Batten down the hatches, Ma, there's COMMIES on the doorstep...!

together with



against



i notice that almost all the propaganda talking points i called attention to yesterday about the potential brouhaha in latin america have been recycled in today's "news" stories, so i'll only bother to post this little, clearly propagandistic EXPANSION of the circle of evildoers that surround arch-fiend, hugo chávez...

Colombia takes more heat from Latin America left

Latin America's leftist leaders heaped more criticism on Colombia, leaving it increasingly isolated on Thursday in a crisis that has threatened political stability in the Andes.

Colombia, the United States' closest ally in South America, set off a major diplomatic crisis on Saturday when its army crossed into Ecuador to kill Colombian Marxist guerrillas just across the border.

OPEC oil exporters and leftist allies Venezuela and Ecuador reacted by cutting off diplomatic relations, moving troops to their borders with Colombia and lambasting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who receives billions of dollars in military aid from the United States.

ain't it interesting...? up until this little kerfuffle, latin american leaders (with the exception of chávez of course) were being called "center-left" or "populist"... suddenly, with the possibility of war stirring the quivering, testosterone-engorged male organs of the neocons and the captains of the industrial war machine, they turn into full-blown "LEFTISTS"... katie, bar the door...! get the children to a safe place, ma...! THERE'S A STORM A'COMIN'...!

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Bolivia withdraws from SOA/WHINSEC

WHINSEC

i guess i'm surprised it didn't happen sooner...

In a letter to the Commandant of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, U.S. Army Col. Gilberto Perez, Bolivian President Evo Morales formally announced yesterday that he will not send Bolivian military officers to attend training programs at the institute formerly known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas.

The announcement came as confirmation of a previous statement made by President Morales in October of last year when he announced that he would discontinue sending troops to the institute based on its historical ties to oppressive military regimes in Latin America. Bolivia has now officially become the fifth country after Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela to announce a withdrawal from the Fort Benning institution due to its negative image amongst Latin Americans.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a U.S. tax-payer funded military training facility for Latin American security personnel located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. It was originally founded in 1946 in the Panama Canal zone and relocated to Fort Benning in 1984. The institution was catapulted into the headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.

operation condor is certainly one of the darkest chapters in u.s.-latin american history...

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Evo Morales: from $300M to $2B a year revenue increase

Evo Morales

fantastic...! i've been rooting for evo from the start... may he continue to move in the light...

We Need Partners, Not Masters

Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Italy this week to receive a special award for his government's commitment to social and health issues. He has made these issues a "political priority."

The award was presented by the Pio Manzù Centre, a research organisation based in Rimini in northeast Italy that studies economic, scientific and social policies.

Besides meetings with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and foreign affairs minister Massimo D'Alema, Morales met members of the 30,000 Bolivian community in Rome, and members of Italian social movements.

Morales told Rome's Bolivians that before he was elected President in December 2005, Bolivia received 300 million dollars a year in tax revenues from the oil industry. Following nationalisation of energy reserves, Bolivia now receives 2 billion dollars annually.

The increased revenues are being used for education and healthcare, and for creation of a microcredit programme, Morales says.

"To increase revenues there is no need to create additional taxes," he told Claudia Diez de Medina from IPS, "but simply to make better use of our natural resources." For this, he said, "we need partners, not masters."

damn right...! now, if he can lead the country away from a dependence on carbon-based energy and toward cheap, sustainable energy resources, he will have pulled off a true miracle...



President Evo Morales dancing the cueca "Viva mi patria, Bolivia"
with a Cochabambinean "cholita" during his meeting with the Bolivian
community in Rome at the Protomoteca room in Campidoglio,
on 28 October 2007.
Credit: Claudia Diez de Medina, IPS.

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VVI (Viru Viru International Airport) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, shut down by protesters

the wealthy elites that control the eastern agricultural lowland of bolivia continue to work to disrupt evo morales' government...

Thousands of protesters stormed Bolivia's busiest airport on Friday as rightist opposition groups fought the government of President Evo Morales for control of the country's main air hub.

At least 7,000 protesters shouting "This is ours" occupied airport hallways and waved flags on the runway. The government withdrew troops that had occupied the airport since Thursday, after airlines complained of corrupt practices.

The airport in the country's wealthy eastern region was shut down for part of Friday due to the protests but restarted operations in the afternoon, local media reported.

The military occupied the airport on government orders after several airlines, including American Airlines and Brazil's Gol, suspended flights complaining airport officials demanded cash payments for landing rights.

Government officials say the levies were illegal, but Santa Cruz civic leaders argue that sending the army was out of proportion with the problem.

"An act of corruption does not justify sending the army," protest leader Branco Marinkovic said.

Anti-riot police dispersed protesters with tear gas when they tried to storm the airport on Thursday, but on Friday troops withdrew from the scene.

The dispute is the latest between Morales' leftist government and the right-wing opposition in the Santa Cruz province, the country's agricultural heartland.

nobody ever said morales would have it easy... it's clear that those with the money and the power are not going to go quietly into that good night...

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Evo Morales: "I think that indigenous people are the moral reserve of humanity"

The Real Reason People Fear Evo Morales

It's not just that President Evo Morales is indigenous, but that he refuses to sell out the rights of indigenous people.

[...]

They fear him not only because he is indigenous, not only because he is a leftist in the presidential palace with a massive base of support across the entire insurgent continent; they fear him because his public and private persona, his gentle charisma and ethical approach forces them -- and us -- to look at the long history of violence and hate buried in our individual and collective subconscious, our top-down notions of political -- and personal -- modernity. He forces us all to look at the inner Conquistador -- and the inner Indio.

We are ill-prepared to deal with someone who can say without blinking, "I think that indigenous people are the moral reserve of humanity."

as one who lives part time in argentina, has a warm spot in my heart for all of latin america and particularly for native peoples, and knows only too well the poverty and exploitation bolivia has endured, i have nothing but admiration and good will for evo morales and wish him and his country only the best...

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Remember the LAST time Bush visited Latin America?

yep, that's right... it was the summit of the americas, right here in argentina, back in november 2005... they didn't like him back then either...



Mass protests at the
Summit of the Americas
in Mar del Plata



Protestors display the famous image
of Che Guevara who was born in
Rosario, Argentina

tomorrow's the big rally with hugo chávez, nestor kirchner, and evo morales here in buenos aires... oughta be interesting...

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What will it take for the WaPo to stop cheerleading for Bush?

i sure as hell don't know...

from today's wapo op-ed...

• [W]e'd caution once again against writing his administration off entirely.

• Mr. Bush can adjust course when forced.

• Nor has the administration taken to its bunker and stopped trying.

• [T]he administration seems to be shaping a policy that combines pressure with diplomacy in a way that at least has potential.

• Mr. Bush understands the needed elements...

• [T]the domestic and international success of immigration reform could be a tonic -- maybe even a legacy.

i'll grant you... any other president in history would probably have resigned by now, but is the fact that this one hasn't a mark of principle and dogged determination, or an unwillingness or outright inability to see just how badly he's screwed the pooch...?

bush is leaving d.c. for brazil this evening for a 5-nation latin american tour... he will be arriving in uruguay when a massive "anti-imperialist" rally will be held right across the river here in buenos aires, with presidents hugo chávez of venezuela, nestor kirchner of argentina, and evo morales of bolivia in attendance... will bush understand that HE is one of the principal reasons why that rally will be so huge...? no, of course not...

bush granted an interview at the white house the other day with reporters from all five countries he will be visiting... in his comments, which i read in the argentine paper clarin this morning, he mentioned "social justice" five times... i have been following bush for 6+ years and that is the FIRST time i can recall him EVER mentioning "social justice..." you can bet that the good citizens of latin america don't recall him ever saying it either... does he really think he's fooling anybody...?



Preparations at Estadio Ferro in Buenos Aires for the anti-Bush, anti-imperialist rally tomorrow night

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