Latin America’s Right Presents its True Credentials
Elio Delgado Legon
HAVANA TIMES — Every time we forget history, history makes us pay dearly for this. We should recall how, in Nicaragua, a dirty war was waged on the Sandinista revolution, forcing the people to vote for the neoliberal right, as the way to end a war that was destroying the country.
A total of 17 years of neoliberal governments were needed to make the people understand that the sole way forward was the Sandinista National Liberation Front, which had become a left-wing political party. It was a bitter lesson that ought not be forgotten.
In Argentina, it would seem an important part of the people have forgotten the disaster they were subjected to under allegedly democratic governments following the military dictatorship.
Only after the arrival of Nestor Kirchner and later Cristina Fernandez were Argentineans able to breathe, relieved, and to begin to emerge from the night of neoliberalism.
But the right does not rest and, with the support of the mass media and a lot of money, they managed to confuse part of the electorate, promising a change for the better.
Esa parte del electorado se olvidó de la historia. No tuvo en cuenta que los políticos de la derecha son los mismos que apoyaron a las dictaduras militares y a los gobiernos neoliberales posteriores. Son incondicionales del imperialismo, de las “relaciones carnales” con el gobierno de Estados Unidos, como proclamaba Carlos Menem, que llevó al país a la bancarrota.
That part of the electorate has forgotten history. It forgot that these right-wing politicians are the same ones who supported the country’s military dictatorships and subsequent neoliberal governments. They are unconditional allies of imperialism, with “carnal relations” with the government of the United States, as Carlos Menem proclaimed and which led the country into bankruptcy.
Having forgotten recent history led them to elect Mauricio Macri as president. No sooner had he taken office than he presented his neoliberal credentials and, instead of taking measures to create new jobs, began to put thousands of State employees out on the street, a measure that, according to his collaborators, could lead to as many as 60,000 layoffs. When workers staged a peaceful protest to demand respect for their rights, they were violently repressed by the police, in the style of the military dictatorships.
Perhaps Argentineans need to live under the boot of neoliberalism a few more years to remember history and again vote for left-wing candidates, the ones who are on the side of working people, always.
Another evident case of forgetfulness is that of Venezuelans, who have been suffering the consequences of an economic war waged by the right and have just voted, in their majority, for the very parliamentary representatives who have caused product shortages and carried out the acts of contraband that have brought suffering to the people.
Once the new, chiefly right-wing legislative assembly was sworn in, chairman Henry Ramos Allup, who has a dark past of service to neoliberalism and coup d’etats, revealed his credentials by ordering the removal of Simon Bolivar’s and Hugo Chavez’ portraits from Parliament. With derisive gestures, shown by Telesur TV, he personally oversaw this unpatriotic act.
The new parliament, led by a neoliberal majority, threatens to repeal laws passed by Chavez’ government that benefit the people.
The Venezuelan people will have the opportunity to assess who are protecting their interests and who the real enemies are.
I could not have said it better.
I think its appropriate to re-post a prior comment I made to you a few weeks ago that dovetails very nicely here. Although you hate to hear this, capitalism has done more to raise people out of poverty than anything else in human history. Wherever Capitalism takes root living standards rise. As an article in the National Review from 2013 says; “One can simply look at the difference between countries that embrace free-market capitalism, to varying degrees, and those with rigid state-controlled economies. Recall the classic comparisons between East and West Germany before the Wall fell, or now, between North and South Korea.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/…
Here are some other thoughts on the subject by some folks who know a thing or two
http://www.economist.com/news/…
Even Bono agrees that capitalism takes people out of poverty “Aid is just a stopgap,” he said. “Commerce [and] entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid”
http://blog.independent.org/20….
…So John, As always your analysis, if you can cal it that, is completely wrong.
Your unqualified support for U.S. capitalism-enforcing imperialism is support for a totalitarian system that starves to death millions and immiserates billions.
Capitalism does not work in developing countries but you support it with your words. You are complicit in those deaths, that immiseration of a world in which the richest 85 billionaires UNDER CAPITALISM own more than the lower 3.5 BILLION people on the planet and this inequity is what causes those deaths.
You can teach a man to fish but if there are no fish to be caught for half the world, you’re talking bullshit.
As for your saying that the factual accuracy of “Killing Hope” is somehow in doubt is belied by the books extensive bibliography and the truth of history .
You make the claim that the book is not accurate because you must.to maintain the nonsense and historical garbage that you do in the face of the tons of facts in the book and that no one has submitted a valid negative review to Amazon .
Only you.
And no, I do not believe you even read the introduction much less the book in its entirety.
And of course you are swayed by the herd in that your beliefs mesh very well with the sort of stuff found in the corporate and crazy-right media you rely upon for your information. I’ve studied that corporate media for 40 plus years and you echo it in its revisionism and its omission of pertinent facts.
So I will now recommend Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s seminal work on the workings of the U.S. corporate media r
Sometimes helping the poor is giving them fish. Sometimes it means teaching them to fish for themselves. You seem to interpret my political views as uncaring. That’s ironic since you have no skin in the game while I have family that I love suffering under the tyranny of Castro socialism. The fish I provide for my Cuban family and friends is largely private and meant to be so. The efforts that I expend to teach Cuba to fish for themselves is public as in my comments here at Havana Times. I can do both. You DO NOT know what truths I can and cannot accept. As I have stated before, you only know what I have written. I have read “Killing Hope”. I do not agree with the author’s claim that certain unproven and undocumented statements are indeed FACTS. Therefore his conclusions, based upon his specious facts are likewise up for debate. Your final comment that because there are “so many intelligent people and so many historical facts” is simply not true. Besides, I have never been swayed by the herd.
“The devil can cite scripture” to make his case .
The falseness and immorality of Christianity and its followers is best demonstrated by quoting the Bible to point out how one like you can claim to be a Christian yet act in a manner that is antithetical to Christ’s quite clear call to help the poor above and beyond all things.
Again , go watch ” Christianity is false and immoral ”
at You-Tube and just try to argue against Hitchens’ facts and logic.
As it is with your socio-political views , it is necessary for you to ignore fact
to sustain your beliefs .
I know that you will not and cannot accept the truths in “Killing Hope” . That is why you have to say you disagree with them.
The fact is that the facts in “Killing Hope” are disagreeable to you because they are unquestionably accurate.
Again, go to Amazon and read the endless 4+ and 5 star reviews of “Killing Hope” and then ask yourself “how can I (Moses) be in disagreement with so many intelligent people and so many historical facts ?”
Even the late Gus Hall would be embarrassed!
Cuba was on the list of countries where MILK was all but unavailable, and toilet paper a luxury.
I have no fear of information, however poorly compiled and/or interpreted. You seem to misunderstand the reality that while I can read books like your often-promoted “Killing Hope”, I do not have to agree with them. Put another way, you have commented many times using biblical quotes. One can assume, at least in fits and spurts, that you browsed the Bible. Yet you continue to claim to be an atheist. You read the book but you are not a believer. Ipso facto.
Please read my response to Dan. I can “cope” just fine.
Do you think about what you are writing? NOT being on a list of the top 10 countries with murdered or imprisoned human rights workers is worth bragging about? Are your standards that low? The Castros do not count “human rights” workers who have been detained, imprisoned let alone murdered as human rights workers. They relabel them as common criminals. Likewise, the Castros don’t allow independent accounting of police actions. Reports which come out of Cuba are unofficial and generally UNDERSTATED.
Ben, your comment is the same commie broken record we have been hearing for nearly 100 years.
And neither have the people of Venezuela been subjected to a 54-year long embargo by the United States.
You also seem to always conveniently forget the great number of democratic elections, social movements and human rights movements crushed by the government of the USA in Latin America just since the end of WWII.
Many of these are covered in the book and at the “Killing Hope” website .
I know you can’t read this book but do go to Amazon and just read the huge number of independent reviews of this book which I call the best book on the nature of U.S. foreign interventions for beginners and experts alike.
Really, it’s a pity you and others of your ilk (the disinformed ) cannot read this one book.
But I do understand your fear .
A well written article, Elio. Neoliberalism [ ie The Capitalist System at present ] is in crisis as we speak] The Venezuelan situation is a good example of the class struggle between the haves and the have nots. The have nots, in their desperate situation , will historically often fall victim to the promises of the Bourgeois of Milk and Honey and better days ahead if you vote for me. Also of threats by the Rightists if the people don’t co-operate. To prevent this, Revolutionary Leadership of the Proletariat is essential. Another Chavez will eventually come forward. The have nots in the United States are currently being seduced and falling victim to “Vote for me and I’ll Make America Great Again ” Milk and Honey is in your hands. Or as they used to say during the Thirties, “A Chicken In Every Pot”.
You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool all of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba will never allow the people of Cuba to be fooled.
Good post. Unfortunately Griffin and Moses can’t cope with facts such as these.
Just this weekend I was amazed to see in the mainstream press, an NGO’s tally of murdered or imprisoned human rights workers since January 1, 2016. Topping this list with 57 individuals murdered or imprisoned was neo-liberal, election – holding, US vassal state Colombia. Obviously, no mention was made in the article about the closeness of US-Colombia relations. Cuba did not even appear on the list, but I don’t recall. It may have just included the top 10 offenders – Philippines, Saudi Arabia , ect.
Its called Democracy… Leftard bad losers never could face reality.
Elio’s last paragraph says it all. For 58 years, the Cuban people have not had the same opportunity now being afforded the Venezuelan people.