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having sold Peru down the river for "free trade" and the "war on drugs" boondoggle. But he is the exception in South America, and will go down in the next election, if not before. A Bolivarian leftist (true leftist) came out of nowhere in the last election, with no political experience and no money, and bumped the rightwing candidate out of the race. The Bushites had to fall back on corrupt "centrist" Garcia, who was more than eager to make a deal. The real leftist, Ollanta Humala, a 100% indigenous, helped by the endorsements of Evo Morales in neighboring Bolivia (also 100% indigenous) and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, took 45% of the vote in the final election. He will likely be back, or some other true leftist, to pick up of the pieces of Peru's economy and society, after Garcia/Bush are done with it.
Peru is now surrounded with Bolivarian governments--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina (and soon Paraguay)--and with other leftist governments that share the Bolivarians' goals to some degree (Brazil, Uruguay, Chile). Peru stands now with Colombia as the two rightwing, U.S.-dominated dinosaurs of the continent. The Bolivarian revolution--of which Hugo Chavez is the most well-known spokesman here in the U.S., but which has many leaders and a vast amount of supporters and activists--is now spreading north, with Daniel Ortega's election in Nicaragua, and Amlo's hairsbreadth loss (by only 0.05%) in Mexico last year (in an election that was likely stolen by the rightwing). Guatemala is also a good bet for leftists winning the presidency this year. It is a genuine--and truly remarkable revolution--whose main tenets are democracy with broad-based participation, Latin American self-determination, Latin American regional cooperation, and social justice. It opposes U.S.-dominated "free trade" (global corporate predation), the World Bank/IMF (the loan sharks of the global corporate predators), foreign corporate profiteering from local natural resources (oil, gas, minerals, forests, fresh water) with no benefit to local people and without environmental protections, and the murderous U.S. "war on drugs" (war on union leaders, peasant farmers and political leftists).
It should come as no surprise that Peruvian victims are getting no aid, and are protesting Garcia's visit, and they have my great admiration for mustering the energy and organization to protest it, under the circumstances. One thing I know about the South American left--they are hella grass roots organizers, often under difficult and dangerous conditions (death threats, etc., from U.S. corporations, U.S. black ops forces and U.S.-sponsored rightwing paramilitary death and torture squads organized by local rich fascist elites). There have been horrible rightwing paramilitary killings in Colombia, with close ties to the Uribe government (Bush's pals). And with more U.S. "war on drugs" money pouring into Peru, we can be sure that conditions for dissenters--and for the poor--are becoming yet more dangerous there as well, and will likely get worse before the people can elect a good Bolivarian government.
The few South American neo-liberals/rightwingers who are still in power act just like Bush. The sufferings of the poor in a disaster--or in the general disaster of "free trade" (looting by the rich) and the "war on drugs" (killing the poor, poisoning their land)--mean absolutely nothing to them. Callous, brutal, greedy, deceitful, criminal--you name it. It's interesting, though, that even the rightwing leaders of Colombia and Mexico have felt obliged to distance themselves from assassination plots against Hugo Chavez that have been hatched among the Colombian rightwing paramilitaries (with Bushite collusion, I have no doubt). The rightwing president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, even lectured Bush, in public, on the sovereignty of Latin American countries--on Bush's Latin American tour earlier this year--and even mentioned Venezuela as an example of unwanted interference. Mexico's sovereignty is also an issue in negotiations about U.S. "war on drugs" money (--although this likely only means that local fascists want a bigger cut). Still, it seems that the notion of Latin American self-determination is a common theme, and a matter of shared pride, or at least of political importance--something the rightwing has to at least give lip service to, because it is an unstoppable political wildfire sweeping out of Venezuela into all of Latin America.
It is expressed in new institutions like the Bank of the South, and regional trade groups--Mercosur and ALBA (the Bolivarian alternative), with goals of a South American "Common Market" and common currency (to get off the U.S. dollar). THIS is the reason that Hugo Chavez is so hated by the Bushites and other Corporate Predator entities (like our corporate media), in addition, of course, to his government's policy of using the country's oil revenues to help the poor. Chavez is a lead instigator of these independence moves. Paraguay smartened up--even with an entrenched, corrupt, centrist government--and joined the Bank of the South, because it is such a good idea. Far better to get government loans locally, amidst regional trade agreements, cooperation and aid, than from the ruinous World Bank.
Peru is on the outs, as to the benefits of the Bolivarian Revolution, as long as it has a Bushite-picked, "free trade" president. Peruvians are suffering the miseries of that rotten deal, along with the earthquake. But, as I said, the grass roots activism in South American is very strong, and change is a-coming!
Viva la revolución!
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