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But I can't help but notice the "divide and conquer" tactics of the corporate press. Here, they praise Lula for reducing poverty in Brazil--deserved praise--but they NEVER say ANYTHING about Hugo Chavez's very dramatic reductions of poverty in Venezuela, which started before Lula was elected president of Brazil. Venezuela was recently designated "THE most equal country in Latin America" on income distribution, by the UN Economic Commission on Latin American and the Caribbean. Not. One. Word. About. It. In. The. Corporate. Press. The Chavez government has reduced poverty by HALF and extreme poverty by over 70%, and vastly expanded both access to higher education and health care, along with vast improvements in wages, workers' rights, women's rights, the rights of minority groups, civic participation, help for small business, fair taxation, equitable and orderly tax enforcement, land reform and many other needs of Venezuelans (who rate their country among the highest in the world on their individual well-being and prospects for the future--another item NEVER reported by the corporate press).
Furthermore, da Silva and Chavez are close friends and allies. Most notably, Lula has had Chavez's back on many occasions when the U.S. and the propaganda press have lied about him. Chavez, in turn, surely influenced Lula to insist that a big portion of Brazil's new oil find be committed to social justice programs, such as education and health care for the poor, as in Venezuela. These two leaders have the same goals. Their alliance is one of two pivotal, early alliances of leftist leaders in South America, which have led to the utter transformation of the political and economic landscape in South America, not only with the election of leftist leaders all over the continent but--critically important--with these leaders all pulling together to achieve common goals and to create new institutions, such as UNASUR and CELAC, which specifically and pointedly exclude the U.S., the most recent imperial bully and exploiter of Latin America.
The other important early alliance was between Chavez and former president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner--who died of a heart attack last year, and was succeeded by his leftist wife, Cristina Fernandez, who just won a big reelection victory in Argentina. When the Bush Junta sent its dictate down to South American leaders that they must "isolate Chavez," Nestor Kirchner replied, "But he's my brother!" That is the key to what has happened in South America and is increasingly happening in Central America--all these new leaders pulling together to throw off the bully to the North.
What they want to create is a "level playing field"--not only within their countries, by reducing poverty and increasing opportunity, but also between Latin American countries with south-south trade, aid and cooperation, and in multinational trade. They don't want U.S. transglobal corporations forcing their way in, taking advantage of U.S. bully power, dictating to governments, looting resources, grossly exploiting workers and showing absolutely no social responsibility--not to mention installing corrupt rightwing regimes and horrible dictators. Chavez was the PIONEER in putting U.S. transglobals in their place--and it took huge courage and vision to do so--to stare down Exxon Mobil, for instance. When Lula da Silva got elected, he immediately allied with Chavez and brought Brazil's huge economy into the leftist (majorityist) project of establishing Latin American independence, insuring that Latin American resources benefit the people who live there and building a prosperous and progressive future for all.
When the corporate press goes on like this about Lula/Brazil, they are deliberately distorting the reality that Latin American prosperity and independence is a common, region-wide project. Though it's true that Chavez and da Silva, for instance, work with different mixes of capitalism and socialism in their economic policy, and that da Silva could be said to be more "corporate friendly" (and also has stronger--and more reasonable--rightwing/corporate opposition to contend with), their goals are the same and were worked out in monthly meetings between the two after Lula got elected, and at meetings among all the new leftist leaders, as more and more got elected. It is a remarkable and historical movement toward fairness and real democracy that the U.S. and its corporate rulers/war profiteers have fought every step of the way. Their preference for Lula/Brazil is not a happy choice for them. They hate most of what he's done. They hate and wish to rob and enslave the poor. In countries where they gain hegemony--such as Colombia and Honduras--they kill the poor. They would loot all of Brazil's anti-poverty programs in a second, if they could. Their praise is extremely insincere and their purpose is "divide and conquer."
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