Posted on 02/02/2007 9:59:53 AM PST by Kitten Festival
The Hemisphere: Two democracies fell in Latin America this week, heralding a new era of dictatorship not seen since the '70s. Regional leaders are silent. What will it take for them to notice?
A mere month after the Organization of American States declared itself "very satisfied" with last year's string of elections in the hemisphere, democracy's going down in flames.
It's not only in Venezuela, but in Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Suddenly, a small-but-growing coterie of dictatorships has formed in Latin America. It threatens us all.
Every one of these regimes is characterized by the consolidation of power into permanent one-man rule.
This week, Venezuela's National Assembly handed Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months.
He's declared he'll continue expropriations of private property, media shutdowns, Marxist indoctrination in schools, and most ominously, new "community councils" in all neighborhoods. These are nothing but Cuban-style block committees for neighbors to spy on neighbors.
Chavez also will keep spending billions on weapons of war. The $4 billion he's spent on foreign arms since 2005 is more than what even China or Iran have spent. At foreign embassies in Caracas, visa lines have grown long.
In Ecuador, leftist president Rafael Correa didn't like the opposition congress, so he sent thousands of red- and green-clad mobs of loyalists to storm the legislature. The mobs literally threw the legislators on the streets — and with them, their democracy. Many are now in hiding, after resisting Correa's attempt to rule by decree, like his friend Chavez.
Something similar is taking place in Bolivia under would-be dictator Evo Morales. And in Nicaragua, opposition lawmakers are asking President Daniel Ortega about the deals he signed with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, which may lead to similar moves.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
They're right. It's just like the bad old days of the '70, except worse. And it's not just that they're resurrecting the caudillo, but the militarization and the relationships some of them have built with countries hostile to us, that is alarming. Whoever wants to be the next president had better have a plan to deal with this.
pong
And Jimmy Carter must surely be smiling about all of this.
I'm assuming that IBD published this prior to this Dem enclave in which Hillary Clinton adopted (almost word for word) Hugo Chavez's "nationalizing of industry" pitch (Hillary: "I would take all of those record oil profits and have the government invest them in alternative fuel research!"). You wonder if the MSM will give her performance (and it's implications) any play whatsoever. And I'd say that Hillary's performance is a good example of my tagline quote (from HL Mencken).
You've got that right. Going only by what you see on the MSM, you would never believe there is any kind of problem there.
Anyone who thinks communism is over and done with need only look to Latin America. We are about to have much of a region, in our hemisphere, controlled by socialist dictators. Whether they literally call themselves communist
or not isn't really the point.
And IBD is right to say our policy has been very weak.
ping
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx
The feckless government is still giving foreign aid to these regimes. End the aid, and initiate a travel ban IMO. Warn any dictator that their capitals will become rubble if they seek nukes.
Also, these countries have direct connections with the russians, who want to build up the Latin American dictatorships and acquire basing rights there.
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