How the CIA murdered democracy in Chile (Yes, another Chavez thread)

[ConsAreLiars]

Those who participate in the attacks on Chavez, claiming to be guided only by some pure-hearted idealism, might want to take a look a how such honorable sentiments were used by the CIA to murder Allende and institute fascism in what, until the coup, had been a bastion of democracy in South America.

Declassified documents about how this was accomplished are collected at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB8/nsaebb8.htm

Read them, especially if you think that by joining in the attacks you are somehow serving the greater good. Of course, if by "the greater good" you mean US imperialism, then you will see no reason to question your alliance or to bother reading, but if by "the greater good" you mean for "we, the people," you may want to think a bit more about whether you being played.

I won't try to summarize. Most here know that history, but for those who doubt that the attacks on Chavez are essentially the same in terms of both methods and goals, maybe a little original source material will help. For an overview, if you need one, see the 1975 US Senate report on Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973: http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/chile/doc/covert.html

(edit to patch an accidental deletion)

[rudeboy666]

1. liberal ('socialist'! according to the Right!) democrat here

I'm for liberal social democracy.

Separation of powers, etc,.

I wish the Venezuelan people the best.

[scarletwoman]

2. Well put. Glad to be your 3rd rec. I wish more people understood the real stakes.

It's no different than Vietnam, either.

The central goal of U.S. policy-makers in Vietnam had nothing to do with freedom for the Vietnamese people, but instead was to make sure that an independent socialist course of development did not succeed. U.S. leaders invoked Cold War rhetoric about the threat of the communist monolith but really feared that a "virus" of independent development might infect the rest of Asia, perhaps even becoming a model for all the Third World.

To prevent the spread of the virus, we dropped 6.5 million tons of bombs and 400,000 tons of napalm on the people of Southeast Asia. Saturation bombing of civilian areas, counterterrorism programs and political assassination, routine killings of civilians and 11.2 million gallons of Agent Orange to destroy crops and ground cover -- all were part of the U.S. terror war in Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia.

From Robert Jensen's November 2000 article: "Even now, we lie to ourselves about Vietnam"

sw

[ConsAreLiars]

6. That article is well worth careful reading and thinking about.

Tells a lot.

On his way to Hanoi last week, when asked if he thought the United States owed the people of Vietnam an apology, 25 years after the end of the war, Clinton said, simply, "No, I don't.

In his last years on Earth, Martin Luther King Jr. understood this, as he began to speak out forcefully against the war: "If America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read `Vietnam,' " King said in 1967.

The only alternative to corporatism is some form of socialism (togetherism, collectivism, we-the-peopleism). How we get there will be different in every society, and declaring to others that there must be only one true path while we have taken only a few half steps on our own is as as arrogant as it is ignorant.

(edit trivial typo)

[scarletwoman]

13. Thank you. It's one of my favorite pieces, I've been posting it on DU for as long I've been here.

Glad you found it valuable.

The only alternative to corporatism is some form of socialism (togetherism, collectivism, we-the-peopleism). How we get there will be different in every society, and declaring to others that there must be only one true path while we have taken only a few half steps on our own is as as arrogant as it is ignorant.

Very well-said, I concur wholeheartedly.

Thank you for an excellent thread.

sw

[EFerrari]

3. Kick

I can't fucking believe this is still happening.

[L. Coyote]

20. Have we reverted to just shooting liberals again? Just outside the USA, right??

In my Amazon Basin village, uniformed US Army Rangers just loaded them on planes and threw them out over the jungle somewhere. Those rounded up were not on the planes when they landed! These are the memories the People of Latin America live with. Today, actions of interference are more covert (unless they get caught!) and U.S. liberal Presidential candidates may be less likely to be shot, but the same old dichotomy is at work, with corporate capitalism in search of valuable resources using government to extend its dominance over small countries.

Does this sound familiar? Just substitute oil for bananas:
From: http://www.chavezthefilm.com/html/backgrd/usa.htm

1912 - U.S. marines invade Nicaragua, beginning
an occupation that was to last almost continuously until 1933. In the
same year, President Taft declares: "The day is not far distant
when three Stars & Stripes at three equidistant points will mark
our territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal and
the third at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact
as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally."

[EFerrari]

21. Everyone I know in El Salvador knows someone who was killed

in the war. My friend the grocer was held as a suspected rebel for a year and endured torture. You can't throw a rock in my neighborhood without hitting one of theses stories.

[Cleita]

4. Thanks for putting up the truth here.

I was born and raised partly in Chile of an American father and Chilean mother. I and my family, who were living in the USA when this happened, were horrified that Allende had been assassinated and the government taken over by a military coup. My family were not fans of Allende but they recognized him as the legitimately elected President and knew if he didn't succeed he would be voted out of office as quickly as he was voted in. That's what democracy is about, not only here, but in Chile at that time as well. We were dumbfounded that the government of Chile, a very democratic country since it won it's independence from Spain, had been overthrown.

It didn't come out right away that the American government was behind it. Unfortunately, it's the same group of thugs in the USA who orchestrated the assassination of Allende who are trying to get rid of Chavez. The more Americans understand what is going on, the better off the future of our country and the world at large will be. We need to change our view of what role America has in this hemisphere. So far it's been divide, conquer, exploit and prop up puppet dictators friendly to our corporate interests in Latin America. That has to change.

Please anyone who follows the propaganda about his, read anything by Noam Choamsky. He has his finger on the pulse of what is really going on between the USA and Latin America. Neither Chavez, nor Morales are the bad guys here.

[EFerrari]

5. Sing it, Cleita!

I was disappointed to hear Professor James Petras, who broke the last CIA plot, say that Morales seems to be appeasing the white elites in his country. I had hoped for more from him. Maybe he doesn't have enough support.

[ConsAreLiars]

8. I have the impression that Morales

is trying something like Mandela in SA, trying to prevent retribution, and at the same time trying to prevent US imperialism from using internal divisions against the nation as a whole as as was done in Chile and is being attempted in Venezuela.

[EFerrari]

11. I have a great deal of respect for the progressive leaders in Latin America

because their balancing act is punishing.

Professor Petras wasn't trying to criticize Morales as far as I could tell. He was simply giving his evaluation.

I recently saw a speech by Bishop Tutu on reconciliation and that was as close to tears as I've been in a long time. This is a very long process, isn't it?

[Cleita]

10. I don't think he's appeasing as much as he's trying to bring

them in on the dialogue and frankly look after their safety. Bolivia has a history of violent revolutions and coups in the last century. There always has been a sharp divide between the ruling classes and the peasants. I think he's trying to avoid lamp post hanging parties that used to be a favorite activity of peasant revolutionaries everytime a government got overthrown. Then the elitists were killed and put on display hanging from lamp posts in the capital. Although, it's been fifty or so years since anything like this has happened, there is always the possibility of scores being settled by an now empowered underclass. I don't thing it would be the extremes of the last century but it could be nasty and would reflect badly on Morales's leadership.

[EFerrari]

12. I felt concerned because he was very definite

and he seemed to be saying that this was a losing strategy. He started describing something like a national reorganization with a "white" state and then, he lost me because I didn't know enough to follow him.

[Peace Patriot]

15. Morales has only been in office less than two years, I think.

Think Venezuela 1998, or 2000. Bolivia has only just begun the process of re-writing the Constitution. And he has a different set of problems (than Chavez), and is a different kind of leader, with very deep spiritual roots in the indigenous community (he is 100% indigenous). His background was in the labor movement--as leader of the small coca leaf growers' union! He is a charismatic leader, but in a very quiet way. His style is night and day from Chavez--although they have similar goals, and are friends and allies.

I'd say, give him time. He's just starting the trek up the mountain.

He's got a very bad rightwing cabal in Santa Cruz, who want to split the country up, so they can maintain control of oil, gas, mineral and other riches in the rural provinces. They are well-organized, have militias, and are probably funded, and organized, by the Bush Junta and its global corporate predator pals. They are armed and belligerent. Very tough problem, and he's only just begun to address it--and it is in addition to many other problems. One of them is that the legislature is contentious and hostile. As I understand it, Morales' party decided not to run candidates for the legislature, because they consider it to be a hopelessly corrupt institution. They have put all their energy and resources into getting Morales elected and re-writing the Constitution. So Morales has little support in the legislature (which hopefully will soon be gone). The Santa Cruz cabal is of course doing everything it can to sabotage the Constitutional re-write. One mad idea of theirs--to move the capitol to their province--has the smell of a USAID-NED/CIA destabilization strategy.

Anyway, Bolivia is way behind Venezuela on reform, in terms of timelines--started much later--and it is too soon to judge Morales' effectiveness. A lot of people dismissed Hugo Chavez at the beginning--distrusted him for him military background, etc. Or they didn't think much of him, and certainly didn't expect what they got--one of the most visionary leaders in South American history, and probably one of the greatest leaders. I think Morales will prove to be equally great, but in a much different way. I think he has a much stronger, and more stubborn, character than is evident in his kind manner. I see a thousand years of non-violent resistance, patience and persistence in his face. He is not easily defeated.

[Cleita]

24. Morales's manner is that of the indigenous people of Bolivia, very

calm, quiet and polite. It means nothing as to the resolve and determination that lies beneath the demeanor that makes up the man. He is simply emulating his people, who are also his electorate.

You can be sure that any faction that is controlling the country's oil and mineral wealth is being backed by the USA because American companies still control much of those assets and want to control what they don't have.

Being a coca farmer in Bolivia is a traditional occupation and doesn't come with the baggage it would here in the states. The plant is used by the indigenous people to cope with living in the altitude of the Andes, which they brew to make tea or chew.

One of my mother's maids always made me coca tea when I returned from school for vacation because I always got altitude sickness (11,000 feet) for the first few days. It was a local cure for it. So does this make be a doper? No! Nor does it make Morales one.

[Peace Patriot]

30. Very interesting issue in Bolivia and S. America--small coca leaf farmers vs.

the failed, corrupt, militaristic and neverending U.S. "war on drugs."

Vast U.S. funding of militarism, war and police state profiteers including U.S. chem corps, who provide the chems to spray toxics on small farms (which are also food farms), killing food crops, killing animals and damaging human DNA. It drives the small farmers off their land--and into urban squalor--and opens the land to the big drug lords and weapons traffickers, and to Monsanto, Chiquita, etc.

Very, very, very bad and corrupt scene. Its worst manifestation in Colombia. But it has affected many countries, and Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela now have policies against it. They are not cooperating--and Ecuador is going to throw the U.S. military base (used for drug surveillance, supposedly) out of the country. This may be a big reason that the Bushites hate these leaders so much--I'm fairly sure the Bush Cartel are drugs/weapons traffickers. They and their buds most certainly are war and police state profiteers.

I was startled to see photos of Evo Morales wearing a wreath of coca leaves around his neck during his presidential campaign. Wow, I thought, that guy is really putting it to the powers that be! It was very pointed. The U.S. 'war on drugs' is corrupt and wrong!

I also noticed the indigenous ceremony just before his official inauguration. 10,000 indigenous came down out of the mountains to invest him as their leader, in their own ceremony. The coca leaf is a sacred plant of these tribes, with thousands of years of history as a medicine for living in the Andes mountains (icy climate, thin air). It is Corporate Ruler values (greed, exploitation) that have turned it into a dangerous drug, and Corporate war profiteering that has turned it into a war.

The indigenous get the boot heel of this "war" (murder, torture, lost land). Bolivia's population is largely indigenous, with a tiny rich European elite that loves all those guns and corporate perks. The "war on drugs" is a form of class war.

[Cleita]

31. Without a doubt. You stated what is happening in an excellent

nutshell. I lived across the border from Bolivia in a copper mining camp in Chile. The miners and domestic workers were mostly the indigenous people of the area, the ones who could actually do a day's work in the altitude. We always called them Bolivians although they weren't. Most of them were born on the Chilean side. Some of our maids chewed coca. We got our potatoes, corn, eggs and chickens from the family farms that also grew coca.

Yes, the Bushies are part of an international drug and oil cartel run by criminal overlords throughout the world. If our country took a more enlightened policy in the "war on drugs" by decriminalizing it to begin with and coming up with some social and medical programs to attack the addiction problem and making it socially uncool like cigarettes, it would go a long way in lessening the demand for these refined drugs and in putting these criminals out of business.

[scarletwoman]

9. The U.S. is the enemy of the economic sovereignty of other nations all over the world.

The tactics may differ from country to country, but the overall goal is the same.

Thanks for your wonderful post, Cleita.

sw

[ConsAreLiars]

14. Thanks for adding that insight. For those who still don't know Chomsky

here is an archive of articles: http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm

This one might be especially helpful - South America: Toward an Alternative Future: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20070105.htm

[bananas]

17. k&r nt

[Evoman]

26. My father is Chilean and I was born in Argentina.

The reason he ran was because of the CIA coup. I lost (literally) family members and their close friends directly because of this bullshit.

Every time I see an anti-Chavez thread I want to fucking choke the poster. Not because I love Chavez (I don't). Not because I think he is some grand leader (there are way better examples). But because I'm sick of Americans sticking their fucking noses in the business of other countries, ESPECIALLY democratically elected ones. Fix the sick shit in your country before you start criticizing others. I'm evidence of what happens when you listen to the propoganda (and EVERYTHING I hear about South America in the MSM is bullshit propoganda)....my family has lost too much to listen to more of their bullshit.

[Cleita]

28. This is exactly what is going on. The only way to have

overthrown a democratically elected leader in Chile was to unelect him. I wasn't fond of the Soviet Russians moving in when Allende was elected, but if he didn't take care of the problem before the next election, he would have been voted out of office. End of story and democracy would have been preserved.

Now this country is trying to do the same to Venezuela. The people of Venezuela will rid themselves of Chavez if he proves to be what they say he is in due time. They don't need any "help" from any other sovereign nation. The only time the US should interfere is if it's an allied country, let's say Ecuador that is invaded by let's say Venezuela and they ASK for help, never before. Then also, they only have a right to expel the Venezuelans from Ecuador, no more.

Of course we know we don't do that. Hitler invaded Poland and Poland begged for help from the allies and that included us, but no one stepped up to repel Hitler's invasion. So all the hot air about keeping another tin pot dictator out of Venezuela is nothing more than hot air. The real reason is to get control of Venezuela's Oil and Gas (an OPEC nation) in American hands.

[malaise]

35. Couldn't say it better

I lost my favorite cousin. His Canadian wife did some of the research on the media that was mentioned in my other post on this thread.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. I remember thinking at the time

that the U.S. government officials used to brag that no people had ever freely elected a Communist government.

When the Chilean people actually did elect a Communist government, they gave the lie to one of the U.S. government's favorite talking points, and they could not go unpunished.

So instead of the mild-mannered Allende, who never even talked about dismantling Chile's democratic institutions, the Chilean people got 30 years of fascism under Pinochet.

[Cleita]

32. Exactly, But Americans always had a problem with Chilean

political tolerance. Back in the days when I lived there during the fifties, when our pols were looking under every bed for a communist aided and abetted by McCarthy, in Chile, communism was a legitimate party in a multi-party system. There was a Nazi Party too, called something else, but organized by ex-Nazis who had excaped from Germany after the war.

I remember once sitting at a dinner party with the communist labor union boss, a German engineer, who was unashamedly Nazi, and the American boss of the company who headed the industrial relations department, a redneck from Montana. The Montana company guy didn't speak Spanish so I had to translate. (This is typical of American arrogance of the times. Send a guy to mediate labor disputes that doesn't speak the language of the country.)

He was always amazed at how outspoken Chileans were about their politics and didn't mind mentioning that in the USA they would be locked up and the key thrown away. I too got a lesson in this when one time when I was in college and at a family dinner party here in the USA that I threw out that I didn't think communism was such a bad system. It was the Russian system under Stalin that sucked. My mother had to take me aside and I'll never forget what she said.

She said, "You can't say anything you want to about politics, like you do in Chile, here in the United States. You could get reported to the FBI."

It was then that I lost my innocence and started taking a good hard look at my country and exactly what liberties and freedoms we actually had as compared to the ones that were sold to us in civics classes.

[NuttyFluffers]

40. now that's a dinner party anecdote worth repeating...

i always remembered as a young child (edit: really more like a young teenager), filled with righteous indignation of social ills and openly in support of 60s protests, etc. my 'silent generation' parents took me aside and said something to the effect, "anti-war Vietnam protests were important, and we even participated in a few. but know this: JFK, RFK, MLK, etc. they all died for a reason and that is because they spoke too honestly and passionately about the truth believing we live in a free and honest society -- and that that message was resonating with the people. power hates that. as a child you're too young now to fight such battles. hide, don't make waves, the return of mccarthy is only a step away. stand up and protest for things only when you are sure the police are restrained and only be a leader when you are sure they don't have a sniper scope to your head." yeah, kinda made all that 'most free nation in the world' look like bullshit; i had to be just as afraid about my gov't as when i was a foreigner in Saudi Arabia, except we got less free amenities in USA. yay.

to be fair, we did get more television and magazines here in the USA. but even as a child i was more informed outside the USA than people who lived all their young lives in the USA. so i haven't really counted our media "choice" as some sort of freedom of information advantage. under religious police censors you could easily piece out what you were being deprived of seeing, it was an open secret. under corporate media you cannot tell whether the rise in the price of french fries is more important than reagan's 'morning in america' commercials...

[Cleita]

41. That is so true how uninformed Americans are who have never

been abroad. Back during the cold war, we weren't allowed anything Russian on our shores. Yet, back in South America I was seeing Russian movies all the time. My cousin, who was in England in the AF was able to buy magazines and periodicals from Soviet Russia that were printed in English. It seems like our freedom to keep informed about the enemy was taken away from us like we were children and too young to understand.

[Kurovski]

7. K&R. (nt)

[malaise]

16. Philip Agree exposed them here in Jamaica

I attended his forum. We are still paying for that mess.

Read this carefully

http://www.afflictedyard.com/fun_in_76.htm
<snip>
At the time when the Chilean coup occurred in September 1973, US officials-from the Secretary of State Henry Kissinger downwards-denied complicity , little realizing how soon their involvement would be revealed by Congressional investigation. In that respect, at least, it was the same in Jamaica. In June 1976 Kissinger himself was quoted as telling PNP Foreign Affairs minister Dudley Thompson that he was ‘not aware of any action by the US government designed to weaken the government of Prime Minister Manley'; in the same month Deputy Assistant Secretary of State William Luers categorically denied before a house of Representatives committee that ‘the US government is doing anything to undermine or destabilize government of Jamaica'; and the US ambassador to Jamaica , summer Gerard , pointedly told group of Kingston businessmen that ‘allegations of US destabilisation are scurrilous and false.'<2>

Such denials were predictable and were given publicity by the Jamaican government , which wanted to avoid , if possible , getting into the position of having to accuse the US administration directly. Yet it manifestly was not convinced. Its real view was expressed in an overseas interview given by the Minister of National Security , Keble Munn, in defence of the declaration of a state of emergency which was the government's response to the alleged destabilisation campaign. ‘We've got all kinds of assurances from the United States government that they are not involved in destabilisation', he said, ‘and we would like to be in a position to take them at face value.' But, he went on, ‘everyone knows what happened in Chile , although no one could prove who was behind it until afterwards , when Watergate came along.'<3>

After the PNP won the general election of December 1976 other concerns, notably the International Monetary Fund (IMF), came to the forefront of political debate in Jamaica, and less was heard openly of destabilisation. Yet the question did not go away, and was forcefully resurrected by Manley himself in a subsequent account of his period in office in which he argued ‘that Jamaica was destabilised, as we have defined the word.' <4> Although claiming that the campaign was pursued consistently between 1976 and 1980, his focus was on 1976 as the critical year. Indeed, in an appendix , a ‘destabilisation diary' for 1876 was provided , itemizing the events which in his view formed part of the campaign

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,904343,00.html
<snip>
The late Michael Manley, then the leftwing leader of the People's National Party, who served two terms as prime minister in the 1970s, was rudely awoken to the realities of international finance. "In Washington they just looked at us and said, 'No, no, no. Your inflation last year was 18% and we are not allowing you to lend to your farmers at 12%. You must charge 23%.'"

The IMF told Manley that he could get a short-term loan under their conditions but would not entertain any discussion about long-term solutions. At first the Manley government was defiant. Manley's espousal of "democratic socialism", his friendship with Fidel Castro and his activism in the Non-Aligned Movement did not endear him well to Washington. Jamaica's financial crisis was further deepened by CIA destabilisation, which was exposed by dissident CIA agent Philip Agee. In the end the Manley government had to go back to the IMF cap in hand for a loan and Jamaica has been swallowing the IMF medicine ever since.


http://www.awigp.com/default.asp?numcat=yardies
<snip>
CIA involvement in the arming of the JLP-linked gangs was revealed by the former agent Philip Agee. By the end of the 70s, JLP and PNP politicians bought gunmen as a means of sustaining political influence and handing out jobs and favours. After the 1980 election in Jamaica which brought the CIA stooge Edward Seaga to office, Jamaica became a sweatshop for American manufacturers, with Nike paying 20 cents an hour to handpicked cheap labour. Seaga turned the police and army onto the gun gangs whose expansion he'd overseen. By the mid 80s, the Americas Watch human rights monitoring group estimated that one third of the island's homicides were committed by the police. The gangs moved to New York and Miami, and many of them became street soldiers for the Cali cartel.

http://jya.com/agee-kgb.htm

[Cleita]

33. Thanks for the informative post.

Yep, we have dirty dealings caca all over our shining country's foreign policy.

[Octafish]

18. Justice and Memory: Gen. Carlos Prats Gonzalez and Sofia Cuthbert

Gen. Prats was loyal to his nation's Constitution.

The Carlos Prats Case: An Historic Trial

Hernan Quezada C.
Prosecuting Attorney

EXCERPT...

a) The facts

On Monday, September 30, 1974, at approximately 0,50 horas, 12:30 AM in the city of Buenos Aires, Chile's former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, also former Vice President of the Republic, General Carlos Prats Gonzalez and his wife Sofia Cuthbert died from the explosion of a bomb planted under the floor of their car, between the two front seats and over the accelerator when they were arriving at their home. The scorched remains of the car and the victims' bodies were scattered over a radius of 50 meters just as they were returning to their residence. The bomb exploded after General Prats got out to open the garage door and just as he returned to the car, where his wife Sofía Cuthbert waited inside.

General Carlos Prats fled Chile September 15 1973, just a few days after the coup, to save his life from the menace of military officials who had seized power. His wife later joined him in Argentina.

According to the expert report prepared by Argentine Federal Police on November 6, 1974, General Prats' car was completely and irreparably damaged, having burned up after the explosion. Windows shattered in the building and adjacent homes and the garage door in front of the parked car was blown off.

Autopsy reports indicate that General Prats died from trauma, multiple viceral-vascular injuries, and internal and external hemorraging. His wife Sofia Cuthbert died as the consequence of the multiple bone-organ-vascular destruction internal hemoraging.

CONTINUED...

http://www.memoriayjusticia.cl/english/en_focus-carlosprats.htm

Is this what awaits honest leaders in Bush's version of the United States of America?

[marmar]

19. No doubt the U.S. and the Multinationals are trying to "Allende" Chavez ....

... A government that places its citizens above corporations? Now we can't have that, can we?

[Cleita]

25. It's not so much the type of government that they may be

bringing but the fact that they have been democratically and honestly elected by the people of their country and that they bring the reform that the people want. I'm personally not that fond of the idea that these countries might become completely communist like Cuba, however, it's up to the people of those countries to democratically vote them out of office if they don't like the job they are doing. That's how it should have worked in Chile if our State Department hadn't gone about meddling in its affairs.

I wish we had these democratic principles working in our country, a President who was elected by the majority of the people, who listens when the people want him to stop wars and take care of Americans domestically, and whom we could have democratically voted out in 2004. It seems to me that Chavez and Morales are not the problem here but the Bush cabal.

[Gold Metal Flake]

22. These thread are bringing out some wonderful progressive DU voices.

I need to keep a list. My memory for screen names is poor, but I see many people who love freedom and truth as much as I. Thanks to all who are bringing the light of truth through the heavy rain of imperialist lies.

:toast:

[L. Coyote]

23. K & R. Thanks for the links.

[Judi Lynn]

27. National Security Archives-The Pinochet File

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB110/index.htm

[Flabbergasted]

34. Evo Morales is doing the exact same thing....

(I'm not crazy about indefinite elections and there is certainly a movement into communism but overall it is NOT OUR COUNTRY. America has not right or even interest dicatating how other countries should dictate their country.)


http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0135335020071201

LA PAZ, Dec 1 (Reuters) - President Evo Morales says his push to overhaul Bolivia's constitution will "hand power to the people" and dismisses claims by critics that the move is aimed at concentrating his power.

The sweeping constitutional changes, a key Morales project, are at the center of a power struggle between the leftist leader and his conservative rivals.

His foes shut down large parts of Bolivia on Wednesday in a one-day protest after his allies pushed through a draft of the constitution last weekend in an assembly boycotted by the opposition and amid protests that left at least three people dead.

"This new constitution will hand power to the people and deepens democracy," Morales told Reuters in an interview.

The new framework would allow Morales to seek re-election indefinitely, give indigenous groups more political power and increase state control over the economy in the mineral-rich country.

[Disturbed]

36. All this talk about Freedom & Democracy from US Govts

is pure horse shit. The last thing that any US Govt. wants is for any country to be a democratic, representative Republic, unless, of course, these countries are Capitalistic. The CIA is not interested in democracy, only the maintenance & spread of Capitalism. The CIA has directly & indirectly over thrown many Govts. that were democratically elected but were Socialist.

[ConsAreLiars]

37. Thanks to all who contibuted to this discussion. There is a great deal of information

here, both references and personal recollections, that might help a few see through the propaganda blitz keeps people from understanding what is really happening and knowing our common interests.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

38. X-cellent info

K&R

[ConsAreLiars]

39. Thanks. Facts do matter, and that kind of murderous "foreign policy"

is still the way things are being done. It is the in nature of imperialism that people resist, abd that the imperial powers resort to ever more brutal methods to assert their domination. And the propaganda on the home front (they are savages, it's the white man's burden, blablablabla) gets sucked up by the mass population as unconsciously as the toxins in the air they breathe.

[Clanfear]

42. From your last link.

Thank you for those links.

"There is no hard evidence of direct U.S. assistance to the coup, despite frequent allegations of such aid. Rather the United States - by its previous actions during Track II, its existing general posture of opposition to Allende, and the nature of its contacts with the Chilean military- probably gave the impression that it would not look with disfavor on a military coup. And U.S. officials in the years before 1973 may not always have succeeded in walking the thin line between monitoring indigenous coup plotting and actually stimulating it."