real journalism

Bush's run for the border

The war of words between George W. Bush and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez escalated over the weekend and was a study in contrast between the two personalities.

The odd hybrid swagger and sneer of the Ivy League-educated but West Texas-bred Bush played against the Latino passion and machismo of Chavez, a man brought up in a poor Venezuelan barrio.

And for a change, America's paper-trained press corps wasn't able to present Chavez as colored by the Bush Administration's spin: that of a raving Marxist, drug-dealing, evil bosom buddy of the hated Fidel Castro.

To be a part of the volatile minefield that is South American politics, it takes more than swagger and tough talk to stay in power. And while five years of Bushism have taken our nation much closer to the kind of have vs.have-not economy so prevalent in Central and South America, it has yet to completely destroy the liberal foundation this country was founded upon.

So when a Hugo Chavez or Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came to power with the overwhelming backing of the have-nots of their countries, the corporations that created the inequality get very nervous.

Our shame is that the United States has never stood behind those who want to bring real economic change to our American neighbors, but instead have always stood behind and -- in the case of our CIA -- often ahead of the forces trying to relieve the suffering of the poor and exploited masses.

This happened in Guatemala in 1954, in Chile in 1973 in Panama in 1955 and again possibly in 1981, and in Venezuela in 2002, when Hugo Chavez' government was overthrown in a coup financed and backed by the United States' CIA and other agencies. In the last case, Chavez was returned to power in three days and has understandably railed against George Bush ever since.

This weekend, at the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, Chavez got a little of his own back when George Bush failed to get the biggest nations in the region to back his latest plan Free Trade initiative to benefit the big corporations he represents in his position as CEO President.

In the kind of boisterous bravado well-known and widely-accepted in the region, Chavez called Bush "the big loser"; something most Americans are finally coming to terms with.

In a typical display of Bush doublethink, he declared today that

"the U.S. model of democracy is based on the power of individual freedoms and integration into the global community, whereas other countries in the region "divide into factions and dwell on old grievances, which risks sliding back into tyranny."

As the Bush Administration tries to extricate itself from a unilateral war in Iraq that divided the world and at the same time pushes for allowing the kind of torture Right Wing dictators have always used, he continues to try to convince the world that his "model of democracy" is a shining example for the family of nations. I think many people in Florida and Ohio would take issue with that statement.

One thing is for certain, however. The "fat, little dark-skinned nobody" from Venezuela has made a powerful enemy in George Bush. I'm sure that the sycophants and yes-men who cater to his every political whim will send out their missives to the appropriate agencies telling them that whatever plans they've had to depose Chavez are now full-go.

Venezuela's internal insurgents will find more money coming their way. US Naval Forces off Venzezuela's coast will be put on increased alert and the American mainstream news media will suddenly become privy to more and more "deep background information" that will show Chavez to be an increasing threat to the stability of the region.

Bush desperately wants to leave his presidency with some kind of success. And like our involvement in 1973 in the overthrow and assassination of Chilean President Salvador Allende -- a similar kind of populist working to solve the great inequities of wealth in his country -- I fully expect this war of words to increase until Bush's press minions and talking mouths have convinced a majority of Americans that Chavez indeed is a danger to not only his own people, but to US.

posted by mauiloa @ 11:01 AM