Latin America
Related: About this forumDilma Rousseff’s suspension is an insult to democracy in Brazil
Dilma Rousseffs suspension is an insult to democracy in Brazil
Thursday 26 May 2016 13.53 EDT
We condemn the suspension of President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil. It is thoroughly wrong that a few parliamentarians trample upon the political will expressed at the ballot box by 54 million Brazilians. The new government has shown its true colours by appointing a non-representative, all-male, cabinet and launching neoliberal policies that will hurt millions of working and poorer people. The interim government has no mandate to implement policies that reverse the social programmes that took 40 million people out of poverty. We join Brazils progressive political and social movements, and groups from across global civil society including the trade union movement, in condemning this attempt to overthrow democracy in Brazil.
Richard Burgon MP (Labour)
Ruth Cadbury MP (Labour)
Jim Cunningham MP (Labour)
Andrew Gwynne MP (Labour)
Kelvin Hopkins MP (Labour)
Ian Lavery MP (Labour)
Clive Lewis MP (Labour)
Rachael Maskell MP (Labour)
Angus MacNeil MP (SNP)
Grahame Morris MP (Labour)
John Nicolson MP (SNP)
Liz Saville Roberts MP (Plaid Cymu)
Tommy Sheppard MP (SNP)
Lord Jeremy Beecham (Labour)
Lord Martin John ONeill (Labour)
Jenny Rathbone AM (Welsh Assembly, Labour)
Claudia Beamish MSP (Labour)
Neil Findlay MSP (Labour)
Iain Gray MSP (Labour)
Elaine Smith MSP (Labour)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/dilma-rousseffs-suspension-is-an-insult-to-democracy-in-brazil
eridani
(51,907 posts)In his 2010 presidential campaign, Serra went to unusual lengths to demonstrate his loyalty to Washington. He accused the Bolivian government of Evo Morales of being an accomplice to drug traffickers and attacked Lulas government for its attempts to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. He also criticized them for joining the rest of the region in refusing to recognize the post-coup Honduran government, and campaigned against Venezuela as well.
This is the kind of guy that Washington wants, very badly, in charge of Brazils foreign policy. Although corporations are obviously a big player in U.S. foreign policy, and they literally do much of the writing of commercial agreements like NAFTA and the TPP, the number one guiding principle in Washingtons foreign policy apparatus is not short-term profit but power. The biggest decision-makers, all the way up to the White House, care first and foremost about getting other countries to line up with U.S. foreign policy. They did not support the consolidation of the Honduran military coup because Honduran President Mel Zelaya raised the minimum wage, but because he headed a vulnerable left government that was part of the same broad alliance that included Brazil under the PT. These governments all supported each other, and they changed the norms of the region so that even non-left governments like Colombia under Juan Manuel Santos mostly went along with the others.
That is what Washington wants to change right now, and there is much excitement in This Town about the prospects for a new regional order, which is really the old regional order of the 20th century. It wont succeed even by their own measures of success -- any more than George W. Bush succeeded in his vision of reshaping the Middle East by invading Iraq. But they could help facilitate a lot of damage trying.