i have to feel we will love her like we loved lula

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I thought a little bio would be appropriate now.

The world's most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil.

As head of state, president Dilma Rousseff would outrank Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State: her enormous country of 200 million people is revelling in its new oil wealth. Brazil's growth rate, rivalling China's, is one that Europe and Washington can only envy. ...

Ms Rousseff, the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant to Brazil and his schoolteacher wife, has benefited from being, in effect, the prime minister of the immensely popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former union leader. But, with a record of determination and success (which includes appearing to have conquered lymphatic cancer), this wife, mother and grandmother will be her own woman. ...

Like President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, Brazil's neighbour, Ms Rousseff is unashamed of a past as an urban guerrilla which included battling the generals and spending time in jail as a political prisoner. As a little girl growing up in the provincial city of Belo Horizonte, she says she dreamed successively of becoming a ballerina, a firefighter and a trapeze artist. The nuns at her school took her class to the city's poor area to show them the vast gaps between the middle-class minority and the vast majority of the poor. She remembers that when a young beggar with sad eyes came to her family's door she tore a currency note in half to share with him, not knowing that half a banknote had no value.

Her father, Pedro, died when she was 14, but by then he had introduced her to the novels of Zola and Dostoevski. After that, she and her siblings had to work hard with their mother to make ends meet. By 16 she was in POLOP (Workers' Politics), a group outside the traditional Brazilian Communist Party that sought to bring socialism to those who knew little about it.

The generals seized power in 1964 and decreed a reign of terror to defend what they called "national security". She joined secretive radical groups that saw nothing wrong with taking up arms against an illegitimate military regime. Besides cosseting the rich and crushing trade unions and the underclass, the generals censored the press, forbidding editors from leaving gaps in newspapers to show where news had been suppressed.

Ms Rousseff ended up in the clandestine VAR-Palmares (Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard). In the 1960s and 1970s, members of such organisations seized foreign diplomats for ransom: a US ambassador was swapped for a dozen political prisoners; a German ambassador was exchanged for 40 militants; a Swiss envoy swapped for 70. They also shot foreign torture experts sent to train the generals' death squads. Though she says she never used weapons, she was eventually rounded up and tortured by the secret police in Brazil's equivalent to Abu Ghraib, the Tiradentes prison in Sao Paulo. She was given a 25-month sentence for "subversion" and freed after three years. Today she openly confesses to having "wanted to change the world".

In 1973 she moved to the prosperous southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, where her second husband, Carlos Araujo, a lawyer, was finishing a four-year term as a political prisoner (her first marriage with a young left-winger, Claudio Galeno, had not survived the strains of two people being on the run in different cities). She went back to university, started working for the state government in 1975, and had a daughter, Paula.

In 1986, she was named finance chief of Porto Alegre, the state capital, where her political talents began to blossom. Yet the 1990s were bitter-sweet years for her. In 1993 she was named secretary of energy for the state, and pulled off the coup of vastly increasing power production, ensuring the state was spared the power cuts that plagued the rest of the country.

She had 1,000km of new electric power lines, new dams and thermal power stations built while persuading citizens to switch off the lights whenever they could. Her political star started shining brightly. But in 1994, after 24 years together, she separated from Mr Araujo, though apparently on good terms. At the same time she was torn between academic life and politics, but her attempt to gain a doctorate in social sciences failed in 1998.

In 2000 she threw her lot in with Lula and his Partido dos Trabalhadores, or Workers' Party which set its sights successfully on combining economic growth with an attack on poverty. The two immediately hit it off and she became his first energy minister in 2003. Two years later he made her his chief of staff and has since backed her as his successor. She has been by his side as Brazil has found vast new offshore oil deposits, aiding a leader whom many in the European and US media were denouncing a decade ago as a extreme left-wing wrecker to pull 24 million Brazilians out of poverty. Lula stood by her in April last year as she was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, a condition that was declared under control a year ago. Recent reports of financial irregularities among her staff do not seem to have damaged her popularity.

Ms Rousseff is likely to invite President Mujica of Uruguay to her inauguration in the New Year. President Evo Morales of Bolivia, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay—other successful South American leaders who have, like her, weathered merciless campaigns of denigration in the Western media—are also sure to be there. It will be a celebration of political decency—and feminism.

From guerrilla to most powerful woman... not bad.

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love, 99
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seems to me 3 + 1 in that tri-border area is bad math

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Britain's Guardian has definitely stretched the meaning of this cable even more than the Ambassador was stretching the meaning of "terrorism" to have something to report. It came directly on the heels of THIS ONE, wherein it reports a cop "admitting" "in public" that A Muslim who had been arrested in Brazil "on hate crimes-related" charges was "linked to" al-Qa'eda. Ahem.

We MIGHT be talking about ONE guy who in some way seemed to give material support to The Latrine, and, indeed, "KUBISKE" seems well-pleased about this "progress" as it affects the possible enhancement of dividends from the oft-mentioned 3 Plus 1. The 3 is Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The 1 is the United States. They meet to discuss security and law enforcement in their shared borders area. What is wrong with this picture? WHAT are we doing in such a powwow and DID we impose it on them to begin with? It sounds to me as though we did. It sounds to me as though we are just infiltrating their sovereignty to the greatest extent possible and this global hissy we pitched over terrorists we made up is succeeding in getting our fascists in where they were never allowed before.

That "with us or against us" fist waving thing Dubya did was about you-let-us-into-your-security-mechanisms-or-we-will-fuck-you-up. It worked. Everywhere.

And, now, how many are going to glimpse at that headline and think Brazil is a hotbed of Islamist killers?

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On an unfortunately related note, the CIA Office of Inspector General report on the "Airbridge Denial Program" is out, and is a very big PDF, so if you want to read it, or skim it, I heavily advise you right click THIS to download it. Much easier to use your reader if you want to get a better idea about the ways the United States "partners" with Latin American governments in furtherance of our multifarious wars on awful stuff... terrorism, drugs, human trafficking, DECENCY....

Seems that missionary and her daughter shot down in April of 2001 in Peru were victims of the CIA's bright idea to just shoot down planes they felt were carrying drugs. It was "routine"... and probably still is. Even if they were CERTAIN the planes were carrying drugs, just shooting them down, especially in someone else's country, but really ANYWHERE, is NOT okay, okay? I mean, do you even start to think Rafael Correa is too crabby with our people in Ecuador? I don't. I'm amazed any of them let any of us in for any reason.

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love, 99
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bottomless, it's bottomless

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Never any respite.

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love, 99
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excellent

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I notice also that just as Ahmadinejad did not get reported as visiting Lebanon, but rather as going to visit Hezbollah, so too has Medvedev's nomination of Putin's deputy to serve as a replacement for the fired Moscow mayor been portrayed as Putin positioning himself for the next presidential elections. We don't even get to read straight headlines. They're packed with the propaganda... maybe even most of it, since that's all most people read.

Plus, and I don't know what exactly to make of this, there seem to be a lot of meetings between Russian heads of state and European heads of state lately... so I'm starting to wonder if our failed attempt to sink the euro to save the dollar might not have put some of them in a mind to make better alliances.... Just a thought.

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love, 99
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not consulting an astrologer

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Hugo Chavez to talk military, trade in Moscow
Published 14 October, 2010, 09:49
Edited 14 October, 2010, 20:25

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is to seek further cooperation with Russia during his two-day visit to Moscow.

Speaking at the Two Centuries of Independence of Latin America conference, at the Foreign Literature Library in Moscow, Chavez assured that Venezuela was not building a nuclear bomb, as the only kind of nuclear energy it is interested is peaceful.

Chavez also called the collapse of the Soviet Union a “catastrophe”.

He went on to say, “Although the world has changed, Russia and Venezuela continue to play an immense role in the world balance of powers,” Itar Tass quoted.

He also made a number of strong statements regarding the US.

“You must have heard a Mexican leader say, ‘Poor Mexico, so far from God, and so close to the United States,’” Chavez said. “All of us Latin Americans could say the exact same thing. Out, poor America. So far from God and so close to the… Yankee empire that has hurt our continent so badly.”

On Friday Chavez is to meet his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

During his talks with Russian leaders, Chavez is expected to discuss cooperation up to 2014. This covers military, nuclear sectors, construction and also joint financial and industrial plans.

They will be signing the Action Plan which will outline upcoming joint work. The aim is to boost bilateral trade, including in the military-technical sphere.

Military deals between Russia and Venezuela now exceed US$4 billion.

Venezuela is constructing three military plants – to produce Kalashnikov rifles, to make cartridges, and an aircraft repair plant to service Russian helicopter equipment. Caracas plans to buy ten Ilyushin planes, two Il-78MK refueling aircraft and Russian Mi-28NE helicopters.

Venezuela might also become the first export customer for Sukhoi fighter jets, according to the Russian military export company, Rosoboronexport.

In the near future, military equipment exports to Venezuela could reach $5 billion, said Vladimir Putin.

However, the countries’ cooperation is not restricted to the military sector alone. As Hugo Chavez announced earlier, Caracas may build a nuclear power plant in Venezuela with Russia’s support.

The leaders also expect to finalize establishing a joint Russian-Venezuelan bank, as agreed in 2009. The bank’s headquarters would be in Moscow, with offices in Venezuela and China.

Another topic on the agenda is Russia’s assistance in building social housing, hospitals and schools for Venezuela’s poor, which was discussed during a previous visit to Caracas by Russian leaders.

It is the Venezuelan leader’s ninth visit to Russia, after which he’s due to head for Belarus, Ukraine, Iran, Syria and Portugal.

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love, 99
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a hero

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I know one thing for sure:

Venezuela threatens oil cut to US
SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2010 | 23:51 MECCA TIME, 20:51 GMT

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States if US-allied Colombia launches a military attack against his country.

"If there was any armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the United States even if we have to eat stones here," Chavez said on Sunday.

He added that he had cancelled a trip to Cuba because he had intelligence revealing that "the possibility of an armed aggression against Venezuelan territory from Colombia" was higher than it has been "in 100 years".

Chavez, a leftist and vocal critic of the United States, broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia last week over claims by the outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a close US ally, that his country harbours Colombian rebels.

'Bogus show'

Uribe had said that top commanders of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, have taken refuge in Venezuela and were launching attacks against Colombian troops.

The Colombian government had presented photos, videos and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela to the Organisation of American States.

Chavez has dismissed the accusations as a bogus show intended to smear his government and has said that Uribe could be trying to lay the groundwork for an armed conflict with Venezuela.

The Colombian government denies seeking a conflict and says it went to OAS with its evidence about the rebels last week because Chavez's government had not taken steps to address the situation.

The United States threw its support behind its key ally Colombia, calling Chavez's decision to sever diplomatic relations and put border troops on alert "a petulant response" to Bogota's accusations.

You have to be the stupidest or the most courageous person around to be the president of any Latin American country. I'm going with dirt stupid for Uribe and most courageous for Chávez... a damn hero. Too bad we have one of the evil step-sisters posing as Cinderella for ours.

This does not bode well. It might be our next excuse for not attacking Iran. I don't care about the military drills in Korea. We're amassing ships in Costa Rica. They can be through the Panama Canal and on top of Venezuela in a heartbeat.

The Chinese have openly let it be known they see through us, and too many pinheads think war is the only thing that reverses the financial wreckage they purposefully wrecked. It KILLS millions and it makes TRILLIONS for trillionaires.

So. Wake up.

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i bet you have forgotten the ugliness brewing in costa rica

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Not that you could be blamed, but it's unwise nonetheless. Further reading....

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46 warships and 7,000 marines to costa rica?

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Whut?

|| - To my knowledge at the present time, Costa Rica is not suffering from any "humanitarian" crisis.

|| - The article did not make it clear what sort of "humanitarian missions" might take place.

|| - The article did not mention where any "humanitarian mission" might take place.

|| - Based on the truly horrific, drug crime related slaughters we have witnessed in Mexico, wouldn't it be better conducting these kinds of heavy weapon "anti-narcotics operations" in northern Mexico?

|| - With what is probably the world's worst environmental disaster going on right now in the Gulf of Mexico, surely it would be more appropriate to conduct "humanitarian missions" in the Gulf?

|| - Or, could these crucial warships and the 7,000 US Marines be fleeing from something far more dangerous that is about to happen in the Gulf of Mexico?

|| - The article did not make it clear whether these vessels would be patrolling off the Pacific or Atlantic coast but either way, is it possible they are on their way to Venezuela? Either as a show of force or something more serious?

|| - Does anyone know if any of these ships carry nuclear weapons?

Whut?

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speak of the devil

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Looks as though the rest of the hemisphere would like to get as far away from us as possible.
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mastering the americas — UPDATED

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Updated to add links in last paragraph....

The kidnapping of Haiti
by John Pilger
28 January 2010

The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured “formal approval” from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to “secure” roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in an American naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training.

The airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now an American military base and relief flights have been re-routed to the Dominican Republic. All flights stopped for three hours for the arrival of Hillary Clinton. Critically injured Haitians waited unaided as 800 American residents in Haiti were fed, watered and evacuated. Six days passed before the US Air Force dropped bottled water to people suffering thirst and dehydration.

The first TV reports played a critical role, giving the impression of widespread criminal mayhem. Matt Frei, the BBC reporter dispatched from Washington, seemed on the point of hyperventilation as he brayed about the “violence” and need for “security”. In spite of the demonstrable dignity of the earthquake victims, and evidence of citizens’ groups toiling unaided to rescue people, and even an American general’s assessment that the violence in Haiti was considerably less than before the earthquake, Frei claimed that “looting is the only industry” and “the dignity of Haiti’s past is long forgotten.” Thus, a history of unerring US violence and exploitation in Haiti was consigned to the victims. “There’s no doubt,” reported Frei in the aftermath of America’s bloody invasion of Iraq in 2003, “that the desire to bring good, to bring American values to the rest of the world, and especially now to the Middle East... is now increasingly tied up with military power.”

In a sense, he was right. Never before in so-called peacetime have human relations been as militarised by rapacious power. Never before has an American president subordinated his government to the military establishment of his discredited predecessor, as Barack Obama has done. In pursuing George W. Bush’s policy of war and domination, Obama has sought from Congress an unprecedented military budget in excess of $700 billion. He has become, in effect, the spokesman for a military coup.

For the people of Haiti the implications are clear, if grotesque. With US troops in control of their country, Obama has appointed George W. Bush to the “relief effort”: a parody surely lifted from Graham Greene’s The Comedians, set in Papa Doc’s Haiti. As president, Bush’s relief effort following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 amounted to an ethnic cleansing of many of New Orleans’ black population. In 2004, he ordered the kidnapping of the democratically-elected prime minister of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and exiled him in Africa. The popular Aristide had had the temerity to legislate modest reforms, such as a minimum wage for those who toil in Haiti’s sweatshops.

When I was last in Haiti, I watched very young girls stooped in front of whirring, hissing, binding machines at the Port-au-Prince Superior Baseball Plant. Many had swollen eyes and lacerated arms. I produced a camera and was thrown out. Haiti is where America makes the equipment for its hallowed national game, for next to nothing. Haiti is where Walt Disney contractors make Mickey Mouse pjamas, for next to nothing. The US controls Haiti’s sugar, bauxite and sisal. Rice-growing was replaced by imported American rice, driving people into the cities and towns and jerry-built housing. Years after year, Haiti was invaded by US marines, infamous for atrocities that have been their specialty from the Philippines to Afghanistan.

Bill Clinton is another comedian, having got himself appointed the UN’s man in Haiti. Once fawned upon by the BBC as “Mr. Nice Guy... bringing democracy back to a sad and troubled land”, Clinton is Haiti’s most notorious privateer, demanding de-regulation of the economy for the benefit of the sweatshop barons. Lately, he has been promoting a $55m deal to turn the north of Haiti into an American-annexed “tourist playground”.

Not for tourists is the US building its fifth biggest embassy in Port-au-Prince. Oil was found in Haiti’s waters decades ago and the US has kept it in reserve until the Middle East begins to run dry. More urgently, an occupied Haiti has a strategic importance in Washington’s “rollback” plans for Latin America. The goal is the overthrow of the popular democracies in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, control of Venezuela’s abundant oil reserves and sabotage of the growing regional cooperation that has given millions their first taste of an economic and social justice long denied by US-sponsored regimes.

The first rollback success came last year with the coup against President Jose Manuel Zelaya in Honduras who also dared advocate a minimum wage and that the rich pay tax. Obama’s secret support for the illegal regime carries a clear warning to vulnerable governments in central America. Last October, the regime in Colombia, long bankrolled by Washington and supported by death squads, handed the US seven military bases to, according to US air force documents, “combat anti-US governments in the region”.

Media propaganda has laid the ground for what may well be Obama’s next war. On 14 December, researchers at the University of West England published first findings of a ten-year study of the BBC’s reporting of Venezuela. Of 304 BBC reports, only three mentioned any of the historic reforms of the Chavez government, while the majority denigrated Chavez’s extraordinary democratic record, at one point comparing him to Hitler.

Such distortion and its attendant servitude to western power are rife across the Anglo-American corporate media. People who struggle for a better life, or for life itself, from Venezuela to Honduras to Haiti, deserve our support.

I'm not posting about the supposed demonstrations against Chavez because, while I'm sure there are some, maybe even sizable, especially from the comfortable who aren't liking this sharing thing much at all, I believe the captions on many of the photographs have been changed to make pro-Chavez marchers seem to us to be anti-Chavez marchers, and until I have the space to look into it more deeply, I ain't falling for it. He is wildly popular, and way more democratic than anything they've known in my lifetime, and we are so clearly back in the coup business for real and with no impediments that I'm just not falling for it.

We are behind the Iron Curtain now, for real, and for good... unless... oh... never mind....
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if you want to listen to chomsky drone on about honduras

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... here's yer chance....
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oh, fine

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Now Colombia's griping about a threat of attack from Venezuela. You may think we don't have the means—financial or in manpower—to cause much mass scale violence in South America, on top of all the mayhem we're perpetrating in the Middle East and North Africa, but, well, I think you are wrong. There are just bottomless possibilities for this stuff. Half the world is ready to be a "defense" contractor for "us" and all our trillions are now in the hands of the guys who control our government. So, truly, there is every reason to worry about this. This maybe more than any of the rest because here is where the antidote to fascism has sprung up and begun to flourish.
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I AM SO NOT KIDDING....
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blowback from obama's first coup

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Or the gospel. We all know which of these men is least likely to lie.

Venezuela's Chavez sees US threat in Dutch islands
AP — 1 hr 1 min ago

COPENHAGEN – Hugo Chavez accused the Netherlands on Thursday of allowing the United States to use Dutch islands off Venezuela's Caribbean coast to prepare a possible military attack against his country.

The Venezuelan leader said the U.S. military, to prepare for a possible offensive, has sent intelligence agents, war ships and spy planes to Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which are self-governing Dutch islands.

"They are three islands in Venezuela's territorial waters, but they are still under an imperial regime: the Netherlands," Chavez said during a speech at a climate change conference in Denmark. "Europe should know that the North American empire is filling these islands with weapons, assassins, American intelligence units, and spy planes and war ships."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly denied that U.S. military personnel in the Caribbean are planning to attack Venezuela.

"These allegations are baseless. These are routine exercises. We seek cooperation with the region," Kelly said.

Chavez did not offer evidence supporting his accusations, but he blamed the Netherlands and said the European Union should take a stance.

"I would like to know that the European Union has to say about this," Chavez said. "The Netherlands is responsible for this."

Chavez claims it's part of a broader plan by Washington to undermine leftist governments throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, including Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba.

"It's a threat to all the people of Latin America and the Caribbean," he said in a speech on the sidelines of the climate change conference in Denmark.

The socialist leader has repeatedly accused President Barack Obama's administration of conspiring with neighboring Colombia to topple his government.

Chavez's latest remarks were his strongest yet directed at the Netherlands. Three years ago he also bickered with the Dutch government, calling its defense minister a "pawn of Washington" who was part of an orchestrated campaign to vilify him as a "tyrant making plans for invasions of neighboring countries."

Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for months over an agreement between Bogota and Washington allowing the U.S. military to increase its presence at Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement. American troops also are stationed at airports in Aruba and Curacao.

"Venezuela is being surrounded by military bases," Chavez said.

Colombian and U.S. officials have dismissed Chavez's concerns that Colombian bases could be used as launching pads to try to unseat him, saying their sole objective to fight drug trafficking and leftist guerrillas within Colombia.

Chavez also took aim at Obama during Thursday's speech, saying the U.S. president did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because he is continuing warlike policies.

"Obama should give back the prize," Chavez said, suggesting that his close ally — Bolivian President Evo Morales — would have been a better choice.

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george ciccariello-maher

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This kid really, really impresses me. There's a tone of a type of fearlessness that one can not just imitate. There is an authenticity to his grasp of the little universe of imperative things to understand here too. He is reading. He's reading fast... or they uploaded the video in compression mode... so you might need to listen a couple times... or... just lock your attention on and be prepared to be dazzled.

science fiction story

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REFLECTIONS OF FIDEL
A science fiction story
(Taken from CubaDebate)

HOW I regret having to criticize Obama, knowing that in that country there are other potential presidents worse than him. I understand that in the United States that office is currently a tremendous headache. Perhaps nothing could explain it better than the information in yesterday’s Granma that 237 members of the U.S. Congress; in other words, 44% of them, are millionaires. That does not mean that every one of them is obliged to be an incorrigible reactionary, but it is very difficult that they might think like any of the many millions of U.S. citizens who lack medical care, are unemployed or have to work hard to earn a living.

Obama, of course, is not a beggar, he possesses millions of dollars. As a professional he was outstanding; his domination of language, his eloquence and his intelligence are undisputed. Despite being an African American he was elected president for the first time in the history of his country in a racist society that is suffering from a profound international economic crisis, the responsibility for which falls upon itself.

It is not about being or not being anti-American, as the system and its colossal media try to describe its adversaries.
The U.S. people are not responsible for, but the victims of an unsustainable system and, what is worse, one that is now incompatible with the life of humanity.

The intelligent and rebel Obama who had to endure humiliation and racism during his childhood and youth understands that, but the Obama who is educated and committed to the system and the methods that led him to the presidency of the United States cannot resist the temptation to pressure, threaten and even deceive others.

He is obsessive in his work; possibly no other president of the United States would be capable of committing himself to a program as intensive as the one that he proposes to undertake in the next eight days.

According to his program, a wide-ranging tour will take him to Alaska, where he is to talk with troops deployed there; to Japan, Singapore, the People’s Republic of China and South Korea; he is to take part in the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); he will have talks with the prime minister of Japan and His Majesty Emperor Akihito in the Land of the Rising Sun; the president of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang; of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, and of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao; he will give speeches and press conferences; he will carry his nuclear briefcase that we trust he will not need to use during his accelerated tour.

His security adviser has informed that he is to discuss with the president of Russia extending the START-1 Treaty, which expires on December 5, 2009. Certain reductions in the enormous nuclear arsenal will doubtless be agreed, without significance for the economy and world peace.

What is our illustrious friend thinking of taking on during his intensive voyage? The White House has solemnly announced it: climate change, economic recovery, nuclear disarmament, the war in Afghanistan, the risks of war in Iran and in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. There is enough material here to write a book of fiction.

But how is Obama going to resolve climate problems if the position of his representation in the preparatory meetings for the Copenhagen Summit on greenhouse gas emissions was the worst of all the industrialized and rich countries, both in Bangkok and in Barcelona, because the United States has not signed the Kyoto Protocol, nor is that country’s oligarchy disposed to genuinely cooperate.

How is he going to contribute to the solution of the grave economic problems affecting a large part of humanity, when the total debt of the United States – which includes federal government, state and local governments, companies and families – amounted at the end of 2008 to $57 trillion, equivalent to more than 400% of its GDP, and when that country’s budget deficit rose to close to 13% of its GDP in the fiscal year 2009, a figure that Obama is doubtless aware of.

What can he offer Hu Jintao when his policy has been openly protectionist in order to hit Chinese exports; when he is demanding at all costs that the Chinese government should revalue the yuan, which would affect growing Third World imports proceeding from China.

The Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff – who is not a disciple of Karl Marx, but an honest Catholic, one of those who is not prepared to cooperate with imperialism in Latin America – recently affirmed: "…we are risking our destruction and the devastation of the diversity of life."

"…almost half of humanity is now living below the poverty level. The richest 20% consume 82.49% of all the Earth’s wealth and the 20% poorest have to sustain themselves with a miniscule 1.6%." He quotes the FAO warning that "…in the coming years there will be between 150 and 200 million climate refugees." And he adds that in his estimate: "humanity is now consuming 30% more than its reposition capacity… The Earth is showing unequivocal signs that it cannot take any more."

What he affirms is a fact, but Obama and the U.S. Congress have not as yet heard that.

What is he leaving us in the hemisphere? The shameful problem of Honduras and the annexation of Colombia, in which country the United States is to install seven military bases. They also established a military base in Cuba more than 100 years ago and still occupy it by force. On it they installed the horrific torture center known worldwide, which Obama has been unable to close as yet.

I sustain the belief that before Obama concludes his mandate there will be six to eight rightist governments in Latin America allied to the empire. Likewise in the near future, the most right-wing sector in the United States will try to limit his mandate to a period of four years. A Nixon, a Bush or somebody like Cheney will once again be new presidents. Then one would see with all clarity the significance of those absolutely unjustifiable military bases that are now threatening all the peoples of South America on the pretext of combating drug trafficking, a problem created by the tens of billions of dollars from the United States being injected into organized crime and drug production in Latin America.

Cuba has demonstrated that in order to combat drugs what is needed is justice and social development. In our country, the crime figure per every 100,000 inhabitants is one of the lowest in the world. No other [country] in the hemisphere can show such low indices of violence. It is known that in spite of the blockade, none other possesses such high educational levels.

The peoples of Latin America will know how to resist the onslaughts of the empire!

Obama’s tour would seem to be a science fiction story.

Fidel Castro Ruz
November 11, 2009
7:16 p.m.

great, not two days ago he was with every president in south america

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Colombian president has swine flu: official
(AFP) – 4 hours ago

BOGOTA — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the swine flu but is doing well, his spokesman said Sunday, just days after the leader returned from a regional summit in Argentina.

Deaths from swine flu in Latin America -- the worst-hit region in the world -- rose to over 1,300 this month.

Uribe, a conservative staunch US ally, began to suffer from symptoms of the flu on Saturday after returning from a summit meeting in Argentina, so he had a checkup which confirmed he had the A(H1N1) virus, according to a statement read out by his spokesman Cesar Velasquez.

"The president is continuing to work, and he will be in quarantine for some time as he recovers," the statement added, noting that Uribe was doing well and was working out of his ranch in Rionegro, in the country's northwest.

Velasquez also said Uribe's office sent a message to governments of other countries that took part in the summit in Bariloche, Argentina, to see if anyone else had been taken ill.

"All the people and government leaders who have had close contact with the president are being informed," the spokesman added.

To date 34 people have died of the flu in Colombia, official data show. A total of 621 infections have been confirmed.
The Union of South American Nations (Unasur) summit met in the Argentine ski resort of Bariloche to examine claims by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez that US military deployment in Colombia could be used to invade his country.

Chavez, Uribe's frequent critic, in Caracas said he was sorry Uribe was ill. "I hope this will not affect his (overall) health, and that nobody else comes down with it," Chavez said.

"He'll be fine; he's young and he exercises," Chavez added of Uribe, and added that he himself felt well and did not plan to get tested.

"No, not now because I do not have anything. I am feeling so well that yesterday I pitched 10 innings (in a baseball game with his cabinet), we ran for three hours and then I sang a bit," added Chavez, who on Monday leaves for a trip set to take him to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus and Russia.

Unasur groups Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and mediator of the Honduran political crisis, also is fighting the swine flu, the government said earlier this month.

Swine flu spreads four times faster than other viruses and 40 percent of the fatalities are young adults in good health, the world's top health official warned in an interview appearing Saturday.

"This virus travels at an unbelievable, almost unheard of speed," World Health Organisation Director General Margaret Chan told France's Le Monde daily in an interview.

"Sixty percent of the deaths cover those who have underlying health problems," Chan said. "This means that 40 percent of the fatalities concern young adults -- in good health -- who die of a viral fever in five to seven days.

"This is the most worrying fact," she said, adding that "up to 30 percent of people in densely populated countries risked getting infected."

eva golinger explains the danger of u.s. aggression in south america

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biiiiiiig party in quito today

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Combination inauguration, monster holiday and monster summit... the gang was all there... all of them.

U.S. military presence in Colombia could spark war - Chavez
22:13 | 10/08/2009

MEXICO CITY, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said at a South American summit in Quito on Monday that the presence of U.S. servicemen in Colombia could provoke a war.

"The announcement of an American military deployment at seven military bases in Colombia could turn into a tragedy," he said. "In the current situation, I have to warn everyone of the danger of a war in the region."

Colombia and the U.S. are planning to sign a bilateral security and defense treaty for 10 years, as a result of which Washington could increase the number of its troops deployed at seven bases in the South American state. The U.S. will acquire the right to use the bases to fight international terrorism and drug trafficking.

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said earlier on Monday that by increasing its military presence in Colombia, the United States was seeking to establish control over the region's economic resources.

"The fight against drug trafficking is only an excuse for deploying military bases throughout the [southern] hemisphere," Castro said. He also said that the high-tech military equipment the U.S. was planning to deploy was not needed in the fight against drug trafficking.

"The real objective is control over economic resources and control over the markets," he added.

I gotta go off and do errands but I think I may have a lot more of this when I get back.

el salvador? -- UPDATED

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Flight with ousted Honduran president diverted to El Salvador

Diplomats reach out for solution to Honduras coup
BY LAURA FIGUEROA AND FRANCES ROBLES
5 minutes ago

TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS -- The flight that was carrying ousted President Manuel Zelaya has been diverted to El Salvador because it lacked permission to land, Honduras' top aviation official announced Sunday.

In a nationwide address that interrupted local programming, aviation official Alfredo San Martin said no plane without permission to land would be allowed to touch down in any Honduran airport. If heads of state are aboard, he said, they should request permission before coming.

''In that sense, the information we have up to this moment... is that plane that transported the citizen Manuel Zelaya has been redirected to the Republic of El Salvador,'' he said.

The president of the United Nations joined the desposed president as he attempted to return to his country a week after military soldiers removed him from office in the early morning hours.

Zelaya will return to Tegucigalpa Sunday afternoon with U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto and an envoy of other Latin American leaders, he announced at a televised press conference held outside of the home of the Ecuadorean ambassador to the U.S. in Washington D.C.

''I'm going to return to my people,'' Zelaya said in an interview aired on Venezuelan TV station TeleSur.

The return trip was scheduled despite the fact that Honduras' new government has vowed to prevent Zelaya's plane from landing. Should he enter the country, authorities have promised to promptly arrest him.

''I think that if 1,000 heads of state are accompanying him, if those people are not invited to this country as heads of state, then they are simple citizens and they have to respect Honduran laws,'' said Ramón Custodio López, the nation's human rights ombudsman. ``If a plane of any nationality tries to land here, no matter who is aboard, if they do not have permission to land, they cannot land.''

Security around Tegucigalpa's airport was beefed up with military guards blocking off the area, as helicopters fly overhead. American Airlines, Taca, and Delta all suspended flights to and from the country. Only Continental continues to offer service.

Zelaya and D'Escoto will head directly to Tegucigalpa, while another plane bound for neighboring El Salvador will carry several Latin American president's including Argentina's Cristina Fernández, Rafael Correa from Ecuador, Fernando Lugo from Paraguay, and José Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

Custodio stressed that the president of Argentina and the U.N. official were not invited to the country as diplomats or heads of state.

''Honduras has the right as a sovereign state to have its air space respected,'' he said at a press conference held Sunday at the presidential palace.

Carlos Sosa, Honduras' former ambassador to the OAS, said in a press conference Saturday night that Zelaya's flight would land in the Central American nation between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. Honduras is two hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

In a taped messaged aired over local radio and TV stations Saturday, Zelaya urged Hondurans to await his arrival at the airport.

Saturday afternoon more than 10,000 pro-Zelaya supporters marched throughout the streets of the capital city until they arrived at the airport in a show of support. They vowed to return again Sunday when Zelaya was rumored to return.

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UPDATE, 5PM: TRUCKS BLOCK RUNWAY, VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN HONDURAS

[Could have landed at a U.S. Military base and been driven home....]

viva alba

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