|
corporate news monopoly psyops ("Bushaganda"--great word!) is an important one. And you are right--none of us is immune.
Re: Chavez, they are using stereotypes of the South American "strongman," past dictators, "banana republics," gunslinging leftist revolutionaries, Stalin, "Fidel", and, recently, Mugabe--all mashed together (the way the unconscious mashes things together in dreams)--to create a negative image. None of this stereotyping fits the facts. Chavez is a DEMOCRAT! A really committed democrat! He has run a scrupulously lawful and beneficial government for ten years. He has harmed no one, invaded no one, jailed no one unfairly--in fact, he is forgiving almost to a fault. The voters keep electing him--in elections that put our own to shame for their transparency. He has a 65-70% approval rating--despite relentless, venomous corporate news propaganda (worse than our own). Venezuela has an economic growth rate of nearly 10%, with the biggest growth in the private sector (not including oil). Venezuelans give their government/country (general satisfaction) one of the highest approval ratings in South America. Yet MOST north Americans don't know any of these facts, and think Chavez is a "dictator" or some kind of bad guy.
And I have to admit that, until very recently, every time some corporate news bullshit about Chavez came up, I felt compelled to check around, and spend hours at alternative news sites seeking out the facts. Was he becoming a "dictator"? I have to laugh at this now--not at the research, but at my lingering belief that the corporate crap news couldn't be 100% lying, could they? It does get to you, being under a corporate "Iron Curtain"--and I don't even have TV.
Now they're trying to make out Rafael Correa of Ecuador to be a "dictator"--and Evo Morales of Bolivia. It is so ludicrous. These are some of the best leaders that democracy has ever produced. They are on a par with Jefferson and Madison--and their own hero, Simon Bolivar. They are true visionaries and champions of the people. That is why the Bushites and the fucked up corporate press hate them so much. We live in an Alice-in-Wonderland world, up here in the north--at least as to corporate media delusions--where everything is upside down and backwards.
It does take a lot of work to overcome the propaganda and the stereotypes in one's own consciousness. I've been amazed, by the way, at the pro-labor Democrats in Congress who have been able to inject some facts and truth into the public consciousness about Colombia (Bush's horrifying pals, who chainsaw union leaders and throw their body parts into mass graves, and slit children's throats if they are suspected of being leftists). Facts and truth have been ENTIRELY ABSENT from U.S. political discourse about Latin America, so that they are astonishing when they appear. Colombia is the dinosaur of the continent--a fascist/corporate haven, where the poor are routinely slaughtered for daring to speak up and organize. This is the government that the Bushites have larded $5.5 BILLION in military aid upon, and with whom they think we should engage in "free trade." The pro-labor Dems have stopped the "free trade" deal, for now--amazingly--but Nancy Pelosi is playing games, and may get it passed eventually, with lame Colombian promises of reform.
Bush's pals in Colombia are major troublemakers in the region. They tried to start a war with Ecuador, recently, at the Bushites' instigation. They bombed/invaded Ecuador territory, using U.S. surveillance, ten 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs," and probably U.S. aircraft and personnel--to blow up a FARC guerrilla camp, just inside Ecuador's border, killing an Ecuador citizen, several visiting Mexican students, and the FARC's chief hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, who was the contact with the presidents of France, Ecuador and Venezuela, for a planned release of Ingrid Betancourt and other FARC hostages. The U.S./Colombia killed 25 people who were sleeping in the camp. Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, was livid. And Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, credits Chavez with preventing a war. Chavez--no dummy-- understood it as a Bushite war trap. He rushed military battalions to Venezuela's border, in concert with Correa reinforcing Ecuador's border, to assure Correa that he was not alone, then apparently talked him out of retaliating in kind.
The Bushites are intent on destabilizing Ecuador and Venezuela (lots of oil, members of OPEC)--also Bolivia (gas and oil)--and Colombia is their tool, and their main wedge into this now overwhelmingly leftist continent. This is the chief importance of Paraguay to the Bush Junta. Paraguay doesn't have oil (but does have Monsanto--major corporate ag for soy biofuels). Their importance is strategic. Paraguay borders four leftist countries, including a major Bushite target, Bolivia. (The Bushites also hate Argentina's government, because it is strongly allied with the Bolivarians--and Argentina borders Paraguay as well.) There is a white separatist movement in Bolivia, in the eastern provinces bordering Paraguay (and very near to the Bush Cartel's rumored 100,000 acre land purchase in Paraguay, and a beefed up (at our expense) U.S. air base). I believe that the Bushites have been funding, arming and organizing these white separatists, who intend to split off the eastern provinces-- where all the gas and oil are--from the central government of Evo Morales, in order to deny benefit of the resources to the poor majority. This will likely come to a head this May (due to a constitutional situation). The Bushites want a civil war--and a major fracas in South America--to justify U.S. boots on the ground, and to create chaos, destabilization and opportunity (to grab resources).
Rafael Correa (Ecuador) has pledged not to renew the lease for the U.S. military base in Ecuador (next year, when it comes due). (He told the press in Miami that he would agree to a U.S. military base on Ecuadoran soil when the U.S. permits Ecuador to place an Ecuadoran military base in Miami!) (He's a very funny guy, at times.) But it's hard to know what Fernando Lugo will do about the U.S. base (and the Bush Cartel land purchase, if it's true) in Paraguay, or about U.S. trouble-making in the region. He is not as anti-Bush as the Bolivarians, in his public statements--although this may be just wisdom on his part. He will be elected (if they don't steal it from him) by only about 35%-40% of the vote in a multi-candidate field. His position will not be that strong, and he has specifically disavowed the deep socialist reform that the Bolivarians have pursued (although he has expressed admiration for their social justice goals). He's walking a middle line (high wire? mine field?) between the Bush Junta and the Bolivarian Revolution. I think he would hate Bushite interference in Bolivia, but I don't know that he would or could do anything about it--at least until he consolidates his position in Paraguay (which will take a lot of time and attention--and he is not an experienced politician, he's a bishop who has lived all his life with the poor). Bushite-instigated trouble with Bolivia could well undo his presidency (and may well be a Bushite intention).
There is quite a lot of concern about a stolen election in Paraguay this Sunday. International monitors are present, I believe--and they will not participate as observers and monitors unless certain bottom-line conditions of transparency have been met. So it is a good sign that they are participating. I don't know if the Carter Center is involved. They generally are. You are correct that the Carter Center has done tremendous work on South American elections. One of the values of their participation is that they are a known, recognizable name to north Americans. So, when someone who is hated by the Bushites is elected--Chavez, for instance--the Carter Center's word on the legitimacy of the election is important. The OAS has also done a lot of work, as have EU election monitoring groups--and, most important of all, grass roots social movements and local civics groups. The revolution really does belong to the people. It is their achievement--not that of any outside group, or "strongman." But that information is so black-holed by our corporate news monopolies that elections in the south need to be verified by outside groups--especially by the Carter Center--to have any cache in this "Iron Curtain" disinformation atmosphere. Also, the Bush-USAID-NED (our tax dollars) have been used to fund rightwing groups in Venezuela, for instance, who regularly cry "stolen election!" whenever Chavez and other Chavistas win. This was even used as part of a coup strategy at one point (including use of a Penn & Schoen false poll). So it's doubly important to have objective observers who can counter such charges in the corporate press.
In Paraguay, the rightwing Colorado Party has controlled the political system for 60 years--and has vast powers of corrupt patronage and entrenchment to pull off a stolen election. They can hardly cry foul if Lugo wins. But it will be the scandal of the continent if they steal it. I don't think they will, actually. I think they will wait, and work with the Bushites to try to destabilize his new government. He will have the difficulty of a cemented rightwing bureaucracy and government establishment working at odds with him. His problems will be much like Barack Obama's (if he manages to win). Just think about it. Bushites planted in the FBI, in the Justice Department, in the military, in every agency, including spy agencies. And--re Paraguay--multiply that times 60 years. Lugo is approaching the situation in much the same way as Obama, as a matter of fact--non-confrontational, finding common ground, etc. I much prefer Chavez's approach. Fuck Exxon Mobil--cuz if you don't, they will fuck you. Chavez is an experienced leader, however; has survived a coup attempt (which was defeated by the Venezuelan people) (--I have to laugh, now, when they call him a "dictator"--he owes all his power, and his very life, to the Venezuelan people). And he has a highly developed political base and a strong democracy. He was not so confident in his first couple of years, and has had to learn when and where to apply political strength, and state powers, through many a difficult crisis.
However, Lugo is coming to power in a very different and better political climate than Chavez did. Chavez's very existence--and that of all the surrounding leftist democracies--will bolster Lugo, and perhaps aid his success at this weaker kind of strategy vis a vis global corporate predators and Bushites. Chavez and the Bolivarian left have bolstered every government in Latin American--even rightwing governments--in this way. They have given Latin American countries bargaining power that they never had before. The horrifying specter (to Bushites) of a full-on (not to mention peaceful, democratic) socialist revolution in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina makes Brazil's and Chile's leftists look positively "conservative" and corporate-friendly. And it even gives a rightwing government like Mexico's the nerve to insist that U.S. "war on drugs" aid be controlled by Mexico not by U.S. agencies. (It's bad, corrupt aid--but at least it will be controlled by leaders who are potentially accountable to the Mexican people.) The issue is sovereignty--and self-determination. The Bolivarians have bolstered Latin Americans' self-confidence in asserting their right to control their own affairs.
What this means, for Lugo, is that he can insist on some conditions for corporate activity in Paraguay--and perhaps even for Bush-U.S. military activity. He could ban pesticides, for instance--both as to Monsanto ag, and the "war on drugs"--or at least obtain protection of workers and farmers. (It's a big issue in Paraguay.) He could demand a bigger cut of the profits for Paraguay from various corporate activities. He could limit U.S. military exercises. He could direct the "war on drugs" into more compassionate, social justice policy. He may not be able to do anything big and dramatic, but he has bargaining power because Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution exist and have been so successful.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
