By Led Black

Sometimes in relationships a person loses interest in their long-time partner and it is only when someone else starts to pay attention to that partner that the flames of loves are rekindled.  That, in a nutshell, is the reason that President Bush is now on a tour of Latin America that began this past Thursday.  Since the Bush administration came to power in 2000 they have treated Latin America as a mere backwater to be used, abused and taken for granted.  The process has only accelerated since 9/11, as Bush’s War on Terror has taken center stage.   

Then along came Chavez.  In early 2002, the Bush administration supported a coup that ousted Hugo Chavez from power as a way of squashing the ideas and the movement that the young upstart was trying to put in place.  The anti-democratic putsch lasted all of 2 days as the people of Venezuela took the streets and re-installed their elected leader.  The fact that the U.S. aided and abetted the overthrow of a democratically elected government only strengthened Chavez’s growing appeal to not only Latin America but also the entire world.  The illegal, immoral and disastrous invasion of Iraq has further fanned the flames of Anti-Americanism and Bush is seen as the embodiment of American power run amok. 

Bush’s five-nation tour to combat the growing popularity of Hugo Chavez is off to a rocky start.  Protests, melees and riots have broken out at every country along the way.  Chavez, not be outdone, is conducting his very own tour of Latin America as a way of contrasting their different agendas for the region.  A testament to the growing resentment the Bush visit has generated is the fact Mayan priests in Guatemala will purify a sacred Mayan archaeological site to cleanse the “bad spirits” after Bush’s visit there is completed to ensure their revered ancestors can continue to rest in peace.  Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan NGO has this to say, "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture."   Damn, things done changed!!!

By Led Black

For the last twenty years or more, most Latin American countries have faithfully followed the dictates of the United States; they have opened up their economies to foreign capital and have signed up en masse for increasingly larger loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.  The results, across the boards, have been less than stellar.  Of course, the number of millionaires has shot up but the poor masses have, if anything, become even more wretchedly destitute.  There were those who argued that the left in Latin America was dead, that only Cuba remained and that they wouldn’t last long.  The truth is that the left did not die, it was assassinated.  Everywhere, from Balaguer’s Dominican Republic to Pinochet’s Chile, right-wing governments with C.I.A. provided info systematically, ruthlessly liquidated and eradicated the left.  The problem is that ideas don’t die.  Fidel Castro has found a suitable ideological heir in Venezuela’s Chavez.  Hugo Chavez’s taking on the mantle of the left has caused a paradigm shift in Latin America.  Brazil now has Lula Da Silva at the helm and recently Evo Morales, the first Indian President in a predominantly native country, has taken the reigns of power in Bolivia.  The month of November has also seen Daniel Ortega return to power in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa is the newly elected leader of Ecuador.  The winds of change are blowing across Latin America, where they will be felt next is anybody’s guess but rest assured that the left is alive, kicking, screaming and in no mood to do the bidding of their former masters in Washington. 

It's only 7 years young and already this century has given us enough plot twists, intrigue, coup's and murder's to fill a couple of Tom Clancy novels. Stay tuned as the saga's continue to unfold on the world stage!

Peace