Posted on 01/14/2006 6:38:23 PM PST by chet_in_ny
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- When Venezuela's populist leader welcomed Bolivia's socialist president-elect at a ceremony in Caracas, an unexpected guest had a front-row seat: Ollanta Humala, a left-leaning nationalist who is surging in popularity in Peru's presidential race.
Ollanta, a former army lieutenant colonel like his Venezuelan host, President Hugo Chavez, glowed in the praise he got in Caracas. But the gathering reinforced fears of Peruvian elites that he may be part of the tide of elected leftist leaders rising across South America - or, worse, a military dictator in the making.
Two days later at a news conference in Lima, Humala urged Peru's leftist parties to join his "nationalist project" and laid out policies that would make fundamental changes in Peru's free-market economy.
Wearing a green military-style jacket and an Andean Indian scarf, Humala also proclaimed deep admiration for the 1968-75 leftist dictatorship of Peruvian Gen. Juan Velasco, who carried out a largely failed agrarian reform, nationalized industries and forged close military ties with the Soviet Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Latin America is so with it...NOT. Its like kisa in Milwaukee wearing the latest NY fashions from 1983.
I hate to repeat myself, but Bush should have helped remove Chavez at the time of that coup. Now things are rapidly deteriorating.
Did someone season the water in South America recently? Amazing these people never learn.
A part of that article I pinged you to yesterday mentioned that the government Chavez replaced was extremely corrupt and unpopular and that slowed the US in supporting them.
This is also something we talked about.
A key concern for Washington is the illicit growing of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine.
Like Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, an Indian activist who is a coca farmer, Humala said he does not support the U.S.-financed eradication of coca because it hurts poor farm families. "They're human beings trying to do the best for their children," he said.
He said he would battle drug trafficking in other ways.
The poor hill tribes in Thailand raised the opium and pot. With the exception of small plots for their own consumption, the drug trade is gone now, replaced by coffee, strawberries, other produce and tourists (many tourists). Education, health care, and the beginnings of citizenship have raised the standard of living. The big plus is the hill tribes are not now dominated by drug gangs.
Everyone has a right to be and vote STUPID.
It happens every election here also. The only difference is that we have a 200 yr old structure to contain this STUPIDITY.
However, we see the rammfications and consequences of the STUPID VOTE with the election of a complete buffoon who's administration for 8 years allowed our national security to be severely compromised with lax enforcement of immigration laws and internal surveilance of known terrorists cells resulting in the worst terrorist attack in our nation's soil.
No wonder Vicente Fox is getting so pushy, with all of the political change to his south.
He recently said that the USA building a wall on the border would be considered an act of war.
That is encouraging. Now if they can keep the Islamists at bay they have hope.
Coming to Mexico soon. Build the wall.
Could it be that too many normal people fled peasantry for the US leaving behind the most seriously weak?
Right. The Mayor of Mexico City who is leading the polls to replace Fox is so far to the left that we'll feel nostalgia for old Vicente.
By kindly supporting the growers and taking his 10% from the traffickers.
Are you sure he didn't mean setting up treatment centers around the world. :-)
Incidentally, that line was from the article and not my comment. It should have been in italics but I screwed up again.
I suspect you are correct. Brazil was trying to go in the right direction until his election.
I think you're correct... a lot of danger lies in ignoring your next door neighbor and what he is up to...
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