Guatemala set to quash FTA protests with troops

[dArKeR]

Authorities said late Tuesday they were prepared to send troops into the streets of the Guatemalan capital, after nearly 1,000 protesters prevented lawmakers from voting on a pending free-trade agreement between Central America and the US.

Demonstrators blocked the legislature for hours, delaying a session during which some lawmakers wanted to put the free-trade pact to a vote.

Colonel Wilfred Estrada, a spokesman for the army, said he received an order from the security detail in charge of protecting the president to ready 500 soldiers and military police who would be deployed if a new round of protests erupted yesterday or today.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2005/03/10/2003245615

Now this is what is called 'American Democracy!'

[IndianaGreen]

1. Capitalism is in crisis

We will see more instances of brutal military force being used to squash the aspirations of the have-nots and protect the interests of the ruling elites.

[bemildred]

2. I wonder if any of that good stuff from Nicaragua might have

made it's way North?

[dArKeR]

3. Urge to drop democracy grows in Latin America - June 2004

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , Ilave, Peru
Monday, Jun 28, 2004,Page 16

On a morning in April, people in this normally placid spot in Peru's southeastern highlands burst into a Town Council meeting, grabbed their mayor, dragged him through the streets and lynched him. The killers, convinced the mayor was on the take and angry that he had neglected pledges to pave a highway and build a market for vendors, also badly beat four councilmen.

The beating death of the mayor may seem like an isolated incident in an isolated Peruvian town but it is in fact a specter haunting elected officials across Latin America. A kind of toxic impatience with democratic process has seeped into the region's political discourse, even a thirst for mob rule that has put leaders on notice.

In the last few years, six elected heads of state have been ousted in the face of violent unrest, something nearly unheard of in the previous decade. A widely noted UN survey of 19,000 Latin Americans in 18 countries in April produced a startling result: A majority would choose a dictator over an elected leader if that provided economic benefits.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/06/28/2003176910

[dArKeR]

4. Friendly Dictators Central America

http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/CentralAmerica.html