Is José Serra Campaigning in Washington or in Brazil?

[Judi Lynn]

Is José Serra Campaigning in Washington or in Brazil?
By Mark Weisbrot
Source: Fohla de São Paulo
Tuesday, August 10, 2010

What is José Serra trying to do? In his campaign for president of Brazil he has accused Bolivia of complicity in drug trafficking, and criticized Lula for trying to mediate in Washington's fight with Iran and for refusing (along with the most of the rest of South America) to recognize the government of Honduras, which was "elected" under a dictatorship. For a while he stayed away from joining Washington's international campaign against Venezuela, but now he and his vice-presidential candidate Indio da Costa have waded into that putrid swamp as well, saying that Venezuela is "sheltering" the FARC (the main guerrilla group fighting the Colombian government).

For the record: despite a decade of allegations, Washington has yet to publicly present one shred of evidence that the Chávez government actually supports the FARC. The only "evidence" in the public domain comes from laptops and computer equipment allegedly captured by the Colombian military in their raid across the Ecuadorian border in March 2008. Right-wing bloggers such as Reinaldo Azevedo repeat the media myth that Interpol verified the authenticity of these allegedly captured files, but Interpol's report emphatically says no such thing. All we have is the word of the Colombian military - an organization that has been known to murder hundreds of innocent teenagers and dress them up as guerrillas.

Does Serra really want Brazil to pick fights with all of its neighbors in order to place itself defiantly on the wrong side of history? And this just to become Washington's biggest right-wing ally? Yes, in case Serra has not noticed, the United States under President Obama, as under Bush, has only right-wing governments as allies in this hemisphere: Canada, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Mexico. There is a reason for that: U.S. policy toward Latin America hasn't changed under Obama.

Even from a purely Machiavellian point of view - abandoning any idea of helping to make the region or the world a better place - the "Serra Palin" strategy makes little sense. Brazil had good relations with President Bush, and can have good relations with Obama, without surrendering to this kind of disgraceful servitude. Brazil is not El Salvador, a small country whose government is blackmailed by threats to send home hundreds of thousands of migrants residing the United States. And El Salvador has not gone down the road that Serra has chosen.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/is-jos-serra-campaigning-in-washington-or-in-brazil-by-mark-weisbrot

[Peace Patriot]

1. Multinational corporations & war profiteers shamelessly buy our political leaders here,

and then shamelessly loot our public coffers to glut themselves with riches and power. We see one disgraceful example after another of our political leaders bowing and scraping before them, or BEING them, as with Cheney and Halliburton and other "revolving doors." So it comes as no surprise that the U.S. government would be pouring billions of our tax dollars into the purchase of rightwing leaders in Latin America and, indeed, many other places--everywhere the U.S. can get a boot in.

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"It is not just in Venezuela and Bolivia that the United States spends tens of millions of dollars to influence politics. In 2005, as this newspaper reported, the U.S. funded an effort to change Brazilian law so as to strengthen the opposition to the Workers' Party. Washington has a big stake in this election, as it seeks to reverse the changes that have made Latin America - formerly the United States' 'backyard' -- more independent than it has ever been in its history. José Serra is making that stake bigger every day." --from the OP

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We learn things like this to our dismay because what the U.S. government SAYS, and what its echo chamber--the corpo-fascist press--SAYS, are at such complete variance with reality. Their "Big Lie" that "we" support democracy is so pervasive that the fact that our own government is thoroughly, irredeemably anti-democratic shocks us, daily--if we pay any attention at all.

Weisbrot makes this observation (which has struck me as well, in my still-shockable patriotic, democracy-loving heart):

"...the United States under President Obama, as under Bush, has only right-wing governments as allies in this hemisphere: Canada, Panama, Colombia, Chile, Mexico. There is a reason for that: U.S. policy toward Latin America hasn't changed under Obama."

He might have added Honduras--a particular accomplishment of the Obama administration in establishing a government of master thieves and death squads, on the far fascist end of the rightwing "spectrum" in Latin America, much like Colombia. Service to U.S. multinationals and war profiteers can only be achieved by rightwing governments, representing the very rich--a small minority--and the more rightwing the better, and the more filthy and murderous they are, the more "Washington" loves them and honors them and gives them BILLIONS and BILLIONS of our tax dollars--in political and especially in miltary aid--and "Medals of Freedom" and seats on prestigious international committees (like they just did to that filth, Uribe).

This is my conclusion as well--much as I truly hate to give up hope: "U.S. policy toward Latin America hasn't changed under Obama." And I am beginning to suspect something even darker than this--that the multinationals and war profiteers running things here vetted and approved Obama--and Clinton as Sec of State, and Leon Panetta as CIA Director--for the very reason that they would be BETTER AT serving multinational/war profiteer purposes in Latin America than the Bush Junta ever was (among other reasons). Democracy flourished in most of Latin America partly because the Bush Junta thugs were so inept, and the Junta was so busy looting and wrecking our own democracy and slaughtering and torturing elsewhere. Thus the people of Venezuela were able to turn back a Bush Junta-supported rightwing coup in 2002 (while the Bush Junta was preparing to slaughter a hundred thousand innocent people in the bombing of Baghdad), and the people of Bolivia and the collective action of South America's leftist leadership were able to turn back yet another Bush Junta-supported rightwing coup, in 2008, in Bolivia (while the Bush Junta was putting the wrecking ball to our middle class economy). Many rightwing plots were defeated including plots within the military in Venezuela, Ecuador and Paraguay, as democrats with a small d gained in strength, and leftist government after leftist government was elected--in honest, transparent elections--to represent the interests of the poor majority, at long last.

It will take better, more seasoned, subtler and, dare I say, more Bush-senior-like methods (i.e., Panetta) to turn all this around--to reconquer Latin America, now that the flames of democracy and independence are burning. Honduras was a remnant plot of Bush-junior--outright thuggism--which Clinton/Panetta completed. But now we are perhaps going to see less crude methods--cagier use of our tax dollars--but to the same purpose, rule by rich elites who will sell their countries' resources and work forces and social programs and infrastructure and sovereignty down the river.

Honduras: crude Bushwhackism.
Chile: suave Clinton/Panetta-ism.

I keep wondering about Chile, where the outgoing leftist president, Michele Batchelet, had an 80% approval rating, yet a rightwing billionaire won the election against her designated successor. Some leftists think this might be good, because Batchelet wasn't left enough, and maybe a shakeup on the left is needed. But I'm afraid that this is a very limited view. It also fails to see how such a development serves U.S. multinational/war profiteer interests in the bigger picture, in Latin America. For instance, Batchelet was a key player in helping to turn back the Bush-instigated, white separatist insurrection in Bolivian in 2008. That leftist power is now gone. With Pinera in power, Chile will likely sit on its hands while leftist democracies fall all around it, if it comes to that. And he may do even worse, connive in their fall. The left must work collectively in the region, because the powers against leftist democracy--representative democracy--are so great. Those powers include the wherewithal to purchase not just presidents but entire governments. They include billions of U.S. tax dollars poured into rightwing political and military pockets. They include bought and paid for media, bought and paid for banksters, and bought and paid for entities of every kind--including election systems and election officials. Clinton slapped a phony democracy--'democracy cosmetics'--on the Honduran coup, using our tax dollars directly to fund a phony election under martial law. How much cleverer would she and Panetta be, if they didn't have a thuggish coup to cover up?

I think the left can be very naive about stolen elections. That is certainly true in the USA. This naive left thinks that "the tide" has merely turned against them, and begins prognosticating about POLICY (whether to go more leftist, or veer right/centrist), when the very mechanics of democracy have been hijacked. Actually counting the votes--and insuring that there IS a system for transparent vote counting (such as we have lost in the USA)--is too mundane for some leftist analysts and activists, or is just too easy to overlook in their apparent need to view most voters as stupid.

In any case, I am not satisfied that the voters of Chile elected Pinera. Chile is the most industrialized/technocratized society in Latin America. It could well be vulnerable to the same kind of election manipulations and outright technological theft of elections as we have seen here. Brazil is similar. (In fact, I have seen articles about Diebold/ES&S selling its election theft systems in Brazil). And if Brazil falls to the rightwing elite, Clinton/Panetta/Obama will have accomplished the following:

Leftist governments in Latin America as of 2008: Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. Rightwing governments: Colombia, Peru, Mexico.

Leftist governments in Latin America as of 2010: Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala. Rightwing governments: Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Honduras.

It has become very clear that that is what the Obama administration WANTS to see--more rightwing/fascist governments in Latin America, in its service to our true rulers. What will they do to get it--and more? That is really the only question that remains. (The Pentagon now has Venezuela's oil coast and northern oil provinces surrounded with U.S. war assets. Will the Obama administration knock off a few more leftist governments--by cleverer use of our tax dollars--then revert to Bushwhack methods for knocking off Venezuela's government--or merely prepare the way for the Diebold-ES&S-selected warmonger of 2012 to do so? )

These creeps who are ruling over us are fast destroying the planet. So maybe we won't have time to do anything about any of this. But if we want to save our only planet, and our democracy, we have one hell of a lot of work to do HERE. My advice all along has been to start with the voting machines. We can't get anywhere without transparent vote counting and honest elections. Nor can the people of Latin America.