Jackson Diehl stepped up to the plate today and did what any good Washington Post Deputy Editorial Editor does. He wrote a Kissingeresque analysis of America’s ills in Latin America.
Diehl portrays Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez:
[Chavez] aspires to make Latin America anti-American and anti-democratic.
And:
Argentina’s Nestor Kirchner, …in the past few weeks has moved from the hemisphere’s camp of moderate democratic leftists toward Chavez’s “revolutionary” embrace.
And:
the Chavez-backed victory in Bolivia of Evo Morales, a former llama herder and coca farmer who describes himself as Washington’s “nightmare.” Lacking any coherent policies of his own, Morales will probably take instruction from Chavez, Kirchner and Fidel Castro — who at age 79 must believe he is finally seeing the emergence of the totalitarian bloc he and Che Guevara tried and failed to create in the 1960s.
and:
Mexico could be led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a socialist who has never visited the United States.
Diehl also laments the likely democratically elected return of the Sandanistas. Perhaps we can divert some of the money intended for Iraq to aid a latter-day Contra movement.
At no point does Diehl offer an analysis of why socialism is on the March in Latin America. Instead, he dishonestly characterizes the shift as a return to totalitarianism and as fundamentally anti-democratic. But, he offers zero evidence for these charges.
Instead, he opines:
Chavez and his populist followers will fail to create sustainable prosperity, as they have throughout Latin history. The same democracies that are giving leftists a chance to rule, if preserved, will oust them when they fail. In the short term, however, much of Latin America is going to be an unfriendly place for liberal ideas and free markets — and with them the United States.
The Washington Post, which is broadly considered to be a left-leaning paper, and which would likely applaud left-wing electoral gains in Europe, has no patience for a leftward shift in Latin America.
The reason is clear. The broader Chavez movement shows few signs of becoming authoritarian, but many signs of impeding American business interests and influence. To people like Allen Dulles, Henry Kissinger, Pat Robertson, and perhaps, Jackson Diehl, this is reason enough to assassinate leaders like Hugo Chavez and to arm right-wing guerillas to reverse the results of democratic elections.
I’d like to know what the ramifications of this are:
Thanks to Mar del Plata, Bush is at least aware of the problem. On his return he ordered a high-level review of U.S. policy in the region. A subsequent meeting of senior officials from the departments of State, Defense, Treasury and other agencies generated a handful of new ideas
New ideas? Or old ideas? Like Operation Condor?
If you’re lucky enough to get LINKTV, you can see the documentary, “Spotlight: Investigating Operation Condor.”
From LINKTV’s Web page about the documentary, some links:
The Condor Years author John Dinges website
The Institute for Policy Studies Pinochet Watch
The National Security Archives
Crimes of War Project
Casahistoria.net
BBC
a left-leaning paper. It’s editorial pages routinely support Bush, or at most half-heartedly criticize his most egregious moves. It does have some good reporting, but it also has Bob Woodward!
The Americas south of here have finally begun to figure out that the USA and the IMF and World Bank do not have their best interests at heart economically, and intend only to milk them dry. They are making choices based on their own best interests, and needless to say, the Bush administration is not pleased.
put it this way, the WP endorses Democratic candidates over Republicans candidates at a solid ratio.
Jackson Diehl and the Editorial Board of the WP are generally supportive of the left on domestic staff, although they are pleased to offer a sounding board for the likes of George Will, Charles Krauthammer, and Bob Novak.
The are decidedly centrist in outlook, but the only way you can say they board supports Bush is in areas of foreign policy. And that is because the business community wants access to markets, and the Establishment has a lot of overlap with the neo-cons in their strategic goals.
The U.S. government has played an active role in regime change in Haiti, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan — as well as serious and ongoing attempts in Venezuela, Belarus, et al. The world media knows and reports on this, and it also explains why Putin is cracking down of NGO’s (non-government organizations), given the role several have played in carrying out the Bush agenda.
The media never seems to get worked about that, nor do they see fit to report it. What a shame that so much of the U.S. mainstream media sees its role as that of messenger for the government propaganda machine.
Nice job, Susan.
Curiously (not really), some of the work discredited AP/NYT reporter Regine Alexandre was doing in Haiti for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was ‘training’ Haitian journalists, much like the ballyhooed program involving 6 prominent journalism schools that was recently announced.
The language articles & of editorials like this mask all sorts of hidden assumptions & ‘directed perceptions.’ Most important for them is to discredit democratically elected socialists.
Chavez is nobody’s fool, and his move to contract directly with U.S. communities is absolutely brilliant p.r. Besides, he’s just taking care of his country’s bizness:
Joe Turner: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth? [Three Days of the Condor]
jesus… that’s the worst article I’ve read in weeks. I think I need to do a full-scale article myself on this inanity.
Pax
I am already looking foward to it!
Well in my fit of anger I wrote an entire rebuttal.. it’s on my blog now (click on FTS next to my name below).
Cheers!
Pax
Tried to post a comment in FTS, but did not go through. Pagina 12 points out that the NYT also is whinning about Kirchner/ Argentina moving to the left. This might be an indication that the US is softening the terrain for retaliation. All that is missing now is for the upper class there to start pointing out the US news, and start creating an atmosphere of caos.
…disagree with most of Diehl’s “analysis,” anybody familiar with Henry the K’s record or his writing (I edited his syndicated columns for several years) knows that Diehl’s superficial treatment of Latin America hardly qualifies as Kissingeresque.
The United States has a terrible record in its dealings with its southern neighbors in what more than one president, starting with Teddy Roosevelt, called “our backyard.” More than a century and a half of financial and armed intervention, coups and massacres. The funding, training, and philosophical backing of policies that, in some cases, can only be described as genocidal. When indirect backdoor methods failed, the direct approach was chosen.
Even Jimmy Carter, a president whose human rights efforts I hold in high esteem, followed the hoary approach when it came to Latin America, arming and training Somoza’s National Guard so these fascists could retake Nicaragua from the Sandinistas.
In the early ’90s – with the end of the Cold War that drove much of U.S. Latin American policy for 40 years – the neo-“liberal” brigade and the Friedmanites of the Chicago school argued that the bad old days of populism, leftism and Che-love in Latin America had been supplanted by pro-U.S. governments. But the longterm U.S. policy of exploitation – now in a new guise – is now reaping the fruit, a fresh wave of left-of-center politicians that has mediocre columnists so perturbed.
Until Diehl starts calling for death squads and overthrows and billions in aid to the armed forces of the ancien regime, he will not come close to being “Kissingeresque.”
You are correct on many fronts, MB,but you have omitted the fact that the American Economic Model that was promoted by the University of Chicago and Harvard cultists lies in tatters today mainly becuase the purpose of these programs was to saddle the Latin countries with unsustainable debt, which wrecked the economy of a prosperous country like Argentina. Today, the NYT carries an article on how Nestor Kirchner full of pride settled the debt with the IMF and his popularity in Argentina exceeds 75%.As a Peronist, he now feels free to associate with Chavez, Morales, Lopez-Obrador and Lula.
The days when a word from the US President would be enough to bring about regime change, as in Allende’s Chile are long past.And you know what? I think the Latin Americans are finally going to have True Democracy and Economic Prosperity,after all.
Events outside the US, be it Canada, Mexico, Central or South America happen and the US Admin is surprised. No one with any experience in these areas is. Our own part of the hemisphere and we know nothing. Truly Disgraceful
The underlying causes are similar: poverty. Grinding poverty where the average annual pay for a farmer is under $1000. You read correctly. Between the oligarchies and US based corporations, people are left out in the heat of poverty. What should we be doing? Supporting organizations like http://www.sustainableharvest.org
(disclaimer: I work there but it is exactly what we need to do)
That will be the day I go back home. Armed to my teeth!!And, just like me there will be millions of us abroad that will return.
We have learned our lesson. And now, as opposed to the past, most of the pofulation is armed.
Interesting enough, Olie NOrth was in
Argemtoma amd Uruguay arround January 12th 2004, and at that time COINCIDENTLY bombs did go off in Buenos Aires. Also North is related to a security company, Trident (which I believe it was one of the subcontracting companies in Iraq
On the margin, one thing that really pisses me of is that when eveyone speaks of the Condor, no one includes the US. Specially when we consider that both Orlando Bosch and Luis Posdas Carriles (paid by the CIA) bragged about blowing up Ronnie Mofitt (a US citizen here in the US
If they have the Condor then we have the Phenix
Sorry but I am in a rush to walk my puppie. Be back soon
Booman: thatnks for this diary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You mean like whatever it is they call the sucessor to the School of the America’s these days?
Operation Condor was a counter-insurgency program predicated on police state power and has analogies today in Iraq & Haiti.
What I fear is the rise of violent, US backed destabilization programs throughout the region. While there aren’t too many US troops stationed in Latin American bases, they’re alrady packed with private contractors, many of them veterans of the contra war in Nicarauga. Those ‘Freedom Fighters’ are likely to provide the model for what lies ahead, as recently seen in Haiti where an ‘opposition’ was armed in the Domincan Republic before being let loose to terrorize Haitians.
What a lovely base in the tri-border area! I see there are more joint anti-drug training exercises scheduled with the one country to grant immunity to US military personnel, Paraguay. Plan Columbia is the other model to keep in mind here.
And then there’s the Rev. Moon’s extensive holdings in the region . . .
Operation Condor had nothing to do with insurgency. It was a plan to exterminate members of the oposition and political leaders. That is why it is so hated there. Out of 30.000 murdered in Argentina only 300 (yes ONLY 300) were members of armed organizations. The reset were ordinary people that did not agree with the militar
I know, those numbers are shocking.And we will not let it happen again.
point well taken, using the right vocabulary is important
Pressed the wrong “Post a Comment” This reply was for you
A few things that are not accounted for:
Is that a few countries like Colombia, Mexico and Bolivia are awash in Narco-traffickers money. And that money is the source of para–military units that operate in those countries and instability.
A lack of respect for our southern nieghbors is obvious. When Mexico failed to vote yes, at the UN, for a war in Iraq things got frosty in D.F. and D.C. And things that President Fox wanted, like an amensty for those long-term Mexicanos living in the U.S., and make our economy work–got tied to things like opening up PeMex to foreign investment. I don’t recall us asking the same of Canada, when the voted against the war in Iraq.
But in the end can you really trust anyone who follows the Castro line of thinking as if my history is right Castro abandonded Che Guevara and let him die, by not answering his call assistance.
Diehl’s idiotic column is a rant, not an analysis. His perspective is so shallow and overly simplistic that it barely qualifies as opinion. To me, he simply seems to be trying to instill fear by exploiting emotion; demonizing any and all new leaders in the hemisphere and trying to get people to see them as real boogeymen.
Diehl is actually full of shit on all counts. Certainly he’s no Kissinger, (a truly diabolical shitbird who should be n prison along with Negroponte and numerous others for crimes against humanity in the “70s and’80s in Central and South America.
None of the previously participating nations in “Operation condor”, with the possible exception of Paraguay, are likely to become engaged in such a criminal enterprise now. And too, let’s not forget that many countries in south America have very strong new economic ties with Asia. The US, thanks to the greed of organizations like Bank of Boston and others, and thanks to decades of exploitative foreign policy, is finally going to experience some of the karma that’s long overdue.
SOA stand for School Of Assasins.
[blockquote]The Washington Post, which is broadly considered to be a left-leaning paper, and which would likely applaud left-wing electoral gains in Europe, has no patience for a leftward shift in Latin America.[/blockquote]
Why are you suprised. Latin Americans are brown. They don’t have a right to govern themselves. The Washington Post Centrists are the same ones willing to buy into the deserving and undeserving poor ethic that justified the bankruptcy bill and the atrocious welfare deforms that included no provisions for daycare, or getting an education. This is also the same crowd the demonized the NY Transit workers.