Reply #3: It would be interesting to know the real story. I smell a hit piece on a potential

[Peace Patriot]

rival to corrupt "free trader" Alan Garcia (the Bush Junta's pick after the real leftist, Ollanta Humala, came out of nowhere, with no money and no experience, knocked the Bush-favored fascist out of the race and nearly won the presidency, a short time ago). But I don't know enough about Hernan Fuentes to know what's really going on in this article, or the real world.

The article is so skewed to a "first world"/Bushite perspective that it's almost totally useless as information for North Americans interested in the new South American democracy and social justice movement--a movement that has swept new leaders into office all over the continent EXCEPT FOR fascist, Bush-funded Colombia, and Peru (which almost elected a real leftist).*

Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua are the core Bolivarian allies; Brazil, Uruguay and Chile also have leftist governments, which often ally with the Bolivarians (the most far-thinking leaders on social justice and regional self-determination).

The L.A. Times writer (Liubomir Fernandez) frames the article in Bushite terms: Chavez vs. the U.S. He then seeks out evidence and situations to support that frame. This is such a distorted frame that you can't even read between the lines. And it's telling that the reporter failed to interview, or focus on, the real leftist (Ollanta Humala), and went way up into the mountains to find somebody with a Chavez poster on his wall, who wears red shirts, and who may or may not (it is impossible to tell) be using Chavez's name for purposes of mere personal ambition. Then he asks Fuentes a "when did you stop beating your wife?" question, and reports that he "flatly denies that Chavez is bankrolling his leftist leadership."

The reporter then follows this up with a complete mis-characterization of the recent U.S./Colombian bombing of Ecuador and slaughter of the chief FARC hostage negotiator (for the Presidents of Ecuador, France and Venezuela--Raul Reyes) in his sleep, along with 20+ other people, on the eve of the release of Ingrid Betancourt and 12 other hostages (--a negotiation that the the President of Ecuador said was "very advanced"). Here's how the Times write describes this:

"When Colombia, a close U.S. ally, attacked a Colombian rebel base in neighboring Ecuador this month, Chavez mobilized troops and warned of war. Colombia in turn accused Chavez of backing leftist guerrillas."--L.A. Times

This description pulls itself into a black hole of disinformation, and never comes out again. It is a mind-bogglingly false, two-sentence description, which gives one of the two sentences to the destroyer of hopes for peace (Colombia) to promulgate their Bush-written lies about Chavez.

THEN they say: "But Latin America's preeminent ideological conflict of the early 21st century has mostly been a battleground of words and threats."

They as much as accuse CHAVEZ of warmongering--Chavez, who harmed no one, who invaded no one, who killed no one, and who was the negotiator, at COLOMBIA's request, who got six FARC hostages released this year--is the warmonger, because he AND ECUADOR acted to shore up their borders after U.S. bombs hit Ecuador guided by U.S. surveillance!

THEN: Move along, nothing to see here. Blah, blah, blah "battleground of words."

The Times writer TWICE suggests that Fuentes is funded by Chavez (how many times did he ask this question?), and finally, grudgingly states, that there is ZERO evidence for such a claim. Then he goes on a hunt in Lima for some leftist voice that doesn't like Fuentes, to pester with the question, "Are you receiving support from Hugo Chavez?"--and then prints yet another denial of this almost completely irrelevant question.

WHO is pouring BILLIONS of dollars in armaments, psyops, black ops, and support for rightwing death squads, coup plotters, political groups and 'brownshirt' thugs into South America to destabilize and topple democratic governments, and shore up fascist torturers and murderers? And why do the people of South America, who have been the victims of U.S.-supported fascist thugs for decades, put Chavez posters on their walls?

As I said, the perspective is so skewed, you can't even guess at what is really going on in Peru from this article. The reporter has an agenda--to smear Fuentes, to pick at leftist divisions and make them bleed (or manufacture them), and to sideswipe smear Chavez, while the evilist bastards in our own history, who have slaughtered 1.2 million innocent people to get their oil, are described as "sighing" with relief that Peru didn't elect the real leftist. "Sighing" like swooning Victorian virgins over this near miss. 'Oh dear me,' sighed Bush, Cheney, Negroponte and Bolton, 'we just barely escaped the jungle bunnies with our virtue!'

This is the kind of crap that our corporate news monopolies are repeatedly inflicting us with, about the awesome, transformative social movements and overwhelming leftist (majorityist) trend in South America. It's all about Chavez--their straw man "dictator"--and not about the people who elected him--and elected Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Cristina Fernandez (Argentina), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Michele Batchelet (Chile), Tabare Vasquez (Uruguay), and will soon elect Fernando Lugo* (Paraguay), and what these leaders and their supporters are doing to achieve regional self-determination and social justice--a movement of historic proportions, that is completely altering U.S./South American relations in favor of the South Americans, after centuries of lopsided, ill-intentioned U.S. power.

To sum up: Paraguay is next. Then Peru. Paraguay will likely elect a real leftist government this year. Peru, in the next election cycle. Then there will be only one U.S. ally in South America--the Bush Cartel client state of Colombia. And Central America will follow suit over the next couple of years. Guatemala already just elected its first progressive government, ever. A real leftist lost the recent Mexican election by only 0.05% of the vote--an election rife with accusations of foul play--and, when the rightist, Calderon, privatizes Mexico's oil, the Mexicans will throw him out, and probably elected Lopez-Obrador.

And there will be "sighs" all over Washington DC. Get out the smelling salts.

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*(Paraguay has an entrenched center/right government which, very interestingly, joined the Bank of the South, a Chavez project; it has elections this year, and the beloved "bishop of the poor," Fernando Lugo, is ahead in the polls.)