Obama condemns Evo Morales assassination plots
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crime and justice |
other press 
Monday April 20, 2009 14:33
by Quantum of Solace subplot
In the last week considerable Irish attention and media speculation has been given to the reported 7th assassination of Evo Morales plot since he was democratically elected president of Bolivia, a state with which Ireland shares no embassy. When a young Irish man died in the company of his friend, a war veteran of the Balkan conflict, in a Bolivian hotel the president of Bolivia was out of that state preparing to meet with Barack Obama. For the first time an assassination plot against Morales sparked no comment from his friend and ally Hugo Chavez. Curiously, because after the first reported plot Venezuelan had offered all intelligence assistance to the Andean government to protect it from its many perceived enemies. Instead Chavez presented Obama with a book on CIA black operations in Latin America which has since become a best seller. Today Obama has specifically condemned all assassination plots and attempts to overthrow the Morales government.
Last week the book Las venas abiertas de América Latina (The open veins of Latin America) by Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano had only sold 60,280 copies. First published in 1971 the book is considered a classic text of the left in Latin America. Today it is number ten on the Amazon lists. We have no idea if Mr Obama will find the time to read the book which details that part of the last half century's meddling by US secret services in the affairs of South America, inteference which ranged from the relatively well known Condor Operation with its component military rightist dictatorships before even the more familiar regime of Pinochet and the more recent funding of far right paramilitarised drug cartels had come into being. But it might be worth noting that spokespersons at the White House have told media in the USA, that President Obama had recieved a book which detailed " the base of dependence of the southern hemisphere on its northern neighbour
Nevertheless today's statement by Obama ought be read by all on the Irish left.
In the case of Bolivia, I wish to make it clear that I am opposed to and condemn any forceful attempt to violently undermine democratically elected governments no matter where they occur in the hemisphere. It is not the policy of our government, it is not the way which Americans expect us to behave. The United States has a history in the regin which has not always been appreciated by some, but what we need to do is continue advancing, and I am responsible for how this government acts and we will be respectful of those democratically elected governments even though we might have differences [of opinion]
Meanwhile the Secretary General of the Organisation of the Americas,whose 5th congress is being celebrated in Trinidad, José Miguel Insulza, has described the recent alledged plot to undermine the Bolivian government and support far right seperatism as being "of the most grave nature".
http://www.univision.com/contentroot/wirefeeds/50notici....html
http://www.milenio.com/node/201510
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5I wish to make it clear that I am opposed to and condemn any forceful attempt to violently undermine democratically elected governments no matter where they occur in the hemisphere.
Panama? Colombia? Trinidad? Cuba? Iraq? Afghanistan? Nicaragua? Venezuela?
mmmm .....
Cuba has been a single party dictatorship for the past 50 years run by the dictator Fidel Castro.
Afghanistan was rule by the Islamic fundementalist Taliban government.
Iraq was under the boot of fascist dictator Saddam Hussein.
None of those regimes were democratic.
Cuba is still a communist hellhole but the US and Cuban relations are thawing and if US tourists with bucks to spend flood into the country communism looks set to give way to capitalism overnight.
Afghanistan is rid of the Taliban central control, it has a democracy of sorts but the Taliban is on the rise again and for the good of the world nobody with any sanity wishes to see the Taliban in control of that devastated country.
Saddam is dead and gone and Iraq now has a constitutional parliamentary multi-party democracy while sectarian violence and terrorism has declined dramatically and finally after 6 years of war Iraq has a future too look forward to.
You can watch a video of it on their newspaper's site http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/...shake But somehow I doubt the video of the gesture will achieve the "internet meme" status of the Chavez & King of Spain "why don't you shut up!?" hit of 2007 (c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/85574?&condense_comment...16073 ). The thrust of Tomasky's thoughts is the question of whether the USA is weakened by such shows of comradely friendship and probably count for as much as the pages of the Daily Mail devoted to Mrs Obama putting her arm around the Queen of England.
As I showed in the illustration with this article above which I published under the name Quantum of Solace subplot being a reference to the last 007 movie which saw a group called Quantum claim to have destabilised Haiti and then set their sights on Bolivia
Hugo Chavez got off to a good start with Obama - and was noted by other contributors to this site & recent speakers on the Irish leftist lecture scene - the book he gave him really did make as much a hit and is as important as I wrote.
Hugo Chavez has now qualified the general blame being put by the Bolivarian states on the "yankee empire" for the ongoing coup d'etat situation in Honduras.
He has of course and quite properly said it is a geopolitical exercise which is aimed at the whole ALBA alliance and progressive politics in Latin America as it is an attempt to take control of one small state.
He has of course declared as have many others that such a venture would not be possible without US backing. For a moment I remind readers that in his last interview as acting president, Zelaya told the Spanish "El Pais" daily on July 27th that the US had not backed the coup d'etat [he had been expecting on July 26th]. Within hours of course he was whisked off to Costa Rica in his Pyjamas.
But now Chavez has qualified the stating of the bloody obvious.
He has exhonerated Obama from what we [ the bolivarians - the global leftists - all of us like ] believe not just from kneejerk reaction and prejudice but convincing evidence :-
The coup d'etat situation in Honduras (which has much in common with Haiti) and reminds one of the presumed plots in Bolivia and [ I insist ought to be compared to the Mauritanian case as well] is clearly linked to the Pentagon and elements in US foreign policy and corporate lobbyist circles which survive and overarch democratically elected presidencies.
But he reckons Obama didn't give the go ahead.
............. now you think about what that really means a moment................I'll put little full stops which you read carefully to help you ponder it systematically..........................................................................
If Obama didn't know, nor gave the go ahead, nor has been able to restore Zelaya, then the same auld folks who are doing Honduras could just go & do him...........¿no?
that is of course what I have always meant by the "Obama back yard factor". I invite you to read my coverage since July 26th which included links to the Zelaya interview in which he said the coup had been averted because the USA didn't approve. I then ask you to consider Mauritania. I then ask you to consider how I have written many times that there were three seperate coup d'etat processes in Honduras. If you want to watch "Quantum of Solace" it's up to you. I happen to think the editing makes the action scenes too hectic. IF you want to read "the open veins of Latin America" then ask your local library to get a copy. If you want to live on soya or bananas because you don't want to cause suffering to sentient beings with eyes, then volunteer for NASA's one-way space exploration tickets.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92883
Ahead of the extra-ordinary summit of Mercosur to be celebrated this 28th of August in Argentina, the president of Bolivia Evo Morales has revealed one of his proposals.
That the citizens of South America be invited to take part in the first continental referendum to express their approval or disapproval of the decision by Colombia to offer leases on 7 new US bases or "Forward operating locations" the details of which to date have not been made public either in the USA to Congress, Senate, house committees, nor the Colombian parliament or Senate nor any other South American state.
It is completely uncertain whether the assurances offered by US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton that the these bases will not be used by US armed forces for extra-territorial operations shall extend to sub-contracted private mlitary companies in the employ of the US.
Considering the subject material of this article, the good start Obama tried to give in his back yard, the latest suggestion by Morales deserves a place.
August 28th is the global day of action for repudiation of the coup d'etat in Honduras,
the rejection of the elections organised by the usurping regime and the day to say no
to any attempts to divide and conquer Latin America or spoil its undeniable progress from military dictatorship and US hegemony.
Evo has it seems played the card of democracy rather better than those who ask you to vote for Lisbon.
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