Mexico visit won't be a breeze

[Judi Lynn]

March 13, 2007, 12:22AM
Mexico visit won't be a breeze
Calderon to take on delicate issues, demand his nation be treated as equal

By MARION LLOYD
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY — If President Bush expects to conclude his Latin American tour today relaxing among friends in Mexico, he may be disappointed.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said he plans to demand more cooperation on such thorny topics as U.S. immigration reform and the drug war when he meets with Bush in the quaint tourist city of Merida. He will also insist that his country, which has often played the role of Washington's meek little brother in the region, be treated as an equal.

Mexico is looking for a relationship of "mutual respect" and "not of subordination," Calderon said just days before Bush's visit.
(snip)

Calderon, a conservative who has sparred with Chavez, is considered a key ally for Washington in the region. But he has said he does not intend to act as the Bush administration's anti-Chavez ringleader.

"I am not interested in playing a role with Bush in that aspect," he told The Associated Press, adding, "The United States has a lot to do to regain respect in Latin America."
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4623780.html

[Zorra]

1. I've learned through long experience to never believe what

conservatives say, except when they say they are going to war, are going to cut taxes for the rich, or are going to cut services for the elderly and poor.

Judging from Calderon's very questionable election to the Presidency, I suspect that he is a corporate puppet like Chimpy, and that his statements are meaningless political rhetoric.

He and Chimpy are probably right now smoking Cuban cigars, sipping brandy after a fine meal, and laughing about how they are screwing the powerless peasants while consolidating corporate power and fascism in North America.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Whoa, this is big! Calderon won't be an anti-Chavez ringleader! --and feels compelled

to say this in public. Ve-e-e-e-ery interesting!

"Mutual respect." Hm-m. Seems I've heard that before. Lulu in Brazil lectured Bush to his face, on respecting the sovereignty of Latin American countries. It was on Evo Morales' mind recently, with regard to the global corporate predators who want Bolivia's oil, gas, minerals and other resources: "We want partners, not masters." And all this uppitiness can be directly attributable to Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution, which, for the first time since Simon Bolivar helped free these countries from colonial rule, is inspiring a major assertion of Latin American unity and self-determination.

Calderon can speak of wanting "mutual respect" and "not subordination" BECAUSE Chavez and his government have so boldly asserted these principles, and are inspiring the entire southern hemisphere to peaceful, democratic rebellion. He owes Chavez. And I picked up somewhere that even President Uribe in Colombia--beneficiary of billions of Bush (US taxpayer) dollars in military aid--refused to participate in Bushite anti-Chavez plots. It seems to be a theme. Hands off, Yanqui! (--and the plotters are going to jail, in a huge scandal in Colombia about rightwing paramilitary drug trafficking and murder, with a plot to assassinate Chavez among their foul schemes).

Oh, the times they are a-changin', for sure! --when even Calderon and Uribe have to pay lip service to independence. This is a sea change, indeed. And Bush is going to pay. I don't think he was able to "divide and conquer" nearly enough for his Corporate Masters, and he may be on his way out because of it. I'm afraid that our fellow and sister DUers don't pay nearly enough attention to what is going in Latin America, and what it means here. The plundering of the Middle East has been a total bust, and, while the Bushites were preoccupied with their oil grab there, Latin America has awakened, and seems to be of one mind, or nearly one mind--with leftist (majorityist) governments in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and strong leftist movements in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico, and with even the leaders of the few remaining rightwing governments chiming in--to repel any repeat of the past horrors of US policy in the region, and ALSO to oppose the US dictating terms of trade that favor giant US-based corporations and disfavor the populations that they have been exploiting.

I think that the Venezuelans' defeat of the rightwing military coup in 2002 was the turning point. No more! NO MORE!

See "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." That documentary may chronicle the most important event in the history of the western hemisphere. The People won! Constitutional government held firm, by the will of the People! And the Bush Junta--which welcomed the coup, and more than likely instigated it--were made to eat dirt.

One leftist government after another has been elected since then, and the feeling of unity among them has resulted in positive programs to get these countries out of the clutches of the World Bank/IMF (tool of the Corporate Predators) and on the road to economic recovery and social justice. The Revolution may not have been televised, but it was definitely tele-GRAPHED from one poor population to another, sweeping the continent with notions of democracy, majority rule and independence.

The other key is transparent elections (US voters, take note!)--a long term project of the OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups and local civic groups. The system failed in Mexico, but it has succeeded spectacularly in other places.

The three lessons of this revolution:

1. Transparent elections.
2. Grass roots organization.
3. Think big.

Calderon (and Uribe) may be insincere--not maybe, ARE insincere--in their attempts to look good and maintain power, in the midst of a huge Leftist revolution. But the fact that they must disassociate themselves from anti-Chavez plots, at least in public, reveals the power, depth and authenticity of this Leftist movement. It cannot be ignored and it cannot be stopped. As Evo Morales has said: "The time of the people has come." And he was not hoping that it is true. He was feeling that it IS true. It is really happening, at long last, after so much grief in Latin America--so often inflicted by our own government on behalf of fascist thieves and corporate predators.

And it can happen here, too.

[RedCloud]

3. Mexican americans should be outraged!

They are the overwhelming majority of hispanics in the USA and yet have no voice in our government which prefers to listen to right wing Cubans who are a very small minority, all numbers considered.

If this were Bush visiting Castro in Cuba, imagine the Cubano gusano reaction and the obligatory ANS-like coverage.

[Judi Lynn]

4. When Jimmy Carter was headed to Cuba to meet government heads and to address the people

on radio and tv in a live broadcast, _Bush's administration made a wild effort to sabotage it the night before he left, by sending John Bolton out to the Heritage Foundation to make a speech claiming Cuba is making dual-use biological medicines/chemical weapons, AFTER Carter had made a point of asking them directly about that rumor they were circulating during his briefing at the State Department. They told him absolutely no evidence to bear it out, then immediately made a public address claiming the opposite.

Dirty bastards.

You can be sure they did everything possible to quash any significant publicity Carter would have normally received during his trip. It's a miracle we found out about it at all. During his trip, Cuba's President Castro told Carter he is welcome to come to Cuban laboratories at any time, bringing any and all research people he'd like to go over their work with a fine-toothed comb. Open invitation.

If _Bush were, somehow, going, however, it WOULD be a world-shaking event, and we'd never hear the end of it.