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Fernando Lugo, president of Paraguay, diagnosed with cancer.
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, diagnosed with cancer.
Lula da Silva, recent president of Brazil, diagnosed with cancer.
Dilma Rousseff, current president of Brazil, diagnosed with cancer (treated, apparently successfully, prior to her election).
(Also, Nestor Kirchner, former president of Argentina, had a gastro-intestional illness and reportedly died of a heart attack last year--don't know if it was cancer-related.)
4 cancers, all serious, among the chief movers & shakers of the leftist democracy revolution in South America. Fernando Lugo overturned 60 years of rightwing rule to become the very first leftist president of Paraguay. Chavez, of course, led the revolution, and the Kirchner/Chavez alliance, followed by the Lula/Chavez alliance, were key early events in the leftist sweep of the continent and the vast changes that that has brought. Lula, whom "Washington" tried to suck up to, resisted. When he was termed out, his hand-picked successor, former chief of staff Dilma Rousseff, won the presidency with a decisive victory.
Now Kirchner is dead, and all four of these pivotal figures has, or has had, serious cancer! I'm thinking it could be the stress from having U.S. bull's eye targets on their backs or the overall stress of changing Latin America forever with the most remarkable revolution since our own, against relentless and lamentable U.S. opposition. It cannot be easy for them--though they often make it look easy.
One of the most notable features of the new Left leadership in Latin America is how easy they all are with each other. There seems to be friendship and joy among them--evident in photos/vids of their meetings and in other ways (such as what they say about each other). This is a very subjective assessment of mine--but it does have confirmation in policy and action. They are clearly in accord. That is one sense in which I say they make it look easy. They have each other's backs. They are working together to bring about this momentous change. It is a collective effort in which they feel kindly toward each other. Also, in my view, they exhibit ease among themselves, in public, that you don't often see in world leaders.
Another way that they make it look easy is that they just keep winning elections, time and again--against all the prognostications of the Wall Street Urinal, the Associated Pukes, the New York Slimes, et al, and despite every misspent U.S. tax dollar by the CIA, the USAID, the Pentagon, etc. Millions of our tax dollars appropriated from us to defeat these leaders and the people in these countries just keep electing them. Recent example: Cristina Fernandez, Kirchner's wife, in Argentina--just won a big re-election victory. She had been dis-elected by the corporate press. Another in Brazil: Rousseff winning against all corporate prognostications. And a third: Peru going leftist, recently, with the election of Ollanta Humala. We fret and worry, here at DU, because of the corporate BS we are exposed to. They just keep winning--and delighting us with example after example of how the People CAN win--CAN elect good leaders and vote in "New Deals" for themselves--if they just stick with it (and have insured an honest voting system).
Four serious cancers among them--all of them fairly young and vigorous people--and you wonder about all the ways that it has NOT been easy. Perhaps stress has caused immune system weakness.
Chavez said that he had failed to take care of his health. Too busy? Shining on doctor's appointments? Failing to get checkups? Impatient with doctors' advice? Have these leaders sacrificed their own health to the transformation of their societies--an enormous task with many ups and downs, inhuman demands upon them, and many perils?
I'm also wondering if there are circumstances of pollution or diet or some such factor. Lugo lived for years with poor farm workers who were being regularly sprayed with toxic pesticides. As for Chavez, Caracas is notorious for having some of the worst air pollution in Latin America (no regs against vehicle exhaust; too many vehicles). Brazil? I don't know. Diet? I have no clue. (Vast areas and cultural differences involved.) Perhaps a common factor is corporate agriculture. Latin American countries have been ravaged by its terrible practices, including toxic pesticide use--and furthermore their governments have been, until recently, controlled by transglobal corporations and by the World Bank/IMF, which forced deregulation and/or prevented the development of environmental regulation, so these countries often don't have sufficient regulatory strength, law, tradition and public consciousness to create a clean environment. (We had such democratic strength once--but we're fast losing it to Diebold/ES&S election rigging.)
I don't know stats of general population cancer rates in LatAm. I do know that Chevron-Texaco's vast oil spill in Ecuador caused high cancer rates among the Indigenous. We also know that large corporate soy and biofuel operations are occurring in Brazil and Paraguay, likely in Argentina (an ag country, with big soy producers) and in other places (not in Venezuela, as far as I know), and these ops inevitably use toxics. Lula has been pro-biofuel (one of his few failures, in my opinion, in an otherwise FDR-like career "for the people"). Fernando Lugo has opposed toxic ag spraying but I don't know if he's had any success in curbing it. Venezuela, of course, has big oil ops and water as well as air pollution from petroleum products and ops, and the government is clearly more concerned with full employment, equitable income and other social issues--rather overwhelming tasks in themselves, after decades and centuries of looting and oppression. The environment comes last. Same with Lula/Brazil. And both Chavez and Lula have been criticized for this, from the left and from the Indigenous. Even Evo Morales has found himself in hot water from the Indigenous and environmentalists on the new highway through Indigenous land. And so has Rafael Correa in Ecuador (on destructive/polluting mining). (Note: I recall that Chavez stopped some big mining projects because of pollution but, on the whole, I don't think the environment is a high priority with the Chavistas. They have the political power to curb air pollution but have not even started to, as far as I know.)
Though the Left has brought Mother Nature to the political table--and has even enshrined her rights in constitutions--there remains much to be done, to create prosperity for all without pollution. It is a daunting task, as we know--and, meanwhile, could it be that Latin Americans are suffering a double-whammy--past unregulated pollution, for decades and centuries, and now the impetus to over-industrialize, like China, in order to compete with hyper-industrialized (and, indeed, post-industrialized) countries like ours? (Post-industrial = financial ponzi schemes and military products, to keep the rich rich.) Is this high cancer rate among LatAm leaders related to pollution?
Anyway, Lula also getting hit with cancer has got me wondering. This is one too many, not to remark on it and speculate on the cause.
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