Expulsions stoke US-LatAm dispute

A series of tit-for-tat expulsions has left the US without ambassadors in three Latin American countries.

Bolivia and Venezuela have expelled their US envoys, accusing Washington of trying to oust Bolivia's government.

Washington has responded by throwing out envoys from Bolivia and Venezuela and freezing the assets of three aides to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Meanwhile, Honduras has refused the credentials of a new US ambassador, postponing his appointment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7612778.stm

So, what IS going on, in what was once the toilet that John Negroponte's death squads crapped in, on their way to slaughter leftists in Nicaragua and El Salvador?

They've gone LEFTIST, that's what! Madre de Dios--HONDURAS! Last week, they stuck a finger in the Bushwhacks' eye, and joined the Bolivarian trade group, ALBA. This week, they snub the U.S. ambassador--in sympathy with Bolivia, and in concert with Venezuela and the South American left (just about everybody).

Honduras! How many other secret leftists are hiding out in presidential palaces in the remaining U.S.-Bush client states? Panama? El Salvador? Mexico? Naw, not Mexico--although you gotta wonder about their rightwing/Corpo president publicly lecturing Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, back in 2006, and using Venezuela as an example! I've certainly been wondering about that ever since it happened. Generally, I think Venezuela, in the vanguard of asserting Latin American self-determination, empowers them all. I think it empowered Calderon to assert Mexican control over U.S.-Bush "war on drugs" money--not a good use of sovereign power, but it at least keeps accountability for "war on drugs" activities a little closer to the people. Calderon's got leftist Lopez-Obrador breathing down his neck--who came within 0.05% of becoming Mexico's president, and thus Calderon has to be--and is being--more cautious than the Bushwhacks would like him to be, on privatizing Mexico's constitutionally protected oil resource. This, again, is partly Venezuela's influence--in the vanguard of using oil profits to benefit the poor and "lifting all boats."

Leftwing candidates for president are ahead in the polls in El Salvador and Panama. And it's interesting what happened in Paraguay, this year, just before they voted for their first leftist president, ever. The entrenched rightwing that the leftist (Fernando Lugo) overthrew had already begun moving left. They joined the Bank of the South (one of Chavez's best ideas), for instance. They rescinded their non-extradition law and immunity for the U.S. military (requirements for joining South American trade groups). And--most interesting of all, in the country most notorious for harboring nazi criminals and military coups--they let the leftist win. They haven't killed him or exiled him (yet). And I don't they will.

What I'm saying is that it's possible we will see near unanimity (Colombia always being the exception) on ending the Bushfuck interference in Bolivia (and similar evil schemes in Venezuela and Ecuador), with even the apparently rightwing governments adding their voices to the outrage, and/or, the rightwing actually edging left, on issues of economic/political sovereignty, as pressure from the overwhelmingly leftist democracy movement in South America gains momentum as the wave of the future. The South Americans have already formed a South American "Common Market" (without the U.S.). Regionally controlled trade--with sovereign, democratic governments in control--is far, far better for all Latin American countries than U.S./Corpo-dominated "free trade" looting. And now--partly because of the Chavez's government's vision and courage--fair trade and self-rule have become possible.

This may be part of the reason that Lula da Silva recently said, of Chavez: "You can criticize Chavez on a lot of things, but not on democracy." I had taken it to mean, in Venezuela. But he may have meant it in a broader sense--the economic/political empowerment of democratic governments throughout the region. It is certainly true, in any case, that Venezuela, in the vanguard, has given them all new bargaining power, vis a vis "the North," and a new sense of collective power over their destiny.

Honduras and Paraguay rebelling against the "Empire" is totally remarkable. I'm still amazed by both. These are stunning bellweathers of the utter failure of Bushwhack policy--and of the strength of the leftist democracy movement throughout the south. All the Bushwhacks can do is cause trouble--as with their proxies machine-gunning 15 peasant farmers, and blowing up a gas pipeline, in Bolivia this week. That's what the U.S. has come to mean, in Latin America. And I hope that the Corpos realize that Diebolding McBush into office will only make things worse--total alienation of the northern and southern halves of our hemisphere. They seem bent on doing it, though--and turning us into the biggest "banana republic" on earth. What a bitter irony, eh?

And the election in El Salvador looks good for the left.

:wow: