The Ghost of Che

[subsuelo]

I'm just posting this as an example of the absurd fantasy-world crap that American intelligensia live in. (iow, I don't agree with the article)

Noam Chomsky once said:

"The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn't betray it I'd be ashamed of myself."

My friends, yet another case in point of what Professor Chomsky was talking about:

The Ghost of Che
The same old authoritarian revolution is back.
BY DOUGLAS FARAH | JULY 17, 2009

No matter whether and how Zelaya returns, however, much of the damage is already done. The coup has exposed just what a beating liberal democracy has taken in Latin America by the latest gang of strongmen in a two-centuries-long line. Zelaya, along with Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and Evo Morales of Bolivia, is a new face of the utopian-revolutionary dreams that have wreaked havoc and sowed totalitarianism across the region for so long. The legacy of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who fomented Marxist revolution in the 1950s and 1960s and left authoritarians in his wake, is bloody and unending.

Chávez, Ortega, Correa, Morales, and formerly Zelaya base their rule on the premise that the enlightened caudillo, or strongman, can execute the will of the people better than the people themselves. It's an idea that dates back to Simón Bolívar, liberator of the continent from colonial rule, and has since been embraced by everyone from left-wing orthodox Marxists to right-wing military thugs. The caudillo is entitled to use force if acting for the people. Power cannot alternate between different rulers, because to allow for that would doom the revolution. This Orwellian paradigm allows leaders to twist their constitutions, attack the independent press, destroy due process, and justify their perpetual hold on power -- just as Zelaya did.

...across the region, the Bolivarian revolution is unwinding the hard-won democratic gains made in the past 15 years, while pretending that it's doing everything in the name of democracy itself. In Nicaragua, the formerly U.S.-backed Contra rebels disarmed and the Sandinista military and police were tamed. The democratic system Ortega now tramples was the same one that was finally open enough to see him reelected. In Bolivia, repressive military regimes gave way to elected governments -- opening the way to Morales's election. He has since turned back the democratic clock by attacking the press, allowing his followers to physically target the opposition, and illegally passing sweeping constitutional reform.


...Douglas Farah is national security consultant on Latin American issues and senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center. He spent 15 years covering Latin America for the Washington Post and other publications.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/07/17/the_ghost_of_che">Foreign Policy magazine - read more crap here