Novak: Sandinista infection again spreads in America’s backyard

[paineinthearse]

Robert D. Novak: Sandinista infection again spreads in America’s backyard

WHEN GEN. Omar Halleslevens was installed Monday in Managua as chief of the Nicaraguan army, the U.S. government was represented by a mere major at the change-of-command ceremony. The slight was intentional. Halleslevens is regarded at the Pentagon as a hard-line Sandinista, whose rise to power represents profound problems in Latin America.

The Sandinistas, the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary party repeatedly rejected by Nicaraguan voters, are on the verge of accomplishing what U.S. officials call a “golpe technico” (technical coup), stripping President Enrique Bolanos of power. It is no isolated event restricted to a small Central American country. The Sandinistas have a rich and powerful ally in Hugo Chavez, the Marxist president of Venezuela.

Chavez has not only survived all Venezuelan challenges to his power but is making great strides in spreading his “Bolivarian Revolution” throughout the region. Besides the Nicaraguan connection, Chavez endangers shaky elected presidents in Peru and Ecuador and is aiming at unseating Bolivia’s president, as he did his predecessor. At the same time, Colombia’s conservative regime is busy staving off narco-guerrillas backed by Chavez. The Venezuelan is spreading his influence through Latin America more effectively than his friend and ally, Cuban President Fidel Castro, ever did.

George W. Bush, while preaching global democracy, clearly has his hands full in his own hemisphere but until now has ignored this deepening regional crisis. A few low-level officials in Washington have been ringing the warning bell in the night. The intentional slight at Monday’s change-of-command ceremony was a small sign of success for them. After a spirited debate among middle-level Bush administration officials, an inter-agency meeting decided not to send anybody to an event that normally would be attended by a four-star U.S. officer, Gen. Bantz Craddock, the Miami-based Southern Command commander in chief. Protests from the U.S. Embassy in Managua resulted in a low-level U.S. Army officer being sent.

more wardrum beatings at http://www.theunionleader.com/columns.html?body=By%20ROBERT%20D.%20NOVAK

[applegrove]

1. They really, really need someone to invade. And 70 Million Iranians

are not it!! Or an million man army in Korea... Are you kidding? USA only invades weak targets.

Either that or Bush is feeling that scapegoating Chavez is not going so well and they need a smaller target (one who does not have any taps to turn on and off).

[chlamor]

2. Novak=Propagandist

We have made the Reich by propaganda: Joseph Paul Goebbels

The Empire is angry. A prayer for dignity and sovereignty.

[seasat]

3. Novak ignores the polls on the Sandnistas

They came very close to capturing Nicaragua's presidency in the last election. During their tenure and before Reagan started illegally funding a war against them, they built more schools and hospitals for the average people of Nicaragua than the governments that preceded them. If Reagan had simply supported teh Sandanista government instead of attacking because they are socialists, Nicaragua would be much better off today. Heck, they'd probably be a wealthy Democracy.

[Vogon_Glory]

4. Falling Kleptocratic Dominoes

Robert Novak is a typical apologist for Latin American kleptocracies. He hollers about the threat of "creeping Sandinistas." After nearly fifteen years of neo-liberal policies that have failed to either enrich so many third world countries or left them mired further in debt, is it any wonder that voters are getting fed up and turning to guys like Chavez.

Of course, I think that Novak really dreads the day that so many third world kleptocracies fall that the ones in places like Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas start to look shaky.

[bemildred]

5. It's fun to watch NoFacts fume.

Bush isn't ignoring the "crisis" in Latin America, he's
making it happen, unintentionally or course.

[aneerkoinos]

7. Ah!

Loved that article! The fascists are loosing this battle big way, and they know it. Oh how I love to see them whine and strut around in their futile agony!

[Dirk39]

9. The left did win in Uruguay, too!

URUGUAY, once South America’s most prosperous country, plays host to an unlikely gathering of left-wing leaders tomorrow as it prepares to break with 170 years of history and swear in its first socialist President.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1270284

Latin America seems to wake up again and is building and defending democracy and freedom against the neocon neoliberal fashist bastards!

Hello Aneerkoinos!

Dirk

[aneerkoinos]

10. Hello Dirk!

Yeah, I will stay forever in shame forgetting the Tupamaro President!

Viva Libertas!


TheCommonMan

[aneerkoinos]

6. Novak is right

US ignored the Zapatista revolution and their local defencive victory in Chiapas. The Ginny was half outta bottle, sniffing the air of freedom.

US woke up to the threat with the victory of Chavez. CIA & co tried violently to put the the cork back to the bottle, but failed miserably. The Ginny was outta bottle, for all the oppressed peoples to see.

Now it's too late for US, wind of liberty is building to storm of democratic revolution all over América, the thundering sound of América breaking it's shackles. They tried to make example of Haiti, but not even the puny Caricom nations were frightened - just more disgusted and angry with US despicable imperialism.

Novak is wrong. It's not Chavez (Chavez is just a powerfull symbol) it is We, the People! The slavery in the South is coming to end!

[Lexingtonian]

8. Novak always tells us about the next neocon project

This is a trial balloon to see who's paying attention.

But they've already told us that Castro allies in Latin America are next in line after some attempts to topple regimes in Syria and Iran. It's another mercenary/CIA warlet, and it's what John Negroponte is being brought in for.

We're done replaying the wars of the Sixties and early Seventies now, it's on to the late Seventies and early-mid Eighties.