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predators who have been propping his junta up, and keeping him, Cheney and others out of prison.
I think that's what this means. I hope that's what this means. Our next problem: the Global Corporate Predators themselves, and the Corporate President they want to inflict upon us, and think that we will gratefully swallow as a relief from Bush fascism. (My guess, Hillary Clinton. Or possibly stealth candidate Sen. Christopher Dodd--the one who helped Tom Delay and Bob Ney engineer the electronic voting coup.)
When I heard Felipe Calderon, of all people (rightwing corporatist, stolen election, Mexico), lecturing Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and mentioning Venezuela in this context, my ears really perked up. What, even Calderon is on this theme?! I had already been surprised by Uribe in Colombia and something I'd read to the effect that he had refused to participate in Bushite plots against Hugo Chavez, and by some signs, in the recent huge scandal in Colombia about rightwing paramilitary murders and drug trafficking (including a plot to assassinate Chavez), that Uribe was trying to distance himself from these badass rightwing forces.
Here we had Lula da Silva (leftist, Brazil) lecturing Bush on Latin American sovereignty to his face, and Calderon (rightest, Mexico) doing the same thing, almost with the same language. SOMETHING was up. Clearly. What was it? A CONDITION for Bush's visit, that he not trash Chavez, Venezuela and the Bolivarian revolution? --a revolution that has inspired them all--left and right--with notions of Latin American self-determination? Perhaps even the right can now see the benefits of it. And the Bush junta and its rightwing allies in Venezuela (the oil elite) have been utterly disgraceful in their efforts to overturn Venezuelan democracy and its legitimate government, and utterly failed to do so, because of the commitment of Venezuelans to their Constitution, and their genuine approval of Chavez's policies.
It is the Bolivarian revolution which has made a South American or Latin American "Common Market" a thinkable notion. The Chavez government gave it a great boost by creating a fund--with its oil wealth--to bail Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador out of World Bank/IMF debt. Argentina immediately began to recover from devastating exploitation--with all indicators now up--and has thus been made into a good trading partner for Brazil, Venezuela and others. Regional strength. Strength in numbers. Political and economic clout through cooperation (!), as the result of the far-thinking policies of a visionary leader like Chavez.
Now they ALL want self-determination and regional cooperation. Even Colombia (beneficiary of billions in military lard from the Bushites)!
Bush's mission was to bust all this up--to split Uruguay and Brazil off from the Andean democracies (Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela), with unknown bribes, bullying, threats and kneecap smashings behind the scenes. This announcement by Uruguay means that he failed. He failed to split them off. They see more benefit from the South American trade group, Mercosur (probably pre-cursor to a South American "Common Market")--even though they were feeling somewhat on the outs lately (a crack that Bush no doubt tried to widen)--than in corporate predation from the giant to the north. They are back in the fold! They are sticking with "Latin America for Latin Americans."
And this has major implications for the US global corporate predators who want to loot the oil, gas, minerals and other resources in the Andean democracies (also in Peru and Paraguay--where strong leftist movements are in progress, though they haven't won the presidencies yet). And this is why I think Bush and Cheney are in big, big trouble. Their effort to gain control of Iraqi oil has been a disaster. Their plans to grab Iranian oil are stymied (more by China, I think, that by our benighted Democratic Congress). They have NOT "delivered the goods" for their giant gangster bosses. And now they have failed in this last ditch effort to steal the oil and other resources out from under the people of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and their neighbors. It's not that they won't be able to get oil. But the medieval corporate lords at Exxon-Mobile et al will have to negotiate with peasants and leftists, and believers in democracy and constitutional government and social justice! They will have to pay their fair share of taxes--their obligation to the common good. They will have to obey environmental regulation. As Evo Morales (leftist, first indigenous president of Bolivia) has said: "We want partners, not masters."
Also, now, Lulu's visit to Uruguay, in anticipation of Bush's visit, becomes even more interesting. They were likely working all this out--the conditions they placed on Bush for his visit (no trashing of Chavez--which was so noticeable that even an AP reporter noticed it), and their resistance to "divide and conquer" and re-commitment to the concept of South American unity.
And I want to sing HALLELUJAH! Congratulations to President Vasquez and the other leaders of Uruguay--and to Latin America as a whole, and, above all, to Venezuela and Hugo Chavez!
Latin America's recovery from decades of brutal exploitation will now move like a wildfire across the continent. We are likely to see leftist (majorityist) governments in Peru and Paraguay, in the not too distant future--and maybe even in Colombia and Guatemala (and Mexico?). The model of cooperation, and Latin American integration, will, of course, be enormously beneficial to these societies, probably most of all to the vast poor populations, but to others as well. Their resources will benefit the people who live there. Education and all sorts of social improvement programs will begin to yield fruit--as they have in Venezuela. There is simply nothing like a democratic society, with a commitment to social justice, for creating a healthy climate for trade and all manner of innovative business ventures, large and small, with the talents of all citizens being utilized in trade, in the arts, in good government, in building infrastructure, and in addressing world crises like global warming.
And Bush is gone, my friends, gone! Oh, they may prop up the cardboard figure, for decorum's sake--I don't know that we can actually expect to see Bush in the orange suit that he so richly deserves--and of course they will try to replace him with a less fascist-seeming tool. But I think that the catastrophic failures of this regime, and the consequences for North Americans that North Americans hardly know of yet--such as a South American "Common Market"--are going to help us topple the Corporate Rulers. We may suffer hardship but it will be well worth it, in the end, to remake our country in its democratic tradition, not as this militaristic/corporate monster that the world now views with disgust and appalled wonder, but rather the great progressive democracy of innovators and traders and great organizers, and generous, tolerant souls that we were meant to be. The country that Jimmy Carter must have dreamed of, long ago, that got hijacked by Reagan fascism and sent down the wrong path. The country that we have all dreamt of. The country that our founders dreamt of. The country that, in some respects, still exists, below the radar of the corporate news monopolies, but in a state of oppression and disempowerment.
Viva la revolución!
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