Mexico's Most Toxic Presidential Race Ever

All Against Lopez Obrador










By JOHN ROSS

Counterpunch

April 6, 2006

Mexico City.

Splattered as it is with libelous calumnies, dark threats, smarmy insinuation, and stridently accusatory television spots, the run-up to the July 2 elections here constitutes the most toxic presidential race of the five this reporter has covered during decades on the ground in Mexico.

Indeed, both the campaigns of once-upon-a-time ruling PRI party candidate Roberto Madrazo and the right-wing PAN's Felipe Calderon boil down to one theme: everything and anything against frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the former mayor of Mexico City and the standard bearer for the pseudo-leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) who has led the pack by as much as 18 points ever since 2003 mid-term elections. AMLO's lead has held steady around eight for months...

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Bashing Hugo Chavez at the New York Times

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez walks past a flame at national cemetery in Caracas March 12, 2006. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Provocative Humanitarianism?

By DAVE LINDORFF

Counterpunch

April 4, 2006

What do you call a nation that provides medical aid to desperately poor people in Mexico, heating assistance to low-income families in the U.S., crucial project financing to some of the poorest countries in Africa, and aid to impoverished Caribbean island nations?

If you're the New York Times, you call it "provocative," and you call the leader of that country "the next Fidel Castro."

Venezuela, under President Hugo Chavez, has been turning its increasingly valuable oil reserves into an engine for development, not just in Venezuela, where the revenues are being used to finance schools, housing and job creation for the nation's long-suffering and long-ignored poor, but also across Latin America, in the process creating a new model for Latin America-one which challenges the imperial domination of the United States...

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The Resurrection of Lula

By Raúl Zibechi

Upside Down World

Tuesday, 04 April 2006

According to polls, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has emerged unscathed from the political crisis of corruption his government suffered in 2005. With his popularity on the rise, it is likely he will be reelected for another four years in October.

Nevertheless, there are indications that important changes have taken place that will limit his possibilities. The polls released in January leave no room for doubt: Lula has recovered a good portion of the popularity he lost in 2005 and is in good condition for a victory in the upcoming election in October, or at the latest, November when the count is finalized. According to all projections, Lula will defeat Geraldo Alckmin, governor of the state of Sao Paulo, who is running on the opposing Social Democratic Party (PSDB for its Portuguese initials) ticket.

The nature of Lula's social support has been changing over the past three years and three months of his tenure in office. The traditional foundations of support on which the Workers Party (PT) rested came from industrial laborers and a certain sector of the urban middle class with university education. Today, however, the profile has changed, to the point where the sole explanation for Lula's rise lies in the assistance program "Bolsa Familia," (family welfare) created in October of 2003. A poll by Datafolha during February shows that Lula holds 48% of the projected vote whereas his closest competitor, the mayor of the city of Sao Paulo, Jose Serra, holds 43%. But among those participating in the assistance program, Lula's figure approaches 58%. In contrast, among those who do not participate in the program and do not know any participants, Lula gets only 41% of the vote in contrast with Serra's 47%. The differences with Alckmin are even more pronounced...

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Political Upheaval: Latin America challenges the Washington Consensus

Clockwise from top left: Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, Bolivian president Evo Morales, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador

By Nadia Martinez

In These Times

April 5, 2006

The presidential palaces of Latin America are famous for their imposing Spanish colonial grandeur. Not long ago these marble edifices on grand plazas were inhabited mostly by military strongmen. That these leaders were elites of European descent went virtually without question.

Today, Chile’s presidential palace, La Moneda, is the home of a single mother and torture survivor. In Buenos Aires’ famous Casa Rosada lives a man who is perhaps the biggest thorn in the side of the International Monetary Fund. In Bolivia it is an indigenous coca farmer, in Brazil a metalworker and in Uruguay a former leader of left social movements who call these palaces home.

In election after election, Latin Americans are choosing leaders who promise a shift from traditional elite-driven politics to more participatory and active democracies that focus on fulfilling the needs of the poor. With nearly a dozen national elections coming up this year, including especially significant ones in Mexico and Brazil, this is an important time to assess how far the new leaders of Latin American politics, diverse as they may be, are likely to go in achieving real change. And at a time of virtually one-party rule in the United States, the prospects for real democracy in Latin America offer an intriguing model for the rest of the world...

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MEDIA ALERT: Britain's Channel 4 Smears Chávez

Media Lens

April 5, 2006

On March 27, Channel 4 News included a report by Washington Correspondent Jonathan Rugman: 'Hugo to go?' (http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=2046)

Rugman relentlessly smeared Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, in a piece described by John Pilger as "one of the worst, most distorted pieces of journalism I have ever seen". (Email to Channel 4 News, copied to Media Lens, March 27, 2006)...

(click here to view entire report)

Chávez: Copters to deter invaders

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reviews one of three M1-17 Russian-made military helicopters which recently arrived in Venezuela at an army base in San Felipe in the state of Yaracuy, around 300 Km (187miles) west of Caracas, April 3, 2006. These helicopters are the first three in a broader arms deal between the Russia and Venezuela, which included more than 30 helicopters, authorities said. REUTERS/Miraflores Palace/Handout

Venezuela has purchased three helicopters from Russia and plans to buy 30 more. President Hugo Chávez says they are intended to help discourage invasions.

BY JORGE RUEDA

Associated Press

CARACAS - Three newly bought Russian-made helicopters whirled overhead at an aerial demonstration attended by President Hugo Chávez as a top general said Venezuela plans to buy 30 more for its military.

Chávez suggested the new helicopters would help Venezuela if the U.S. were one day to mount an attack...

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Bolivia, Evo Morales and the Progressive Mandate in Latin America

By Benjamin Dangl & Mark Engler

Upside Down World

Tuesday, 04 April 2006

On January 21, on a hill outside of La Paz, a traditional ceremony marked both a major shift in Bolivian politics and a milestone for the growing New Left in Latin America. At Tiwanaku, a site of pre-Incan ruins significant to the country's indigenous populations, Evo Morales, barefoot and dressed in a red tunic, received a silver and gold staff from leaders of the Aymara people.

It was the first time in 500 years that this ritual transfer of leadership had been performed in Bolivia and it came just a day before Morales, former president of the coca-growers' union and the leader of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party, was officially inaugurated president of Bolivia.

In December Morales, who had campaigned on a platform championing indigenous rights and denouncing economic neoliberalism, won a landslide victory. He bested rivals, including Jorge Quiroga, a Washington favorite who had served as president of Bolivia from 2001 to 2002, finishing the term of past dictator Hugo Banzer. With a surprising 54 percent of the vote in a multi-party race, Morales not only secured the margin needed to avoid a run-off vote, he obtained the largest mandate ever given a president in Bolivian history.

Yet Morales's hardest work may have just begun. He takes power as the first indigenous president in a country where nearly two-thirds of the population identifies with the Aymara, Quechua, or other indigenous groups. The same fraction of the country lives in poverty and the divide between rich and poor closely follows racial lines. Morales has announced plans to nationalize the country's gas reserves, rewrite the constitution in a popular assembly, redistribute land to poor farmers, and change the rules of the U.S.-led war on drugs in Bolivia. If he helps spur on the radical change that his social movement base demands, he will face pressure from corporate investors and from the White House. If he chooses a more moderate path, Bolivia's social movements have pledged to organize the same type of strikes and protests that have ousted two previous presidents in the past two years...

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EDUCATION: Women Key to Literacy in the Home

A Bolivian child watches Bolivian indigenous women take part in a literacy class in San Roque, a community on the fringes of the Bolivian city of El Alto, in this picture taken March 17, 2006. President Evo Morales on March 20, 2006 launched a national programme, based on Cuban techniques, which aims to wipe out illiteracy in the impoverished country in 2 and 1/2 years. REUTERS/David Mercado

By Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Apr 4 (IPS) - "A literate woman makes a literate family," says Cuban teacher Leonela Relys, who created a successful method for teaching reading and writing, which can be adapted to different languages and cultures.

"This literacy programme can be contextualised in countries as different and far apart as Bolivia, East Timor and New Zealand, because it's based on universal principles that any human being can understand," Relys said in an interview with IPS. Relys is the creator of the "Yes I can!" programme to teach basic literacy skills, which has been implemented, is currently being applied or is being used in pilot projects in 18 countries in Latin America and other regions with high illiteracy rates, according to Cuban officials...

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Venezuela Foreign Minister Sees Possible U.S. Attack

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer

April 4, 2006

HAVANA - Venezuela's foreign minister said Tuesday that there is a risk that the United States could launch a military attack on his country, but it hasn't done so because conditions weren't right.

Ali Rodriguez, who is in Cuba for treatment of a knee problem, said U.S. involvement in Iraq and other problems in the Mideast have prevented an American strike on Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez's government controls vast oil reserves...

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Venezuela Offers Mexican Indians Eye Care

Pastora Chable Kaan, 50, explains the problems with her eyesight while talking to the Associated Press in the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the Yucatan penninsula, Mexico on April 1, 2006. Kaan is part of the 90 indigenous Mayan indians that will travel April 6th to Venezuela to undergo eye operations, courtesy of Hugo Chavez's government, in a program called 'Mision Milagro' or 'Miracle Mission' which offers free eye operations to poor people in Latin America.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO, Associated Press Writer

Tue Apr 4, 4:33 PM ET

FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO, Mexico - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is helping Luis Xool, a Mayan Indian who speaks only a few words of Spanish, recover something he lost 24 months ago: his sight...

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Eight-in-Ten Bolivians Approve of Morales

April 4, 2006

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Support for Evo Morales remains high in Bolivia, according to a poll by Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 80 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, up one point in a month...

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Mexico's Lopez Obrador: Banks, business leaders a "mafia"

Mon Apr 3, 2006 2:32 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The leftist front runner to become Mexico's next president said its top business leaders and bankers make up an elite "mafia" that has cozied up to government to win favors at the expense of the masses.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador delivered the scathing attack during his morning television show on Monday and in a weekend campaign swing among peasants in the Gulf state of Veracruz, in a departure from his earlier conciliatory attitude toward big business.

"We face a mafia, a gang, people who have dedicated themselves to taking advantage of the government and putting it at the service of a minority ruining the country," he said on Monday...

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Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia

A Venezuelan oil refinery is seen in an undated file photo. Seventeen oil companies operating in Venezuela on Friday signed accords in the presence of President Hugo Chavez agreeing to convert operating service agreements to state majority joint ventures. (Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Greg Palast Reporting for BBC Newsnight TV

Monday, April 3, 2006

In an exclusive interview with GREG PALAST, Hugo Chávez declares a new oil order.

Venezuela officially demands OPEC recognize his nation's reserves as largest.

Tonight, BBC Newsnight will kick off its Latin America Week Special with Palast's exclusive report from Venezuela.

You can watch the BBC Newsnight Report live at 5.30 pm EST at Newsnight's website. (The report will remain viewable for 24 hours).

Read below about BBC Newsnight's revelations.

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NO MORE CHEAP OIL SAYS CHAVEZ

By Meirion Jones

Producer, BBC Newsnight

Monday April 3, 2006

If you thought high oil prices were just a blip think again. In an exclusive interview with Greg Palast for BBC Newsnight the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has ruled out any return to the era of cheap oil.

The colourful Venezuelan leader hosts the OPEC meeting on June 1 in Caracas and he will ask OPEC to set $50 a barrel - the average price last year - as the long term level. During the 1990s the price of oil had hovered around the $20 mark falling as low as $10 a barrel in early 1999.

Chavez told Newsnight "we're trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That's a fair price it's not a high price". Hugo Chavez will have added clout at this OPEC meeting.

US Department of Energy analyses seen by Newsnight show that at $50 a barrel Venezuela - not Saudi Arabia - will have the biggest oil reserves in OPEC. Venezuela has vast deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco. Traditionally these have not been counted because at $20 a barrel they were too expensive to exploit - but at $50 a barrel melting them into liquid petroleum becomes extremely profitable...

(click here to view entire report)

Protests Mar Start of Brazil Forum

People protest against the Inter-American Development Bank as police guard the streets in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Monday, April 3, 2006. Demonstrators opposed to the lending practices of Latin America's biggest development bank clashed with police in protests that marred the start of the bank's annual meeting. (AP Photo/Alex de Jesus/O Tempo)

By ALAN CLENDENNING, AP Business Writer

April 3, 2006

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil - Demonstrators opposed to the lending practices of Latin America's biggest development bank clashed with police Monday in protests that marred the start of the bank's annual meeting. As many as 40 people were hurt.

The protests erupted just as senior finance officials from 47 nations opened the event, with Bolivian President Evo Morales calling for the Inter-American Development Bank to forgive his nation's $1.6 billion IDB debt as part of a relief package that would also help Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua...

(click here to view entire report)

Venezuelans Train for Militias

A Venezuelan army officer teaches territorial guards how to point a FAL 7.62-mm assault rifle during a military training session at a rural military base in Charallave just outside of Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, April 1, 2006. Women, students, and regular workers are among thousands of Venezuelans in training over the next three months to become part of a new civilian militia as President Hugo Chavez prepares for a 'war of resistance.' (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, Associated Press Writer

Mon Apr 3, 4:21 AM ET

CHARALLAVE, Venezuela - The women, some trembling, grasp the assault rifles and awkwardly lower themselves into sniper positions as they take aim and fire at white targets in the distance. Dressed in jeans and sneakers, the women are the unlikely heart of a new civilian militia being trained as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warns his country must be ready for a "war of resistance" against the United States...

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What Salvadoran bloggers are saying -- echoes of the past

Tim's El Salvador Blog

April 1, 2006

The past two weeks have seen much discussion in the Salvadoran blogosphere about crimes committed during the civil war in El Salvador which continue to have considerable impact on the society. In particular, bloggers explored considerations of impunity and historical memory arising from the assassination of Oscar Romero and disappearances of children during the war...

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Peru's Humala pledges to make mining companies pay royalty tax

Peru's presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, dressed like an Inca, greets supporters upon his arrival in Cuzco April 1, 2006. REUTERS/Mariana Bazo

Mar 31, 2006

LIMA (MarketWatch) -- Nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala said Friday that any government he leads will review contracts with mining companies to ensure they are paying their taxes.

Recent surveys show Humala is in the lead ahead of the April 9 general elections, riding the wave of an anti-establishment message that has strong support among many of Peru's extremely poor in rural areas, where many mining projects are located.

"We are talking about reviewing contracts with transnational mining and other companies that are not paying income tax, royalties or are damaging the environment," he told foreign journalists Friday...

(click here to view entire report)

Review of Uruguayan Film "Whisky"

By Louis Proyect

Unrepentant Marxist

April 2, 2006

"Whisky" is a most unconventional Uruguayan film that played in art houses two years ago. Using minimalist techniques associated with the U.S. filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and Finland's Aki Kaurismaki, it tells the story of Jacobo Koller (Andrés Pazos), a sixty year old Jewish man who runs a tiny ramshackle stocking factory in Montevideo with three female employees. Two operate the ancient machines. The other is his faithful assistant Marta (Mirella Pascual), who is nearly as old as Jacobo and attends to his every need...

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US launches major military exercises in the Caribbean as a warning to Venezuela and Cuba

U.S. Southern Command General John Craddock

By Jorge Martin; Hands Off Venezuela; April 01, 2006

According to a press release by the US Southern Command on Monday, March 27: "A U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group will deploy from the U.S. east coast to the Caribbean Sea to conduct Operation Partnership of the Americas from early April through late May 2006." The strike group will be composed of "aircraft carrier USS George Washington with embarked air wing, Cruiser USS Monterey, Destroyer USS Stout, and Frigate USS Underwood". This means that the US Navy will be sending 4 ships, one of them carrying 60 fighter planes, and a total of 6,500 soldiers on a major military exercise in the Caribbean starting in the next few weeks. (see: U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group to make Caribbean deployment)

The stated aims of this exercise are: "enhancing military-to-military relationships with regional partner nations, improving operational readiness, and fostering good will." By "fostering good will" what is meant is sending a strong message to Venezuela and Cuba. The commander of the US Southcom General Bantz Craddock has on many occasions attacked the Venezuelan government. The decision to send this unusually large force to the Caribbean was announced just two weeks after General Craddok spoke at a US Senate committee hearing in which he called the Venezuelan government a "destabilizing force" because of its moves in the international arena, as well as ongoing efforts to purchase weapons, particularly from China. "The purchase of military equipment has not been a transparent process. This is a destabilizing factor in a region where nations are making joint efforts to face international threats, rather than fighting each other," he stated. And he added: "We are not fully convinced that such ample and large purchases have an origin in Venezuelan national defense concerns."

(click here to view entire report)

Caracas Mayor's Office to Expropriate Buildings for Renters

Greater Caracas Mayor Juan Barreto

By: Venezuelanalysis.com

March 30, 2006

Caracas, Venezuela, March 29, 2006—The mayor of Greater Caracas, Juan Barreto, announced Monday that the city will confiscate some 400 buildings and sell them to the people currently renting apartments within them.

“All good rented buildings which were constructed between 10 and 30 years ago, or longer and of which the sum of the rental contributions has been, when totaled up, more than 5 times the value of the building, become expropriated by the Greater Caracas city government,” Barreto told Union Radio.

The Caracas mayor argued that five times the price of a building is a reasonable profit for an investor to receive. “The business of renting is legitimate, but it can’t be indefinite because eventually it becomes predatory. The buildings which have been paid for 5 times over should be put on the market for their inhabitants who find themselves perpetually renting,” he said...

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