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"Washington Is Losing Its Grip on Latin America."
It's not so much that Washington is losing its grip, as that ordinary people in Latin America are GAINING a grip over their own affairs, through long hard work on their democracies, including--critically important--TRANSPARENT elections. (U.S. voters, take note!).
Also, it's not that Washington "is losing" its stranglehold (forget "grip"), it's that Washington HAS LOST its DEATH GRIP on Latin America. It's over. It's gone.
Washington = U.S.-based global corporate predators. Sad to say. That's what the U.S. of A. means now, throughout Latin America, and, indeed, throughout much of the world. It doesn't mean democracy. It doesn't mean hope. It doesn't mean human rights. It means global corporate predators plundering and marauding in our name. It means U.S. ag dumping powdered milk on Jamaica, to destroy the local dairy industry. It means corporate-owned radio and the importation of corporate mono-culture, in Venezuela, to kill off local music. It means onerous World Bank loans to kill social programs--education, medical care--in third world countries. It means slave labor. It means billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars funneled to death squads in Colombia and Guatemala, to kill leftists, and peasants, and union leaders. It means the U.S. Air Force slaughtering a hundred thousand innocent people in Iraq, in the initial bombing alone, and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld destroying their country. That is what the Bush Junta has in mind for Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina--because they are rich in resources that unbelievably greedy corporate CEOs' want to control and exploit. And that is what people throughout Latin America now know about us, and about our Corporate Rulers--that they will take what isn't theirs by force, and that we have no control over our rulers any more.
People in Latin America have long known things about our government that we don't know--or know only in bits and pieces. For instance, I recently learned that the fascist dictators in Guatemala in the '80s slaughtered TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND Mayan Indians, with Reagan's direct complicity. I knew some bad shit happened in Guatemala. I didn't know the scale of it. The scale of it--and Reagan's support of this horror--were revealed in a UN truth and reconciliation investigation, which I only recently came across. This story repeats itself, to one degree or another, in Nicaragua, in Argentina, in Chile, in El Salvador, in Venezuela, RECENTLY in MEXICO (in Oaxaca--hundreds of citizens in the democracy movement there kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed), and throughout Latin America. Most of it was under Reagan, but then it was followed by Clinton and "free trade." Decimation of the leftist (majorityist) movements, then gross exploitation, with "free trade" agreements that only benefit the rich.
Well, the Latin Americans have had it. They really have. And they've been working on majority rule for some time now. And it is happening. It is a tidal wave. It cannot be stopped. Yeah, Bush can get some more people tortured and killed. But it will be to no avail. What is happening in Latin America is the "miracle" of democracy. If we still had democracy here, our government would be approving of it, and helping it. But we have suffered first a Corporate coup, under Clinton, and now a fascist coup, under Bush, with the collusion of the Corporate Democrats. And so, we, the people of the United States of America, are represented by George Bush, killer extraordinaire, who is going down to Latin America, as "our" emissary, to hang out with, and lard billions of our taxpayer dollars upon, the worst of the worst of Latin American fascist thugs, bullies and murderers. It is a tragedy for us. But the new leftist (majorityist) leaders of Latin America--in elected governments in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua--know what to do with this desperate man, Bush. Some told him to get lost. (I think that's what happened re Chile--Condi didn't have much luck selling Mr. Guantanamo Bay to the new president of Chile, socialist Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet, and some of whose family members were tortured and killed by him; Bush is notably NOT visiting Chile). Some said, 'yeah, sure, we'll try to keep your entourage from getting pelted by millions of pieces of rotten fruit,' in exchange for a large check, not for military hardware, but for the poor.' (Brazil, for sure; possibly Uruguay.)
Then there are the huge leftist movements in Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala and Mexico--and something of a leftist movement even in Colombia. Bush is also notably NOT visiting Peru or Paraguay. In Peru, a leftist candidate came out of nowhere, in the last election, with no experience and no money--and, with endorsements by Evo Morales in Bolivia and Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, almost won the presidency. The leftist knocked the rightwing candidate entirely out of the race, leaving Bushites and Corporatists no choice but to back one of two leftists--the real one (Ollanta Humala), and the fake one (very, very corrupt) Alan Garcia (a Clintonite "free trader"). Garcia will wreck Peru's economy--in the way that Argentina's and others have been wrecked--then the real leftist will be back to pick up the pieces. In any case, despite having Bush's handpicked guy as president, Bush is not visiting Peru. It's very odd. And I can only think that Garcia cannot keep the rotten fruit from flying out of peasant baskets in Lima, and splashing those black SUV windows, in colorful comment on a Bush visit. Same in Paraguay--scene of much speculation about a Bush Cartel land purchase. In Paraguay, the very popular Catholic bishop, a strong advocate of the poor, has resigned his priestly office to run for president. Big leftist movement in Paraguay--and a weak rightwing government, that probably also could not guarantee a non-embarrassing visit by the most hated man on earth.
I can't imagine Bush safely (without lots of rotten fruit thrown) traveling through Mexico City. It is a leftist stronghold. And he dare not go anywhere in south Mexico--where Calderon's brutal suppression of the democracy movement in Oaxaca is well-known. At least, not without quite elaborate orchestration and security--and repression. Bush is a magnate for ill-feeling. It will be quite interesting to see where he goes in Mexico, and under what conditions. (Will it be like his visit to London, where the only safe place for Bush was in hiding in the Queen's palace?). In Guatemala and Colombia, there will likely be lots of security and repression. But it's interesting that huge scandals have just broken out in both countries, with dramatic revelations of thuggery, murder and drug trafficking, by the very people that Bush would be visiting in secret--the rightwing paramilitaries. This is not a particularly happy environment for a Bush visit. Some of the people he no doubt wants to conspire with are under arrest, or soon will be. His favorite fascist government--that of Pres. Uribe--is reeling from these scandals.
Anyway, my main point is this: It's not Hugo Chavez. He's just one guy--a visionary leader, who has done much to inspire the Latin America movement for self-determination (the Bolivarian revolution)--but is just one elected president among many, and just one person, among millions and millions of people who are creating democracy, and demanding new policies that benefit all citizens. Our war profiteering corporate news monopolies like to dwell on the colorful Mr. Chavez and his irrepressible defiance of the Bush Junta. But it's not Chavez who is the real Bush target. It's the people of Latin America--because they are awakening and taking hold of their own destiny, at long last. Washington (= global corporate predators) never did have a "grip" on them. It had a gun to their heads. And they are rising up, as one, and peacefully and collectively, removing it.
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