Democracy & Latin America: Burton Schedules Hearing to Examine Issue

[Robbien]

News Advisory:

BACKGROUND: In the last two decades, most Latin American nations, with the exception of Cuba, have established regularly held free and fair elections. Yet despite this democratic progress, several nations in the region still face considerable challenges that pose a continuing threat to political stability, including persistent poverty, violent guerrilla conflicts, autocratic leaders, drug trafficking, and increasing crime rates.

El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua have successfully emerged from the turbulent 1980s and 1990s with democratic institutions far more firmly entrenched, yet corruption and violent crime remain as persistent problems. Colombia continues to be threatened by drug trafficking organizations, two left-wing guerrilla groups and a rightist paramilitary group, all of which are responsible for thousands of deaths each year. Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru have all faced varying levels of political instability in the past two years. Venezuela has been plagued by several years of political polarization under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez, who won a recall referendum in August 2004. Argentina has also successfully emerged from its 2001-2002 political crisis, and now the government of President Nestor Kirchner faces the challenge of bringing about reform to ensure economic growth. Guatemala has made tremendous progress in improving its human rights policy but there are still significant problems including corruption, guerrilla organizations, and drug trafficking.

In response to these ongoing challenges, the United States has focused on promoting the rule of law and strengthening judiciaries that are considered to be weak, overburdened, and often corrupt. A new U.S. program, the Millennium Challenge Account, is designed to assist countries that are adopting democratic practices, with Bolivia, Honduras, and Nicaragua chosen among the first participants. In addition, the United Nations has several programs designed to strengthen legislatures by promoting transparency and increasing the resources available to them. Non-governmental organizations, such as the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute, are also working with the various political parties. WHAT: Subcommittee Oversight Hearing: The State of Democracy in Latin America

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=44019

[murray hill farm]

1. The Millennium Challenge Account?

i so love its name....schheeeezzze! And...do Bolivia, Honduras and Nicaragua know yet that they are the first chosen...? Will this madness never end?

[bemildred]

2. Same old shit. nt

[Robbien]

3. I was just surprised they paid for a press release to announce the meeting

and publicize their agenda. It goes against their norm.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Burton hasn't been in the news much lately. Guess he's getting nervous.

He got some attention during the Elián Gonzalez kidnapping by the South Florida Miami right-wing "exile" community, some attention gibbering about Bill Clinton during "Monicagate" then pffffffftt.

Here's his list of witnesses at his Wondrous Magical Mystery Hearing:

WITNESSES: Roger F. Noriega, assistant secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Adolfo Franco, assistant administrator, Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, United States Agency for International Development; Lorne W. Craner, president, International Republican Institute; Stephen Johnson, senior policy analyst, The Heritage Foundation; Arturo A. Valenzuela, Ph.D., director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University; and Kenneth Wollack, president, National Democratic Institute.
(snip/...)

Wonder what kind of conclusion they'll reach? MORE intimidation of Latin America? Nah, surely they aren't THAT stupid.



Burton, totally surrounded by his Cuban
"exile" fellow Congresscritters.
Lincoln & Mario Diaz-Balart,Robert Menendez
(behind him) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

[denverbill]

5. Here are my predictions.

#1, right wing governments are fine and democratic, and need US military and economic assistance to help them stave off socialist, left-wing guerilla terrorists

#2, left-wing governments are authoritarian and anti-democratic, and we need to fund their opposition and attempt to destabilize them.

[Say_What]

8. COHA Report: Venezuela and the Latin American New Left:

Venezuela and the Latin American New Left: To Washington’s Chagrin, Chávez’s Influence Continues to Spread Throughout the Continent

<clips>

• The inauguration of Tabaré Vázquez in Uruguay shows that Latin America’s democratic march to the left continues, and could be a forerunner to Mexico’s 2006 presidential election.

• The Bush administration, already uncomfortable with Latin America’s new left, would become apoplectic if this movement reached the U.S.-Mexican border. A López Obrador victory in the Mexican election would signal the ultimate domino falling.

• Bush’s Latin America team fails to understand that the model of the new left in Latin America today is less Che Guevara than FDR and Tony Blair’s British Labor Party.

• The growing center-left ideological tilt among Latin American states is symptomatic of a growing movement towards a continental alliance and a political stance markedly different from that being fielded by the U.S.

On March 1, Uruguayans inaugurated their first ever left-of-center president. This event shattered the power-sharing arrangement that had existed for the last 170 years between the moderate Colorado and Blanco parties. This arrangement, which in many ways mirrored the near half century reign of the similar power-sharing Punto Fijo pact in Venezuela between the Christian Democrats (COPEI) and Democratic Action (AD), ended last October when Uruguayans elected Dr. Tabaré Vázquez, an oncologist, who ran on an anti-neoliberal platform. Vázquez was not the standard bearer of any well entrenched political party but the leader of a medley of relatively small movements that joined together under his Broad Front (Frente Amplio) coalition. The major issue Washington will be watching in the months ahead is not whether Vázquez will chart a leftist course, but just how left-of-center that course will be. Will he adopt a concertación style of government as seen in Chile, a balancing act between populist demands and IMF mandates as in Brazil, or a frontal assault on Washington – at least rhetorically – like Venezuela under Hugo Chávez?

http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2005/05.26%20Venezuela%20and%20the%20New%20Left%20the%20one.htm

[applegrove]

6. All South America needs to do is come up with a militant form of

Catholic fundamentalism and then democracy & respect for even very liberal grass roots democracy will break out all over the place.

[Say_What]

7. What a F*CK'N joke.... SAME OLD PROPAGANDA..

El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua have successfully emerged from the turbulent 1980s and 1990s with democratic institutions far more firmly entrenched, yet corruption and violent crime remain as persistent problems.

They neglect to state that it the USSA that destroyed these countries, installed US puppet dictators, and then disappeared and murdered thousands of people. Same with Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and other LatAm countries. 30 US-backed coups since 1945!!!

the United States has focused on promoting the rule of law and strengthening judiciaries that are considered to be weak, overburdened, and often corrupt

I can't believe that people are naive enough to believe this tripe. If Dan Burton is involved like he was involved with Helms-Burton designed to starve the Cuban population and intimidate other countries not to trade with the island, you can believe that this POS Millennium Challenge Account will not be anything good--just more of the US type *democracy* that equates to nothing more than raping and pilaging their countries in the name of globalization.

[Rose Siding]

9. Burton must be canonized at once!

How can he see past the forest of logs in his own eye if not for devine intervention?