Bush looking to rally support for Colombian leader

March 11, 2007, 12:38AM
Bush looking to rally support for Colombian leader


By PATTY REINERT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY — After a relaxing day of boating and barbecue in the Uruguayan countryside, President Bush flies to Colombia today for a much more difficult chore: shoring up U.S. support for President Alvaro Uribe, a longtime ally whose government has been tainted by ties to paramilitary death squads.
(snip)

Clear evidence of their ties to Colombian politicians began emerging late last year when 31,000 fighters disarmed under a government-sponsored peace plan. Eight members of Colombia's Congress, all belonging to Uribe's governing coalition, have been jailed. More than 60 former and current legislators, governors, mayors and town council members are under investigation.

And Uribe's foreign minister resigned last month after several members of her family were implicated in the scandal.

Many politicians swept up in the investigation are accused of accepting campaign donations from the gunmen, who sometimes bullied voters at gunpoint into supporting these candidates. Some are thought to have helped paramilitaries plan massacres and assassinations.

Others allegedly funneled government funds to the paramilitaries or supported initiatives in Congress benefiting their militias — such as a law mandating short prison terms for demobilized warlords.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/4619628.html

Our war criminal meets theirs.

by most South American leaders, and by the people who elected them. Venezuela, out. Bolivia, out. Ecuador, out. Argentina, out. Chile, out. Nicaragua, out. Peru (big leftist movement), out. Paraguay (big leftist movement, and widespread suspicion in So. America about Bush Cartel land purchase), out. In the only two real democracies he is visiting--Brazil and Uruguay--both presidents had to make apologetic remarks to avoid appearing too friendly (such as Lulu lecturing Bush on respecting the sovereignty of South American countries), and both had to shield Bush from huge anti-Bush demonstrations. Bush is hostile to democracy and it is hostile to him. But a rightwing country where fascist paramilitaries are running rampant with drug trafficking and murder, that's just the kind of place Bush will feel at home. Of course he would want to prop up a government like that!

It's kind of interesting what's happening in Colombia. For one thing, it appears--from my admittedly limited information--that President Uribe has refused to participate in Bushite plots against Chavez. One of the plots undercovered in the paramilitary scandals was a plot to assassinate Chavez. Uribe has distanced himself from these plotters. And I'm thinking about Lulu's lecture of Bush on sovereignty. I think there is something of a consensus--or some kind of brotherly feeling--about "Latin America for Latin Americans"--that might be seizing even a corrupt rightwing president like Uribe. Hugo Chavez's work on regional cooperation and self-determination (precepts of the Bolivarian Revolution) is something South Americans can be proud of. If nothing else, it drives a desperate Bush into Uribe's arms. He can get anything he wants. Bush has damn few friends in the region. And he has to lard Colombia with billions of US taxpayer dollars (checks written on our future) in order to keep it as an ally.

I suspect that a condition of Bush visiting Brazil and Uruguay--laid down by Lulu and Vasquez--was that Bush not criticize Chavez (who was dogging Bush's trip with peoples' rallies in Brazil and Argentina). This may explain the rather strange AP article (posted today at DU) that says: "Following his usual practice, Bush refused to utter Chavez' name during a news conference with the president of Uruguay — or even explain why he wouldn't." Was this AP reporter actually trying to do his/her job, and ferret out such a Lulu/Vasquez condition?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2762330

Anyway, what a disgrace and an embarrassment Bush is! Disdaining many countries where real democracy is happening, and being disdained by them--and schmoozing with the worst elements in South America. And trying to sell his "compassion for Latin America's poor." Christ.

I hope Lulu and Vasquez drove a hard bargain--and extracted something useful for their people and their region. I don't think Bush got anywhere with them on his "divide and conquer" mission. Notably, Lulu permitted Chavez to hold a big rally in Brazil in Bush's wake.

A blessing by Dimson is the kiss of death.

But, at least he won't be riding his bike . . .