Latin America Breaks Free

[Judi Lynn]

Latin America Breaks Free
Written by Benjamin Dangl
Tuesday, 03 February 2009

Source: The Progressive Magazine, Feb. 2009 Issue

Five years ago, when Evo Morales was a rising political star as a congressman and coca farmer, I met him in his office in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was drinking orange juice and sifting through the morning newspapers when I asked him about a meeting he just had with Brazilian President Lula. "The main issue that we spoke about was how we can construct a political instrument of liberation and unity for Latin America," Morales told me.

Now President Morales is one of many left-leaning South American leaders playing that instrument. This unified bloc is effectively replacing Washington's presence in the region, from military training grounds to diplomatic meetings. In varying degrees, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela are demonstrating that the days of U.S.-backed coups, gunship diplomacy, and Chicago Boys' neoliberalism may very well be over for South America. The election of Barack Obama also gave hope for a less cowboy approach from Washington.

While many of the current left-of-center leaders in Latin America were elected on anti-imperialist and anti-neoliberal platforms, the general scope of their policies varies widely. On the left side of the spectrum sit Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. They have focused on nationalizing natural resources and redistributing the subsequent wealth to social programs to benefit the countries' poor majorities. They have also enacted constitutional changes aimed at redistributing land and increasing popular participation in government policy, decision-making, and budgeting. Chávez, Morales, and Correa were also more outspoken than other leaders in their critique of the Bush Administration.

Lula, Michelle Bachelet of Chile, and Nestor and Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have been more moderate in their approach toward confronting neoliberalism, but have been trailblazers in human rights and in their dealings with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization. Though they haven't been as radical in their economic and social policies, they have shown solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

A conflict in Bolivia this past September proved to be a litmus test for the new regional unity. Just weeks after a recall vote invigorated Morales with 67 percent support across the country, a small group of thugs hired by the rightwing opposition led a wave of violence against Morales's supporters. The worst of these days of road blockades, protests, and racist attacks took place on September 11 in the tropical state of Pando. A private militia allegedly funded by the rightwing governor, Leopoldo Fernández, fired on a thousand unarmed pro-Morales men, women, and children marching toward the state's capital. The attack left dozens dead and wounded.

More:
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1520/1/

[Joanne98]

1. I was just going to post this. K&R

[Judi Lynn]

2. Whoa! Don't think I've ever beat you before, Joanne98!

Glad to know you saw it, too.

[silverweb]

3. Great article...

...and great website!

[Judi Lynn]

4. Thanks for the reference to the website. I just took the time to bookmark it for myself, finally. nt

[RethugAssKicker]

5. I wouldn't expeect much of a change from Obama.

His foreign policy is pretty much the same as the Republicans.

[Peace Patriot]

6. I've been thinking a lot about this, and here's what I'm currently thinking...

1. Obama has actually dialed down the anti-Chavez rhetoric, from "dictator" and "authoritarian demagogue" (to the Miami mafia), to "harmful to the progress of the region" (or some such) more recently.

2. Obama could be doing a JFK (backchannel to Castro, promise of no invasion, aimed at ending the Cold War*).

3. But Obama wants to live to a ripe old age. He's gotta serve the war machine ("war on drugs," military bases) and somehow get the World Bank and our corpo exploiters back in the saddle. He may well have good intentions (his own**) lurking behind these necessities (for remaining among the living, and having any say at all).

4. Hillary may have had Mark Penn as her chief campaign adviser (paid agent of the Colombian narco-fascists), but she is, first and foremost, ambitious, a realist and wants no part of FAILURE (--as with the humiliating Bushwhack debacle in Bolivia this last September).

That's as far as I've gotten. Obama policy in Latin America won't likely be very clear until Lulu (Brazil) visits the White House in March, and Obama visits Brazil later in the year. (And I'm quite certain that Lulu will give Obama an earful about the wretchedness of U.S. policy towards leaders like Chavez and Morales--in fact, he's stated publicly that he intends to.)

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*(See "JFK and the Unspeakable: why he died and why it matters," by James Douglass.)

**(Just read "Dreams of My Father," by Barack Obama. His observations about race and poverty, in the U.S. and in Kenya, in this book, make it virtually IMPOSSIBLE that he doesn't see the Bolivarian revolution as positive. But, to get to be emperor of the U.S., you must dance for the Dark Lords. You do what you can, within their severe limitations, or, a) you simply won't get anywhere--they'll kill your career; or b) kill you.)