Latin America moves left

[jos]

Big time. Away from the free-market, neo-liberal ideology:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/6236278.htm

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Haven't read the article, but...

As long as they take care of the poor, any form of government they decide on has to be better.

[bemildred]

2. Kind of a rehash.

For the most part its not "leftist", its
nationalism and anti-economic-colonialism
that drives them. They have noticed that
Uncle Sugar is broke and way too busy elsewhere,
and politically too weak and vulnerable to
arrange the usual "destabilization" campaigns,
so they are taking the chance to get their shit
together internally and to band together externally.

I think Chavez beating them off over and over and the
elections of Lula and the fellow in Ecuador have been
very effective in stiffening the spines of the rest of
them.

[lancemurdoch]

3. And the right wants the US still heavily involved

Prior to 1990 the right said the US "had" to be involved in Latin America because any movement that ran contrary to US business interests down there was just a proxy of the Soviet Union. Well, the Soviet Union has come and gone, but the right is making sure the U.S. is still interfering with their affairs down there. They decided they were fighting "drug dealers". This is funny because the Republicans are supported by one of the biggest drug dealers in the world, the tobacco companies. In fact, they made GATT twist the arm of Thailand to force tobacco to be imported into that country against it's will...shades of the Opium Wars (the Opium Wars are when England went to war with China because China wanted English drug dealers to stop pushing heroin and opium on it's population...the U.S. had some minor involvement in that conflict). Anyhow now that we're past 9/11 they can throw the word terrorism to anyone who opposes privatization of water supplies and the like who are down there. Or "supporters of terrorism". Not much of a surprise, Guy Debord prognosticated in the early 1980's that the US and Western Europe would stop being fixated on the Soviets and start being fixated on "terrorism" which seems to mean anyone who doesn't want to take marching orders from the right wing in the USA or Europe.

I think that the US is giving $1 billion a year to Colombia's military is disgusting. The right is so filled with post-9/11 hubris that they've talked about dropping the facade that the money is going to fight drug dealers. The joke is that the majority of drug traffic coming out of Colombia is faciliated by wealthy landowners, the AUC (a far right paramilitary organization which is so bad, even the Bush administration puts it on the terrorist list) and by wealthy, right wing landowners. Col. James Hiett from the US army was sent down there to clean up the drug problem - know where he is? In US federal prison, he used the opportunity to become a cocaine drug dealer, and who knows what the CIA and US intelligence down there is really doing and how many Hietts there might be out there still, possibly in some type of ring. It's just totally ridiculous...hundreds of trade union leaders and activists are killed down there a year. And Colombia, unfortunately for the Colombians, sits on top of a ton of oil that Occidental petroleum is pumping. It's just really disgusting that the Republican congress and president has finagled it to send $1 billion down there for more weapons, more death, just like they did in Nicaragua and El Salvador...El Salvador, where even the Catholic bishop was killed by the government, for opposing the Reagan-backed government's right to kill whoever it wanted to without question. And now they want to bring CAFTA and FTAA down to Latin America, and unfortunately there are a bunch of Democrats on that as well. Oh well. We will resist - and we will win.

[bemildred]

4. Hey Lance.

Welcome to DU.

I read where FARC (in Columbia) has a $900 million a year
budget, most of it from drugs shipped up North, so we are
funding all sides with our stupid drug war.