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kskiska Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:29 PM
Original message
NYT: Bush to Set Out Shift in Latin Region Agenda
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, March 5 — President Bush arrives here on Thursday with an energy partnership plan to create jobs and decrease poverty and inequality, a marked shift in Washington’s priorities for Latin America aimed at countering the challenge posed by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

Since 1990, when Mr. Bush’s father was in the White House, United States policy toward the region has focused on free-trade agreements and related economic measures, with a secondary emphasis on drug interdiction.

But the growing leftward and anti-American trend in regional politics, led by Mr. Chávez — who plans a countertour to coincide with Mr. Bush’s trip — has led to a modified agenda and a renewed effort to rebut complaints by Latin Americans that the president has ignored their concerns in favor of the campaign against terrorism.

“When something isn’t working after 15 years, that’s a sign there are insurmountable obstacles and it’s time to change direction,” said Rubens Ricupero, a Brazilian diplomat and former secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in an interview here. “This is a very intelligent initiative on the part of the U.S., because there’s no point in tying the whole relationship to something that has only produced frustration and stagnation.”

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/world/americas/06latin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:32 PM
Response to Original message
1. Trojan horse! Duck, everyone!
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bemildred Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:36 PM
Response to Original message
2. Morebullshit is my guess.
Edited on Mon Mar-05-07 11:36 PM by bemildred
Nobody is buying the old bullshit, so we need some new bullshit. Anything but just butting the hell out of their affairs, or peaceful relations based on mutual respect for national sovereignty and internal autonomy.
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okoboji Donating Member (510 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:42 PM
Response to Original message
3. OMG
Bush is on another mission to destroy more counties? And the people of Brazil are going to let him enter their country?
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eleny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:45 PM
Response to Original message
4. At first, I misread your subject header
:rofl:
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Gloria Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-05-07 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
5. Chavez has frozen out his buddies at the IMF, I'm afraid.....

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/01/business/imf.php

Hugo Chávez exploits oil wealth to push IMF aside
By Christopher Swann Bloomberg News
Published: March 1, 2007


WASHINGTON: President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is using his country's oil wealth to squeeze the International Monetary Fund out of Latin America, the region that once accounted for most of its business.

IMF lending in the region has fallen to $50 million, or less than 1 percent of its global portfolio, compared with 80 percent in 2005. Meanwhile, Chávez has used his oil wealth to lend $2.5 billion to Argentina, offer $1.5 billion to Bolivia and $500 million to Ecuador.

Chávez is promoting what he calls a "socialist" alternative to the Fund and its biggest shareholder, the U.S. Treasury. The timing could not be worse for the IMF, whose global clout is diminishing as countries from Uruguay to the Philippines pay their debts.

"Chávez is the No. 1 enemy of the IMF in the region," said José Guerra, a former head of economic research at Venezuela's central bank and now a professor at Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. "He views the IMF as an agent in the service of the U.S."

MORE
Visit the BUZZFLASH WORLD MEDIA WATCH M-W-F
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Cha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 12:13 AM
Response to Original message
6. They better fucking fix New Orleans and
then they can fly his ass down to Latin America.

bush is on a quest to out Chavez Chavez in AMerica Del Sur?!
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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 01:11 AM
Response to Original message
7. hey, the US could use this!! here!:
President Bush arrives here on Thursday with an energy partnership plan to create jobs and decrease poverty and inequality,
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MisterP Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 01:12 AM
Response to Original message
8. Bush goes out selling Procrustean beds
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IndianaGreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 01:17 AM
Response to Original message
9. Neoliberalism is dead in Latin America and Bush is very much hated down there.
The days of Latin America being considered an American backyard are over forever! The mighty American military machine is no more, and after Iraq, Americans will be in no mood for any military adventures for at least a generation.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:19 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. That sums it up pretty well.
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truthisfreedom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:48 AM
Response to Original message
11. A plan to increase jobs and decrease poverty? HEY FUCKER! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT IN OUR COUNTRY?
No further comment.
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Peace Patriot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 02:01 PM
Response to Original message
12. What is more shameful, Bush's lies about his Junta's agenda in Latin America, or
the NYT reporting it with a straight face?

"President Bush arrives here on Thursday with an energy partnership plan to create jobs and decrease poverty and inequality..."

If the NYT was into honest reporting any more, they would say Bush's "ALLEGED plan to create jobs and decrease poverty and inequality." Where else on earth has the Bush Junta done anything to "create jobs" or to "decrease poverty and inequality"? There is no evidence at all that that is what they intend ANYWHERE. So it deserves to be treated with skepticism, on its face. The way to handle this--if you want to be polite about it--is to use quotations. "A plan to create jobs and decrease poverty," according State Dept. spokeswoman _____. But the NYT doesn't even make a pretense at objectivity here. They accept the Bush Junta's WORD, as FACT, that their "plan" for Latin America is to "decrease poverty."

What a load of crap!

What Bush is really doing is taking a $4 BILLION check--written against future U.S. revenues, and adding to our $10 TRILLION deficit--to the worst of the worst fascist thugs and murderers in Colombia. But, guess what? Even the filth that Bush hangs out with are getting arrested and indicted in Colombia, in huge scandals right now about rightwing paramilitary drug trafficking and murder, including a plot to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. (That recently came out.) Bush's favorite fascist regime--that of Pres. Uribe of Colombia--is being rocked by these scandals, even as we speak. (To Uribe's credit, he apparently refused to participate in Bushite plots against Chavez, but he is nevertheless head of an extremely corrupt regime, which has bled more money from U.S. taxpayers into rightwing paramilitary thuggery, murder and drug running than anyone except maybe Osama bin Laden.)

Bush is NOT going to Latin America to "decrease poverty and inequality"! If he were, he would be visiting Venezuela, and congratulating the people there for their success at restoring their democracy and their Constitution after the US-backed rightwing military coup attempt in 2002, and he would be apologizing for supporting the coup; and he would be visiting Bolivia, and congratulating the people there for electing the first indigenous president of Bolivia, socialist Evo Morales, and he would be apologizing for Bechtel Corp.'s behavior (privatizing the water in Cochabamba, and then jacking up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater*); and he would be visiting Ecuador, and congratulating the people there for the success of their democracy, in giving a 60% electoral victory to US-educated leftist economist Rafael Correa, and he would be offering to remove the US air base that Correa and most Ecuadorans want removed from their territory; and he would be visiting Argentina and congratulating them for getting out from under World Bank debt, and would be apologizing for the part the US played in destroying Argentina's economy; and he would be visiting Chile, and congratulating the people there for electing socialist Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by US-backed dictator Pinochet, and he would be apologizing for US support of Pinochet, and would be promising to dismantle Guantanamo Bay and to disavow torture and to re-commit the US to human rights and to international law.

In Latin America, it has been the poor who have most suffered from torture and 'disappearances.' It is leftists and union leaders who get murdered. And it is they--the tortured, the murdered, the 'disappeared'--who have fought for a "decrease" of "poverty and inequality." Not the Bush Cartel. A disavowal of torture would be the most meaningful and helpful thing that a US president could do, to promote a "decrease" of "poverty and inequality." Just stop killing the poor. Just stop supporting rightwing thugs and dictators who brutally suppress the poor in their aspirations to democracy and a decent life.

But that isn't Bush's purpose--decreasing poverty and inequality. And we know it. And the NYT knows it--the bastards.

Bush's purpose is to conspire with fascist elements in Guatemala, Colombia and Mexico toward further repression of the poor, and to try to drive a wedge between Brazil and Uruguay (his other two stops), to slow the momentum toward a South American "Common Market" and common currency. That may be the price that Bush's Corporate puppetmasters are extracting from Bush for their continued propping up of the Bush/Cheney junta (including keeping its two main criminals out of prison). And this is a pretty picture, indeed: While maimed US soldiers suffer in their own urine in military hospitals, amidst rats and cockroaches, and more of them are blown up every day in Bush's "surge" in Iraq, and the US government goes into meltdown and bankruptcy, our shitty little dictator is off to South America to do the dirty work for the Corporate Rulers, to try to topple democratic governments, and prevent cooperation among them, for the betterment of their people.

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


*(The people of Bolivia rose up and threw Bechtel out of their country, and elected Evo Morales--a leader of the movement--as President. THAT is how to "decrease poverty and inequality" in Latin America!)


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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 03:57 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. It was very interesting seeing Lula went to Uruguay last week to have a conference
with the President of Uruguay, in advance of Bush's trip.

Haven't seen any reports of their meeting, but it's clear Lula meant to express that they intend to settle the differences between the countries over the pulp mill on the river themselves, and NOT to have Bush sticking his gnarly, meddling nose into their affairs in such a way he could make things worse between them.


Beautiful to see that act of resistance. Hope it will stick.

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underpants Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:09 PM
Response to Original message
14. Yeah with all the success he has had in the ME why not expand?
sounds like the recipe for modern day corporate screw ups.
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Judi Lynn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
15. Bush set for Latin America trip
Posted on Tue, Mar. 06, 2007
Bush set for Latin America trip
PRESIDENT ADMITS POVERTY IS STILL REGIONAL PROBLEM
By Ron Hutcheson and Pablo Bachelet
McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - President Bush, laying the groundwork for an eight-day trip to Latin America that's likely to deepen the struggle for influence with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, acknowledged Monday that U.S.-backed economic policies and free-trade agreements have failed to lift millions of Latin Americans from poverty.

Sprinkling his speech with Spanish words and phrases, Bush announced a series of modest efforts to help the poor, including a plan to send U.S. military medical teams to the region.

``The fact is that tens of millions of our brothers and sisters to the south have seen little improvement in their daily lives, and this has led some to question the value of democracy,'' he told members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. ``The working poor of Latin America need change, and the United States of America is committed to that change.''

The speech was the opening shot in a battle with Chávez that will play out during the president's travels. After flying to Brazil on Thursday, Bush will stop in Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.
(snip/...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/16843013.htm
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KansDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 06:06 PM
Response to Original message
16. BULLSHIT!!! Bush Family now owns 100,000 acres in this "Latin region"
Paraguay in a spin about Bush's alleged 100,000 acre hideaway

I wondered about a sitting president owning so much land in a foreign country. I wondered if this could cloud his judgment. I wondered if a sitting president could think objectively about this region while owning so much land.

Where was the Corporate Media on this? Why wasn't this discussed or debated in the media?

From the second page:
Now, however, “there is a sense that things are not going well for the U.S. in the region,” said Peter Hakim, president of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based policy research and advocacy group. “There has probably never been so much anti-Americanism and so little confidence in U.S. leadership since the cold war.”

What's good for BushCo is good for Paraguay, eh, El Presidente? Is that your "agenda?"


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killbotfactory Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-06-07 06:26 PM
Response to Original message
17. Why do I get the feeling that this "aid"
will be turned into bullets to help mow down poor people?
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