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smarts, and is peacefully using the tactics of the CIA and rightwing juntas, to install...look!...
Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY!
Imagine funneling money from one democratic revolution to another! The dirty dogs! The Marquis de Lafayette would be giggling in his grave!
Imagine them holding...DEMONSTRATIONS...my God!...in opposition to fascist policy and corporate rule! It must be a communist conspiracy!
And how dare they VOTE the fascist fuckers out of office! "Overthrowing" rightwing rulers by voting against them ought to be banned! That is surely a terrible plot to oust the "born to rule" rightwing rich elite of Bolivia.
If it's true, kudos to the Bolivarians, for understanding the critical need for cross-border solidarity, regional cooperation and unity in the pursuit of social justice. But coming, as this is, from DC, where this fascist asshole is holed up, with lots of kindred spirits around him, there is likely nothing to it. Just more disinformation--a la the demonization of Venezuela and any country that has significant oil in the ground. Next: Evo Morales, perhaps the saintliest man ever to hold public office, in the history of the world--a 100% indigenous indian, who campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck, sacred plant of the Andes. His point was his opposition to the murderous U.S. "war on drugs," which, under Bush, favors the big drug lords over the little peasant farmers who have been growing a few coca leaves, for local use, for thousands of years, and who also grow organic food to feed their families and communities; their farms are being poisoned with toxic pesticides, and they are being brutally oppressed and driven into urban squalor, so the real criminals, and corps like Chiquita and Monsanto, can control the land.
The most important protest--the one that catapulted Morales into national prominence--was against Bechtel Corp., which had privatized the water in Cochabambo (under a rightwing regime), and then jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater! The people of Bolivia rose up and threw Bechtel out of their country. Their uprising--and their awesome grass roots organization--owes nothing to Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro. Bechtel is the one responsible. Their behavior was so bad, people couldn't stand for it. But fascists like Sánchez Berzaín, Bush, Cheney, Negroponte and Gang don't believe in democracy. They only believe in money. Money must be behind it. Oil money from Chavez, or "support from Cuba." (Cuba is providing DOCTORS for the new medical clinics for the poor--in Venezuela and Bolivia. Beware of "communist" doctors!) They wouldn't recognize a legitimate grievance if they saw one. It's all conspiracy and plot, to their minds, because that's who they are, and what they do.
It's interesting that El Universal--a corporate news monopoly craprag like we have here--grants the word "strongman" in describing Sánchez Berzaín, and allows Morales' spokesman Alex Contreras to explain: Sánchez Berzaín was the enforcer, the killer, of the previous, corrupt, rightwing government--the one who likely ordered the deaths of 63 people during the protests.
But you also have to ask: why are they promulgating this swill--that the "problem" is Chavez or Castro? They are using Bush-purged CIA "talking points" and operatives (and Sánchez Berzaín is very likely on the Bushite/CIA payroll) to push certain campaigns of disinformation, so that if and when they are able to pull off an assassination and rightwing coup (against, say Chavez or Morales), the event will be attributed to yet more (yawn) "banana republic" politics, and will raise no questions here. Even now, the Bushites are pouring billions of dollars into rightwing paramilitaries through "war on drugs" funding, in Colombia (where union organizers, peasant farmers and political leftists are being tortured and killed), AND in the rich rural areas of Bolivia, where the plan among the rich landowners and Bushites is to split off the oil-rich and gas-rich rural provinces from the central government, in order to deny any benefit from these resources to the vast poor population of Bolivia, which is now concentrated in the urban areas.
Demonizing Morales--a very hard man to demonize--is part of this plan, clearly. So it starts. First a "former strongman" and fascist plants some rumors about communist and violent revolutionary connections. Next, Condi Rice will pick up the theme, with a little more diplomatic spin, perhaps. Then AP will slip some "quotes" from "his critics" into news articles, hinting at "shady connections" with "leftist guerrillas" (the only such force being in Colombia which doesn't even border Bolivia). Finally, the NYT will write a long tome on the South American Left, entitled, "Is Fidel Castro still influential in Latin America?: the grandfather of violent leftist revolution revered by the new crop of 'populist' presidents." And Morales will be shafted.
Chavez and Morales, of course, are genuinely elected presidents of their countries--with 60% and 63% of the votes, respectively, in highly monitored and transparent elections (unlike our own)--and furthermore have astronomical approval ratings. Their rather moderate socialist/capitalist economic models are hugely popular, and hugely beneficial. As one of the tenets of the Bolivarian revolution is regional cooperation, Venezuela is, of course, helping Bolivia--which only recently elected a leftist (majorityist) president, and is still struggling against rightwing plots and destabilization efforts--just as Venezuela helped Argentina get out from under onerous World Bank loans. Cooperation. Mutual aid. Solidarity. Is that bad? No, it is essential to have strong neighbors and allies, committed to social justice, when facing global corporate predators and constant U.S. interference toward fascist goals.
It is not a communist plot. It is DEMOCRACY, and THAT poses a more serious threat to corporate predators and the ungodly rich than any previous development in South American history. It HAS to be demonized and destroyed, from the global corporate predator perspective. These "plants" in the media are part of that process, which could end in great suffering and tragedy, as has happened so often in the past, in Latin America, although this democracy movement in South America is very strong, and likely will prevail, in my opinion. I'm not so sure about central America. Daniel Ortega's election in Nicaragua is a good sign, but Guatemala is very troubled by rightwing violence including political murder, and Mexico is totally U.S.-dominated--even though a leftist came within 0.05% of winning the last election. The U.S. and its corporate predators will not likely permit Mexico to fall into leftist--that is, majorityist, "social justice"-- hands.
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