If you are in DC 3/10: The Summit of the Americas: US Policy toward the Region under Obama

[magbana]

Jeez, having to look at Tom Shannon at 8:30am!!
magbana

The Summit of the Americas:
U.S. Policy toward the Region under Obama

A discussion with

Tom Shannon
Assistant Secretary of State
for Western Hemisphere Affairs

Hector Morales
U.S. Representative to the
Organization of American States

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
8:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Inter-American Dialogue
1211 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 510
Washington, DC


We are pleased to invite you to join us at the Inter-American Dialogue on Tuesday, March 10th from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. to discuss the fast approaching Fifth Summit of the Americas, which will take place on April 17 to 19th in Trinidad and Tobago.

This Summit will be an intense introduction to hemispheric affairs for President Obama, who is committed to participating. He will have the opportunity to hear from nearly every other leader in the America and present his thinking about U.S. policy in the region—on such issues as the global economic crisis, Cuba, immigration, trade, drug trafficking, and others. The Summit will also provide an opportunity to start rebuilding a common agenda and renewing cooperation in the hemisphere. At the same time, however, the current strains in inter-American relations are likely to be on view, and the failure of the last Summit in Mar del Plata four years ago will be on many of the assembled leaders´minds. Expectations for this Summit are, at best, mixed.

We are pleased to have Assistant Secretary Tom Shannon and OAS Ambassador Hector Morales lead off the discussion. We look forward to hearing their expectations regarding the proceedings and outcome of the Summit, the message they expect President Obama to bring to the gathering, and what he might hear from the other assembled leaders.

We very much hope you will be able to be with us. Please let us know if that will be possible by responding to this e-mail.

Best regards,

Peter

[Peace Patriot]

1. "...a common agenda and renewing cooperation in the hemisphere"--with Shannon there?

Interesting word, "renewing." Does that mean the U.S. will no longer be funding fascist thugs and murderers in Bolivia, who slaughtered some 30 unarmed peasants this September; no more clandestine meetings in Puerto Rico with Venezuela's rightwing opposition, to slip them $3 million to defeat a Venezuelan referendum; no more U.S./Colombia bombing raids on Ecuador; no more U.S. attorneys in Miami putting on show trials, based on ridiculous CIA capers, to try to drag the presidents of Argentina and Venezuela through the mud; no more U.S.-supported coup and assassination plots; no more U.S. larding Colombia's military with $6 BILLION, whose death squads slaughter thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers and others; no more "divide and conquer"; no more arm-twisting and bullying; no more USAID training of young 'brownshirt' rioters and gangsters in Venezuela; no more CIA drug and weapons trafficking; no more infusions of U.S. taxpayer cash into the fascist political parties all over Latin America, specifically right now in El Salvador to try to buy a rightwing government in the March election (with the leftist way ahead); no more corrupt, failed, murderous U.S. "war on drugs"; no more attempted militarization of Latin American society; no more "School of the Americas"...?

"Renewing cooperation"? When was there ever cooperation between the U.S. and Latin American leaders that did not result in torture, death and oppression of every kind against the poor and their advocates, the rape of Latin American resources and contempt for the sovereignty of Latin American countries? For very brief periods, under FDR and JFK. That's it. The rest of it has been a miserable, horrible story of the U.S. corpo/fascist war on the poor, to this day, and never more intense than wherever Assistant Sec of State Thomas Shannon shows up, as far back as his consular position in Guatemala under Reagan (his job likely to protect Reagan's puppets from any consequences for the dreadful massacre of 200,000 Mayan villagers and other atrocities), to his position as Dep Assistant Sec of State for the Western Hemisphere under Bush 2002-2003, then bumped up to Special Assistant to the President for same 2003-2005, and finally Asst Sec of State for same, currently. 2002: The Bushwhack-supported attempted fascist coup in Venezuela. 2003: Bushwhack supported crippling oil professionals' strike, Venezuela. 2004: Bushwhack-funded recall election against Chavez in Venezuela. 2002-2008: assassination plots, coup plots, destabilization efforts, psyops, war plans, funding of the rightwing opposition, etc., against South America's leftist leaders in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua and other countries.

And that is a short list: Bushwhack ops in South America included trying to instigate a war between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela in early 2008, likely include CIA drug/weapons trafficking and also, it appears, a Stanford Bank ponzi scheme possibly intended to destabilize Venezuela's and other economies, with Stanford likely the CIA money launderer for its illicit ops. And the blood-drenched fascist coup attempt in Bolivia in fall 2008.

As Asst Sec of State for the Western Hemisphere, Shannon has been thickly involved in all of this evil, as well as being the Bushwhack spouter of lies in praise of the narco thugs running Colombia, and against the democratic governments in the rest of the continent, especially the most independent ones. How can this man be speaking for the Obama government, on a "common agenda and renewing cooperation in the hemisphere" without bats and spiders flying out his mouth?

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thanks for pointing out his association with Guatemala and the genocide

which destroyed so many, MANY lives, broke so many hearts and minds among the survivors there for the sake of beating down any possibility of dissent, that reign of terror will be be hated, loathed, dispised far far longer than anyone living there now could imagine. Nothing like that would have EVER happened had it not been for constant US direct interference since 1954, intensifying to a living hell during Ronald Reagan's time.

All this was accomplished with the cheerleading from US fundamentalist preachers Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, who ALSO supported the Guatemalan President/preacher/sociopath Efraín Ríos Montt. They all worked themselves into a political/religious/hallucinatory lather backing this monster, who also, of course, used torture as part of his charm.

A quick quote:

io Montt holds a special place in the ranks of history’s genocidal murderers with folks like Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Pol Pot. President Ronald Reagan and other U.S. officials strongly supported and guided him in his campaign, so the blood of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans is also on U.S. hands. In addition, Israel provided weapons and training to the former dictator’s campaign of genocide.

The U.S. "Christian" right fervently supported Rios Montt and his “scorched earth” policy against the Mayan population. Rios Montt was a "born again" mass murderer who was a member ("elder") of the Arcata, California based Church of the Word (Verbo), a branch of Evangelical Gospel Outreach. He surrounded himself with advisers, both North American and Guatemalan, from his Verbo church. A loose coalition of right-wing fundamentalist organizations, including Pat Robertson's "Christian" Broadcasting Network, conducted an extensive fundraising drive and sent volunteers to Ixil Triangle villages under military control.

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/635/33/

I would imagine there's a distinct sulphur smell in the air around Thomas Shannon, as well!

[Peace Patriot]

3. Yeah, it sure looks like it (smells like it).

I looked quite closely at Shannon's career. It's rather non-descript. Hard to pin down what he's actually done. He's a career diplomat with the foreign service. So there is a possibility, in that case, that the person may not agree with Bushwhack policy, and is just sitting back and hoping for regime change at home--or, possibly even doing some good, behind the scenes. I think this is still a possibility with Shannon. For instance, he was not in Guatemala during the worst massacres. He came in just afterward, after Montt had been deposed. My guess was that he was there to lend protection to Montt. But I don't know for sure. I'd have to study State Dept. cables, etc., or find some research on it. And, of course, as a high-placed diplomat for the western hemisphere, all the way from Reagan to Bush Jr., he bears some level of responsibility for U.S.-perpetrated "dirty wars." I just don't know for sure how much, or what his function was, or if there are any redeeming features to his service.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Whoa, I just picked this up from your new thread on Bolivia...about Shannon...

"There are apparently some divisions within the administration over tactics. The "doves" apparently include Thomas Shannon, the current top State Department official for the Western Hemisphere, and a holdover from the Bush administration. These officials can see that there is a public relations problem in abusing Bolivia, the poorest country in South America and more importantly one led by the country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales. To most of the world, he is the Nelson Mandela of Bolivia, with his government bringing an end to centuries of apartheid-like exclusion of the country's indigenous majority."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x12170

------

I was just wondering if I had judged Shannon too harshly, as a Bushwhack criminal. And here he turns up in a Weisbrot article described as a "dove." Interesting. Not conclusive (as to redeeming features). But interesting.

The Weisbrot article as a whole made me sick to my stomach. I will explain why in your other thread (the Weisbrot post).

[Judi Lynn]

5. I really missed that one. Just went back to check.

It ends in a strange way, doesn't it? Here's the Weisbrot comment:

For the "doves" in the new administration, it would be better to avoid a public fight with Bolivia, so as not to distract from the guy who is sitting on what may be the largest petroleum reserves in the world - in Venezuela - and whom they have already successfully vilified in the media. On the other hand, there are hard liners who feel the need to "lay down the law" with Bolivia. We will soon know who has prevailed.

Good news, and bad news!

Looks as if they have made the decision they will be clinging to the old "divide and conquer" obsession until they have finally been shown the error of their ways, doesn't it? I'm hoping what it seems we've seen in the growing solidarity in the "New World" is real!

[Peace Patriot]

6. We've been following these events for some years now (and some of us for

many years), through U.S./Bushwhack coup attempt after coup attempt, and one dirty trick after another, and I think we can safely conclude at least this about South America: the solidarity is real.

Look what they've been through--with their alliances getting stronger with each event:

The U.S./Bushwhack-supported coup against Chavez in 2002.

The U.S./Bushwhack-supported, crippling oil professionals' strike in Venezuela, in 2003.

The U.S./Bushwhack-funded recall election against Chavez in 2004.

U.S./Bushwhack-Colombia assassination and coup plots against Chavez, circa 2006 election.

Meanwhile, leftists and strong allies of Chavez get elected in Bolivia and Ecuador. Ecuador's new leftist president pledges to evict the U.S. military from its base in Manta, Ecuador, when the lease expires (this year-2009). Brazil's center-leftist Lula da Silva comes forward as a defender of Chavez and Venezuelan democracy, and when the Bushwhacks issue their dictate to South American leaders, that they must "isolate Chavez," Argentina's president Nestor Kirchner replies, "But he's my brother!"

Bush travels to Latin America, and gets lectured, from Mexico to Brazil--including a public lecture by the right-wing president of Mexico--on the sovereignty of Latin American countries!

Circa 2006-2007: Chavez renegotiates Venezuela's oil contracts with multinationals, to change the unfair 10/90 split of the profits favoring the multinationals, to 60/40 favoring Venezuela and its social programs. Exxon Mobil walks out of the talks, and goes into court in London to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets. The others remain in the talks and sign the contracts (France's Total, Norway's Statoil, British BP, Chevron). Exxon Mobil loses the lawsuit.

Circa 2007: Leftists elected in Uruguay and Nicaragua. More Chavez allies.

Early 2008: The final Bushwhack war plan. The U.S.-Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador. The region poised for war. Bushwhack plans in place to instigate fascist secession in the northern oil provinces in Venezuela and Ecuador, and the eastern gas/oil provinces of Bolivia. Chavez pulls Ecuador back from the war (for which Lulu calls him "the great peacemaker"). Bushwhack/CIA operatives exposed and expunged from Ecuador's military. Chavez has meanwhile exposed and dealt with additional Bushwhack plots in Venezuela. (Colombia's 40+ year civil war, and U.S./Bushwhack $6 BILLION in military aid to Colombia, are the issue. Venezuela and Ecuador, both bordering Colombia, and harried by the civil war, had been trying to broker a peace, by negotiating the release of FARC hostages. On the eve of high-profile hostage Ingrid Betancourt's release in Ecuador, the U.S./Colombia dropped ten U.S. "smart bombs" of the FARC negotiator's camp, just inside Ecuador's border, killing 25 people in their sleep. Clearly, they were trying to provoke Ecuador into war, and almost did. Above all, the Bushwhacks wanted to prevent a peaceful end to Colombia's civil war. The South American leaders took the matter to their Rio Group--a pan-Latin American conflict resolution group that does not include the U.S. And there, with Chavez's help, Colombia apologized and that matter was ended--although Colombia's civil war continues, along with Colombia's rightwing death squads and drug trafficking.)

Circa 2008: Leftists elected in Paraguay and Guatemala. Yet more Chavez allies. (Chavez and the new president of Paraguay--the former "bishop of the poor" Fernando Lugo--sing "Todo Cambio" ("Everything Changes") together on stage at Lugo's inaugural celebration. All the new leftist leaders of the continent are in attendance. Paraguay had been ruled by the rightwing for 61 years.)

Mid-2008: South America forms UNASUR--the South American 'common market'--a very important event, as becomes clear shortly afterward. The U.S./Bushwhacks reconstitute the U.S. 4th Fleet in the Caribbean (mothballed after WW II), to harry Venezuela's oil coast. Brazil's president says that the 4th Fleet also threatens Brazil's oil reserves on the Atlantic coast. Brazil proposes that UNASUR create a 'common defense,' It is later agreed to by all (even Colombia). Meanwhile, Chavez invites the Russians to naval maneuvers in the Caribbean (for late fall 2008).

Sept. 2008: The U.S./Bushwhacks go ahead with coup plans in Bolivia, still trying to destabilize the region. Bolivia has a particular weakness--its rich white separatist minority--and is just now, after hundreds of years of oppression, coming to equal rights for Bolivia's indigenous majority. Its new president, Evo Morales--a 100% indigenous indian--is the "Nelson Mandela" of South America. The indigenous movement is also an anti-neoliberal and anti-corporate movement, and furthermore, promotes a SANE drug policy (opposes the corrupt, failed U.S. "war on drugs"; okay with local coca leaf use, against drug cartels/crime and Bushwhack militarization). The Bushwhacks fund/organize the white separatists, who cause riots and mayhem, and machine-gun some 30 unarmed peasants. Morales throws the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of the country, but hesitates to use the military against the white separatists; doesn't want a civil war (a very wise man, Morales--he knows civil war is what the Bushwhacks want). Everybody and their brother in South America tries to mediate; all fail. Then Chile's Michele Batchelet calls a meeting of UNASUR, to face its first crisis, and gains a unanimous resolution (even including Colombia) in full support of the Morales government, and sends several delegations to Bolivia, to mediate the dispute and to investigate the mass murder. Also, Brazil and Argentina make it very clear to the white separatists that they will not recognize or trade with a secessionist state. (They are Bolivia's chief gas customers; the white separatists were trying to split off the gas rich provinces and control that resource.) UNASUR's efforts are successful...

Late 2008/early 2009: Bolivia successfully passes its new Constitution by general plebiscite. Ecuador had also gotten its new Constitution passed by the voters earlier in 2008. And Chavez succeeds in getting term limits lifted in Venezuela, by general plebiscite (Feb 09). The Bushwhacks opposed all of these, and conspired against them. Democracy won.

----------------------

The foregoing are just the highlights of this decade long struggle of South America to overcome U.S. domination, and join together in common cause, at long last. There are many other noteworthy developments, such as formation of the Chavez-inspired Bank of the South, and the near total eviction of the World Bank/IMF from the region. There are many new local and regional development projects, such as the new highway to be built from Brazil's Atlantic coast to the Pacific, through Bolivia (making Bolivia a major trade route), and Chile's settlement of a century old dispute, by giving Bolivia access to the sea. This new era of cooperation is notable and even amazing, and bodes well for the future.

And for the last eight years, the Bushwhacks have been relentless in their anti-democratic activities, including war and assassination plans, efforts to destabilize, dirty tricks, psyops, propaganda, and massive funding of minority rightwing groups and violent fascists. South American unity has only gotten stronger with every wretched Bushwhack move. El Salvador will likely elect a leftist this March. The list of leftist governments, or center-left governments in sympathy with the social justice and sovereignty goals of the Bolivarians, in South and Central America, will then include almost ALL of Latin America: Venezuela (L), Bolivia (L), Ecuador (L), Argentina (L), Paraguay (L), Uruguay (L), Brazil (C-L), Chile (C-L), Nicaragua (L), Guatemala (C-L) and (soon) El Salvador (L). Honduras is leaning left. Costa Rica is progressive/democratic (C-L), but succumbed to a Bushwhack "free trade" deal.

Mexico will probably go leftist in the next election (there may be civil war otherwise). Virtually the only countries that haven't gone leftist are the ones where the U.S. has been able to put a Big Boot down militarily: Panama and Colombia are U.S. military client states. Peru is a U.S. "free trade" disaster area, with a very corrupt government, but still democratic enough to get rid of that government in the next election cycle, and will probably do so. But the U.S. military has made inroads in Peru via the "war on drugs." We can see from this why the Bushwhacks recently shoved billions of dollars in military aid on Mexico ostensibly for the "war on drugs." The Bushwhacks and the Bushwhack/CIA are probably very dirty on drugs/weapons trafficking. This may be the "why" of the drug cartel wars in Mexico right now--they have been deliberately instigated to further militarize Mexico, to stem the leftist tide.

But the overall picture of Latin America is leftist, democratic, peaceful, pro-sovereignty and pro-social justice. And--the most remarkable and historic development of all--they are working together for the common good, something that should have happened a hundred years ago, but has been continually disrupted by the U.S. and its corporate interests all this time.

The U.S./corporates have a particular interest in keeping Mexico and the Caribbean/Central American region subjugated. They wanted badly to add the Venezuelan northern oil state of Zulia (on the Caribbean) to that region (via a secessionist plot), and "circle the wagons" there. The struggle in the C/C.A. region may be even more difficult than the struggle in South America over the last decade. But the South American struggle is largely over. Democracy, peace and regional cooperation have won. And it is becoming increasingly clear to the voters in the C/C.A. that it is to their advantage to join with the South Americans in a common economic/political effort, and to their distinct disadvantage to remain dominated by the U.S.

Will the Obama administration side with multinational oil and other corporate interests, and continue to try "divide and conquer" tactics, and worse--devious destabilization tactics, "war on drugs" militarization, etc.? Unknown. If they do, I think they will fail, and we will be the losers, not Latin America.

[Judi Lynn]

7. The stark manipulation, coersion, power grabs of the past have left their mark on Latin Americans.

They have absorbed the horrendous cost in human suffering, and started assimilating their experiences. It doesn't appear any of them will be willing to ever go through this again, and that they will stand together to bring their new union together, finally.

I hope they will find it easier from here than it was up to this point, but after seeing what has happened already, what unbelievable lengths some parts of our government have been willing to pursue, at the most torturous depths of brutality, it's really hard to know when our own control/power mad elements will be able to consult their own consciences again, and start living as honorable people, making honorable policy which benefits everyone, and allows room for everyone to live and to find hope.

I hope it's not by accident all these young, determined, strong leaders are coming forward to lead their countries now, with the huge support of the majorities behind them. I hope they will be seasoned enough to be prepared for anything, and finally achieve that Latin American peace which has been stolen and taken by force from them.

http://media.nowpublic.net.nyud.net:8090/images//58/1/581f5234d1d6674c103eaa23f6a66305.jpg

Rio Group Summit, after Uribe invaded Ecuador.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Love the photo! Look at the beautiful righteous fury in Rafael Correa's face!

WHAT. A. LOOK!

Lucky he is not really Sir Lancelot and did not have a sword in his hand, when Uribe approached him!

Chavez must have had a time calming him down. Poor Rafael! The treachery and evil he saw unfold, in his first year in office, must surely have shocked him, and sobered him, and probably made him a better president. They thought they had peace in hand, but had such horror to deal with, instead. And it's still going on. Colombia is like a putrid, festering wound stinking up the continent. And the continent cannot really be healed, and cannot fully gather its strengths and go forward, until that wound is cleaned out and on the mend. That's how these leaders think--Chavez, Correa, Batchelet, the Kirchners and all the others--I have realized. It's as if part of them--part of the whole--is wounded; it's as if they have a collective limp that cannot be ignored and that hampers them.

When Nestor Kirchner replied, "But he's my brother!"--after the Bushwhacks told them they must "isolate Chavez," I think that is exactly what he meant. These new leaders see themselves as a family. And that is the very strength that Simon Bolivar knew that they would need, and dreamed of achieving--the family of South American nations. I think this is why I have such confidence that they will succeed. They feel part of something much bigger than their own ambitious or fates--the realization of Latin American unity, at long last. You can see this in Correa's smoldering gaze at Uribe, as well--Correa's dreams of a peaceful, prosperous South America, as he looks at one of the chief obstacles to that dream, and wishes with all his heart that Colombia could have a better leader, and could become a peaceful, just, cooperative, friendly neighbor, in the new "brotherhood" of South America. I see that wish behind his anger. It's not really murderous anger. It's just utter frustration and angst.