Obama, the Clintons, Colombia and the disaster that is U.S. policy in South America

[Peace Patriot]

I am very concerned that the Obama administration is going to compound the horrendous mistakes of the last two decades of U.S. policy on South America. Let me explain why I am so concerned, and open this topic for discussion.

The other day the name Eric Holder was floated by someone (don't know if it was the Obama transition team) as a top candidate for U.S. Attorney General. I've since learned that Holder has been on the Obama legal adviser team all along. Holder was the high-priced corporate attorney for Chiquita International, who got Chiquita execs off with a hand-slap (and secrecy--both arranged by the Bushwhacks) after they paid $1.7 million to rightwing death squads in Colombia, to take care of their "labor problem" by murdering some four thousand union leaders and workers in Chiquita's banana plantations over a seven year period.

I was, and still am, extremely concerned about this potential appointment. It would send a very bad foreign policy signal, to say the least. And of all the excellent civil rights, human rights, labor rights, consumer advocate, environmental and other attorneys for good causes in this country, Obama can't find a better A.G. than Chiquita's death squad attorney? What would this say about Obama's attitude toward corporate crime here, let alone toward South America?

Again, it was FLOATED--I don't know by whom, I don't know why. But, to me, this appointment would be--and should be--unthinkable.

Now we have a leak that Hillary Clinton is being seriously considered for Secretary of State--the U.S. chief foreign policy officer. The leak likely comes from Clinton members of the Obama transition team, but it is still anonymous.

Hillary Clinton had a paid agent of the Colombian government, Mark Penn, as her chief campaign adviser, until his nefarious role as paid advocate for the fascist murderers, drug traffickers, and corrupt thugs who are running Colombia became known. He was then back-benched. Hillary claimed during the campaign that she now opposes the Colombian "free trade" deal. I don't believe her.

The Colombian government, fat with $6 BILLION in U.S. military aid--the biggest U.S. military aid package outside of Israel, aid that the Clinton administration first booted up with Plan Colombia--has been repeatedly and thoroughly condemned by every human rights group in the world, for the failure to prosecute and prevent human rights crimes including the murder of over forty union leaders this year alone. Amnesty International attributes 92% of the hundreds of murders of union leaders over the last half decade directly to the Colombian military and its rightwing paramilitary death squads. And this doesn't even begin to describe the death toll in Colombia--of union leaders, workers, small peasant farmers, human rights advocates, political leftists, journalists and others, including youths who have been lured with job offers, killed and dressed up like leftist guerrilla insurgents, to up the Colombian military's "body count" and impress Bushites, and apparently Clintonites.

Top figures in the Colombian government and the military have been closely tied to rightwing death squad activity, drug trafficking and other crimes. In summary, what U.S. military aid to Colombia has done is to prop up a thoroughly criminal government that serves the rich and the corrupt, and murders and oppresses and steals from the poor with impunity.

"Free trade" with Colombia means a "free fire zone against union leaders." There is nothing "free" about it, except the "freedom" of the rich to kill the poor.

Meanwhile, South American countries where these sorts of things don't happen-- where union leaders, workers and others are free to organize and advocate for their interests, where the governments encourage maximum citizen participation, where real representatives of the people can actually get elected, including election as president of the country, and where the government serves all of the people--Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia--are demonized by the Bushwhack U.S. government, and the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies, and their leaders are called "dictators" or "would be dictators."

Well, the rightwing of the 1930s called Franklin Delano Roosevelt a "dictator." And you know what he said? "Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred."

That's what the Bushwhack demonization of the BEST governments of South America amounts to: "organized money" hating the poor and any of their elected leaders who are actually effective at doing something for the poor majority and the country as a whole. Example: Bolivia elected Evo Morales as president--the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country). With a huge mandate to change the direction of the country (a nearly 70% approval rating, currently), he nationalized Bolivia's gas reserves, re-negotiated the contracts and DOUBLED Bolivia's gas revenues from one billion dollars a year to TWO billion dollars a year. This money is being used to benefit the poor, for instance, to provide small pensions for the elderly poor, long neglected and abandoned by Bolivia's rich elite.

Evo Morales himself is a former poor coca leaf farmer and head of the coca leaf farmers' union, which advocates for a SANE drug policy, that does not criminalize the traditional indigenous use of coca leaves in tea and for chewing. (Coca is a highly nutritious leaf that staves off hunger, and permits survival in the icy, high altitudes of the Andes mountains). Bolivia is thus far more effective at dealing with cocaine interdiction and the crime and drug lords associated with it, than is either of the Bushwhacks' only two allies in South America: Colombia and Peru (the top two cocaine producers).

The Bushwhack response to a SANE drug policy and a truly democratic country? The U.S. embassy was funding and organizing fascist, white separatist rioters and murderers, in a plot to split off the gas-rich eastern provinces into a fascist mini-state in control of Bolivia's main gas and oil resources. Morales threw the U.S. ambassador and also U.S. "war on drugs" personnel (who were meddling in politics) out of the country, and received the unanimous backing of the new South American "Common Market," UNASUR, in preventing the split-up of Bolivia.

Venezuela and Ecuador have elected similar governments--to non-stop demonization and slander by our Bushwhack government and the corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies. These are democratic governments, with election systems that are far, far more transparent than our own (they put our own to shame!), and which are closely allied with, and strongly backed by, the more center-left governments such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. Lula da Silva recently said, of Hugo Chavez, for instance: "They can invent a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy."

Rafael Correa, the new, young president of Ecuador, recently presided over a re-write of Ecuador's Constitution, which won nearly 70% in a nationwide vote, and which contains a provision--a first in the world--granting legal rights and standing to Mother Nature (called "Pachamama," in the indigenous language). This provision states that Mother Nature and her critters and ecosystems have a right to exist and to function properly, apart from human concerns. An individual or group (or the government) can go after a corporate polluter, for instance, on behalf of Nature herself, without having to prove damage to human beings.

The vast poor majority indigenous population of South America, whose views of toxic pesticide spraying, displacement of small farmers, organic food production, corporate agriculture (GMOs, etc.), corporate mining and other resource pollution, and their reverence for Mother Nature, so long suppressed by brutal rightwing governments with U.S. backing, is finally--at long last--coming into its own as a political force. Evo Morales has said, "The time of the people has come." That is what this is all about. And the survival of the very planet we all live on, and are totally dependent upon, is the heart of the matter, and is directly linked to the success of real democracy.

Where real democracy is succeeding in South America (just about everywhere), the people reject U.S.-dominated "free trade," the corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs," the U.S. military presence in their countries, the U.S.-dominated World Bank/IMF loan sharks and their ruinous policies, and rule by corrupt rich elites, and opt for their own sovereignty, fairness and social justice, strong environmental and corporate regulation, good government that serves all of the people, and an innovative mixed socialist/capitalist economy--all the things we want for ourselves in the U.S.

This is the overwhelming trend in South America, with varying degrees of left to center-left policy--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, and most recently Paraguay. And it is the growing trend in Central America as well.

The Bushwhacks have put us on the wrong side of history in South (and also Central) America. And will the Clintonites on the Obama team--whom Obama obviously had to compromise with, in order to get elected--drag Obama to the wrong side as well? To the side of bullying and meddling and exploiting, and supporting rotten regimes and demonizing and trying to topple good ones?

Obama has an opportunity to put things right, and to help remake the western hemisphere into a powerhouse economy based on social justice and protection of the environment, in cooperation with all these new leftist democracies of the emerging south. Which way will he go?

The appointment of Holder as AG and Clinton as SoS--if these are going to occur--may indicate that the U.S. is going to continue the disastrous Bushwhack/Clinton policies, which have already caused a breach between the northern and southern halves of our hemisphere, to our great detriment. That breach may become permanent. South America is not going to go backwards. They have the resources and motivation and are actively pursuing an independent course. They have overwhelmingly rejected U.S. economic/political domination. That is not going to change. WE must change. The question is, CAN we?

I urge all DUers to become educated on this matter. It is no small matter. At its worst, we may be looking at Oil War II: South America--our sons and daughters dying in the Amazon and the Andes, for Exxon Mobil, and for the fascist horrors in Colombia, as they are dying now in Iraq for the fascist horrors in Washington DC. Short of an oil war in this hemisphere--a real possibility, in my opinion--continued U.S. corpo/fascist exploitation, as in the Colombia "free trade" deal, will create an economic war zone, as proposed by Donald Rumsfeld in a Dec 1, 2007 op-ed in the Washington Post. (The supposedly 'retired' Rumsfeld has shown a bit too much interest in events in South America, for my comfort level.) We will be waging economic warfare against the people of South America and their democratically elected leaders.

At its best--if Obama fulfills the promise and the hope that he represents to billions of people, here and abroad--we will END the war on the people of Latin America--in both its economic and militaristic "war on drugs" (and "war for oil") aspects--and transform ourselves into the good, progressive country that we can be. And we will join with them in curtailing the power of the global corporate predators who are oppressing us all.

We have many things to learn from the South American democracy movement--including first and foremost, transparent vote counting; also, strong community organization. Neither they nor their leaders are our "enemy." Far from it. They are--or rather should be--our heroes.

And we should be putting strong pressure on the Obama transition team, in whatever way we can, to reject the brutal, exploitative policies of the past--and truly embrace the future and the vision of a just and peaceful USA, first of all in our own hemisphere.

Obama has a lot of things to worry about--his burdens cannot be exaggerated. He doesn't need trouble in South America of the kind that a continued Plan Colombia and the Colombian "free trade" deal would cause--both Clinton policies, pushed further by the Bushwhacks. And I hope to God he is with the people of the south on this, and with our own union leaders and human rights and global justice advocates everywhere.

[Skwmom]

1. Haven't you heard? You should only voice concern AFTER Obama has made his decision.

[Imperialism Inc.]

24. I was wondering if I was the only one who thought that was pretty strange

POV. Not this one but the ones telling us to not make our concerns known until after the fact.

[leftstreet]

2. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

3. We've watched with concern whenever he's made a comment concerning Latin America.

His own comments on Colombia's atrocities against labor union workers, and indigenous citizens seemed very trustworthy, yet other comments he has made concerning other Latin America countries would indicate he either is being misled by his Latin American advisors, or he simply hasn't taken the time to break through the popular images created by the right-wing controlled, oligarchy-serving news media.

Mark Penn, as a campaign operative for Hillary Clinton, given his grotesque record of service to the right-wing elitist oligarchs in both Venezuela and in Colombia is not a person to overlook. He still IS one of four public relations firms employed currently by the Colombian government, enlisted by Álvaro Uribe to help sell his FTA package to the Democrats in Congress last year.

He was up to his ugly eyebrows in misleading the Venezuelan public concerning a major election by publishing incorrect data and calling it "exit poll" info., in the employ of U.S. taxpayer funded N.E.D. contributions (directed by Washington) funneled to the Venezuelan oligarchy's new government destabilization-directed group, "Sumate." The spokeswoman for that group, Maria Machado was invited to visit _{George W. Bush} in the White House, although he NEVER invited the people's elected President Hugo Chavez. _Bush chose, instead, a leader of the elitist group responsible for the violent coup, a funded group created through U.S. machinations.

Here's a good bit of information on Mark Penn posted here by D.U.'er "madfloridian:"
More info about the poll in Venezuela by Mark Penn and Company and NED
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3026751

All the facts back you up, Peace Patriot. Barack Obama has a long way to go to get this information on Latin America figured out. He should pay closer attention to the Congressional Democrats who have been opposing the Colombia FTA from the first, and staunchy, firmly against it, with no reservations.

They've made no secret about their views, and their views are based on history itself, not propaganda.

Barack Obama needs to start disengaging himself from popular myth created and circulated by right-wing interests for their motivation in continuing aggression against people who are literally none of their business. It's time to clean up our act, immediately, and allow these hundreds millions people to live with the presidents they elect, with NO INTERFERENCE from us.
That's the DEMOCRATIC way, after all.

What he does about awakening a social consciousness on Latin America is crucial. Many of us are awakened already. He needs to do the necessary reseach in order to bring our country out of the ugly violent relationship with Latin America the right-wing, inadequate, power-mad Republican Presidents created.

[burrowowl]

13. Or why we need Richardson as

Secretary of State and Obama should listen!

[Peace Patriot]

4. One example about how things are going for the U.S. in L/A. Rio Group adds Cuba as a member.

Thanks to Judi Lynn's post at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x9812
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=320452&CategoryId=10717

The Rio Group is a conflict resolution group of Latin-America-only countries--the U.S. notably not invited (as with UNASUR, the new South American "Common Market," most likely because of U.S. meddling in the internal affairs of L/A countries through the OAS)--consisting of...

Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. And now Cuba.

Earlier this year, the Rio Group met and found the solution to a U.S./Bush-instigated, almost war between Colombia and Ecuador, with the particular help of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela (whom Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, called "the great peacemaker," just afterward). Without the U.S. involved, Latin America can solve its own problems, as it notably did again, later this year, when UNASUR unanimously backed the Morales government in Bolivia, against yet another U.S.-Bush-instigated conflict (fascist rioters and murderers trying to tear Bolivia apart).

Most of Latin America's leaders and peoples consider the U.S. policy on Cuba to be insane. It is both heartening, and a strong signal that a new era has begun in U.S.-Latin American relations--an era that will hopefully be characterized by U.S. respect for the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and promotion of true democracy and peace--that the Rio Group took action, independent of the U.S., to invite Cuba to join its ranks.

This is also a very good sign that the new left in Latin America is well aware of the danger of an oil war in Caribbean--i.e., the U.S. trying to grab Venezuela's Caribbean oil coast, thus to try to dominate the Caribbean/Central American region. Such a move by the U.S., if successful, could cut off low cost or barter oil from Venezuela to Cuba, Nicaragua and other poor countries, as well as seriously damaging the new South American "Common Market." The presence of the newly reconstituted U.S. 4th Fleet has caused great concern in the region. Venezuela's oil is one of the obvious strategic targets. Cuba also has oil reserves. And Brazil's president has said that U.S. 4th Fleet is also a threat to Brazil's Atlantic coast oil.

By reinforcing the legitimacy of Cuba's government--a communist experiment that has had some quite successful aspects--and Cuba's great contribution to medical care and literacy in many poor Latin American countries--the Rio Group is asserting Latin America's right to self-determination. The question is: Will our U.S. corpo/fascists permit Obama to take a respectful, partnership attitude toward this independence-minded region?

If Obama doesn't, WE are the losers--not Latin America. One worrisome aspect of Obama's statements about Latin America during the campaign was his rather arrogant presumption that Latin America needs and wants "U.S. leadership." It has become VERY obvious that most of them do NOT. They have their OWN leaders, many of whom are far in advance of our best leaders on issues of democracy, social justice, good government and the environment. Partnership, cooperation? Yes. Leadership (--which, unfortunately, from the U.S., has always meant domination)? No! A resounding no.

The Rio Group also had quite a lot to say about the Financial 9/11 (my phrase) that the Bush corpo/fascists just inflicted upon us all. One of the reasons they met was to formulate a unified L/A policy to deal with it. As the Chilean minister noted, "Latin America had no part in creating this international crisis; on the contrary, it has been seen by even the most critical to be a fairly stable area" and its "economic behavior has been very prudent."

He also said that "there is a pretty obvious lack of international regulation, of which the main victims are precisely the countries that are most vulnerable."

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=320452&CategoryId=10717

One of the ways that South American countries, in particular, have been "prudent" is nationalizing natural resources (and/or renegotiating contracts with multinational corporations, in favor of the people), more centralized control of banks and finances, eviction of the World Bank/IMF loan sharks in favor of regionally controlled financing of development (with an emphasis on social justice)--the Bank of the South--and many other actions, often led by Venezuela, for which Hugo Chavez has earned the epithet 'dictator" by the Bushwhacks and their echoers (even Obama!). Well, Venezuela is now on firm ground, with nearly $40 billion in international cash reserves, and it has aided other countries--Argentina, for instance--in disentangling themselves from the control of U.S./EU predators. The countries that land on their feet will be the ones where strong leftist governments took as much control as possible away from the U.S./EU and its corpo/financial plunderers.

Before this is over--believe me--we will wish we had a president like Hugo Chavez, a truly tough son-of-a-gun who, like FDR, believes in democracy, and believes that a democratic leader's first responsibility is to the most vulnerable victims of "organized money"--the workers and the poor, the backbone of the economy.

[Peace Patriot]

5. Alas, it appears that Hillary Clinton has been offered Sec of State...

Officials: Obama Offered Clinton Secretary Of State

Source: Huffington Post

President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3601721

----------

I guess the most we can hope for now--as with Rahm Emmanuel--is that she will follow Obama's foreign policy, and not Bill Clinton's, or her own previous policy--so close to Bushwhack policy--and that Obama's policy will be enlightened and progressive, as to South America and the rest of the world.

This is a damned poor choice of Sec of State, in my opinion. Clinton is no diplomat. She has been pro-war and pro-big war spending, as well as pro-global corporate predator rule over the world. And worst of all are her ties to the disreputable, disgusting, murdering, drug trafficking fascist tugs running Colombia. If Latin America was expecting a signal of a new progressive era in U.S. Latin American relations, this was not it.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Note: She hasn't accepted yet. She wants to think about it. There's still hope that

someone better may get that position. Fingers crossed!

[Judi Lynn]

7. No kidding. We don't need more of the same despicable policy. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

8. Recent quote from Obama on Colombia's problem with labor:

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis, and there have not been prosecutions. And what I have said, because the free trade—the trade agreement itself does have labor and environmental protections, but we have to stand for human rights, and we have to make sure that violence isn’t being perpetrated against workers who are just trying to organize for their rights, which is why, for example, I supported the Peruvian Free Trade Agreement, which was a well-structured agreement.

http://i4.democracynow.org/2008/11/12/white_house_denies_attempt_to_link

This position is so far removed from the position taken by Mark Penn, Hillary's campaign stragetist, and PR guy, and his entire history.

[Demeter]

9. We Have to Hope That Obama Has Ethics and The Upper Hand on His People

(I won't say whip hand, for the context).

If Obama is lacking in either, we are doomed to more diplomatic disasters.

As far as Hillary's inclinations go, it's much the same thing.

Yes, it's scary, but not as scary as a no-nothing, never-made-a-mistake Daddy couldn't fix (until lately), Shrub.

[bvar22]

10. It would be a HUGE mistake to remain hostile to the emerging democracies.

Obama and Clinton have included Chavez on their list of the World's worst dictators.
(During a debate over whether they would negotiate with "dictators", Venezuela was included on a list with Iran and N. Korea).

Continuing to support the puppet government in Colombia will close the emerging democratic markets in South and Central America to the US, and drive these countries into the arms of Russia and China.
This is already happening.


The BIGGEST story NOT reported in the US Media are the social reforms sweeping across South and Central America.

VIVA Democracy!

K&R
:patriot:

[Peace Patriot]

11. Hear, hear! "The BIGGEST story NOT reported in the US Media are the social reforms

sweeping across South and Central America." You are so right. The corpo/fascist 'news' monoplies don't want us to get any ideas--like local resources should be used to benefit local people, like the sovereignty of the people above the false personhood of multinnational corporations, like universal free health care and free university educations, like transparent vote counting of, by and for the the people (not the 'TRADE SECRET' corporate variety). So their lapdog so-called journalists yip-yip about the "dictators" of South America--these elected presidents, with 60^ to 90% approval ratings, who subject everything, even Constitutions, to a vote of all of the people, in transparent elections. The lapdogs earn their treats, and lie, lie and lie some more on behalf of their multi-billionaire CEOs. It's disgusting.

But the truth can only be suppressed for so long. It will be fascinating to see how an Obama trip to South America goes. I expect that the people there will be delirious with joy and hope that the Bush Junta is finally over, and a man of color, with progressive, open-minded views, has been elected president of the United States. They pioneered this advance in our hemisphere, most recently by electing a 100% indigenous as president of Bolivia--a first in the hemisphere, I believe. And you can't help but notice the nut brown faces now emerging as South America's leaders--Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, Chavez in Venezuela. But it will be most interesting what leaders like Lula da Silva have to say, and how it is reported. I hope he will invite all of his friends and allies to Brazil to meet Obama--Chavez (Venezuela), Morales (Bolivia), Correa (Ecuador), the Kirchners (Argentina), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Tabare Vasquez (Uruguay), Batchelet (Chile)--and let Obama judge for himself the quality of South America's new leaders. I think he will be mightily impressed, and I hope he can overcome his own constraints and conditioning--and the apparently outsized influence of the old Clintonites--and truly forge a new path.

And I hope there is a big, big party in Rio de Janeiro, with Barack and Michele getting up on stage and singing "Todo Cambia" ("Everything Changes"), with all of these leaders, as Hugo Chavez and Fernando Lugo did, at Lugo's inauguration party in Paraguay.

When Fernando Lugo was elected president of Paraguay this year--overturing 61 years of rightwing rule, including a long and heinous dictatorship--and pledged to change Paraguay's direction and aid the poor, Evo Morales sent Lugo this humorous message: "Welcome to the Axis of Evil!"

Funny, yeah. But also sad. That is what the U.S. has become in South America--a joke among its elected presidents who are better leaders than we in the north have seen in over forty years.

The corpo/fascists 'news' media will be apoplectic if Obama connects with the democracy movement in South America and is moved by its passion and commitment. They have been carrying on in Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, creating a totally false picture of this region and its leaders, obsessed with us NOT FINDING OUT THE TRUTH. Will they be able to hide that good news?

[truedelphi]

12. You say:

The corpo/fascists 'news' media will be apoplectic if Obama connects with the democracy movement in South America and is moved by its passion and commitment. They have been carrying on in Alice-in-Wonderland fashion, creating a totally false picture of this region and its leaders, obsessed with us NOT FINDING OUT THE TRUTH.
####

The M$M really and truly goes overboard in hiding things. I have been too concerned with things here to even think about the politics of nations south of our border - and then one day at the Dorcotr's office I saw a NAtional Geographic with a whole write up on Bolivia. They ahve as their newly elected President a man who was one of the NAtive People's. he is very progressive. And National geographic did not scoof at his politics, but basically said that it was needed to help Bolivia manifet a bertter world for its people

It was probably at least a year old, that article. And I wonder if the editor at NG has by now been told what slant to take with regards to So American politics.

[Peace Patriot]

16. I saw that NG article, too, and was very surprised by it. NG had gone out of its way

to be nasty to Hugo Chavez, as I recall--even printing lies and disinformation, just like the Associated Pukes. The article on Bolivia was an anomaly, is all I can say. Very unusual for NG on politics. I can think of some cynical reasons (no big oil reserves, on a par with Venezuela and Ecuador; no coastline to invade; it was pre-Bushwhack plot, as to the fascist insurrection, and the NG eds hadn't gotten the word; Bolivia was only a test case, anyway, for the big prizes--Venezuela and Ecuador--where similar fascist secessionist movements have been stoked by the Bushwhacks, etc.). Another reason may be that the Chavez article (about Venezuela, with nasty bits about Chavez) was a couple of years before the Morales article, deep in the dark days of the Bush Junta. Since then, the political tenor of the entire continent of South America has changed dramatically; the left has won; and NG may have issues of access and cooperation they want from these governments. The political climate had begun to change here, as well, when the Bolivia came out. It could be that NG is just blowing with the wind.

But it could also be that a good reporter just sneaked one by management. NG isn't so bad, all in all. They're pretty good on environmental issues. But they were terrible on Chavez--a real shafting.

[bvar22]

23. The movement is spreading.

I was surprised when Paraguay managed to elect a Left Leaning president, President Fernando Lugo.
That may be collateral benefit of Bush's obsession with Iraq.....they took their eyes off the ball in South America.
I still don't know too much about the new President of Paraguay beyond that he is an ex-Catholic Bishop who refused to meet with Sarah Palin (without pre-conditions?).
This was a real kick in the balls to the BFEE.
The Bush Family has bought several square miles of the virgin rain forest in Paraguay
for a family refuge. I wouldn't be surprised to see Paraguay join the ICC in the near future.

In Venezuela, Chavez has reclaimed parts of the vast plantations previously owned by "Absentee Landlords" and apportioned the land out to peasant farmers. I would LOVE to see this precedent applied to the Bush Plantation in Paraguay.

Colombia is one of the very last refuges for the old dying Fascist Oligarchs.

The Right Wing barely managed to steal the last election in Mexico.
They won't be able to steal the next one.

The reforms in South America gives me hope for The World, and I am anxious to see how Obama chooses to deal with the new democracies in South America. The early signs are not good. He will be under tremendous pressure from the Conservative/Corporate (DLC) Democrats to support the Right Wing in Colombia.

VIVA Democracy!

[Judi Lynn]

30. Fernando Lugo is as far as a human could get away from something like Sarah Palin.

I'm not sure the world wouldn't have exploded if someone succeeded in dragging him into the same room with her! It would be inconceivable to dream they represent the same species.

Here's an article which is dated, written before he was elected, and before the Catholic Church corrected it's position on him as a candidate, but it gives a very decent brief look at his history:

Bishop of the Poor
In an interview given to the newspaper Brasil de Fato, Lugo recalled that he was born in 1952 in a small rural village of 60 families, San Solano, and is the youngest of six siblings in a family that was harshly persecuted by the Stroessner dictatorship. His father was in jail 20 times. As a child, he sold turnovers and coffee in the streets of Encarnación, the city to which his family immigrated. Three of his siblings were arrested, tortured, and exiled from the country over the course of 23 years.

He studied to be a teacher and taught in a classroom packed full with 100 pupils, until at age 19 he decided to enter the seminary of the Congregación del Verbo Divino (Congregation of the Divine Word).7 "It was the townspeople of Hohenau, where I taught primary school, that motivated me to become ordained. The people were very religious and there was no priest, but even so they got together every Sunday and I participated in the worship, in the reading of the word of God, in the lectures, prayers, and hymns. In Hohenau God came into my life."8

In 1977 he was ordained as a priest and traveled to Ecuador where he became acquainted with liberation theology and the church of the poor. In 1982 he returned to Paraguay and the following year was expelled from the country for his "subversive" sermons and for speaking ill of the government. He lived in Rome and returned in 1987. In 1994 he was ordained bishop of the diocese of San Pedro, the poorest in the country: "In 1994, when I took over the diocese, there were 112 land occupations. Of these, 52 were in San Pedro. When I arrived there were 650 Christian communities, when I left there were a thousand." In the province with the most large estates, the social pastoral ministries began organizing the landless rural poor just as had happened years before in Brazil, a process that gave birth to the landless movement.

Lugo made the leap into politics in a very short time. He recalls the change: "I leave the diocese in 2005 and I am left thinking that the huge efforts that are made through the church did not obtain the desired success, and I realized that the real changes in the economy, in the social arena, come from politics. So, Jan. 3, 2006 I began to meet with a group of 12 friends—a group for study and analysis with artists, intellectuals, farmers, students, in order to imagine the country—that kept growing and on Dec. 17 became the Movimiento Popular Tekojoja (equality in the regional Guaraní language) that soon became the fastest growing popular movement."9

More:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4572



President Fernando Lugo greeting Bolivia's President Evo Morales
August 15, 2008 at his inauguration ceremony.



President Fernando Lugo greeting Argentina's President,
Christina Fernandez de Kirchner, at his inauguration ceremony.



Chile's President Michelle Bachelet meeting President Fernando Lugo.



Singing with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez at his celebration.



Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva meeting Fernando Lugo.



5 months ago: Paraguay's elected President Fernando Lugo (C) chats with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa (L) as sister Graciela tries on him the ceremonial sash the Carmelite nuns have made for his inauguration, at the Carmelite convent in the Andean locality of Guaranda, during an official visit to Ecuador, on June 16, 2008. Lugo, who will take on on August 15, worked as a priest in the area some 30 years ago.



Fernando Lugo meets Colombia's Alvaro Uribe (waving)
and his Defense Secretary, Juan Manuel Santos.



Lugo meets Tabaré Vázquez, Uruguay's President.



Lugo meets Peru's President Alan Garcia (in the middle).

[truedelphi]

27. Hey Peace Patriot

:hi:

[Doityourself]

14. I've heard Eric Holder's name from a close family friend...so it's not just speculation...

it is definitely possible he could be AG!

[AtomicKitten]

15. Junior is using the Colombian trade deal to bargain with right now.

Obama is pressing him for a stimulus package for ordinary working Americans, and Junior is using the Colombian trade deal as a bargaining chip.

[judasdisney]

19. Because Uribe is the last surviving fascist success story, and Neocons MUST protect him

Uribe was, incidentally and symbolically, born on July 4. The ominous closure of it all.

[judasdisney]

17. K & R times 1000

I think about this subject every day, all day long. I have absolute faith that Obama will fuck it up with flying colors, and I have absolute faith that when Obama attacks Chavez, I will leave this country immediately and burn my passport and never speak my mother tongue ever, ever again.

HANDS OFF CHAVEZ AND MORALES AND CORREA

[judasdisney]

18. Obama's Bay of Pigs -- the First Crisis

American businessmen beheaded in Venezuela, by a fake "Chavez Death Squad" -- actually a false flag staged by Uribe's Death Squads -- because CHAVEZ DOES NOT HAVE DEATH SQUADS.

American businessmen taken hostage and found in a fake "Chavez Mass Grave" -- actually a false flag staged by Uribe's Death Squads -- because CHAVEZ DOES NOT HAVE MASS GRAVES.

An "Al Qaeda attack" on an American city traced to another fake laptop tied to Venezuela -- because the number one priority of the Neocons is to divide Obama from the Latin American rebirth of democracy.

Here it comes, January 2009.

[Douglas Carpenter]

20. I like and support Barack Obama - but it is naive for anyone to imagine that he is likely to alter

in any fundamental way the basic assumptions of American power that have dominated American policy long before the neocons were ever even conceived.

The neoconservatives who came to full fruition during the Bush Administration are simply the lunatic fringe. But the basic assumptions of American imperium have been there all along and will continue to be there regardless who is in office.

Some have suggested that President-Elect Obama might be the new FDR. Others have suggested that he is the new JFK. Perhaps that is true. But, if anyone thinks FDR or JFK were anti-imperialist, they are truly living in fantasy land.

My numerous contacts in the Middle East seem to have the most realistic view of the President-Elect: It is a good thing he won. He is intelligent and competent. The election of a person of color to the highest office in the world is truly a great victory against racism. He understands issues better than any President in living memory. But he is not going to fundamentally change long standing U.S. policy. He is not going to resolve the most crucial issues in a way that really represents fair play. He can't, even if he wanted to.

Expecting a world power to be driven by humanitarian interest would be like expecting the pharmaceutical companies to put providing needed medication over making a hefty profit.

America will continue to behave as great Empires throughout history have always behaved. Hopefully, and I do believe perhaps even likely, we will see more Machiavellian pragmatism and less idiotic ideology.

The best case scenario is the hope that the concept of enlightened self-interest might gain increased traction. States are not moral institutions. American capitalist interest were willing to support a fairly enlightened post-World War II policy in Western Europe because it was correctly perceived as being in their interest.

[Hawkowl]

29. He will be forced to

The world's economy is literally imploding. This can not be overstated right now. Obama will be forced to think out side the box on a grand scale. If he doesn't implement drastic changes in both foreign, domestic and regulatory policy, he will fail.

If the majority of his appointees are former Clinton pro-corporate hacks (not all of Clinton's appointees fall into this category) then he is going to have a very tough time. He truly has the opportunity to become the next FDR--but remember that FDR started off down the same fairy-tale conservative path and was forced into out of the box thinking with the New Deal to save the country.

Hopefully Obama is a student of history and will simply leap into progressive, left of center solutions from the get go. He is inheriting all the unprecedented power from Bush's imperial presidency. He probably has not grasped how much power he actually has yet. But I'm sure Rahm is cluing him in.

[BlueMTexpat]

21. One of the extremely rare silver linings to II's general misrule

is that he has been so busy destroying nations in the ME and Asia and our economy at home that he hasn't been able to focus fully on Latin America. This lack of attention, apart from the lunatic fringe groups being supported to wreak havoc for Chavez and Morales and the disastrous concentration of US aid in Colombia to prop up Uribe, has allowed so many countries there to develop in ways they would otherwise not have been able to. Contrast, for example, the first presidential term of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and the days of Iran-Contra with Ortega's current term!

Eric Holder seems to be thought well of from his time at the DOJ, so I'm withholding opinion on him, in spite of the Chiquita fiasco. But Mark Penn's closeness to Hillary C, together with her latter-day hawkishness on I-P issues (she wasn't like that during Bill's administration), are just two reasons why I sincerely hope that she will not accept the SoS position. IMO, moving to the Cabinet in any position would be a poor career move on her part, but I also believe that Obama had to ask her to be in his cabinet one way or another. I would have thought, however, that HHS would be a better "fit" for her if it would not be offered to Howard Dean, who would be the best. Just sayin' ...

[Skwmom]

22. Obama does have the opportunity to put things right.

But nothing will change if we do not push our government to do the right thing. We have been part of the problem. Obama will feel a lot of pressure to stay the course and we need to push back. Blindly going along with whatever decision is made is not good for Obama or this country.

Thank you for this post.

[High Plains]

25. "Mr. President, Take a New Approach in Latin America and the Caribbean"

From the Latin America Working Group:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/625/t/1707/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=333&tag=obama_website

It's a moment of hope. But change never comes easy, and change in U.S. foreign policy is especially hard to come by. If we want to see foreign policies we can believe in, we need to organize to make any part of our dreams come true.

Sign this petition to encourage our next president to build a just policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean that unites us with our neighbors.

We will deliver this petition to President Obama on January 21, 2009.

Our goal is to reach 10,000 signers—so please send this to at least ten of your friends, family, and colleagues and get them to sign on!

Let's turn this opportunity for change into real change for Latin America!

Dear Mr. President:

In your stirring election night speech, you reminded us that your victory also belongs to us, the American people—and you called on us to join you in bringing real change to Washington.

It’s in this democratic spirit that we ask you to now join us in supporting a new approach to U.S. relations with our neighbors in Latin America.

We call on you to:

* Invest in people, not military might. For too long, we’ve let ourselves be known to our neighbors mainly by the guns we send and the soldiers we train. The United States must instead support public health, education, relief for victims of war and natural disasters, and micro-credit programs that will help lift people out of grinding poverty and reduce inequality. Our trade policies must be fair and improve the lives of poor and middle-class workers on both sides of our hemisphere.

* Put human rights front and center. To restore its image and promise in the region—and to once again live up to our values—the United States must first close Guantanamo and restore safeguards to prevent torture. We must also stand by the many courageous individuals calling for change in their own societies when they face threats or attacks.

* Take action to end the travel ban on Cuba that senselessly divides our families and countries. And call on Congress to finish the job—for ALL Americans. Doing so restores the fundamental right of American citizens to travel and would demonstrate to all of Latin America that a new day has dawned in our relationship with the hemisphere—and it’s the right thing to do. Open exchange with our neighbors is good diplomacy.

* Actively work for peace in Colombia. In a war that threatens to go on indefinitely, the immense suffering of the civilian population demands that the United States takes risks to achieve peace. If the United States is to actively support peace, it must stop endlessly bankrolling war and help bring an end to the hemisphere’s worst humanitarian crisis.

* Get serious—and smart—about drug policy. Our current drug policy isn’t only expensive and ineffective, it’s also inhumane. Instead of continuing a failed approach that brings soldiers into Latin America's streets and fields, we must invest in alternative development projects in the Andes and drug treatment and prevention here at home.

* Support a sensible and humane approach to border enforcement. It’s time to move beyond the relentless focus on enforcement that’s harmed communities on both sides of the border and forced migrants into more dangerous crossing points without achieving security. Involve border communities in border solutions and achieve comprehensive immigration reform.

* Keep the door to the Oval Office open. We encourage you to honor your campaign pledge to bring a new tone, in addition to new policies, to Washington by actively seeking the perspectives of our Latin American neighbors. To restore our image and integrity abroad, we must listen first.

We look forward to working with you to build a just policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean that renews our historic commitment to defending human rights and unites us with our neighbors.

[bertman]

26. kick. I share these concerns. FWIW.

[AngryAmish]

28. You paint an ahistoric picture of Colombia during the Clinton years.

Colombia does not work and never has really worked well. This is not a simple labor unions v. landowners picture.

Colombia has been destroying itself for 60 years. The violence unleashed during la Violencia (by all parties, left and right wing) is unimaginable to civilized people. The nation was and still is marked by that violence.

In the 90s Colombia was destroying itself and the violence was leaking into forneign nations. The drug lords declared war against the government in the 80s and 90s. They bombed an airliner - and the US government has had a longstanding posiition that threats to international air travel were to be crushed. (Like the US NAvy has a policy to fight piracy on the high seas).

Clinton had to act. He did and Colombia is less violent today then it was then. Did Clinton bend or shatter both US and international law with the Operation Phoenix-like attack on the drug Medellin Cartel? Yes. But they were mad dogs that had to be put down.

[subsuelo]

31. Human Rights takes a back-seat to Change, I guess

[Skwmom]

32. What change? It's like we're going back in time.

[robertpaulsen]

33. The Disaster Continues.

Obama names first African-American attorney general: reportRAW STORY
Published: Tuesday November 18, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama plans to tap longtime lawyer Eric Holder to be attorney general, which would making him the first African-American ever in the post, according to several reports Tuesday.

Holder, who served as deputy attorney general under former president Bill Clinton, will head the Justice Department, reported Newsweek magazine's Michael Isikoff, citing legal sources close to the presidential transition.

Obama's transition team did not immediately comment on the report.

"Obama offered Holder the job and he accepted," the magazine said on its website, adding that "the announcement is not likely until after Obama announces his choices to lead the Treasury and State departments."

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_names_first_AfricanAmerican_attorney_general_1118.html

[Sebastian Doyle]

34. Mike Malloy just referenced this thread on his radio show

So I thought I'd kick it upstairs for those who might have missed it. :kick:

[JackBeck]

35. Yup. Just heard him reading it. n/t