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these guys don't look too worried. They look like they've faced their own deaths a hundred times--in ways that cowards like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Negroponte, and Bolton never do. They are happy. There is honesty and friendliness in their eyes. "...democracy is being reborn in Bolivia and Venezuela...". That is the truth of things--and all over Latin America. It is one of the most astonishing things that has happened in the world in my lifetime. I remember the day that Negroponte's death squads slaughtered Bishop Romero on his altar--his only crime, advocating for the poor of El Salvador. I remember the photos of the nuns who had been raped and killed on a road, because they, too, lived and worked with the poor. To want justice and peace is a crime, to Reaganites and Bushites. Torture and death are their modes, true back then, true now. I remember learning of the horror in Chile, inflicted by the US-backed dictator Pinochet, thousands 'disappeared,' many tortured. And now...
Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by Pinochet, was just elected the first woman president of Chile. And Evo Morales, the first indigenous Indian to be elected president of Bolivia. His parents were coca leaf growers (sacred plant in the Andes, essential to survival in the freezing weather and high altitudes). He refuses to the wear a suit on any occasion. What a statement in this corporatized world. And Hugo Chavez--part indigenous, part black, part Spanish. He combines all the genes of all the races who have met in South America, and all the cultural, political and religious aspirations that they represent. He is industrious, energetic, big-hearted, shrewd, visionary; he is also well-read, and articulate. His zingers at Bush are legendary.
This peaceful, democratic, leftist (i.e., mainstream) revolution has swept Latin America--with leftist governments now in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, and hopeful signs in Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico--and even in Columbia. Virtually the entire map of South America has gone "blue." The basis for it is TRANSPARENT elections--achieved by the hard work of local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center. This revolution is huge, and it is unstoppable. This is what those faces above know, that Bush can never know--they are on the crest of a profound change that involves all of the people they serve, not just a privileged little group of have's. They are loved and appreciated by the great majority of their people, and they are the majority's genuine representatives. And Castro, with his old-fashioned communism of fixed elections, likely is the representative of the majority anyway. He has become an icon. He advised Chavez in his darkest hour, in the midst of the US-backed coup, when Chavez had been kidnapped by rogue military, and was being coerced into resigning. Castro--whom Chavez's daughter managed to get through to--urged him not to despair, and not to resign. And he was so right. Tens of thousands of Venezuelans had poured into the streets to stop the coup, and to demand that their elected president be restored. If he had resigned, constitutional government would have been over.
Castro, that old democrat. He stretches back to the days of the death squads, when armed revolution seemed to be the only path to change. But the leftist guerrilla fighters did not succeed anywhere in Latin America except Cuba (and briefly in Nicaragua, before our Contra death squads arrived). Their Bolivarian leader Che was slain (likely by the CIA, which had killed other leftist leaders, in Chile and in the Congo, and had toppled the Iranian democracy and installed the horrible Shah). The armed resistance in Latin America was fueled by justifiable anger at the tremendous violent suppression of democracy. That Latin America has emerged from that era, still believing in democracy, and in a mixed economy, is something of a miracle. They have chosen a peaceful, middle path. They seem to have no bitterness or resentment, just determination. They are alive with hopes and dreams. Look at the eyes of these leaders! Do they look frightened of Bush? Do they look frightened of anything? This is what democracy looks like. Hopeful, free, brave, full of heart. Look at it with envy. And get to work on TRANSPARENT elections here.
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"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales
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