Tag: South America

The Return Of Devil’s Island

That time again….my little history lesson and beyond.

Did you see the movie Papillon?

If so then that was about the penal colony for France in South America.

Devil’s Island, its true name Cayenne, is a penal colony of French Guiana with a haunted history. Here lie the crumbled remains of a prison opened in 1852. Infamous for housing French political prisoners cast out of France by Emperor Napoleon III, it eventually became home to tens of thousands of hardened criminals. It even served as the backdrop for the 1973 action-thriller film Papillon. Nestled among the palm trees and tropical setting hides a turbulent past truth.

Prisoners were subjected to strict and inhumane treatment, making Devil’s Island aptly named. Kept in dark cells and forbidden to talk, read or even sit down throughout the day, the prison guards made the criminals’ lives a nightmare. Talking to a guard could end in severe punishment.

When details of the inhumane conditions of the prison were leaked, a public outcry led to the system’s end in 1938. But the penal colony did not close until after World War II, finally shutting down in 1946. Since its abhorrent history as a terrible prison, others have tried using the island for other means. From a police station to a shark fishing factory to a summer camp to a plant oil factory, none succeeded. Eventually, the island was abandoned, and nature took over the buildings.

I brought up this bit of history because news has broken that France will open a prison near the original location.

Deep in the Amazon jungle, France plans to open a $450 million high-security prison to isolate drug lords and radical Islamists—turning a notorious former penal colony into a fortress for modern criminals. French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday announced the plan to build the high-security prison in the overseas territory of French Guiana, to open as early as 2028, per the BBC. The facility will sit deep in the Amazon near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, the site of the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954. The site inspired 1973’s Papillon, starring Steve McQueen, per CNN.

Designed for about 500 inmates, the prison will include a wing reserved for the most dangerous prisoners. Darmanin said the prison will enforce a strict protocol intended to disrupt contact between powerful criminal figures and their networks, especially drug lords “at the beginning of the drug trail.” The remote location was chosen in part to prevent inmates from communicating with outside networks. The announcement follows a wave of violence targeting prisons and staff in France, incidents the government links to its crackdown on organized crime.

French Guiana serves as a “strategic crossroads” for drug trafficking, particularly from Brazil and Suriname, and the new prison is part of broader efforts to control organized crime. Gangs have pushed the territory’s homicide rate to 18.4 per 100,000 people, compared to 1.2 per 100,000 in mainland France, per CNN. Recent government action also includes tough new laws, a dedicated prosecutors’ branch for organized crime, expanded investigative powers, and special protected status for informers. As French authorities face ongoing challenges such as widespread smuggling of mobile phones into prisons, stricter control over visitation and communication for high-risk prisoners is planned.

Fascinating…..will it become as infamous as the original?

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Is Guyana Next?

I recently read an article about the tension between two South American countries, Guyana and Venezuela, over some oil reserves around a common border.

At he end of last year tensions were elevated….

Tensions over the fate of Guyana’s Essequibo region continue to rise with reports Venezuela is deploying some 6,000 troops into the border region to conduct exercises over the disputed region. The deployment is in response to Britain’s deployment of the HMS Trent off the Guyana coast.

The Essequibo tensions were fueled largely by the early December referendum by Venezuela calling to annex the region after the discovery of oil reserves. The sparsely populated territory’s ownership is a long-standing dispute, and it amounts to most of Guyana’s overall land mass. The question of Essequibo’s legal fate was referred to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), though Venezuela has rejected their jurisdiction on the matter.

(antiwar.com)

Lots of lip service and then Brazil stepped in to conduct negotiations…..and it appears that calmer heads have prevailed….

Guyana and Venezuela signed an agreement that said they would “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” to resolve their competing claims to the Essequibo region. The talks came after the Brazilian government pressured both nations.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali met in Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for talks negotiated by Brasília and the UN. The discussions centered on the region of Essequibo.

The South American neighbors inked a three-page agreement that emphasized the dispute over the Essequibo will not be resolved by force. The deal says both nations agree to “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances” and “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict.”

The agreement was the result of an “excellent day of dialogue,” Maduro touted. “I thank the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, for his candor and willingness to engage in broad dialogue on all the issues addressed, directly,” the Venezuelan Leader posted on X. “I am satisfied to have been face to face as I wanted it for a long time. It was worth it to raise the flag of truth, to raise our historical reasons and to seek, with Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy, the path of dialogue and understanding to channel this historical controversy.”

(antiwar.com)

The US has signaled support for Guyana by announcing joint military drills that Venezuela slammed as provocative. US Southern Command has conducted flight operations in Guyana.

Diplomacy prevailed…..and then the US could not have that….

And then the US has to poke its nose in where it does not belong…..(this news is very recent)

The US will increase military aid to Guyana amid tensions with neighboring Venezuela over the disputed Guayana Essequibo region, The Associated Press reported on Monday.

The AP report did not detail how much the US will provide but said the US will help Guyana acquire new helicopters, a fleet of military drones, and radar technology for the first time.

In 2023, the US provided Guyana with about $2.7 million in total aid, including over $400,000 from the Pentagon’s International Military Education & Training program, which trains foreign militaries. Guyana is a small country with a population of only around 800,000. According to AP, the Caribbean nation’s military numbers less than 5,000 troops.

News of the new military aid came after US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer met with officials in Guyana. The US has been stepping up military cooperation with Guyana after Venezuelans voted in a referendum late last year to make the Essequibo region a Venezuelan state.

(antiwar.com)

Is this the next Ukraine?

Will this infusion of US military aid enrage Venezuela to the point of doing something stupid?

Is this destined to be yet another proxy war for the US?

Must we continually look for regions to f*ck up?

Just wondering.

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The Monroe Doctrine

You guys know if there is a teachable moment the Old Professor will jump on it with both feet.

I recently wrote a post about the possibility of a mash-up between Venezuela and Guyana in South America over a oil rich region….in case the post was missed….

 

I said then that the US, if it gets involved, would probably invoke a 200 year old edit issued by Pres. Monroe…..

The Monroe Doctrine, first outlined in a speech to Congress in 1823, had President James Monroe warning European powers to not attempt further colonization, military intervention or other interference in the Western Hemisphere, stating that the United States would view any such interference as a potentially hostile act. Over the centuries, the Monroe Doctrine policy has become a cornerstone of U.S. diplomatic and military policies.

By the early 1820s, many Latin American countries had won their independence from Spain or Portugal, with the U.S. government recognizing the new republics of Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico in 1822.

Though Monroe had initially supported the idea of a joint U.S.-British resolution against future colonization in Latin America, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams argued that joining forces with the British could limit future U.S. opportunities for expansion, and that Britain might well have imperialist ambitions of its own.

Adams convinced Monroe to make a unilateral statement of U.S. policy that would set an independent course for the young nation and claim a new role as protector of the Western Hemisphere.

https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/monroe-doctrine

What you probably learned in high school, that is if you stayed awake long enough to learn, is probably not the ‘rest of the story….

If you’re American, the high school textbook that you once read probably presented James Monroe’s 1823 message as a foreign policy equivalent of the U.S. Constitution. It allegedly outlined basic rules, headlined by a prohibition on further European colonization in the Western Hemisphere, that structured U.S. foreign policy thereafter. But this clean and tidy view of the doctrine always has been more myth than reality.

For starters, the nonsequential foreign policy paragraphs of James Monroe’s 1823 annual message were not intended to be a timeless set of policy prescriptions. Rather, Monroe and his team muddled through a complex situation, dodging critical questions and controversies as they responded to events beyond their control. When Monroe audaciously proclaimed an end to European intervention in the Western Hemisphere at a critical moment in the Spanish-American revolutions, he failed to mention how it would be enforced (fortuitously, by the time Monroe delivered his message, the British had already cut a secret deal with France that resolved the diplomatic crisis). The ambiguous text of the 1823 message to Congress also sidestepped the critical matter of future U.S. imperial expansion.

Monroe fudged the key issues. He kicked the can of an alliance offer from Britain down the road, while offering only lip-service support to the revolutions in Latin America and Greece. Most of all, his message stopped short of committing the United States to any action. The evidence is clear: The 1823 message was never intended to become a binding foreign policy “doctrine.” Monroe’s message was a nothingburger.

But the subsequent “Monroe Doctrine,” a phrase that first appeared in the decades before the Civil War, had very little to do with the original text. Rather, it was an adaptable symbol of U.S. foreign policy that ricocheted back and forth across the American political spectrum, sometimes even bouncing across borders when appropriated by foreign officials. The best definition of the Monroe Doctrine might be as follows: a contested political symbol into which varying actors have loaded their agendas.

The Many Faces of the Monroe Doctrine

There was so much more to this statement than we know…..

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the Monroe Doctrine, celebrated in history books for extending U.S. influence throughout the hemisphere. But few Americans are aware of its lesser-known predecessor – “The Jefferson-Monroe Penal Doctrine” – which first proposed using slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime to establish a national penal colony.  At a time of continued reckoning over slavery in the United States, it is also a fitting moment to consider the roots of prison expansion in empire.  

At the dawn of the nineteenth century, Gabriel Prosser and hundreds of enslaved people in Virginia planned a revolt. Enslavers and local militia discovered and thwarted the rebellion amid a suffocating climate of white hysteria over the revolution taking place on the former French colony of Saint-Domingue, where enslaved people were engaged in a struggle against slavery that would establish the first Black republic in the Western Hemisphere. 

https://www.salon.com/2023/12/02/the-lesser-known-history-of-the-monroe-doctrine/

I just wanted my reader to be aware of all aspects of the Monroe Doctrine in case the idiots in DC use it to instigate yet another war.

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What’s Next For The US Money Funnel?

A good question….for eventually Israel will have enough of the their blood lust and this mash-up in Gaza will come to an end.

Where will the War Department decide to focus their attention?

Will we return to the days of all out Ukraine support?

Of course there is always the situation in the South China Sea and Taiwan for the funnel to widen.

Or will the War Department look for another budding conflict to make worse?

Another?

Yeah, look no further than South America.

But where?

Venezuela.

They have been on the US shit list for decades because of their elections and now there seems to be a budding mash-up that could turn profitable for someone.

Venezuela has long maintained that a decision taken in 1899 by an international arbitral tribunal to award it to Britain, the colonial power which at the time ruled over Guyana, was unfair.

The matter is currently before the International Court of Justice, although Venezuela has disputed the international court’s authority to rule on the Essequibo dispute.

In the referendum, the Venezuelan government asked voters to back its stance on the dispute.

The most controversial question was the fifth, which asked Venezuelans if they agreed with “the creation of the Guayana Esequiba state” and its “incorporation into the map of Venezuelan territory”.

Electoral officials said 95.9% of voters cast a “yes” vote to that question.

Guyana has denounced the proposal as an attempt at annexation and President Irfaan Ali has accused his Venezuelan counterpart of fomenting conflict by calling for the referendum.

President Maduro hailed the results as “an overwhelming victory”. “We have taken the first steps of a new historic stage in the struggle for what belongs to us, to recover what the liberators left us,” he said.

The overwhelming support shown by voters had been widely expected as Venezuela’s claim of sovereignty over Essequibo has very broad support in the country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67610200

Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali said his government is working continuously to ensure the country’s borders “remain intact” and said people have “nothing to fear over the next number of hours, days, months ahead”.

Will this be a war of words or will it somehow become more and then more?

I have a radical idea….if a country cannot afford to fight a war maybe a different approach is called for….but that is just me.

This possible mash-up sounds similar to Eastern Ukraine a few years back.

Interesting….no?

If the US gets involved in this potential situation you can bet that or whoever will invoke the Monroe Doctrine (a post to follow).

Update:  As if right on cue….the US gets involved….

The US military said Thursday that it would conduct flight operations in Guyana amid tensions between the Caribbean nation and its neighbor Venezuela over the disputed Guayana Esequiba region.

Guayana Esequiba is an oil-rich region that makes up about two-thirds of the territory of the state of Guyana, which gained independence from Britain in 1966. In 1899, an American-British tribunal ruled that the territory belonged to the UK, a position that was rejected by Venezuela.

The US is backing Guyana in the dispute, which Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed in a phone call with Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali on Wednesday. According to the State Department, Blinken said the two sides should respect the 1899 ruling “unless, or until, the parties reach a new agreement, or a competent legal body decides otherwise.”

According to the US Embassy in Guyana, US Southern Command planned to conduct flights with the Guyanese military on Thursday. “This exercise builds upon routine engagement and operations to enhance (the) security partnership between the United States and Guyana and to strengthen regional cooperation,” the embassy said.

(antiwar.com)

Finally Exxon is drooling over this situation.

ExxonMobil Wants to Start a War in South America

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Bolivia

Most know what a international relations geek I truly am…..but for those newbies….

If a people vote a person in office regardless of their political leanings then that nation should be left alone without interference from the US or anyone because they do not agree with the political philosophy embraced by the new leader.

For instance Chile of the 70s….voted a socialist into the office of president and the US immediately started undermining the government……in the end the president was assassinated and the people spent many decades of suppression of democratic rights…….then Venezuela under Chavez…..he was elected and he deserved a shot at leading with out interference from the corporations and the US…..and after decades of sanctions the people still do not have the rights that we Americans think we embrace….those worthless sanctions have done nothing but make the poor poorer and their suffering prolonged.

Now we have Bolivia…..before I go on……I find it interesting that the poorest countries of the Americas are interested in electing what the idiots called socialists…..could it be because the poor have been exploited by corrupt officials after so many years?

Now about Bolivia…..it has always been the poorest country in South America and pretty much all the Americas…..then they elected Evo Morales…..a socialist and the US immediately started undermining his government.

Look at Bolivia…..

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of coups and countercoups, with the last coup occurring in 1978. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production.

In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president – by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 – after he ran on a promise to change the country’s traditional political class and empower the nation’s poor, indigenous majority. In December 2009 and October 2014, President MORALES easily won reelection. His party maintained control of the legislative branch of the government, which has allowed him to continue his process of change. In February 2016, MORALES narrowly lost a referendum to approve a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to compete in the 2019 presidential election. However, a 2017 Supreme Court ruling stating that term limits violate human rights provided the justification for MORALES to be chosen by his party to run again in 2019. MORALES attempted to claim victory in the 20 October 2019 election, but widespread allegations of electoral fraud, rising violence, and pressure from the military ultimately forced him to flee the country. An interim government is preparing new elections for 2020.

It is always interesting to watch the US justify the interference in the government and the state operation of countries that some do not agree with….

After the ousting of the Morales government the promised elections have taken place and once again the people of Bolivia have spoken……..

Evo Morales’ party has claimed victory in a presidential election that appears to sharply shift Bolivia away from the conservative policies of the US-backed interim government that took power after the leftist leader resigned and fled the country a year ago. The leading rival of Morales’s handpicked successor, Luis Arce, conceded defeat on Monday, as did interim President Jeanine Áñez, a bitter foe of Morales. Officials released no formal, comprehensive quick count of results from Sunday’s vote, but two independent surveys of selected polling places showed Arce with a lead of roughly 20 percentage points over his closest rival—far more than needed to avoid a runoff. Officials said final results could take days. Áñez asked Arce “to govern with Bolivia and democracy in mind,” the AP reports. Arce, meanwhile, appealed for calm in the bitterly divided nation, saying he would seek to form a government of national unity under his Movement Toward Socialism party.

“I think the Bolivian people want to retake the path we were on,” Arce declared. He oversaw a surge in growth and a sharp reduction in poverty as Morales’ economy minister for more than a decade but will struggle to reignite that growth. The boom in prices for Bolivia’s mineral exports that helped feed that progress has faded, and the coronavirus has hit the impoverished nation harder than almost any other country on a per capita basis. Nearly 8,400 of its 11.6 million people have died of COVID-19. Arce, 57, also faces the challenge of emerging from the shadow of his polarizing former boss, whose support helped the low-key, UK-educated economist. Áñez’s government tried to overturn many Morales policies and pull the country from its leftist alliances, and Morales faces prosecution on what are seen as trumped-up terrorism charges if he returns home. He said Monday in Buenos Aires that he plans to return to Bolivia. Calling for “a great meeting of reconciliation for reconstruction,” Morales said, “we are not vengeful.”

I try to be fair in my postings….so will this win by Morales be bad for the region?

…

Roger Cortez, a socio-economics expert, predicts problems ahead. “MAS propagates an outdated economic model based on state capitalism and the exploitation of natural resources.” In addition, he says, “the pandemic has pushed between one and two million Bolivians back into poverty.” Cortez does not think slash-and-burn farming and gene modified crops in Bolivia’s plain are sustainable either.

Mesa has promised a new economic approach, yet remained vague on details. In any case, it will prove hard to generate majorities in such a fragmented parliament. Many ordinary Bolivians, therefore, are quite pessimistic about the future. An online survey conducted by Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation found that 78% of respondents see Bolivia’s situation worsening, while 57% said they expect an upshot in violence during and after the election. Meanwhile, a staggering 80% said they are concerned about the state of the economy and growing poverty.

https://www.dw.com/en/bolivias-presidential-election-could-spark-further-instability/a-55289761

On the other hand…..a look into the legacy of Morales…..the legacy of Evo Morales — who won power in South America’s poorest country, tripled its GDP, and lifted millions out of extreme poverty.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/evo-morales-bolivia-indigenous-president-mas

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Guyana–Late To The Party

Will a new oil boom be brewing in South America…..

Guyana | Culture, History, & People | Britannica

Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America…..maybe a little background will help understand…..before we go on…..

Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana had become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to settlement of urban areas by former slaves and the importation of indentured servants from India to work the sugar plantations. The resulting ethnocultural divide has persisted and has led to turbulent politics. Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, and since then it has been ruled mostly by socialist-oriented governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was elected president in what is considered the country’s first free and fair election since independence. After his death five years later, his wife, Janet JAGAN, became president but resigned in 1999 due to poor health. Her successor, Bharrat JAGDEO, was elected in 2001 and again in 2006. Early elections held in May 2015 resulted in the first change in governing party and the replacement of President Donald RAMOTAR by current President David GRANGER. After a December 2018 no-confidence vote against the GRANGER government, national elections will be held before the scheduled spring 2020 date.

Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America and shares cultural and historical bonds with the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana’s two largest ethnic groups are the Afro-Guyanese (descendants of African slaves) and the Indo-Guyanese (descendants of Indian indentured laborers), which together comprise about three quarters of Guyana’s population. Tensions periodically have boiled over between the two groups, which back ethnically based political parties and vote along ethnic lines. Poverty reduction has stagnated since the late 1990s. About one-third of the Guyanese population lives below the poverty line; indigenous people are disproportionately affected. Although Guyana’s literacy rate is reported to be among the highest in the Western Hemisphere, the level of functional literacy is considerably lower, which has been attributed to poor education quality, teacher training, and infrastructure.

Now that the reader has gotten caught up let me explain why this is a post.

As we know the world runs on oil..Saudi oi, Iranian oil, Nigerian oil, Venezuelan oil and on and on…..and now the South American country has oil deposits for the world yo exploit…

In 2015, the Cooperative Republic of Guyana became a subject of interest among the oil industry operators. After decades of the granting of an exploration license in the Stabroek block, Exxon Mobil notified the discovery of prolific oil reservoirs. The discovery of hydrocarbons in the Liza I field, qualified as the biggest discovery that year in the world, put the country on the map of this industry and attracted the attention of other operators interested in business opportunities in new oil provinces. Since then, the growth in the number of discoveries has opened up the possibility of Guyana becoming a major oil producer and using that wealth as a basis to boost the economic development of one of the poorest countries in the Americas. However, along with this opportunity, the Guyanese government also needs to face the challenge of making proper use of these resources that are just beginning to flow in order to avoid adverse effects. The challenge is linked to phenomena such as the resource curse or the paradox of plenty, which have proven to be real obstacles to economic development in countries with resource-intensive economies, particularly oil. For this reason, this work analyzes the opportunities and challenges of the boom of the oil industry for the Guianese economic development.

The Boom of Guyana’s Oil Industry: Opportunities and Challenges of the New Petrostate

The new petro state to join the community of petro states……Johnny come lately…..in a time when solar, wind and such are becoming more popular…..

How will Guyana fare in this age of climate change?

Will the nation be exploited?  Or will it be in control of its own resources?

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Brazil Gets It Right

Since this pandemic became a world problem there has been one voice that has become the voice and the poster child of the anti-pandemic lunacy…..Brazil’s Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro sparked fury on Tuesday with an extraordinary address to the nation in which he rubbished the quarantine measures and travel restrictions being implemented by many state governors and urged Brazilians to return to work and schools – in contradiction of his own health ministry’s counsel.

The comments stunned state governors – many of whom are now in open revolt against the president.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/jair-bolsonaro-coronavirus-brazil-governors-appalled

The Brazilian people have started protesting in favor of throwing this guy from office……

Brazil erupted to the sound of banging pots and pans and shouts of “Bolsonaro out!” with housebound protesters expressing their anger toward the president. The protests took place in major Brazilian cities and even included projections of “Bolsonaro out!” onto the sides of buildings, according to social media videos.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil/coronavirus-thumps-brazil-prompting-nationwide-cries-of-bolsonaro-out-idUSKBN2152FK

Finally someone has stepped up to knock these naysayers down….naysayers like this tool Bolsonaro…..in Brazil it appears to be the military…

On April 4 there were reports that General Walter Braga Netto was now the “operational president” of Brazil, with President Jair Bolsonaro effectively stripped of his decision-making powers. Netto, an Army General, had been the chief of staff for Bolsonaro. He was put in power by the Armed Forces’ high command after Bolsonaro was isolated by his cabinet, governors and other political leaders over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Initial reports came from Argentine investigative journalist Horacio Verbitsky. A high-ranking official of the Brazilian Army told his Argentine counterpart that Bolsonaro is no longer involved in decision making. Verbitsky said, “There was a telephone communication from a high ranking Brazilian army official with one from Argentina, in which the Brazilian informed them that they had taken the decision to circumvent President Bolsonaro in all important decisions.” Bolsonaro is described as a “monarch without effective power.”

Brazilian Military Curtails President Bolsonaro’s Power Over COVID19 Dispute

That is one way to rid the country of a health threat…..

But I have to ask….was this action to protect the people or was it just the military wanted power?

Thoughts?

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De-Fang Democracy

This post is about the organization within the Americas and its purpose in life.

This group is called the Organization of American States (OAS)……

But first a little history and background of the OAS…….

The Organization of American States is the world’s oldest regional organization, dating back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890. That meeting approved the establishment of the International Union of American Republics, and the stage was set for the weaving of a web of provisions and institutions that came to be known as the inter-American system, the oldest international institutional system.

The OAS came into being in 1948 with the signing in Bogotá, Colombia, of the Charter of the OAS, which entered into force in December 1951. It was subsequently amended by the Protocol of Buenos Aires, signed in 1967, which entered into force in February 1970; by the Protocol of Cartagena de Indias, signed in 1985, which entered into force in November 1988; by the Protocol of Managua, signed in 1993, which entered into force in January 1996; and by the Protocol of Washington, signed in 1992, which entered into force in September 1997.

The Organization was established in order to achieve among its member states—as stipulated in Article 1 of the Charter—”an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.”

Today, the OAS brings together all 35 independent states of the Americas and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere. In addition, it has granted permanent observer status to 69 states, as well as to the European Union (EU).

The Organization uses a four-pronged approach to effectively implement its essential purposes, based on its main pillars: democracy, human rights, security, and development.

One main pillar is that of democracy……to that I call CRAP!

Why?

Just look at their support for the coup in Chile….their support for the attempts at regime change in Venezuela…..and their support for the right wing rise that threatens all democracy in the region.

Experts at MIT recently concluded that there is no statistical evidence of fraud in the results of the Bolivian presidential elections last October. These findings debunk an earlier report by the Organization of American States (OAS), which were used to justify a right-wing coup d’etat in the Andean nation.

“All in all, the OAS’ statistical analysis and conclusions would appear deeply flawed,” the researchers, John Curiel and Jack R. Williams of the Election Data and Science Lab, wrote in the Washington Post. They added that the incumbent, Evo Morales, very likely garnered more than the 10 percent margin needed to avoid a second round vote.

The announcement has caused an international uproar.

The Organization of American States Is Eroding Faith in Democracy

An organization that started out trying to help democracy bloom in the Americas is now an office of Right wing authoritarianism……

Sad that this is happening……it is sad that Right wing hate is becoming more and more popular.

How the OAS Revived the Cold War in the Americas

Thoughts?

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Why Is Latin America Exploding?

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.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/fear-grips-colombia-protesters-anti-gov-rallies-turn-violent-191124051954754.html

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.

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“Lego ergo Scribo”

Venezuela–Again

OMG!

Might know that after I wrote a post about the lack of concern by the media over Venezuela…..https://lobotero.com/2019/08/05/dont-cry-venezuela-2/  and then His Majesty needed a diversion so he chose Venezuela for that diversion.

President Trump signed an executive order late Monday imposing a full economic embargo against Venezuela, freezing all government assets in the US and forbidding all transactions of any Venezuelan officials.

This is the first major expansion of sanctions against a western hemisphere nation by the US in over 30 years, and is intended to put Venezuela into the same level of economic isolation as similarly restricted Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.

The order cites human rights abuses, and the fact that President Maduro is still in power in Venezuela, even though the US recognized opposition leader Guaido as the rightful ruler of the country.

This is the latest US effort to try to impose regime change in Venezuela, after a failed military coup earlier this year. It’s not clear how broadly the US intends to enforce the sanctions, for example if they intend to use military force to prohibit naval trade from the Venezuelan coast

(antiwar.com)

Okay I thought we already had enacted massive economic sanctions against Venezuela…..wait this is an embargo…surely that is a different thingy altogether, yeah?

Both sanctions and embargoes mean the prohibition or restriction of an activity. Particularly, an embargo is commonly used when the restriction is a trade-related. Sanctions, on the other hand, are used for all other disciples of prohibitions.

Basically it is the same thing….sounds like an attempt to get the media to look the other way…and is a waste of time…..diplomacy will get more accomplished than Neocon bullshit.

But Wait!

We have a Supreme Leader that has NO idea what is meant by diplomacy….because it will not translate to a TV Reality Show.

Not to worry it will be something new next week.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”