We have backyard problems that Senator Barack Obama seems incapable of handling. In South America, Fidel Castro's pup, Jefe Hugo Chavez has made a path to Communism in South and Central America unparalleled since the 1950's when the Soviet Union brokered World Revolution.
Yesterday, Reuters reported on an assault of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia by 'protesters' orchestrated by Bolivian President Evo Morales - the Amerindian Strongman.
Morales is a charismatic leftist who has managed to Balkanize Bolivia by 'championing' Diversity!
Evo Morales has declared himself the first Amerindian president, a controversial claim due to the Amerindian heritages of such prior Bolivian presidents as Mariano Melgarejo (1864), Carlos Quintanilla (1939), René Barrientos (1964), Juan José Torres (1976), Luis García Meza (1980), and Celso Torrelio Villa (1981).[citation needed] While the claim is a potent symbol to many people who have seen themselves as disenfranchised and oppressed by a European minority, this claim has been challenged publicly by the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa,[65] who accuses Evo of fomenting racial divisions in an increasingly mestizo Latin America.
The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano responded to Vargas Llosa saying: "I see what is happening in Bolivia as a very significant act of affirmation of diversity [which is opposite to] racism, elitism and militarism, which leave us blind to our marvellous existence, to that rainbow that we are".[66]
However, on June 3rd, Morales sought to defeat a vote giving indidvidual states in Bolivia autonomy - Celebrating Autonomy is one thing but Democarcy quite another to Jefe Morales:
LA PAZ, Bolivia - The fractious outcome of a vote on autonomy for Bolivia's states and the government's apparent failure to win enough backing to rewrite the constitution could dampened the leftist agenda of President Evo Morales.
Voters in Bolivia casts ballots on both issues Sunday. The wealthier eastern half overwhelmingly endorsed autonomy while those in the poorer and heavily indigenous western highlands, Morales power base, vigorously rejected it.
The results make it likely that Morales will face stiffer opposition as he seeks to improve the lot of Bolivia's Indian majority by more evenly distributing wealth and exerting greater state control over the economy.
An Aymara Indian and coca-growers leader elected in December with a strong populist mandate, Morales campaigned against autonomy, saying it would benefit the traditional elite.
He and his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party were able to persuade most voters - 55 percent nationwide according to unofficial results - to reject autonomy by portraying it as a catastrophic harbinger of dissolution for South America's poorest country.
Morales said that he would respect the outcome of the autonomy vote, but that no state would be permitted to gain control of natural resources such as natural gas.
But the endorsement of greater political and fiscal autonomy by voters in Bolivia's wealthiest states could slow Morales' political crusade, particularly if those states succeed in keeping a greater portion of their tax revenues at the central government's expense.
http://www.kxnet.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=20052Morales has articulated the driving force behind MAS ( (Movimiento al Socialismo - Move Toward Socialism) in the following terms:
“ The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that nation states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated. ”
He has also stated:
“ … the ideological principles of the organization, anti-imperialist and contrary to neoliberalism, are clear and firm but its members have yet to turn them into a programmatic reality.[21]
Protesters shot fireworks at a U.S. flag flying just beyond the compound's concrete wall, as helmeted Marines looked on from the embassy's roof. When crowds tried to push through a police line, officers cleared the street with tear gas.
Bolivia's government called the use of tear gas excessive. "Security is one thing, repression is another," Government Minister Alfredo Rada told reporters.
La Paz state's police commander was fired Monday night along with top policemen in Bolivia's eight other states. But government officials said the change had been planned since a new national police chief was named last month.
The 2003 "Black October" protests were initially sparked by a government plan to sell Bolivian natural gas to the United States by building a pipeline through neighboring rival Chile. The idea angered El Alto's poor, who often struggle to obtain their own gas for cooking and heating.
The protests quickly snowballed as the city's largely Aymara Indian population vented centuries of anger over bitter poverty and political marginalization.
The uprising eventually drove then-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada from office, fortifying a growing indigenous political movement that brought President Evo Morales to power two years later.
Sanchez Berzain's lawyer, Howard Gutman, declined Monday to confirm whether his client has been granted political asylum. But he and other lawyers acknowledge and cite Sanchez Berzain's asylum status in a motion filed last month in a Miami federal court to dismiss a U.S. civil case against him.
Accusations of deadly force
Plaintiffs, including families of the 2003 victims, accuse the former defense minister and the ex-president of authorizing the use of deadly force against protesters and say they are liable for the deaths.
Lawyers for the two exiled politicians say protesters instigated the violence and that their blockade of La Paz, which cut the capital off from food and fuel, justified a military response.
Their legal team includes Washington attorney Greg Craig, an adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
Asked for comment, Phillip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, said the legal proceeding is "not a political matter, it's a judicial matter, and we have to respect the independent judicial branch in the United States."
President Evo Morales repeated his demands that Washington send the two men home to face trial.
"We want the United States to help us to bring to justice those who have done so much harm to Bolivia," Morales said Sunday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25068973/Obama is handled by Progressives; Progressives control the DNC; Progressives for Obama are in Solidarity with Castro, Chavez and Morales.
Click my Post Title to
Progressives for Obama and witness Obama's Foreign Policy for South America. It is a mini-course in political folly.
William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn are enthusiastic laborers in the Revolutionary Vineyards. This is not McCarthyism, kids. This is in hard copy. Billy Ayers lavishes his talents to Jefe Hugo.
http://progressivesforobama.blogspot.com/John McCain has a clearly articulated Foreign Policy
