very interesting twist to the Bolivarian Revolution. When Bush went down to visit Mexico, last spring, the rightwing President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, publicly lectured Bush on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, and mentioned Venezuela as an example! Bush got this lecture throughout his trip, from BOTH sides of the political spectrum.
Figure THAT out! The Bolivarians are empowering and emboldening all of Latin America, and the ultimate consequences of that can only be good--in short term benefits for local people (say "free trade" deals with more labor protections, in countries that are still doing such deals), and, long term, in more accountability and more democracy within countries that are still suffering rightwing elitist rule.
And the example of the Bolivarians--that democracy and social justice are possible--puts pressure on center-right, and also center-left, governments (Paraguay, Peru) to do more for their people, and to enact wiser policies (such as Paraguay joining the Bank of the South), lest they themselves get ousted by leftist (majorityist) social movements.
All of this is to say that Bolivia is not alone in its struggle with the U.S. embassy and its nefarious activities. The open, truth-telling mode of this struggle is notable. It is a new attitude in South America--"Don't fuck with us! We WILL call you on it!" It is a wonder to behold. And it's about time.
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