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South American revolution. There is much more hope in that movement--for economic recovery, self-determination, cooperation and fairness and justice for the poor--than anything the U.S. and its global corporate predators can promise. Their record is plain--gross exploitation and impoverishment for most Latin Americans; and gross brutality and violence for any who aspire to anything better. The Nicaraguans were utterly smashed by the combined US economic and military brutality. But they have not benefited from their caving in to US power. They are in just the same situation as other Latin societies--bled dry. The Bushites are preoccupied with torturing and slaughtering Arabs and Muslims for their oil. They have had no time or resources for killing Latin American leftists, except to throw a few words like "dictator" around for the US war profiteering corporate news monopolies to pick up on and amplify, in the teeth of the facts, and they've thrown our money around in big chunks--to fascists in Venezuela, Nicaragua and elsewhere. But Latin America has meanwhile seen a passion for democracy arise, like nothing else I have seen in history, except maybe for the democracy movement just after WW II. It's taken them a couple of decades to topple the fascists and do the groundwork for constitutional government, but they've gone at it with a fervor. True grass roots movements--peaceful, majorityist movements--have succeeded in winning elections everywhere. It's just amazing WHO has been elected--in Chile, their first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet, who had been tortured by Pinochet; in Bolivia, their first indigenous president, socialist Evo Morales, who campaigned with a wreath of cocoa leaves around this neck (sacred plant of the Andes, essential to survival in the cold thin air; Morales opposes the murderous and militaristic US "war on drugs"; he also was associated with the uprise against Bechtel who had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and jacked up the prices to the poor, even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater!). A former steelworker, Lulu da Silva, president of Brazil (--led the 20-country third world rebellion at the WTO meeting in Cancun). Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela--virtually the entire continent taken over by leftists. And soon (this year) Ecuador. And in the next election cycle, Peru. And of course we've heard what's going on in Mexico--an enormous, on-going grass roots rebellion against Corporate Rule. Guatemala (still has fascists in charge, naturally allied with the Bush Junta) is a hold out. Honduras is also in bad shape (very corrupt government, very poor people).
It's interesting what happened with the Bushite fight to keep Venezuela out of the Security Council. The Bush Junta proposed Guatemala as an alternative. The two fought to a standstill in multiple UN votes. (This happened this week.) Now Guatemala is proposing to withdraw in favor of some mutually acceptable substitute (for the Latin American seat). Who? Chile maybe? Chile abstained on at least one of the votes. I had expected them to support Venezuela, out of regional and leftist solidarity, but also because of the Bushites and torture. I can't imagine that the meetings of Condi Rice and Michele Batchelet were comfortable ones. (Rice was down there strong-arming, bullying and bribing, recently--and she would have been torturing if she could have been.) I hope Batchelet drove a hard bargain, if Rice bought off Chile--or offered Chile the seat.
It would have been more gratifying--to us battered leftists up here in the north--to see better Latin American solidarity on this matter. And I would love to have seen Hugo Chavez eye to eye with John ("death squad") Bolton. But then, Venezuela being seated on the Security Council may not be so important to Latin American leftist governments as maintaining solidarity on OTHER matters--for instance, a common currency. (--talks between Brazil and Argentina on this, lately--but only after Venezuela bailed Argentina out of World Bank/IMF debt, which has led to the recovery of Argentina's World Bank/IMF-devastated economy). Regional ECONOMIC and also natural resource cooperation may be more important to Latin America, in the long run, than pissing on lameduck Bush. (--if he is lameduck; who knows these days? --he may be our president for life.)
And this is where Nicaragua comes in. Economic alliance with Latin countries. Pushing the global corporate predators out. Picking your own trading partners and terms--not dictated to by the US, the World Bank or anyone else. Mutual assistance (as with trades like oil for doctors, in Venezuela/Cuba). New educational, medical and other helpful programs for the poor. Help for small businesses, and to promote creativity and ingenuity. Rejecting US culture and products. Building local enterprises and local pride. This is what Ortega's Sandinista government would have been doing all these years, if the Reaganites hadn't brutally interfered. But now they can catch up, with the help of fellow Latin countries. "Cooperating" with the US, they will never catch up.
I have heard pro and con on the two leftist candidates. There are some reasons to vote for the other one (can't recall the name). But Ortega, for all his faults, was the leader of that revolution, and has the resonant name to attract support and assistance. I hope they unite and don't harm the left's chances of winning. It looks like Ortega is still very popular and will win.
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I love this quote by Evo Morales: "The time of the people has come."
Let it be true--everywhere!
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