Dave Lindorff: The Bush Family's Bad Latin Real Estate Investment

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/33192

The Bush Family's Bad Latin Real Estate Investment
Submitted by dlindorff on Fri, 2008-05-02 19:34.

* General Discussion

By Dave Lindorff


Back in late 2006, it was widely reported in the Latin American media that President Bush, or perhaps his old man, had bought a 100,000-acre farm in a remote area of Paraguay.

What struck people at the time was the choice of country. Paraguay, of course, has gained a certain Club Med status among the world's villains and criminal elements as the place to go when the law's on your tail. The country, ruled for six decades by the dictatorial and fascist Colorado Party of Gen. Alfredo Stroesser, an almost cartoon charicature of a Latin American dictator, has no extradition treaty with any nation.

That's why it has long harbored aging Nazis, bank robbers, and a string of ousted or retired Latin American dictators and their assistants over the years.

Given that President Bush, once he leaves office on January 20, 2009, will no longer have the diplomatic immunity conferred upon heads of state, or the Constitutional protection against indictment by domestic prosecutors, it makes sense that he would be looking for a safe haven from the long arm of the law.

After all, they guy is guilty of a huge laundry list of international crimes, from the Crime Against Peace and Conspiracy against Peace in the UN Charter, to Geneva Convention violations like approval of torture of prisoners, collective punishment of civilians, the killing of children and child soldiers, the failure to protect occupied citizens, the use of banned weapons, etc., etc., and also of domestic crimes, ranging from political use of government employees, conspiracy, treason, lying to federal officials, defrauding Congress, etc.

snip//

Last month, a former Roman Catholic Bishop with leftist, populist tendencies, Fernando Lugo, surprised almost everyone in Paraguay, and no doubt President Bush, by winning the national presidential election, ousting the Colorado Party for the first time in 61 years. There is talk that among other things, Lugo is thinking of returning Paraguay to the community of nations, by signing some of those extradition agreements.

If he does that Bush may be stuck having to hide behind his rump squad of Secret Service agents down at the Crawford Ranch, hoping they can keep the process servers from Brattleboro and Marlboro, VT, with their war crimes arrest warrants, at bay.
____

[speedoo]

1. Heh.

Bush stuck in Crawford, cuttin' brush, drivin' his truck. No visits from Condi or Jeff Gannon.

Drivin' ol' Laura nuts.

Heh.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. B.stll.m.hrt

hehehehehehehehe!

take that, you war criminal.

[TomInTib]

3. Well, he won't be at Crawford, anyway.

The word in Texas is that they are quietly looking for a buyer.

[babylonsister]

4. I think they've bought property or a house in or near Dallas. But

then again, who cares. I hope they go to Paraguay. ;)

[TomInTib]

5. I hope they go to Hell.

Sooner than later.

They are moving to Highland Park (Dallas).

[thunder rising]

6. I'll be !@#$@ ... I thought he would join the Nazis down there.

[Peace Patriot]

7. The new president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, has also said that he opposes

the U.S. air base in Paraguay--the one the Bushites beefed up for jet landings at our expense, and also--in my opinion-- intended to use for troop landings, to support the white separatists in Bolivia, who want to split off the four eastern provinces, where all the gas and oil are, from the central government of Evo Morales, in order to deny benefit of those resources to the poor majority. This crisis may come to a head this Sunday, when the white separatists hold an illegal referendum on autonomy for these provinces (secession). These eastern provinces border Paraguay and are not far from the U.S. air base and the rumored Bush Cartel land purchase in Paraguay.

The Bushites have NO strategic ground left at the southern end of the Bolivarian revolution. In the north, they have Colombia (where they've larded the fascist government with $5.5 BILLION in military aid--also our money). Venezuela and Ecuador (leftist governments) are adjacent to Colombia, to the north and south, respectively, and Colombia has been harrying their borders with "war on drugs" incursions (such as pesticide spraying of small peasant farmers), and, recently, with an act of war against Ecuador (using ten 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs" and U.S. surveillance--and possibly U.S. aircraft and personnel--to kill the FARC hostage negotiator and 24 others, including Ecuadoran and Mexican citizens, on Ecuador's soil). The extremely corrupt Colombian government is a tool of Bushite crime and dirty rotten plots in the region.

In the south, Paraguay was it*--until last Sunday's election of Fernando Lugo. Paraguay is surrounded by leftist governments (Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil). So I think the Bushite idea was to combine the western portion of Paraguay with the eastern secessionist provinces of Bolivia as a fascist enclave from which to launch major trouble against Paraguay's leftist neighbors. Mercenaries (and U.S. troops--if Donald Rumsfeld had his way*) would land at the Paraguay air strip, and cross the border to support the white supremacists in a civil war against the Bolivian federal government (the government of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia), and would have Paraguay as a staging area and training ground. Under the prior rightwing government of Paraguay, U.S. troops were already doing training exercises in Paraguay.

Fernando Lugo has walked carefully, regarding the two great forces that are contesting the continent--the Bolivarian revolution, a people-driven, grass roots revolution which has elected governments throughout the Andes, allied to various degrees with the other leftist governments of the continent, vs. the Bush Junta and its global corporate predator pals, who lust to regain control of the Andes oil, among other things. But Lugo is known as "the bishop of the poor." He spent his entire ministry as a Catholic bishop living with and advocating for the poor. He is in sympathy with the struggles of the indigenous--particularly the need for land reform. He has walked carefully because he does not have the overwhelming leftist mandate that the Bolivarian leaders have received in their elections. He got about 40% of the vote, in a multi-candidate field, and heads a shaky coalition of leftist and other groups. He also had death threats, although I don't think that Lugo is easily intimidated. But he has not engaged in anti-Bush rhetoric, and he says things like "I am not Hugo Chavez. I am not Rafael Correa (president of Ecuador)." And, "Paraguay is neither left nor right--Paraguay is poor!" And he had what I saw characterized as a "friendly" meeting in Washington (I don't know with whom). Finally, Paraguay does not have any oil--that is, no easy lubrication for social reforms, and no stick to wield over the Bushites (or future U.S. governments). They do have ag land where big corps want to grow more biofuels. The main government revenue is from hydroelectric power, and their biggest current problem is Brazil, because the power contracts negotiated by prior governments unfairly favor Brazil.

All in all, as to the matter of this OP, I would expect Lugo to oppose U.S. meddling in his neighbor country, Bolivia, and to support the Morales government in trying to hold the country together against the white separatists (which is a land reform issue, involving indigenous rights, as well as a gas/oil resource issue). He may try to help mediate that dispute--since a split-up of Bolivia would adversely affect Paraguay. (He surely doesn't want a fascist, white separatist, rogue state on his border!) As a former bishop, he's definitely into "talk" solutions to problems. (The Catholic bishops in the region have been trying to mediate the Bolivian dispute, as has the OAS.) I would also expect him to continue to oppose the U.S. air base. He has spoken about Paraguay's sovereignty (and sovereignty is the issue, with regard to U.S. boots on the ground--as it is in Ecuador, where Rafael Correa also opposes the U.S. air base in his country). (Lugo and Correa are friends, I believe.) But I would not expect any dramatic confrontations from Lugo over any of these matters. He has quite a lot of work to do, to get reform started in Paraguay, and to hold his political coalition together, and confrontation is not his style.

As to the Bush Cartel land purchase, I've yet to see confirmation of it. It is still in the category of a rumor. Also, the prior Paraguayan government rescinded both the immunity law for U.S. troops, and the non-extradition law--and I think both were conditions for Paraguay's entry into Mercosur (South American trade group now dominated by leftists) and possibly also for becoming a member of the Bank of the South (a Chavez-inspired project to keep development money in local regional control--as opposed to the World Bank/IMF). The prior government was very corrupt, but it was not the fascist dictatorship of former days, and clearly it was feeling pressure from the leftist tide that has swept the continent. It was already edging Paraguay toward integration and toward cooperation with leftist governments on regional initiatives.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

8. Hopefully Bush will move to The Hague after we get a REAL president.

[Peace Patriot]

9. He could go live in Colombia, where they chainsaw union leaders and toss

their body parts into mass graves. I'm sure they would love him there.

On the other hand, I have a feeling that his pal, Uribe, is getting dumped by the global corporate predators who run Bush. Our war profiteering corporate news monopolies are actually beginning to report some of the trouble Uribe is in. Dozens of his political cabal are under investigation for ties to death squads and drug traffickers. His cousin was just arrested for it, and Uribe himself is under investigation for being at a meeting where death squad murders were planned. They need somebody cleaner running Colombia, if their much-desired Colombian "free trade" deal is going to be passed by the U.S. Congress. It's virtually the only issue on which the Democrats have shown any spine. They really, really oppose chainsawing union leaders. (Sorry, couldn't resist it.) Anyway, Uribe has failed to deliver on a number of tasks he has been given, and if and when he's ousted, Colombia might not be so safe for Bushite refugees.

Saudi Arabia?
The U.A.E.? (Halliburton's new headquarters.)