Paraguay grants refuge to Evo Morales opponent

[Zorro]

<snip>

Paraguay granted political refugee status to a key opponent of Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales on Tuesday, sheltering him from corruption charges across the border.

Mario Cossio fled to Paraguay last month after provincial lawmakers allied with Morales ousted him as governor of the natural gas-rich state of Tarija due to charges of dereliction of duty and causing economic damage. He would face up to eight years in prison if convicted in Bolivia.

Morales critics claim Cossio is another victim in a campaign to remove political opponents of Bolivia's popular president, who they say controls the chief prosecutor's office and its courts.

Cossio himself said shortly before he was ousted that the Morales government "wants to demolish everything that opposes it in order to have total power."

<snip>

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110118/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_paraguay_bolivia_opposition_governor_1

Lugo's reported remarks at the end of the article are interesting.

[naaman fletcher]

1. Lugo is a good man

I wonder why we don't hear much about him on DU.

[rabs]

2. O presidente Lugo chego hoje a São Paulo

Lugo chega a São Paulo no domingo para mais uma etapa do tratamento de combate ao câncer
Tamanho da fonte: A- A+ 22/01/2011 - 09:55
O presidente do Paraguai, Fernando Lugo, desembarca em São Paulo neste domingo onde fica por cinco dias. Lugo fará mais uma etapa do tratamento para a cura do câncer linfático no Hospital Sírio-Libanês. Assessores de Lugo informaram que neste período ele pretende reduzir o ritmo da agenda política. O presidente retorna a Assunção (capital paraguaia) no dia 27.

De acordo com a Secretaria de Informação e Comunicação da Presidência do Paraguai, depois de feitos os exames e definida a nova etapa de tratamento de Lugo, o presidente deverá retomar as atividades normais de trabalho. As informações são da Presidência da República do Paraguai.

No final do ano passado, Lugo fez a última sessão de quimioterapia – de uma série de seis - no Hospital Sírio-Libanês. De acordo com os médicos paraguaios, o presidente se recupera e reage positivamente ao tratamento para a cura do câncer.

O FLUMINENSE

[EFerrari]

9. Very bad news.

:(

[Peace Patriot]

3. This article is biased against Morales, which makes it very difficult to assess the situation.

In a typical Associated Pukes lie (I don't call them Associated Pukes for nothing), they write the following:

"Under a law passed by a Bolivian legislature dominated by the president's supporters, public officials can be unseated based only on the filing of criminal charges. Cossio is at least the third Morales opponent to be ousted under the law."

They may intend this as poisoned pablum for the naive and uninformed but I'm a 'news' consumer who pays attention, and I know that...

--Colombia (rightwing government) ALSO has a law by which prosecutors can ban persons from seeking/holding public office if they are suspected of criminal activity. Prosecutors just did this to two politicians in Colombia, very recently.

--Bolivia's legislature is ELECTED, in internationally monitored and certified elections. If it is "dominated by the president's supporters," this is because Bolivians VOTED FOR THEM.

--What this provincial legislature did was IMPEACHMENT, not prosecution. They impeached and removed a governor whom they believed to be corrupt and derelict in his duties--a power that virtually all legislatures hold, as broad-based representatives of the people. Our own constitution permits the U.S. Congress to impeach the president and supreme court justices, and remove them from office, and they are NOT obliged to prove the charges against them. That is up to prosecutors, after removal from office.

The AP lie here is that a law that allows prosecutors to ban suspected criminals from public office is unusual. Such laws are NOT unusual in Latin America. And impeachment is common throughout the world. But perhaps the most putrid lie is their clear implication that Evo Morales somehow "stacked" the legislature with "his supporters," i.e. that Morales is a "dictator"--a rightwing "meme" that was first applied to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and that is now being applied to the strongest leftist presidents in Latin America--Chavez, Morales and Correa (Ecuador)--in numerous articles like this in the corporate press, that lie, distort and omit important information.

It is therefore very difficult to believe that there is any substance in Mario Cossio's side of this story. AP clearly wants us to believe him. They have loaded the case against Morales, and quite deliberately omitted information, and falsely "framed" information, to that end. In the absence of details about the charges against Cossio (something else they omit), we are, in effect, coerced into thinking that Morales is wrong--is power-grabbing, is a malevolent force, is a "dictator."

AP sides with Cossio's view, which they do quote (while not giving Morales the courtesy of a quote): "Cossio himself said shortly before he was ousted that the Morales government 'wants to demolish everything that opposes it in order to have total power.'" This is AP's view of the matter as well, otherwise they would inform their readers that the laws in question are not unusual, and that the provincial legislature has a lot of Morales supporters because the people elected them.

As for Fernando Lugo agreeing to asylum for Cossio, there are several things readers should know: one, that Lugo is dying of cancer, and two, that his political situation is very dicey--his mistresses and "love children" have been exposed (he is a former bishop), and he was elected by a fragile coalition of fractious parties (mostly leftist but including one rightwing party), who had to concentrate all their resources and energy on the presidential election only, to the neglect of the legislative elections. Lugo is under siege, in other words--hasn't been able to get much done for Paraguay's poor majority, due to the entrenched power of the right in the legislature (and in the country's rich elite in general) and he is fatally ill. As a consequence of these things--if he actually said that "indications of persecution exist" in this case (and this has not been taken out of context, distorted or made up)--his judgement may not be the best, at the moment, and may be influenced by factors that we can't see, and that AP certainly wouldn't inform us about (for instance, alliance of some rightwing person or group in Paraguay that is currently supporting him, with the rightwing in Bolivia, in order to get something done--legislation? policy?--in Paraguay.)

Adding all this up, I'm inclined to agree with Morales, whose comment is summarized (not quoted) by AP as follows (last line of the article): "Morales accused the right-wing forces that dominate much of Paraguay's government of trying to create enmity between him and his leftist ally Lugo."

I don't trust AP, at all, on the facts of this situation. They have done this sort of hit piece on Latin America's leftist leaders once too often. Indeed, that's all they do. They never ever EVER provide ANY news coverage that would help readers understand Morales' consistent 60+% approval ratings and election margins in Bolivia--nor comparable approval ratings and election margins for Chavez and Correa. These leaders are as popular as FDR was and they only get dissed and "framed" as "dictators" by the corporate 'news' media. Are big majorities of voters in Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador stupid? I think not. Are these elections rigged? I have satisfied myself, by my own researches, that they are not. So what's with the utter failure of the corporate press to EVER provide information that would explain why these leaders are so incredibly popular? And why their unbroken record of negative headlines and biased, distorted 'news' articles, notable for their black-holes where information should be?

Twisted, uninformative, propagandistic, pro-rightwing 'news' coverage, that serves multinational corporate and war profiteer interests, and 'news' monopolies that enforce this as the only viewpoint from which 'news' is presented, are clearly helping to destroy our own democracy. Are these multinational corporate 'news' monopolies intent on destroying Bolivia's, Venezuela's and Ecuador's democracies as well? It sure looks like it to me, and I find it disgusting.

[naaman fletcher]

4. nice hit job on Lugo.

He's crazy cuz he has cancer. lol.

[Peace Patriot]

5. I did NOT say he was crazy. I said he is dying, amidst big political troubles. Big difference.

Nice try.

Lugo and Morales are good friends. Lugo's stance on this is odd--IF it is correctly represented by AP, whom I do not trust. If he did say it, I want to know the context, I want to know what pressures he is under, and I want to know his reasons. If he disagrees with Morales on the facts of the situation, fine. That is something to consider. But it doesn't make Morales wrong or a "dictator." You have misstated and are attacking my effort to understand the situation.

Now how about my other points? Is it not true that Colombia has the SAME law? Is it not true that the legislature is "dominated by Morales supporters" because they WERE ELECTED BY THE VOTERS?

The implication is that Morales made up this law out of nowhere, to become a "dictator"--like the rightwing blowhard says. AP endorses that view by the way they "frame" the event. What is your opinion of this kind of journalism?

[naaman fletcher]

6. You suggested he might not be thinking straight because of his cancer.

It's the standard Soviet thing. Everyone who doesn't agree is either A: an evil fascist, or B: insane/not rational.

I agree with the other points that you made. It's still conceivable, however, that the guy deserves asylum. I am not asserting that - i don't know, but it's possible, especially given Lugo's support for it. I don't base that on any sort of attack on Morales as a dictator, but rather on my simple observation of and participation in politics over the years. In the end, politicians are politicians and when they get the opportunity are sometimes heavy-handed.

[Peace Patriot]

7. Would you be "thinking straight" if you had a cancer death sentence?

Doesn't mean you're crazy. But your judgement might well be influenced by it. For instance, what if Lugo needs some rightwing allies to pass some important bill to help the poor as his final legacy? And he made a trade? He wouldn't have done it if he thought he could live out his term, but, given that this might be the last thing he can get done, as an advocate of the poor, he might just decide that asylum for this guy is a small price to pay.

And that's ALL that I said--could influence his judgement in having done something unusual like this --crossed his close ally Evo Morales.

You again, are completely distorting what I said. You calling me a Stalinist? Jeez.

-----

"In the end, politicians are politicians and when they get the opportunity are sometimes heavy-handed."

Evo Morales is about the last politician whom I would describe as a typical, opportunistic, power-grabbing politician. And Lugo is the second last. You're just throwing a canard out there--an utterly meaningless one. There is NO EVIDENCE that Morales is doing anything but his rightful job, and fulfilling the mandate Bolivians gave him, lawfully and democratically. He is a strong leader but the mildest of men and I can't think of anyone who believes more in the collective power of the people and NOT in individual power-playing and self-glorification than Morales. So it is NOT a good guess that he "took the opportunity" and became "heavy-handed" like a typical politician. What's a better guess is that the MAS in the province were sick unto death of the entrenched corruption of rightwing powermongers and finally decided to do something about it. Whether or not they went too far, I don't know, not knowing the facts about the charges against this governor--which, of course, AP doesn't provide. They don't care about facts; they just care about their spin.

[naaman fletcher]

8. well,

thanks for confirming that you think your hero politicians are above normal political behavior. I used to be that way but was burned too many times. It's a noble view, just one that I think is naive. PS, I have no problem with Morales. I disagree with some of his policies but my disagreements are relatively minor and I'll take them over the alternative. But he's still a politician.