include Argentina.
"ARGENTINA, Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay seem to have especially strong ties with each other, in terms of dealing with the Bushites and associated global corporate predators. It is so good to see."
Nestor Kirchner (and now Cristina Fernandez), Lula da Silva (Brazil), Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador) are PARTNERS, with regional independence and social justice goals, and have demonstrated their close ties, and their having each other's backs, in numerous ways, including the one I mentioned above, when Kirchner resisted Bushite pressure to "isolate" Chavez (Kirchner said, "But he's my brother!"). I can't call it a "brotherhood" any more, since Cristina Fernandez joined. Partners will do. They see each other as friends and cooperators in creating an entirely different and better future for South America than the murdering, torturing, thieving Bushites, and their Democratic Party collaborators, intend.
I don't know as much about Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay, but I do know that Uruguay has taken no shite from Bush, and has sided with Venezuela and other leftist countries in regard to Bush's various efforts to "divide and conquer" South American trade groups, and to get these countries to distance themselves from Venezuela, for its strong socialist policy and pugnacious attitude toward the Bush Junta. Vazquez, too, is a socialist.
And here is that word "brother" again. In recently concluding various economic agreements with Venezuela, Vazquez said...
"'There is no room for doubt. Uruguay's people have to, as I the nation's president will now, express their deepest gratitude to this government (Venezuela), which has been a brother and friend to Uruguay,' Vazquez said."
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/6235598.htmlThere is also the matter of torture and murder by rightwing thugs trained by the U.S., that profoundly traumatized Uruguay and other South American countries. The horror is chronicled by Marie Trigona in an article about Bush's visit to Uruguay last March:
"'The precise pain, in the precise place, in the precise amount, for the desired effect.' These are the words of a US instructor in the art of torture teaching techniques in Uruguay during the nation's 1973-1985 military dictatorship. The US played a major role in supporting Uruguay's brutal dictatorship, agents from the CIA and Office of Public Safety operated abroad to teach intelligence techniques to fight communist and socialist dissidents." (MORE)
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-03/24trigona.cfmIt's rather an anti-Vazquez article, but that was then--March 07, when Bush was on his kneecapping trip to South America. The upshot of the visit was that Vazquez DIDN'T cave--as subsequent events have proven, no doubt due in part to the huge anti-Bush protests in Uruguay during Bush's visit, and pressure from many progressive groups.
Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina were all victims of "Operation Condor," and share this history of horror inflicted by U.S.-supported dictators, which colors everything that is happening today in South America.
It's interesting that Chile's Michelle Batchelet--another South American socialist, who was herself tortured by Pinochet, and lost family members to rightwing torture and murder--got into some political trouble by waffling, under Bushite pressure, when the UN vote on Venezuela's membership on the Security Council was pending. Chile abstained on that vote, and Venezuela lost. But Chile's own ambassador to Venezuela publicly criticized Batchelet for not staying strong in solidarity against Bushite bullying, and Venezuela was subsequently voted in as a member of the OAS human rights council, and has been--or will soon be--given full membership in Mercosur (South American trade group), because Venezuela, really, has the most advanced thinking of all, as to what it takes to throw off U.S. domination, and its leadership has empowered them all, and vastly strengthened their hands in dealing with Bush and associated global corporate predators. At the time of Chile's abstention, I was thinking just that--that Batchelet may not have Chavez's back, but Chavez's uncompromising attitude toward the Bush Junta has empowered Batchelet, and I was hoping she used that power well--to get something for her people. You can't expect perfect behavior from countries that have been so exploited and brutalized, and are still under Washington's boot in many ways.
It was a tide-turning moment, though, in regional solidarity. The Bush "divide and conquer" tactic has utterly failed in South America. And the government that has become isolated, and despised, is Colombia, Bush's and Rumsfeld's favorite Latin American country--where torture against leftists is still practiced.