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Edited on Thu Feb-22-07 04:55 AM by Peace Patriot
Just after Chavez called Bush "the Devil" at the UN, while the polite Corporate rapists and murderers of this world were dissing him for it, the people of Venezuela gave him a resounding victory at the polls--he won reelection with 63% of the vote.
Two weeks before that election--with the "devil" charge ringing round the globe--Lulu da Silva visited Chavez for the opening of the new Orinoco Bridge between their two countries. He could have put it off. He didn't. It was an implied--but very pointed--endorsement.
Shortly after this, Rafael Correa--a U.S.-educated leftist economist and advocate for the poor--who was running for president of Ecuador neck and neck with a rightwing banana magnate--was asked what he thought of Chavez's "devil" remark, and he said (with a laugh) that it was in insult to the devil. He won his election with 60% of the votes.
These new leftist (majoritist) leaders of South America--Chavez in Venezuela, Correa in Ecuador, Morales in Bolivia, Kirchner in Argentina, Lulu in Brazil. Batchelet in Chile, Vazquez in Uruguay, and the emerging new leftist leaders in Peru and Paraguay--are the products of a vast sea change in democratic representation in these countries, the result of long hard work by grass roots organizations on social issues, and by the OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups and local civic groups on TRANSPARENT elections. It is no accident that all of these leaders are arising at once to speak for the vast poor populations of South America, never before represented in government, and to repair the devastated economies of this continent, recently ravaged by global corporate predators in cahoots with local rich elites, after decades and centuries of brutal, often US-backed, rightwing dictatorships.
Critically important, they are banding together with all kinds of mutual aid and common projects--and have begun talks on a South American "Common Market" and common currency (to get off the US dollar). A hallmark of this movement is regional self-determination, and most especially, the use of a country's natural resources for the benefit of the people who live there, as well as the common benefit of the region. (Venezuela's oil profits, for instance, have been used to bail Argentina and Ecuador out of onerous World Bank debt--vitally important to restoring social programs in education, health care, land reform and help for small businesses). A giant US corporation was thrown out of one country (Bolivia evicted Bechtel over water privatization), and others are being required to actually pay fair taxes for the extraction of oil and other resources.
So, when Chavez jokes about sending "sulfur" to Lulu in Brazil, he knows that they are all aware of why Bush is visiting Brazil--to try "divide and conquer," and other Bush Junta tactics--bribery, bullying, blackmail, threats--and no doubt to meet with and encourage the worst rightwing elements in the region. Most of all, the Bush Junta wants to divide Brazil from the Andean democracies (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela), and try to kill the Bolivarian notion of a "United States of South America." The South Americans are playing a wily game in many ways. They are not anti-investment. They are not especially anti-capitalist. All of them are pursuing mixed capitalist/socialist economies. But they want investment to be ON THEIR TERMS. They are asserting their sovereignty, really, for the first time in their history.
As Evo Morales has said: "We want partners, not masters."
But that's not the way Bushites play the game, as we know.
It will be interesting to see how far Bush gets with Lulu (a former steelworker, and leader of the third world revolt at the WTO in Cancun a few years ago). Bush needs to score some points for the Corporate Reich, he has been such a miserable failure in so many ways, and is so universally detested at home and abroad. He's given Corporate Rule a bad name. And he may be worried, at this point, about avoiding jail. So Lulu has the advantage.
Bush will also be taking a big fat check to the Colombian "drug war" fascists--in the midst of a huge scandal about the paramilitaries in Colombia. Another four billion or so of US taxpayers money.
This is a very, very odd thing for Bush to be doing right now--visiting South America. Isn't he supposed to be "surging" or something? On to "victory" in Iraq? Do they figure they've lost those oil fields, and have to look south? Dunno. But Bush can't visit MOST South American countries. Huge protests would erupt. He's going to Mexico (corporatist gov't; oil), Guatemala (rightwing gov't; scene of horrid slaughters of Mayan Indians under Reagan), Uruguay (mostly Europen population--leftist gov't), and Brazil (very chancy for Bush, as to protests).
Meanwhile, Iraq descends into chaos.
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