open Democracy News Analysis - latin america - Comments

bigC on "Honduras: time to choose"

bigC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:13:41 +0000

"Today, we would have a Constitutional Assembly and the congress and
Supreme Court would be dissolved, and we would have Zelaya for
President for as long as he wants, just like his mentor and supporter
Hugo Chavez"

No. That would be as long as the people want. If they stopped electing him then he would no longer be president.

Sam Amsterdam on "Honduras: time to choose"

Sam Amsterdam — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:39:27 +0000

At present date it appears Manuel Zelaya, former President of Honduras, will not be returning to the executive branch. Mr. Zelaya breached article 239 of the Honduran constitution, covertly attempting to doctor the pétreos articles that would avoid change in the duration of the presidential tenure. His actions were documented, contended and led to his dismissal. As there are no impeachment proceedings in Honduras, the former President was rightfully arrested. The constitution has long been the pillar United States citizens and their representatives in the senate turn to, containing the letters of the law Americans so dutifully follow. It is in Hondurans doing so, upholding their constitution and not allowing the deposed Mr. Zelaya back in office, that the Arcadia Foundation wishes to note, and indeed congratulate.
http://media-newswire.com/release_1102421.html

alfredo.bremont on "The writing on the wall: media wars in Latin America "

alfredo.bremont — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:34:55 +0000

what is taking place in south America is not quite as easy to describe,there are just voices of disenchantment with the colonialist democracy of the Americas. those that have being under the jug of oppression by the democratic dictatorship could no longer take it, they eventually shifted east and disengage themselves from what once was the North American economical exploitation rules. more clearly the South export and the north create gadgets that they call progress. " the Chinese have adopted the same motto" however they send those gadgets to those that created them on the first place. we can call this an economical meltdown and the rise of the east.

the media servants of the South such as cisneros and the lot, depended on the masters up-there, those northern minds that have giving them golden book's of exploitation. however they are finding that they themselves were exploited and will be dispose when they will be no longer needed. this Orwellian realm could have being plan by the illuminates or the followers of the night trampler. however the fact is that those illuminates are as well lost on a sea of bit's, and INTERNET conundrums, not understanding why the serpent is bitting his tail and not knowing how to reason what they fail to understand. at this point in time the ancient nobles once again will bring order to the chaos these Orwellian lovers have created. and a return to the dark ages were you happen to be now will remain until honor, honesty, and nobility will be reestablished on the land of the free and the brave.

bigC on "The writing on the wall: media wars in Latin America "

bigC — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:41:53 +0000

"Where is the mention of Hugo Chavez shutting down the Venezuelan media? By this glaring omission you reveal your bias."

...and you reveal your stupidity. Refusing to renew the licence of TV station which took part in a coup is not "shutting down" the media. It is the very least that any government of any stamp or colour would do.

Aaron Ortiz on "The writing on the wall: media wars in Latin America "

Aaron Ortiz — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:46:04 +0000

Where is the mention of Hugo Chavez shutting down the Venezuelan media? By this glaring omission you reveal your bias.

JFox on "Fidel remembered: a view of the Cuban revolution"

JFox — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:39:52 +0000

When writing about Cuba westerners do well to begin - as Fred Halliday did - with their credentials. His are as lamentably inadequate as are those of most people whose comments about Fidel Castro's resignation have found their way into the press. Very few western journalists - or academics - have visited Cuba other than fleetingly, and the majority, like Halliday, base their accounts on conversations they claim to have had with Cuban officials - fortified not infrequently by quotations drawn from the underground river of hostility that runs between Washington and Florida.
To the above, of course, Richard Gott is an honorable exception. He knows the country well - and its history very well - although his historical summary for Open Democracy would have benefited from an attempt to address some of the more well-founded criticisms of post-revolutionary Cuba such as Che Guevara's naive economic policies, and Fidel's reluctance to build a political system independent of his - or anyone else's - personality.
In any case, before adding my two cents to the discussion, I will follow the lead of both contributors and offer a summary of my own experience of Cuba and Latin America.
I have worked in and been a student of the region for roughly thirty years. I lived in Mexico during the 1970s, which was then the only country in Latin America where it was possible to meet and converse with Cubans who supported the revolutionary government. For a time my apartment was one of several where Cuban visitors knew they would find a welcome - and sometimes a bed for the night - during their visits to Mexico's capital city.
At the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City, where I taught from 1974 - 1977, my colleagues included former government ministers, senior politicians and university professors from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay - all of them refugees from the right-wing military regimes of the 1970s. I was on the editorial team (the only non Latin-American) of CIDE's first serial publication. Its rather clumsy title - Estados Unidos, Perspectiva Latinoamericana - was sufficiently alarming to evoke adverse comment in the US congress - and for several of us to have our telephones tapped (mine among them). My encounter with a good selection of ministers and senior officials of Salvador Allende's government led me to conclusions similar to those of Fidel himself after his visit to Allende's Chile. Looking back over the period from the comfort of his spacious house in a Mexico City suburb, one of those refugee ministers quietly admitted to me over a glass of wine that - "Most of us were armchair revolutionaries. We didn't think it was for real". None of my CIDE colleagues noticed nor cared to hear about the wretched slum, built on a city garbage dump, that stood in all its appalling ugliness and stench just across highway - the old road to Toluca - that ran at the back of the splendid campus that the institution took over when the Universidad de las Americas moved out of town.
Following my years in Mexico, I worked at various times in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and most of Central America. And about twelve years ago, I finally got to know Cuba first hand - not as a tourist or journalist - but as a consultant charged with the task of establishing a joint venture between a Canadian corporation and a Cuban state-owned enterprise. During my several visits to the island, I traveled extensively and met a wide range of Cuban citizens, from government ministers to small farmers, from writers and intellectuals to taxi-drivers, from students to bricklayers, from bureaucrats to laborers, from teachers to waiters. I met and chatted with soldiers and police officers; with engineers and agronomists trained in the Soviet Union and who spoke fluent Russian; and with fans of American baseball.
At no stage, during my sojourns in Cuba, did my movements or conversation come under scrutiny; nor did anyone I spoke to show any unwillingness to discuss even touchy subjects like domestic politics or the economic situation. One of my Cuban friends was a key adviser to Carlos Lage - a powerful, long-serving member of the government. From the hours and days spent with my friend, I learned much about how government really works in Cuba - and also about how readily Cubans criticize political decisions and make fun of bureaucratic procedures. Cuba is not in any meaningful sense a police state. Not, in fact, in any sense at all. And it operates a form of internal democracy that would put some of our own democratic processes to shame.
Certainly Cubans are not well off by our standards. Years of economic embargo have taken their toll. Nor, however, do they suffer the abject poverty so widespread elsewhere in Latin America. The villas miserias, the ciudades perdidas, the favelas are mainland specialities. To be sure, there are disagreeable aspects of Cuba's internal economic arrangements, not the least of which is the dual economy that virtually excludes nationals from tourist hotels and restaurants - though contrary to the misrepresentations of conservative pundits - they are not forbidden to enter such places or barred from accepting invitations from foreigners. Cubans may not enjoy the consumption patterns of middle-class Americans or Europeans, but they are among the healthiest and best educated citizens in Latin America. Readers who doubt this may like to consult the UN's Human Development Report, where they will find that Cubans have a life expectancy similar to that of Americans and higher than that of all the other Latin-American countries except Chile; and Cuba's literacy rate of 96.9% is exceeded in Latin-America solely by Uruguay's 97.2%. This is a remarkable achievement in a country which the most powerful nation on earth has spent considerable time and effort trying to undermine.
Other negatives?
Perhaps the most obvious - and in my view the most inexcusable - are the government's control of the media, and ludicrous over-sensitivity to public criticism. It seems, unfortunate that, fifty years after the revolution, the government still has not learned to trust its own citizens. This is, of course, a failing shared by many governments - not least that of the UK where we have a free press but can no longer walk down city streets or drive anywhere without being spied upon by cameras. Were those cameras located in Havana, we would be told that they were the typical hallmark of a police state.
Undoubtedly there are prisoners jailed for their political activities. These so-called "prisoners of conscience" have been convicted in Cuban courts of plotting or encouraging the overthrow of the government. As recent "anti-terrorist" legislation has shown only too clearly, they would also find themselves incarcerated in the UK - and for that matter everywhere else in the western hemisphere. Western journalists make much of Cuba's "political prisoners"; but nothing at all of the Miami five - Cuban patriots jailed in the US on trumped up charges by what effectively amounted to a kangaroo court.
And how easily these commentators slide over the unpalatable fact that, in addition to the innumerable attempts on Fidel's life, the US financed and armed an invasion force to "retake" the island: the infamous Bay of Pigs fiasco. Then, as now, the US government put out the story that their purpose was only " to bring freedom and democracy to the people". But now as then, the Cuban people don't want to be set free by the United States - or indeed by anyone. What is not generally understood in the West is that the Cuban revolution of 1959 was a war of national liberation; and its success marked the first time in the island's modern history that it became truly self-governing. What the US lost in 1959 was, in all but name, a colony - of which the last remnant is the now infamous Guantanamo Bay - land leased against the wishes of the Cuban people by their former colonial master. Independence, and the fact that, for fifty years, Cuba has stood as an example to other Latin-American countries are what stick in the craw of the US body politic. More important still - and equally unpleasant to neo-liberals - Cuba offers a message - some may call it a dream (though a compelling one) - that alternatives to raw, neo-liberal capitalism exist and that, in the end, these alternatives may offer the best hope for the future of mankind and of the planet.
And Cubans do not stop at theory. The island is a movingly generous contributor of aid to other developing countries. Unfriendly commentators like to refer to Cuban "interference" in Africa - by which they usually mean Cuba's assistance in liberating Angola from Jonas Savimba and his US/South-African backed militia. They prefer to pass over the fact that the small island of Cuba was the largest provider of medical aid to Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake. Nor do they mention that over a thousand Cuban doctors are currently providing free medical services to impoverished Bolivians. These doctors are not there to foment revolution or to meddle in local politics, but to demonstrate solidarity with the Bolivian people by helping to improve the lives of the poor. By contrast, far richer countries of the West seem content to stand back, criticize and do little else.
Recent critics of Cuba have become fond of describing the island's economy as "in ruins" thanks to the "failed" economic policies of a "discredited regime" (the references are drawn from the BBC, The Guardian and The Independent).
Every regime makes mistakes - and Cuba's is no exception. Some of its economic policies - particularly during the early years - were nonsensical. But the economy is not in ruins. On the contrary, the regime has survived years of US hostility and the "período especial" following the demise of the Soviet Union for the best of all possible reasons: because on the whole, the people believe in the tenets of the Revolution; and they work to sustain it. The image of Fidel Castro as an evil dictator who oppresses his people is simply false. When he dies the people will not rejoice, they will lament the passing of a man whom many regard as the father of the nation; and they will fear the arrival of McDonalds and what it symbolizes: the wretched social inequalities of the neo-liberal model. They will remember what the Revolution overthrew: the US puppet government of Batista , the slums on the outskirts of Havana, the racial apartheid that forbade blacks to be seen in the elegant suburb of Miramar after 6pm. And this contributor, at least, hopes they will resist any attempt to turn back the clock.

jpcruz on "Bullet to Brazil"

jpcruz — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:18:42 +0000

Agree, an important piece of the finest journalism. Violence is as old as mankind. What changed was quantity, not quality. Nowadays it's "just" more televised, the killing techonology is much more sofisticated and we are so many more in this planet. Mostly on huge cities like Rio. And, although it's not by far an exclusive of that side of the world, urban violence and widespread crime in south and north america (besides Canada) reaches very disturbing levels. And that's an interesting phenomenon.

Mario Salimon on "Bullet to Brazil"

Mario Salimon — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:12:49 +0000

Excellent text Luke. I'm very glad to have you as part of our "Becas" programme.
Best regards,

Mário Salimon

Not logged in on "Bullet to Brazil"

Not logged in — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:28:53 +0000

The violence is a global problem with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. And, because that, the decisions that we make, individually and collectively, will determine the future of our children as Silva is trying to change.

Congratulations!!!

Caroline Marim

Daniel Santini on "Bullet to Brazil"

Daniel Santini — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:22:54 +0000

Luke, you have showed sensibity and acuracy wrinting about a very complex and difficult topic. I am amazed with the result of all your research. Congratulations, my friend. I am sharing it all over Brazil, if you don´t mind.

And congratulations for Open Democracy for supporting this kind of work.

Saludos from São Paulo!

Daniel Santini

Alexandre Giovanelli on "Bullet to Brazil"

Alexandre Giovanelli — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:58:35 +0000

It´s a very nice article. I liked very much because it´s a good fotography of the Rio de Janeiro´s reality.

Congratulation to the article`s writer.

Alexandre Giovanelli

pennyauction on "Bullet to Brazil"

pennyauction — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:35:24 +0000

really nice article.. good share!

AWARE on "Nicaragua: between revolution and democracy"

AWARE — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:01:07 +0000

Somoza had a lot of GREAT people backing him up. The revolutionaries destroyed the country, stole lands, houses & money that weren't theirs and accomplished only one thing at the end: THE DEMISE OF NICARAGUA.

Malcolm Bush on "Brazil, the United States and Chile: military ghosts"

Malcolm Bush — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:56:02 +0000

Dear Readers,

I have found this article most interesting and informative, it encompasses things very comprehensively, but without omitting any important facts. I am a lobbyist for Amnesty apart from being an activist for a number of ethical organisations. I believe I'm the only SOAW active activist within the UK. The SOAW are an organisation that aspires to bring about the closure of the Schools of the Americas. This military college now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, based at Fort Benning, Georgia USA, provides training for foreign military officers. Most of these military officers come from South America and this training undoubtedly includes torture and obscenities techniques. Many of these officers trained at this college have committed or been involved with torture and atrocities in South America. They played a key role in the over though of governments mentioned in the above article. The resent over though of the Government of Honduras was conducted by military officers from this college, some were previously leaders of death squads for the military Governments installed by the US.

I'm running an awareness campaign writing to MPs, MEPs, all at the House of Lords, major companies and anyone else that comes along.

Once is once too many, we must not allow more mad dictators to be installed.

Josy1981 on "Nicaragua: between revolution and democracy"

Josy1981 — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:03:36 +0000

Excellent translation i can read and understand it like it was english and not spanish. I love the country nicaragua and all the wars, hate and unstable establishment break my heart. i wish and bet the country come to peace.