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I have not been able to find confirmation of the rumored Bush Cartel purchase of hundreds of thousands of acres over a major aquifer in Paraguay, near a U.S. military air base. But what has happened in Paraguay since then is that the beloved "bishop of the poor," the hugely popular Fernando Lugo, has decided to run for president, and will likely win, with the voters tossing out the current, corrupt center/right government (the Colorado Party, which has links to the dreadful 30-year Stroessner dictatorship, from the mid-1950s thru the Reagan era). The Vatican has tried all kinds of threats against Lugo (an "anointed" priest and bishop) to prevent him from running. He has defied them. If the election is more or less honest, he will most likely win (--although he's got some problems with in-fighting on the left, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find Rumsfeld's fingers all over that; the Bushites are good at stirring up those kinds of endemic conflicts).
So the current government feels a lot of heat - both from the vast swath of leftist governments that now surround Paraguay (Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay - a leftist country on every border), who strongly oppose the Bush Junta, and internally, from Paraguay's vast poor population, who see what is happening in these other countries - schools, medical care for the poor; workers' rights; local development, etc. - and don't see why Paraguay doesn't join the revolution. Paraguay is extremely poor, and desperately needs social-justice oriented development money.
The center/right government showed some smarts in joining the Bank of the South. (I'm wondering right now if Lugo suggested or promoted it - his overriding concern is the poverty in Paraguay, he has devoted his whole life to this matter, and he has said things like, "Paraguay is neither left, nor right, nor center. Paraguay is POOR!") I hope that there are sufficient controls being established for Bank of the South funds, to prevent corruption and ripoffs, by the corrupt ruling powers, as has happened with World Bank/IMF funds. I presume that the Bank of the South will be smarter about this, since their main thrust is social justice, not enriching the rich.
It may therefore be that the Bolivarians have lured the current government a bit over to the left, and away from the Bush Junta, by the prospect of development money without onerous World Bank/IMF strings. Paraguay doesn't have much by way of resources, infrastructure, and services, to sell off to first world investors, anyway. As Lugo says, they are POOR. And inequality is rampant. 10% of the population owns over 40% of the nation's income and nearly 70% of the land. 50% of the population is dirt poor. The main exports are soybeans and beef, and Paraguay exports hydroelectric power. And there isn't must else. One plus of Paraguayan society (if wikipedia is to be believed) is much more intermarriage between Europeans and the Guarani Indians, creating a mixed race country (60% mestizos), in which 80% of the population speaks the indigenous language (a very high percentage, comparatively), as well as Spanish. The implication is that racism is less of a factor than in some South American countries. I don't know if the Paraguayan indigenous are the poorest people in Paraguay, but it very likely so - it's true everywhere else. (I'm growing rather suspicious of this wikipedia description - as to its rosiness.)
Anyway - would Bush criminals find a haven there, and be able to use it as a launching pad for their oil war plots against Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and others? Not likely, if Lugo is elected. Possible, with the Colorado Party, although their membership in the Bank of the South would be imperiled by harboring Bushite coup plotters. Another possibility, the Colorado Party, by joining the Bank of the South, could become a spy and a disruptor, with the Bushites paying off the rich elite to do that. Hard to say. Paraguay joining the Bank of the South gave me pause, when it first occurred. At first I thought it was all to the good. Now I'm not so sure. And I hope to God the OAS and others will be overseeing their election.
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