Latin America news (The Leftists are spreading?)

[2-0-Sixx]

Nicaragua Leftists Gain in Elections

Thu, 11 Nov 2004 08:41:59 -0800Summary: Now that John Kerry’s name is out of the mainstream spotlight, here come the Sandanistas! For those who have seen GNN’s Sundance-award winning NewsVideo Crack The CIA, you’ll be familiar with the name. They were Daniel Ortega’s “communist” Nicaraguan government that the George Bush Sr.-led covert CIA arms-drugs operation sought to overthrow in the 80’s. Let’s hope the new Bush government can keep their hands off this time around. [Posted By silverback]By News Desk
Republished from LA Times

Sandinista party appears headed for victory in 15 of 17 provincial capitals

Nicaragua’s leftist opposition Sandinista party, which fought a civil war with U.S.- backed rebels when it ruled in the 1980s, made strong gains in weekend elections, taking control of almost all major cities.

Results released Monday showed the Sandinistas handing a heavy defeat to the ruling party, which has been weakened by internal feuding and a drive to remove President Enrique Bolanos amid campaign finance and corruption allegations.

“Most Nicaraguans are convinced that the only force that can save this country, the rich and the poor, is the FSLN,” or Sandinista National Liberation Front, former President Daniel Ortega, the party leader, told thousands of supporters in Managua’s central plaza.

The capital, Managua, held by the Sandinistas since 2000, was the main battleground for 152 municipalities that were up for grabs Sunday.

With 73% of the vote counted in the race for Managua mayor, Sandinista candidate Dionisio Marenco had 45%, compared with 36% for Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, son of former President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

The Sandinistas also appeared to be headed for victory in at least 15 of Nicaragua’s 17 provincial capitals and in 91 towns, election officials said. The party held 11 of those provincial capitals going into Sunday’s elections.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Socialist wins presidency in Uruguay
2004-11-04

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Socialist Tabare Vazquez won a majority of votes for president in tiny Uruguay on Sunday, adding his nation to South America's political swing to the left and potentially denying the United States an important ally in the region.

Significantly, Vazquez appeared to win more than 50 percent of the votes, which was necessary if he is to avoid a runoff election. A runoff would menace his apparent victory, for conservative forces could join and deny him the presidency, as they did in 1994 and 1999.

More than 30 percent of Uruguay, once considered the Switzerland of South America, now lives in poverty. Vazquez promises an emergency social program if he assumes the presidency on March 1, 2005.

Vazquez, 64, vows to restore relations with Cuba, which Uruguay severed in April 2002 after Castro insulted Batlle as Washington's lackey. He also vows to prioritize relations with Brazil, the U.S. policy rival in South America. Uruguay's close ties to Washington, rewarded this month with an open-skies aviation agreement and a bilateral investment pact, severely strained relations with neighbors Brazil and Argentina.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

With the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Cuba and others, firmly opposing Imperialism and the IMF, World Bank, WTO etc., will the Bush Regime use warfare, whether it be military action, covert operations, CIA propaganda, and/or financial backing of extremist/terrorists to do the dirty work in Latin America? This must be a huge headache and quite a scare for the filthy Capitalists of the world.

 

[JoMoDo]

They'll continue with the same latin american policy which has always been implemented, covert operations... We both know the will diminish the 'subversive' leadership with insurgents trained at the school of america's to run the country according to our domain... I hope this doesn't happen, but history seems to have a way of repeating itself...

Have you ever read the magazine Adbusters? A couple of issues ago they dedicated the entire magazine to US involvment (as afforementioned) for the past 100 yrs, pretty interesting. You see a real wide shift in policy after WWII... (irony at it's finest)

 

[TOKZTLI]

can you put a link up Jo? Sounds like an interesting magazine, specifically that article you mentioned.

 

[ColdBlooded]

Good thread and good info and glad others are talking about this but . . .

That's not that big of a change for the Sandinistas. They still haven't been able to win the presidential election, only locals. Plus if they ever got back to being nearly as radical as they once were (been moving toward populism centrism for years), the same CONTRA thing would happen again.

Uruguay is big news and has gotten shit for coverage, especially considering it's one of the most right wing dominated countries in all of L.A. Time will only tell though if dude will be able to get anything done given the state of their legislature/parliament thing. He'll probably have to rock back to the center on domestic issues just to keep the country afloat after he does shit to piss off the U.S. internationally like normalizing relations with Cuba.

As for the idea of some united front against WTO, IMF, Imperialism, or some massive leftist turn in L.A. Don't jump the gun. For the most part these countries aren't doing anything new. Yea Uruguay and Brazil elected Populist Socialists, but they are socialists with weak coalitions and less of a popular "mandate" than Allende had in Chile. Making them easier to defeat legit within the country's electoral systems or if needed easier to over throw with covert intervention. The other countries aren't seeing major change either. The U.S. doesn't have to do much but keep an eye on things and make sure they don't get out of control, like Venezuela, while they are playing war games in the Middle East.

Venezuela - Chavez still has to worry about things domestically, probably the biggest thorn and really the only thorn (Cuba being the other) in the U.S. foot right now. They are more of an example of what these other countries should be doing than anything else.

Brazil has basically neutralized itself. Lula had to dive way back to the right to keep the economy afloat AND the PT lost major seats in the government this last election and some key governorships.

Argentina doesn't matter on a large scale right now, they will be out of the picture for a loooong while.

Chile ain't shit. They are still center-right. The pinochete thing doesn't mean the country is going commie.

Nicaragua - like i mentioned above - still controlled by a reactionary government local sandinista victories have been happening for years now and haven't translated into any thing meaningful internationally or in a way that would affect the U.S.

Peru - maybe if the shining path guys get off, but they'll keep them tied up in court for life instead of letting them go free, still a reactionary government in power, indigenous people getting shit on the regular etc etc

Bolivia - peasant/indigenous/drug dealer movement didn't translate into presidential victory, miners still get shit on, country keeps gettin poorer, no major revolutionary front or civil war going on.

Uruguay already touched on.

Cuba - shit don't change

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Good reply CB. I was going to post an article which highly criticized Lula, I believe it was from http://www.wsws.org/ when I get home I’ll try to find it and link it on this thread. The article also mentioned that Tabare Vazquez would most likely run a "Lula" style government.

 

[ColdBlooded]

I mean it's easy to criticize Lula (especially for people like the WS who never had to govern and only respond to their nitche group of like minded socialists), but anything more would have made the PT do worse in elections and possibly hurt the party for ever in national politics. Not to mention he's doing what he can with such a huge economy that could easily bolt on him if he moves to fast with anything revolutionary. He's tryin to keep his head above water. Do everything he wants to do and make his supporters happy and the economy shits on him making MORE people unhappy with him. Or make extremely modest reforms and try and balance between the two ridding the center, and losing support from both sides the whole way. It's up to him on which path he thinks is best for the country.

It's a sticky situation, which is why there isn't any dramatic leftist shift happening in Latin America right now. Elected officials have a constituency they have to respond to by delivering on policy and popular initiatives that keep them from losing their majority or coalition rather than an armed revolutionary group with a constituency they are fighting next to that they have to respond to by delivering on military victories.

 

[ReKz]

Yea the leftists are gaining strength once again in Latin America but if you analize each case....the candidates who are winning are moderate, they are not extreme leftists...an example is Ricardo Lagos in Chile....Ummm...Tabare Vazquez was a member of the Tupac Amaru guerrilla(considered the most fierce and powerful guerrilla in latin america at the time(supposedly they had a complete underground network under Montevideo))...his case shows that people want change from the traditional conservative government...in the case of Nicaragua the Sandinistas might able to win the municipal elections and in the national election(2006) win a good number of seats in the parliament but they will never win the presidency if Daniel Ortega runs again(most likely)...hes already run 3 times and lost 3 times after the Sandinista regime...this is kind of the same situation the FMLN has in El Salvador when they got the majority in the parliament and got their candidate elected mayor of El Salvador but still didnt win the presidency....In Argentina the actions that Kirchner took against the IMF were necessary so that their economy could recover after the extreme hit it took during the crisis......