A quick South American update to get minds off Rove for a while.

[icymist]

With all the talk on the DU about the (possible) indictment of Rove, I thought a little update of the happenings in South America may help relieve anxiety. Sometimes it's good to shift the focus for a while.

Venezuela and Bolivia have become allies after newly elected President Morales took office in Bolivia May 1st. The first glimpse of this new alliance happened May 12th at a summit in Europe "between the EU and several regions of Latin America".
snip
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and his new ally Evo Morales of Bolivia, both running countries with increasingly important energy supplies, dominated the summit of about 60 heads of state which should have focused on new trade and investment deals.

One of President Morales first official acts was to nationalize Bolivia's vast natural gas fields. This should be interesting to see how the big oil companies, who have around 3.5 billion dollars invested there, will react. Brazil is considering pulling it's ambassador from Bolivia to protect it's investments there.

Brazil, also, is now in it's fourth day of riots by gangsters after major crime bosses were transfered to a remote prison. More than 80 have been killed in violence aimed at banks, bars, and public transit.

A mystery in Argentina as dead, oil soaked penguins wash up on the shores there. No oil slick has yet been found.

Chile now offers free healthcare to it's citizens over 60 years old. Everything in that country isn't all wine and roses as the UK BG group pours up to $400 million into a "new liquid natural gas re-gasification plant" while the Chilean government ignores it's energy rich neighbors.

Colombia has let up on it's strict abortion laws while a volcano in Ecuador springs to life. Last but not least is that Peru will host the next EU/Latin American summit.

P.S. The DU already knows a whole bunch about the U.S. arms sales ban on Venezuela which Chavez is brushing aside.

[peacetalksforall]

1. Thanks. I'm not sure why their progress interests me so much. I'm

aware of the fiscal tyranny and usury we imposed as chief member in the World Bank and IMF and through our own U.S. banks and gov depts. I'm aware of domination going back to bananas, rubber. We have not honored these people, only their payola presidents. It was well known that U.S. aid to the people didn't always reach the people. Then, we massacred them and kicked out duly elected presidents. May have been involved in dropping people out of a/c over their oceans. And then we allowed refugees from one Caribbean country hold us in political and monetary hostage for decades.

I vote for the bottom to middle class people of those countries who in some of the countries finally have some leaders speaking for them.

And then there is Paraguay - whose leader is allowing U.S. military bases to be built and has allowed Rev Moon to own milions and millions of acres of land. Paraguay with a whole bunch of water that could be sold by Bechtel now that Bechtel's plan to make Bolivians pay for their water has failed.

Thanks. You might consider putting these updates in your journal - make your research and writing worthwhile to readers with interest in the progress.

[icymist]

3. You are welcome.

I do post these to my journal from time to time. I usually try and focus on one area of the world and then report what I find. I haven't done this for a while as I was wondering if anyone was even reading them. Today, I just got maxed out on Rove and decided to research and post. Glad you liked it.
icymist

[Vidar]

2. Thanks for posting.