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while insulting Venezuelan voters, who have repeatedly supported Chavez by big majorities in highly monitored elections, with the Bush State Department "talking point" that Chavez is a "dictator."
They also seem oblivious to the huge support Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution have in the Andes region, in particular--in Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, where voters have elected allies of Chavez, and in Paraguay and Peru, where big leftist (majorityist) movements will likely win future elections. The leftist governments of Brazil, Uruguay and Nicaragua are also working closely with Chavez on various initiatives (such as the Bank of the South, and Mercosur, the S/A trade group). In fact, Chavez has huge support among ordinary people--workers, small farmers, the poor--throughout Latin America. Most Latin Americans despise dictators and authoritarianism. They've had their fill of it--often instigated/supported by the U.S./Corporatists. It seems clear to me that Latin America is undergoing an historic democratic transformation--in revulsion against past rightwing regimes--and that the huge SUCCESS of democracy in Venezuela is one of the keys to this transformation. When the people of Venezuela rose up, and filled the streets of Caracas, in opposition to the Bush-backed military coup attempt in 2002, defeated that coup, and restored Constitutional government, it was a turning point. This was the FIRST TIME that U.S. supported dictatorship had FAILED! Always, before this, the democratic forces had succumbed to brute force. This time, they didn't. The people of Venezuela were able to turn the situation around, peacefully, by their sheer numbers and grass roots organization (--able to get mobilized quickly).
And, soon afterward (and to some extent, simultaneously), the Bolivians, the Ecuadorans and Argentinians, were revolting against US-backed rightwing rule, and, by means of grass roots democracy, electing leftist/Bolivarian governments.
The virulence of Bush's hatred of Chavez--reflected in our war profiteering corporate news monopolies (and by corporate toady Democrats)--is perhaps a measure of their anger at FAILING to topple Venezuela's elected government. In the past, the U.S. has always had its way--and has always been able defeat democracy in Latin America, and install U.S./corporate friendly rightwing regimes and military dictatorships. Not this time!
The tide turned, when the Venezuelans revolted and peacefully restored their democratic government. It was the most important event in Latin American history since Simon Bolivar led the revolution against the colonial powers.
The defeat of fascism in Venezuela is chronicled in the Irish filmmakers' documentary, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." This film group happened to be present in Miraflores palace when the coup attempt occurred, and were privileged to record the entire event. Anyone who loves liberty and justice ought to view this film. (It is available in DVD at www.axisoflogic.com.)
How can people who call themselves democrats, with a small or big D, not be inspired by this amazing revolution, which has swept South America, and is gaining force in Central America as well (evidenced by the recent Nicaraguan election, and by Amlo's hairsbreadth loss of the presidential election--by only 0.05%--in Mexico last year)? How can people fall prey to the Bushite propaganda that this leftist movement is "dictatorial"?
As I said, it is baffling and mystifying. Our government and our people ought to be crying for joy at these developments--the SUCCESS of democracy in South America! --something we have SAID all along that we WANT--and ought to be leaping to help these countries solidify the gains for democracy and social justice that have occurred. Instead, our government is conniving in every way to DESTROY democracy in Latin America, to topple democratic governments, to support fascist forces, and to brutally re-install dictatorships, while our people suffer under the leaden weight of U.S./Bush/Corporate news propaganda, ignorant of what is really occurring, and vulnerable to P.R.-created racist stereotypes (--that the brown people of the south must be stupid sheep, following a "dictator," when they VOTE overwhelmingly for a leftist president).
Typically, when the Bushites condemn something, they are telling us nothing about reality--about truth--but instead are revealing who they are. When they have condemned "gay marriage" and have claimed to be for "family values," they were covering up endemic sexual corruption in their own ranks. When they condemn "terrorism" they are covering up their own "terrorist" acts--for instance, their "shock and awe" bombing of Baghdad, in which an estimated 100,000 innocent people were slaughtered, and their widespread use of torture, often against completely innocent bystanders, to terrorize the Iraqi population. When they condemn anti-war activists as "aiding the enemy," they themselves are "aiding the enemy." We know they WANTED a "new Pearl Harbor" in the United States. They state this in their Neocon "PNAC" documents. We KNOW that the Bush Cabal established and funded Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And their every action in Iraq has fostered chaos, brutality and civil war. They PREFER terrorism and war. It is very profitable.
And when they condemn Chavez as a "dictator"--Chavez who has been repeatedly ELECTED and has huge popular support--they are revealing their own anti-democratic beliefs. They rule by stolen elections. They believe that the rich elite should rule by fiat. They DON'T believe in democracy!
So, what are they up to in South America? NOT civil order. NOT democracy. NOT peace. And certainly NOT social justice. They are FUNDING--with billions of US taxpayer dollars--the WORST, most fascist, most brutal government in South America-- Colombia. The Uribe government (Bush's pals) have been using rightwing paramilitaries to torture and chainsaw union leaders, small peasant farmers and political leftists and throw their body parts into mass graves!
THAT is who the Bushites and their Corporate puppetmasters favor in South America--the killers, torturers and major drug traffickers of the Uribe government, and their colluders at Drummond Mining and Chiquita Banana! And they dare to call Chavez a "dictator"! Vampire bats and black widow spiders and poisonous snakes fly out of their mouths when they say this. Truly, it qualifies as one of their most evil lies. South America is their OTHER "theater of war." And killing Hugo Chavez and toppling the democratic government of Venezuela was to be the opening shot. 1980s deja vu. They failed. But that does not mean that they are not still plotting more horror for the people of South America in the jungles of Colombia! They will fail again, I am quite sure. But many more people will suffer at the hands of their fascist agents before it is over.
The U.S. "war on drugs," in the hands of Bushites, has become a war on democracy! It is as corrupt and horrible as their war on Iraq. One government after another in South America has rejected it. And these governments--Venezuela, Ecuador
and Bolivia, and others--are trying to FIGHT OFF the infiltration of U.S./Bush-backed RIGHTWING drug cartels and paramilitary forces, into their countries. There are BIG gangs--the Bush gang, and allied Corporate thugs--and there are lesser gangs, local drug cartels, whom the big gangs are working with, using the "war on drugs" as an excuse, to destabilize border areas--for instance, by killing small farmers and community organizers, and by poisoning small farmers with pesticide spraying to drive them out, so the big drug cartels and U.S. corporations can take over the land, and also by creating rightwing "movements" (big rich landowners) to split off provinces of Bolivia and Venezuela into "independent" states (to monopolize the resources). It is the same M.O. they are using in Iraq--create chaos so that civil order, and true representation of the interests of local people, cannot be established! And then steal everything in sight. In the Andes, it's oil, gas, minerals and other rich natural resources. That's what they want control of.
Chavez says "no way! get out! begone! you are not going to pull any more of this crap in South America!" And, yeah, that is "dictatorial"--from the point of view of George Bush, who is being told, "NO!" for the first time in his life, and from the point of view of Drummond and Chiquita Banana and Exxon Mobile and the World Bank, whose ungodly profits from exploiting and brutalizing South Americans are being curtailed!
Strong, assured, activist leadership on behalf of the people who elected you is NOT "dictatorship"--except to rich elites who are themselves "dictators" and want to impose THEIR undemocratic, greedy, brutal will on everybody else.
And perhaps it is a measure of our own population's "slow frog boil" into fascist rule that some of our people can't tell the difference any more--or are so misinformed and brainwashed that they don't even know that Venezuela has a law-abiding DEMOCRATIC government with many allies and huge support throughout South America.
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