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he were visiting Brazil. It is Brazil's president, Lula da Silva, who has been trying to signal the Obama administration that the Bushwhack policy in South America was wrong, and wants specifically to educate them about the democratic governments in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. He called Obama. He set a near date to meet him in the White House, and got his promise to visit Brazil later in the year.
I'm not that sure of Michele Batchelet, president of Chile, as spokesperson for the democratic, leftist tide that has swept South America. She is the most 'conservative' and pro-corporate of all the new leaders, and was the most vulnerable to arm-twisting by Condi Rice and the Negroponte fascists. Back a few years ago, she blocked Venezuela's rightful turn on the UN Security Council, by abstaining from the vote, under Condi Rice pressure. And, though she is a socialist, she has accommodated herself to corporate privatization in Chile. She has gotten better with every passing day toward the end of Bushwhack power. This last September, she played a critical role in fending off the Bushwhack fascist coup attempt in Bolivia--rallying all of South America to President Morales' side. Having been tortured by US-backed Pinochet (and had family members killed by him), she is sensitive to the Latin American sovereignty issue. She also negotiated access to the Pacific Ocean for land-locked Bolivia (ending 100+ year old dispute)--a very important action, connected to the new highway that Brazil and Venezuela are funding from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through Bolivia. And she told an interesting and revealing joke about untoward U.S. power to a group of U.S. investors, recently.* But she has not been as closely allied and friendly with the other leaders, as they have been among themselves.
Argentina's Cristina Fernandez (and Nestor Kirchner, the former president--her husband), Venezuela's Chavez, Bolivia's Morales, Ecuador's Correa, Uruguay's Vasquez, Paraguay's Lugo, and Brazil's da Silva, are all quite close allies. Da Silva meets monthly with Chavez on economic and other planning. Da Silva and Fernandez acted in concert--as Bolivia's chief gas customers--to warn off the Bushwhack-supported fascists, last September (as to their murderous plot to split off Bolivia's chief gas provinces into a fascist mini-state in control of the resource). Da Silva has backed Chavez against U.S.-Bushwhack demonization. Chavez and Correa have the mutual problem of Bushwhack-armed Colombia on their borders, and are both special Bushwhack assassination and destabilization targets. They acted in concert last spring--sending military battalions to their borders--when the U.S./Colombia attacked Ecuador. All of these leaders are very close, in adversity and in success. They all partied together at Fernando Lugo's inauguration as the first leftist president of Paraguay, last summer. Evo Morales had sent Lugo this congratulatory message: "Welcome to the Axis of Evil!"
That about sums it up. These new leaders of South America are unified on social justice and independence principles, and have been targeted, in one way or another, by the Bushwhacks and the corpo/fascist press. Chile's president stands somewhat apart from all of this. This could be good; this could be bad--as to a meeting with Biden. Batchelet pulled off the amazing feat of getting a unanimous vote from UNASUR, on the U.S. interference in Bolivia (funding/organizing of the secessionist riots, right out of the U.S. embassy)--a vote that included Colombia. She also got Colombia to agree to UNASUR plans for a common defense. The latter worries me, because Colombia is a fascist, militaristic menace. And Batchelet got their vote by siding with them about requiring a unanimous vote on any military action. It was nevertheless an impressive feat of diplomacy.
So-o-o-o, possibly Batchelet is exactly the right person to be the first to meet with a major figure from the Obama administration. Possibly. I think we will need to see the results, and the signals that it sends, to know for sure. Is Biden on a "divide and conquer" mission? If so, will he succeed? Is he just trying to get the lay of the land? Will Batchelet convey it to him accurately? Will Chile be pulled more into the U.S./Colombia orbit (God forbid!)? Or will she end up being more firmly in the da Silva camp? (--center-left, in alliance with the leftist Bolivarian countries--together comprising the majority of both peoples and leaders in South America.)
The U.S. military issue might be a clue. Ecuador is going to evict the U.S. military from Manta, Ecuador, this year. Paraguay's new president wants the U.S. military out of his country, as well. Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia have all taken action to remove U.S. embassy, military, "war on drugs," DEA, USAID and/or CIA personnel, operatives and funds from their countries. Lula da Silva has warned that the U.S. 4th Fleet is a threat to Brazil. Will Chile permit additional U.S. bases or activity in Chile, to assist U.S. spying (and perhaps inadvertently) assist U.S. war plans?
U.S. corporate biofuel agriculture might be another clue. Brazil (da Silva) made a biofuels deal with the Bushwhacks (much criticized by the left, environmentalists and campesinos--small peasant farmers). Will the U.S. (Obama) punish Brazil, for da Silva's strong backing of leftist leaders (such as Chavez, Correa and Morales), by dividing that trade with Chile?
This is the sort of thing that the U.S. does to Latin America--"dividing and conquering"--which is so harmful to democracy and to Latin American progress and development. Biden is no sort of virtuous guy, you know. He comes from a state that does all the mega-corporate chartering, with no accountability. He is a "military-industrial complex" insider. He may be a thousand times better than Cheney or Bush (or a million?)--and I do think he has a conscience--but U.S. corporate and military issues will be his primary concern, not social justice and not democracy. Probably the best we can expect is that Obama/Biden (and SoS Clinton) have abandoned the Bushwhack war plans against Venezuela and Ecuador, and will at least proceed in a more aboveboard, political fashion, in which the democratic decisions and wishes of the people of South America at least have a chance to heard, by the tottering behemoth of the north, which has so often killed, tortured, looted and silenced them.
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*("Why has there never been a coup in the United States?" Answer: "Because there is no U.S. embassy in the United States.") (--Michele Batchelet to US investors, circa Oct 08, just after the Bushwhack attempted coup in Bolivia. She got laughs.)
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