It is interesting that since 2017 Latin America has become a hot bed of right wing politics and protests….are the two related?
Riots in Venezuela, Chile (again), Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, even Brazil is feeling the pressures. People taking to the streets and the government uses police and military to calm the population.
The Newest outbreak of protests is in the country of Colombia……
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the Colombian capital on Saturday as anti-government protests continued for a third day amid rising fear and violence.
The protests began on Thursday when more than 200,000 people took part in what they called a national strike over a number of grievances, including possible economic reforms by the government of right-wing President Ivan Duque.
While the majority of the protesters continue to demonstrate peacefully, banging kitchenware in the streets in a traditional Latin American protest called a “cacerolazo” [casseroles], some small factions have clashed with security forces in Bogota and country-wide.
Three protesters have died in the unrest so far, while a car bomb in the western region of Cauca killed at least three police and left 10 others wounded on Friday.
Latin America has not seen this much violence since the 70s and 80s…..when most of the right wing strongmen lost their hold on the governments….time to throw the slugs out again.
The US has been a friend to the neofascist in Lain America for decades…..some recent history…..
However much they war on the domestic political front, Washington’s Democrats and Republicans are on the same page when it comes to the imperial war on democracy and social justice in Latin America.
In 2009 and 2010 Republicans were in a partisan tizzy over everything Barack Obama and Democratic Party, from health insurance reform to economic stimulus, bank bailouts, auto bailouts, and climate policy. The “Tea Party” rebellion arose, replete with a heavy dose of white herrenvolk racism.
But the Teapublicans offered no complaint when Obama’s Secretary of State Hilary Clinton aided and abetted a right-wing business and military coup that overthrew Honduras’ democratically elected left-populist president Manuel Zelaya in the spring of 2009. Washington’s two major parties were united in opposition to Zelaya’s alignment of Honduras with Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia in attacking poverty and inequality and redirecting Latin American regional development away from U.S. control [1]. Democrats and Republicans agreed that the independent and egalitarian Latin American trend needed to be checked.
Washington’s Consensus on Neofascist Coups in Latin America
The US cannot keep its grubby hands off Latin America and in almost every occasion they have claimed some violation of the Monroe Doctrine to justify the interference.
I Read, I Wrote, You Know
“Lego ergo Scribo”
Let us hope that this upheaval sees the departure of some undesirable ‘leaders’.
Best wishes, Pete.
Not for awhile for real good leaders are being pushed out by the US and the hard Right leaders…..it will take years to repair the damage the US is aiding chuq