New Paraguay leaders mount international defense
Source: CBS
ASUNCION, Paraguay — Paraguay's new government battled a wave of criticism on Sunday as several of the nation's closest allies condemned the dismissal of President Fernando Lugo by lawmakers, some calling it a congressional coup.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government will cut off fuel sales to the poor South American country. Venezuela had become a key supplier to Paraguay as Chavez had built close ties with Lugo, a moderate leftist.
Former Vice President Federico Franco, who was sworn in as president following Lugo's ouster, said newly appointed Foreign Minister Jose Felix Fernandez would represent Paraguay at a summit of the regional trade bloc Mercosur that starts Monday in Mendoza, Argentina, with heads of state gathering there on Thursday.
-snip-
All three other Mercosur members reacted with alarm to Lugo's removal, and the fact that the Senate's impeachment trial lasted just five hours, giving the president little time to mount a defense. Brazil and Argentina, announced they were calling their ambassadors home and Uruguay also expressed concern.
Chavez said Venezuela also was pulling out its ambassador and that it would not recognize the new government.
His decision to cut oil shipments could hurt Paraguay, which has received increasing quantities of Venezuelan oil since 2004. Paraguay currently owes Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA nearly $300 million, out of about $400 million in total debts to oil suppliers. Paraguay's new government downplayed the Argentine announcement, noting that the last ambassador, Rafael Roma, had already left three months ago after finishing his diplomatic assignment.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501715_162-57459545/new-paraguay-leaders-mount-international-defense/
= new reply since forum marked as read
when it was the RIGHT--the Colorado Party fascists--that did it. You've done this several times in the last day or so, and, as far as I can tell, it is the ONLY thing you have to say about this matter.
Why? If you are so curious about the leftists in Paraguay, why don't you Google around and try to get an answer to your question. Why don't you try to inform people about this situation--about the 60 year rightwing dictatorship in Paraguay, about their corruption and entrenchment, about who Bishop Lugo is--one of the most popular and beloved presidents in the region--and how unlikely it is that he had anything to do with the protest that turned violent (the excuse for the coup), about the lack of public airing of this matter and the sneaky nature of the coup?
You keep "wondering about" the leftists (the minority) who voted for impeachment in this corrupt legislature, and want somebody else to help you dig up more about the left...the left...the left.
Get it, folks? It was the cowardly left, not the cowardly fascist right who did this.
Well, think about this: Fernando Lugo, former Catholic bishop and Gandhian advocate of the poor--who lived in stark poverty himself all his life--immediately abdicated, despite the illegality and injustice of this coup--in order to prevent violence. And, knowing Lugo's mind about this--that he was going to instantly abdicate to prevent a civil war in Paraguay--the leftists went along with it in the legislature, some for less sanguine reasons (personal ambition? fear?), some not (some to prevent violence, or to retain their power and positions for good reasons).
The Colorado Party is known to KILL and TORTURE its opponents. Would that not give YOU pause if you were a member of a weak, fractious minority in the midst of a rightwing coup?
Lugo, despite his popularity, did not carry the legislature in his 2008 election. The leftist parties in Paraguay are among the most fractious in the world and the Colorado Party fascists are among the most corrupt and entrenched of 1%-ers in Latin America. Lugo has been in a struggle with them ever since his election, on the rights of the poor, the rights of women and the Indigenous, on including the poor, women and the Indigenous in the government, and other issues, most notably the wealthy soy farmers' use of toxic pesticides which are poisoning poor farm workers. It is no surprise at all that the RIGHT has mounted a coup against him--so like the coup in Honduras (with an utterly false veneer of "legality" that Washington P.R. firms and the CIA can promulgate in the Corporate Press as the "talking point"
. Nor is it a surprise that the left was caught off-guard (also like Honduras). The RIGHT and their U.S. allies pick on the WEAK. Lugo is ill. The left is weak. Time to STRIKE!
But none of this interests you. Only the Left somehow being responsible for this coup interests you. Hm-m-m. If this repeated question of yours is truly an "innocent question," why don't YOU try to answer it? Find out about the Left in Paraguay and report back to us? Do some homework, naaman fletcher, instead of repeatedly trying to smear the Left for a RIGHTWING coup.
Of course the fascists were for this, my question is, why did the other leftists go along with it?
Why? If you are so curious about the leftists in Paraguay, why don't you Google around and try to get an answer to your question.
I have, and I can't find an answer. Also, neither you nor anybody else on DU has an answer. If you have the answer, I would appreciate your taking the 60 seconds to inform me. EDIT: I see you did below.
Why don't you try to inform people about this situation--about the 60 year rightwing dictatorship in Paraguay, about their corruption and entrenchment, about who Bishop Lugo is--one of the most popular and beloved presidents in the region-
That doesn't need informing. It is well known here, and in every thread.
-and how unlikely it is that he had anything to do with the protest that turned violent (the excuse for the coup), about the lack of public airing of this matter and the sneaky nature of the coup?
I agree it is unlikely, that is why I am asking. It is very suspicious. The washington Post has an article trying to explain a little but I don't generally trust the washington post.
You keep "wondering about" the leftists (the minority) who voted for impeachment in this corrupt legislature, and want somebody else to help you dig up more about the left...the left...the left.
Get it, folks? It was the cowardly left, not the cowardly fascist right who did this.
No, I am trying to figure out why the left went along with the Colorado party. It doesn't make much sense to me at all. and "googling around" I can't seem to find any explanation other than the one offered up by the washington post which was unsourced and even if it was sourced I generally don't trust the WP.
Well, think about this: Fernando Lugo, former Catholic bishop and Gandhian advocate of the poor--who lived in stark poverty himself all his life--immediately abdicated, despite the illegality and injustice of this coup--in order to prevent violence. And, knowing Lugo's mind about this--that he was going to instantly abdicate to prevent a civil war in Paraguay--the leftists went along with it in the legislature, some for less sanguine reasons (personal ambition? fear?), some not (some to prevent violence, or to retain their power and positions for good reasons).
The Colorado Party is known to KILL and TORTURE its opponents. Would that not give YOU pause if you were a member of a weak, fractious minority in the midst of a rightwing coup?
Lugo, despite his popularity, did not carry the legislature in his 2008 election. The leftist parties in Paraguay are among the most fractious in the world and the Colorado Party fascists are among the most corrupt and entrenched of 1%-ers in Latin America. Lugo has been in a struggle with them ever since his election, on the rights of the poor, the rights of women and the Indigenous, on including the poor, women and the Indigenous in the government, and other issues, most notably the wealthy soy farmers' use of toxic pesticides which are poisoning poor farm workers. It is no surprise at all that the RIGHT has mounted a coup against him--so like the coup in Honduras (with an utterly false veneer of "legality" that Washington P.R. firms and the CIA can promulgate in the Corporate Press as the "talking point"
. Nor is it a surprise that the left was caught off-guard (also like Honduras). The RIGHT and their U.S. allies pick on the WEAK. Lugo is ill. The left is weak. Time to STRIKE!
That is a reasonable argument, and it probably went something like this. However, I would add that Lugo probably also from an internal political standpoint probably mismanaged his relationship with the other leftist parties. I have been living mostly in a country with a similar fractious system (although parliamentarian). In this country, in the last election the leftists broke and one went with the rightists to form a government. It all had to do with "internal" stuff. One of the leftist parties screwed the other out of some ministries last time around, and so the rightists said to the aggrieved leftists "come with us, and we will give you four ministries" and they did, because running a ministry allows for ample opportunities for personal enrichment. My guess is that Lugo, who is a great man, wasn't a very good politician from a internal party politics perspective, which gave the fascists a chance to strike, and pick off the other leftists.
But none of this interests you. Only the Left somehow being responsible for this coup interests you. Hm-m-m. If this repeated question of yours is truly an "innocent question," why don't YOU try to answer it? Find out about the Left in Paraguay and report back to us? Do some homework, naaman fletcher, instead of repeatedly trying to smear the Left for a RIGHTWING coup.
It does interest me, that is why I asked the question. You answered it. Thank you. The question is:
Is DU, and are progressives in general, better off spouting off the party line on something without really examining it, or, are we better off having a back and forth discussion of understanding what happened. We have now had that discussion, and I think the board is better off for it. thanks for your reply.
I'd like to mention the party which did this to Lugo also is the party which ruled over 60 years prior, and throughout the reign of terror of their leader, Nazi-sheltering President Stroessner, who gave haven to one of the worst criminals in World War Two, Dr. Mengele.
They kept Stroessner in power over 40 years, while they tortured, slaughtered, and enslaved the indigenous people of Paraguay. Here's a quick summary:
Genocide in Paraguay
Mark Munzel, a German anthropologist, was the first to call attention to the massacre of the Paraguayan Indians, with whom he lived for a year. He points out that "the Ache are inconvenient" - particularly, for the few enterprises with a majority of foreign (Brazilian, United States, and Western European) shares that dominate the Paraguayan economy, and for the Stroessner dictatorship that has imposed its terrorist rule with substantial U.S. support, as did its murderous predecessors. As the forests are cleared for foreign & domestic mining and cattle-raising interests, Indian removal, using some combination of outright killing and forcible resettlement , is a normal facet of "development" policy. In the case of a "poor man's Nazi" regime such as Stroessner's Paraguay, the nature of the resettlement (comparable to those in Nazi concentration camps"
Munzel records the campaign against the Indians by manhunts, slavery, and deculturation. In manhunts with the co-operation of the military, the Indians are "pursued like animals," the parents killed, and the children sold (citing professor Sardi). Machetes are commonly used to murder Indians to save the expense of bullets. Men not slaughtered are sold for field-workers, women as prostitutes, children as domestic servants. According to Sardi, "there is not one family in which a child has not been murdered."
The process of deculturation aims at the intentional destruction of Indian culture among those herded into the reservation. Little effort is made to maintain secrecy about any of this, except by agencies of the U.S. government and by the U.S. media. For example, Munzel was offered teenage Indian girls by the Director of Indian Affairs of the Ministry of Defence, who "sought my goodwill," and he comments that "slavery is widespread and officially tolerated." Slaves can be found in Asuncion, the capital city.
Indians who survive the manhunts are herded into reservations where, according to Munzel, they are "subjected to stress and physcological degradation calculated to break the body as well as the spirit." Torture and humiliation of Indian Chiefs is a "standard procedure designed to produce the disintegration of group identity." Medication and nourishment are purposely withheld. When spirits are broken, the reservation is used " as a manhunt centre where tamed Indians are trained in fratricide." In a recent visit, Arens was impressed with the "striking absence of young adult males," the horrendous condition of the children, with festering sores, distended abdomens and widespread symptoms of the protein- deficiency disease Kwashiorkor, and the refusal of medication and medical care as a general practice. Arens, even on a guided tour, was aghast at the systematic maltreatment and felt himself "engulfed by the collective gloom of a people who had given up on life."
More:
http://totse2.com/totse/en/politics/foreign_military_intelligence_agencies/parageno.html
Thank you for taking the time to add some realism to this subject. We all know what happens when the truth isn't allowed to surface.
It didn't last. The BFEE got busy.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3183814
The model was trotted out for Jean Bertrand Aristide in 1991.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1257891&mesg_id=1259743
Thank you for the history of the Acha. As a Spaniard, I am very ashamed of what has happened at their hands.
PS: Sorry for the inelegance of this post. Using a phone is an art for younger, sharper talents.
PPS: Thank you for all you do to bring light, Judi Lynn.
