Posted on 05/22/2006 2:09:20 PM PDT by billorites
Alan García is worried -- and with reason. The former Peruvian president has stated that Hugo Chávez is intent on conquering Latin America with a mighty stream of petrodollars. It is obvious that García's rival, Comandante Ollanta Humala, is Caracas' candidate.
Chávez would love to duplicate in Lima the success he achieved in La Paz with Evo Morales' triumph. In Nicaragua, comrade Daniel Ortega receives crude oil and urea -- a nitrogenated fertilizer -- so Sandinistas may spread this electoral booty among their supporters and buy votes in the brazenest tradition of graft.
In Mexico meanwhile, the PAN and the PRI have vociferously denounced the Venezuelan colonel's interference in their nation's politics. The work of the Bolivarian circles is all-too visible and the press endlessly publishes information and rumors about the massive aid that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the neopopulist candidate, receives from Venezuela.
Whoever has the masochistic patience to read the screeds of the Castro-Chávez sect should harbor no doubt: Fidel and Hugo already have a general vision of the path humanity is bound to follow. It is the so-called 21st-Century socialism, a new version of the old authoritarian collectivism. They are sure that communism has revitalized itself and is once again the road to the future.
The task of imposing it is not reserved for the decrepit Europe, of course, much less for the treacherous Russia. It is the glorious mission of Latin America, which will be guided to final victory by the Havana-Caracas axis through the techniques of public-opinion manipulation designed by the Soviets and learned by the Cubans in the century just past.
Castro, who will mark his 80th birthday in August, knows he will not see the end of the adventure, but has anointed and enlightened his heir, unto whom will descend the joy of burying -- without honors -- the United States and the corrupt Europe.
But that's not the end of the delirium. In addition to sharing a vision of the future, Castro and Chávez also have a strategy to achieve power. It consists of elevating their comrades by means of the ballot box, taking advantage of the institutional weakness and discredit of the traditional political parties. Once in government -- as Chávez did and Evo Morales is beginning to do -- these fellow travelers rush to dismantle their republics utilizing what, with a certain Anglophile twist, they call a "road map."
The sequence is well known: the enactment of a new Constitution that disassembles the republican structure and concentrates all political, economic and electoral power in the hands of the Big Boss, and the reinforcement of parallel groups skilled in intimidation: militias, circles or support committees, plus other sinister gangs of "brown shirts" whose task is to browbeat the herd into total obedience.
There isn't the slightest doubt that this idiocy will lead to the worst disaster ever. There will be an upsurge in misery, tension and conflict, and a decline in the sources of development. The technical and economic distance between the major Latin American regions and the First World will gradually increase, unless some vigorous and swift reaction occurs to exorcise the danger.
Except that this time, contrary to the experience of the Cold War and because this is a regionally localized catastrophe, a political tsunami on the fringe, neither the United States or Europe -- never mind the other world powers -- will lift a finger to save Latin Americans from a plague that they themselves nurtured irresponsibly for decades.
Will Latin American democrats be capable of forging a front to avert the danger? If Felipe Calderón wins the elections in Mexico, will he be bold enough to assume a position of leadership to confront these devastating foes of progress and common sense? Could Costa Rican Oscar Arias repeat his feat of the 1980s (this time on a greater scale), when he bravely stood up to Washington, Managua and Havana until he pacified the region, returned peace and hope to Central America, and incidentally won a Nobel Peace Prize?
Will Alan García dare to jettison the mound of errors and horrors from which he fed intellectually in the 1970s and devote this second chance his country offers him to strengthen freedom and prosperity in Peru and America?
I don't know. But it's evident that there's no sense in crying wolf if we're not willing to go out and trap it.
When it comes to wolves, in many areas in the west the watch words are ...SHOOT, SHOVEL, and SHUT UP.
Aside from taking out Chavez and the turkey running Iran, the one thing we could do which would really, really **** all of these idiots is to stop importing oil, which I believe we could do without disrupting ourselves for more than six months if we put our minds to it.
Don't mention that to Lugar, et al. They're too busy being reelected.
But, if we started letting nuclear plants again in this nation, started drilling immediately in the ANWR and off our coasts, and redoubled our efforts in research...we could surely do it and leave those who try and influence us through the tool of oil, sucking air.
Chavez ping.
Thanks for the post, good article. I hope he's wrong about us not lifting a finger to save Latin America though.
My plan would be to blow all communists batistas'in our hemisphere back into stone age and take their land for our Mexicans but your proposal is so nice and reasonable and efficient that I'll pass on mine for a short time or until we run out of SS, resources or land or any combo thereof.
Chavez=Chris Dodd's, Bill Nelson's, and Lincoln Chafee's buddy.
Biodiesel from algae would help reduce this nutcase's influence.
I'm focusing a lot on what we could do within the next five years. We could also extend our fuel eceonomy by making better use out of the internet. People who can work at home, do using advances in technology even business meeting can easily be conducted over IP.
Of course a lot of this is going to mean we are going to have to shift our thinking, but it can be done.
Agreed 110%. We need a conservative, moral, God-fearing candidate to presnt it in just those terms...and while at it, go after abortion and immigration with an equal national will!
The average person may not be organized enough to work from home, but he could damned well be working at neighborhood work sites, at least four days out of the week. THAT would crush OPEC while eliminating all of our major traffic problems.
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