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Today's
Stories
April 15, 2008
David Price
Outrageous
Pre-Tour de France Ban
April 14, 2008
Carl Finamore
Airline
Deregulation Makes a Hard Landing
Michael Hudson
A
Trillion Dollar Rescue for Wall Street Gamblers
M. Shahid Alam
Hizbullah's Big Win: Has Israel Finally Met Its Match?
Patrick Cockburn
A
Cleric, a Pol and a Warrior
Paul Craig Roberts
Petraeus Sets Up Iran
Joanne Mariner
Redition to Jordan: What Happens When the Gloves Come Off?
Martha Rosenberg
Suicide and Cymbalta
Dave Lindorff
The Bitterness Thing: Is Obama Channeling Nader
P. Sainath
Hot Messages to Sex Dancer Doom Condi's New Finnish Pal
John V. Whitbeck
On Hypocrisy Over Tibet: a Personal Reflection
Website of the Day
Spying on Environmental Groups
April 12 /
13, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Olympic
Torch Toasts US Candidates
Patrick Cockburn
Warlord:
the Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
Mike Whitney
Want to Save the Economy?
David Yearsley
Film Scores and Westerns: the Stealth Cavalry of Empire
Robert Fantina
Bush's Brand of Morality
Conn Hallinan
Another Defining Moment in Iraq
Bill Hatch
In Praise of Hippies and the Counter-Culture
Ramzy Baroud
The Basra Battles
George S. Hishmeh
Back to Square One
Ron Jacobs
The New New Left in Latin America
Nikolas Kozloff
Olympic Torch in Buenos Aires
Charles Thomson
The British Prime Minister and the Tate's Tin of Shit
Alexander Billet
The Disney-fication of CBGB
Missy Beattie
Huffing and Puffing to Failure
David Michael Green
America's Jones for War
Seth Sandronsky
Education Entrepreneurs
Prairie Miller
Meeting David Wilson
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Ko Un, Ibn Salma and Greaves
Website of
the Weekend
Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights
April 11, 2008
Nikolas Kozloff
The Clintons and Their Sordid
Colombia Advocacy
Wajahat Ali
Revenge of the Ghetto Nerd: an Exclusive Interview with Junot
Diaz
Sharon Smith
Let
Them Eat Ethanol!
Yigal Bronner
/ Neve Gordon
Digging for Trouble: the Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem
Alan Farago
Eating South Florida
Dave Lindorff
On Waking Sleeping Giants: Lessons for America from China
George Wuerthner
Money for Nothing? The Problems with the Conservation Reserve
Program
Christopher
Brauchli
Prostitutes Don't Do Funerals
Website of the Day
Animals Explain the Insurance Industry: a Health Care Video
April 10, 2008
Mathieu Vernerey
Tibet
for the Tibetans!
Elizabeth Schulte
Slavery
in the Fields
David Macaray
Labor
Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake
Ashley Smith
The Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr
Peter Morici
Driving Up Debt and Dragging Down Growth
Jacob Hornberger
The Military's Distintegrating Family Life
Harold Austin
Snitch or Else: Prison Officials Threaten Gang Drop Outs
Website of the Day
Hillary: the Wal-Mart Videos
April 9, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Fading American Economy
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Congressional
Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings
C. Hand
Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera
Paul Krassner
Sex and Violins
Paul Wolf
Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years
Wajahat Ali
Alien Invasion!
Karyn Strickler
Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox
Dan La Botz
Confronting the Economic Crisis
Eric Walberg
The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop
Robin Millenthal
Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy
Website of the Day
Conservative
Nanny State
April 8, 2008
Mike Whitney
Should
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free?
Nikolas Kozloff
Bush
Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal
Greg Moses
Migrant Detention in South Texas
Joshua Frank
The Other Military Draft
John Ross
Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS
Michael Donnelly
Hillary's Western Swing
John V. Walsh
Why Obama Lost Massachusetts
Jeff Nygaard
Health, Security and Mandates
Bill Piper
Last Shot for a Bush Legacy?
Sen. Russ Feingold
Legal Representation and the Death Penalty
Website of the Day
Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later
April 7, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Irish Black Thing
Harry Browne
Irish
Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported
Uri Avnery
Tibet and Palestine
Lenni Brenner
Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy
Robert Fisk
Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free
Edwin Krales
Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role
Chris Genovali
Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests
Website of the Day
LA Artists Against War
April 5 / 6,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Did
the Elites Want MLK Dead?
Ramzy Baroud
There
are No Checkpoints in Heaven
Ralph Nader
Runaway Bailouts
David Yearsley
How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down
Saul Landau
Sex Politics in America
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Petraeus and Crocker Show
Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss
Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot
Seth Sandronsky
Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig
John Ross
La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students
in Ecuador Bombing
Robert Fantina
McCain, Republicans and Family Values
David Michael Green
Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad
Missy Beattie
McCan't
Patrick Bond
Vultures Circle Zimbabwe
Dr. Susan Block
The New American Pot Dealers
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones Meet the Press
Adam Engel
The Boobus in the Lie
Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Diamand
and St. Clair
Website of the Weekend
Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop
April 4, 2008
Dave Lindorff
The
Night I Heard King Had Been Shot
Greg Moses
Missing
King
Ron Jacobs
Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Alan Farago
Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine
Alison Weir
Funding
Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel
David Rosen
Rape as an Instrument of Total War
Robert Weissman
The Unrealized Dream
Jacob Hornberger
Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It?
Jackie Corr
Hillary and Obama Head for Butte
Carl Finamore
Taking On United Airlines
Laray Polk
We Are All Dith Pran
Susie Day
Advice for the War-Torn
Website of
the Day
Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
Joe Bageant
The Audacity of Depression
Andy Worthington
Cleared But Still Detained:
The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia
Nikolas Kozloff
Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
Rannie Amiri
The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy
David Macaray
More Labor Strife in Hollywood
Stephen Lendman
Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice
Website of
the Day
The
True Face of Da Vinci?
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
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Apri1
15, 2008
The Bishop of the
Poor, the Red Queen or the Bonsai Horseman?
Dissecting
the Politics of Paraguay's Next President
By APRIL HOWARD and
BENJAMIN DANGL
Fernando Lugo, a bearded, left-leaning
bishop is expected to win Paraguay's historic presidential election
on April 20th, upsetting a 60-year rule by the right wing Colorado
Party. While escaping the heat of the Paraguayan sun by sitting
in the shade of an orange tree, farmer union leader Tomas Zayas
explains, "If Lugo is elected, it will open a door for more
changes in the future, but that's all. We'll take what we can
get."
As much of the rest of Latin
America shifts to the left, Paraguay remains a key ally of Washington,
a human rights nightmare and example of the amorphous and survivalist
qualities of the Latin American right. In the April 20th presidential
elections, Blanca Ovelar and Lino Oviedo, two representatives
of Paraguay's old right will come head to head with Fernando
Lugo, a new face, and possibly a new beginning for the Paraguayan
left.
Former Education Minister Blanca
Ovelar, is carrying the torch of the 60-year rule of the Colorado,
or Red Party, and General Lino Oviedo- nicknamed the "Bonsai
horseman" for his short stature - is an ex-Colorado Party
member himself, and until recently was serving prison time for
an attempted coup. Alternately called "the Bishop of the
Poor" by his supporters, and "the Red Bishop"
by his right-wing opponents, Lugo is leading in the polls, and
may do the same in the elections - if he can out maneuver the
gargantuan resources and corrupt politics of his opponents.
Lugo: The
Bishop of the Poor
Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez
was born in 1951. As a young man, he taught in a rural school
district which, according to reporter Andrew Nickson at Open
Democracy, "was so remote that he was able to escape the
usual rule that teachers had to be members of the Colorado Party."[1]
In 1977, Lugo was ordained as a Catholic priest, and worked as
a missionary in indigenous communities in Ecuador until 1982.
He then spent 10 years studying at the Vatican, at which time
he was appointed head of the Divine Word order in Paraguay. In
1994 he became the Bishop of the Paraguayan department of San
Pedro. Though Lugo was frequently away from Paraguay, he did
not avoid the repercussions of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship
and its conservative influence. In fact, three of Lugo's brothers
were exiled and the conservative Catholic hierarchy pressured
him to resign as bishop due to his support for landless families'
settlements on large estates owned by absent elites.
However, Lugo's resignation
as bishop also allowed him to realize his ambitions as a presidential
contender. On December 25, 2006, Lugo announced he would run
for president in the 2008 contest. As a candidate, he is riding
the waves of  discontent of a population that's tired
of Paraguayan business as usual. After leading a march and rally
in early 2006 protesting the civil rights abuses committed by
president Duarte Frutos, his popularity rose.
At first, Lugo's candidacy
was impeded by the fact that the Vatican did not accept his resignation,
which allowed Colorado party members to claim that his candidacy
would be unconstitutional, as clergy members can't hold political
office in Paraguay. However, a legal team soon established that
this was not the case, and he has become "a disturbingly
credible threat to the Colorados."[2]
On September 17, 2007 Lugo
created a seven party opposition coalition called the Patriotic
Alliance for Change (APC), and on October 31, 2007, he registered
himself as a presidential candidate of the Christian Democrat
Party (PDC) to participate in the primaries of the opposition
group which is a part of the APC.[3] Senator Juan Ramirez Montalbetti,
a Lugo supporter, has said that the election day of April 20,
2008 will be approached as "a day of war" to protect
votes in the face the maneuvers in which "officialist"
Colorados are experts.[4]
The Paraguayan
Right
The current political landscape
of the Paraguayan right is shaped significantly by the 35-year
dictatorial rule of General Alfredo Stroessner, a mustachioed
man described by Graham Greene as looking like "the amiable
well-fed host of a Bavarian bierstube," who maintained power
through a mixture of brutal repression, corruption and cronyism.
After 61 years, the Colorado Party, which Stroessner was a part
of, has had the longest continuous run in power of any political
party in the world.[5]
Stroessner's reign dominated
the second half of the last century in Paraguay, and casts a
dark shadow into this one. Originally elected in 1954 to fill
a vacancy, Stroessner was "re-elected" seven times
through a state-of-siege law in the constitution and with the
aid of the military and the Colorado Party. The Colorado Party
had already ruled Paraguay from 1947 until 1962, as a one-Party
state in which all other political parties were illegal.[6] It
also served in tandem as one of the "twin pillars"
supporting the Stroessner regime (the other pillar being the
military).[7] Stroessner collaborated with Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet and the military junta in Argentina to orchestrate a
regional crackdown on political opponents through a mixture of
kidnapping, torture and murder. In 1989, the transition to democracy
pushed the hard-line Stronistas out of power. Though a new constitution
created in 1992 established a democracy and new legal protections
of rights, the Colorado Party has continued its rule over Paraguay.
The Colorado Party's vast system
of clientelism--offering public jobs to people to gain political
support--is entirely reliant on state programs and public services.
It is effective because of the country's high unemployment rate:
one of citizens' few prospects for employment is through the
Colorado Party, whether in such positions as a road construction
worker, teacher or mayor. Though many citizens view the Party
as corrupt and ineffective, supporting it often means receiving
a salary. The Colorado Party employs some 200,000 people, 95%
of whom are members of the Party.[8]
Yet another Colorado Party
Candidate, Nicanor Duarte Frutos was elected president in 2003.
The current leader of the Colorado Party is president Nicanor
Duarte Frutos, who joined the Colorado Party when he was just
14.[9] Duarte, a fiery, gravel-voiced public speaker who styled
himself a populist, grassroots politician, campaigned in 2003
on promises to fight crime and corruption and to create public
works jobs. However, during his presidency, rising crime and
high-profile kidnappings have drawn criticism.
In the middle of the current
"pink tide" of Latin American populist governments,
Frutos allied himself with the United States during the majority
of his presidency. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs,
Washington, with its nightmares of a communist haven replaced
by fears of terrorist funding, has lavished Paraguay with democratization
projects (read military training), which have helped keep "the
Brazilian military at bay while effectively intimidating the
armed peasant groups into submission." Renewed cooperation
has been felicitous for the security self-interests of both parties,
and promises to continue. He signed an energy agreement with
Chavez, and supports the Bank of the South, the project for economic
integration among South American nations as pushed by Chavez.[10]
Duarte has made populist gestures publicly, notably condemning
"lawless capitalism" in a UNESCO assembly.[11]
Recently, Duarte has cooled
his relations with Washington and warmed up to Caracas--if for
no other reason that, in Latin America, it's popular to do so.
The Red
Queen and the Bonsai Horseman
In the current electoral field
for the presidential election, Lugo's opposition is represented
by the massive state and social apparatus of the Colorado Party,
as well as newer, right-wing opposition parties.
Ironically, the shift in economy
from public works and government spending to the booming agricultural
export business has eroded some support for the Colorado Party.
The newly strengthened left and the emergent new right are evidence
that, according to political analyst Milda Rivola, "Economic
times have changed. . . The idea of the state as the country's
biggest employer no longer works," she said.[12] That is
exactly where the interests that form the new right come into
play.
"Bonsai horseman"
General Lino Oviedo, a former presidential hopeful is another
representative of the old right. Ironically, Oviedo originally
rose to political fame in Paraguay as an upholder of democratic
values by participating in the uprising that overthrew Stroessner.
Yet after Oviedo disobeyed a presidential order to step down
as commander of the army in April of 1996, he began to resemble
the militaristic caudillo of the past.
Oviedo, who left the Colorado
Party in 2005, was until recently, exiled for his participation
in a foiled coup in 1996. Still popular however, Oviedo continues
to be a presidential contender, and was pardoned for his coup
attempt on October 30, 2007. This brought his National Union
of Ethical Citizens Party (UNACE) back in to the fray with all
the symbolism of a martyred military hero it can muster.[13]
Supported most loyally by extremely
rich and extremely poor constituents, Oviedo has campaigned stridently
against gays and, according to Uruguayan political analyst Raul
Zibechi, "threatens to defeat his opponents with 'vote-shots,'
with the same impetus he used in 1989 to defeat dictator Alfredo
Stroessner with 'gunshots.'"[14]
Oviedo is currently running
as a lone-wolf, in contrast to the momentum of alliances that
supported Lugo as a candidate. Oviedo recently said, "I
just propose a government program consensus regardless of alliancecoalition
or whatever." Very much the victim of this earlier comment,
he promotes "a judicial guarantee of public order,"
and says that whoever wants to rule alone will be boycotted.
When asked what country model Paraguay must follow, Oviedo said
with confident ambivalence, "Neither Right nor Left nor
center, but progress. . . Neither neoliberal nor populist, communist,
nor authoritarian, but a legal and democratic government, where
neither the rich benefit off the deterioration of the poor, nor
the poor benefit off the deterioration of the rich." He
also promises a new constitution, and to restructure the state
government.[15]
New candidates have also entered
the arena. In lieu of Duarte's inability to run, Blanca Ovelar,
a former minister of education, is playing a new populist "Social
Democrat" face of the Colorado Party. Ovelar, who speaks
in a smooth professorial tone, proposes to use educational reform
to pull the country out of poverty. At a campaign rally for Colorado
Party presidential candidate Blanca Ovelar, journalist Charles
Lane met Colorado supporters wearing the signature red shirts.
One supporter said, "Our parents were Coloradoans, I was
born Colorado, and I will die Colorado." Ovelar's loyalty
to Duarte and the party have negatively affected her popularity.[16]
When asked if they were paid directly by the party, the Coloradoans
said no, but admitted to having other benefits. "I was twice
elected mayor and my wife has a job with the government,"
one responded. Elsewhere another supporter told the journalist
that the fastest route to the hospital is through the Colorado
Party.[17]
In Paraguay, women make up
49.6 percent of the population, yet only 10 percent of congressional
seats are held by women. Women were given the right to vote in
1961, but the first woman to hold the position of minister was
appointed in 1989, and only 10 percent of the cabinet is presently
made up of women, one of the smallest percentages in Latin America.[18]
While Ovelar postures herself as "the first woman president
of Paraguay, breaking with the 'machista' tradition," her
appeal doesn't seem to resonate with Paraguayan women.
Angélica Cano, of Parlamento
Mujer, a political advocacy forum for women, told IPS News that
the Colorado Party is simply using Ovelar's gender as political
capital: "When a political project has run out of male representatives
that can sustain it, it calls in a woman to legitimize a model
that is already obsolete." According to Maggy Balbuena,
of the rural womens' organization CONAMURI, Ovelar "actually
represents . . . 60 years of domination by the Colorado Party,
60 years of poverty and injustice. I think it would be very hard
for her to reverse that long history," Balbuena told IPS
News, "and I don't think she can change it all just because
she's a woman."
Former Vice President Luis
Castiglioni, on the other hand, renounced his post to run as
a closer ally to Washington and the agricultural industry, and
to push more neoliberal plans.[19] Castiglioni, who lost the
Colorado Party primary, as well as Ovelar, represent the new
right wing of the Colorado Party. According to Paraguayan sociologist
Tomas Palau, in spite of the differences between the parties
of the new right, "their goal is to continue operating with
impunity and making huge profits." A continuation of right-wing
rule in any form is likely to be disastrous for the country's
human rights, environment and over half of Paraguayans who live
under the poverty line.[20]
Meanwhile, the left's main
option in the midst of this heavily right-wing election season
is Fernando Lugo. Lugo represents a wide coalition of opposition
forces whose interests probably don't coincide past the rejection
of Colorado rule. Neither experienced nor completely radical,
Palau says Lugo is "more befuddled than a yuppie in the
middle of the jungle."
The New
Right and Current Popular Struggles in Paraguay
As the years passed since the
Stroessner era, new interests affecting electoral politics have
pushed their way into the Paraguayan landscape. According to
Palau, powerful interests in Paraguay can be summarized into
four groups:
1) The oligarchy (soy growers
and cattle ranchers who depend on paramilitaries to allow them
to expand),
2) The narco-traffickers who
pay off politicians, 3) The lumpen business class that relies
on international trade and black market goods,[21] and
4) the transnational corporations
that produce soy, cotton and sugar. The parties are simple transmitters
of those interests.[22]
In turn, these sectors create
non-governmental interest groups that can pressure conservative
sectors likely to do them favors. While non-governmental groups
don't necessarily present candidates, they are vocal proponents
of the parties they support.
On the other hand, in the past
twenty years, campesino organizations including the Mesa Co-ordinadora
Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas (MCNOC) and the Federación
Nacional Campesina (FNC) have increased demands for reform of
the corrupt party favors of the Stroessner regimes' "land
reform." As Paraguayan farmers have found themselves increasingly
confronted by Brazilian farmers buying up land for industrial
agriculture and speculation, the movement has become more radical.[23]
The fastest growing sector
of the sources of power, and the one that has been and will likely
continue to be at the forefront of national and international
political and business interests and social conflict in the coming
years is the agrofuel industry. This "gold rush" -
so-called by the chief executive of Cargill - is sweeping over
the once diverse jungles and small farms of eastern Paraguay
like a vast and toxic genetically modified tsunami.
Paraguay is the world's fourth
largest exporter of soybeans, and soy production has increased
exponentially in recent years, reaching a record 6.5m tons in
2006-2007, due to rising demand worldwide for meat and cattle
feed, as well as the booming agrofuels (also known as biodiesel)
industry. As multinational agro-producers gain more and more
stake in the production of soy, corn, wheat, sunflower and rapeseed
in Paraguay, they too look to both the old and the new right
to protect their land, production and trade interests.
Managing this gargantuan agro-industry
in Latin America are transnational seed and agro-chemical companies
including Monsanto, Pioneer, Syngenta, Dupont, Cargill, Archer
Daniels Midland (ADM) and Bunge. International financial institutions
and development banks have promoted and bankrolled the agro-export
of monoculture crops. The profits have united political and corporate
entities from Brazil, the US and Paraguay, and increased the
importance of Paraguay's cooperation with international business.
In Paraguay especially, the
expansion of the soy industry has occurred in tandem with violent
oppression of small farmers and indigenous communities who occupy
the vast land holdings of the wealthy. Most rural Paraguayans
cultivate diverse subsistence crops on small plots of ten to
twenty hectares, but do not have titles to their land or receive
assistance from the state.[24] The Colorado Party administration
has represented the soy growers in this conflict by using the
police and judicial system to punish campesino leaders. To this
effect, protests have been criminalized, and campesino leaders
have been linked to delinquency, kidnappings and a supposed guerilla
movement linked to the Colombian FARC.[25] A report compiled
by the Paraguayan-based human rights organization SERPAJ concluded
"that with public forces in its hands, the alliance of the
Public Prosecutor, and the Supreme Court as a guarantee of impunity,
has created a campaign of massive repression of the campesino
sector, in order to facilitate and guarantee the expansion of
genetically modified soy in the country."[26]
Since the 1980s, national military
and paramilitary groups connected to large agribusinesses and
landowners have evicted almost 100,000 small farmers from their
homes and fields and forced the relocation of countless indigenous
communities in favor of soy fields. More than 100 campesino leaders
have been assassinated; only one of the cases was investigated,
resulting in the conviction of the assassin. In the same period,
more than 2,000 others have faced trumped-up charges for their
objections to the industry.
The vast majority of Paraguayan
farmers, however, have been poisoned off their land either intentionally
or as a side effect of the more than 24 million liters of hazardous
pesticides dumped by soy cultivation in Paraguay every year.
When farmers saw their animals die, crops withering, families
sickening and wells contaminated, most packed up and moved to
the city.[27]
The devastation caused by agro-industries
created some of the most grave human rights violations since
Stroessner's reign. Press reports say that when crops are fumigated
"school classes are often cancelled on days of crop spraying
on the field twenty meters away because the children faint from
the smell." Since 2002, the deaths of five small children
in rural areas have been documented.[28]
A report produced by the Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights of the United Nations stated that "the expansion
of the cultivation of soy has brought with it the indiscriminate
use of toxic pesticides, provoking death and sickness in children
and adults, contamination of water, disappearance of ecosystems
and damage to the traditional nutritional resources of the communities."[29]
A social investigation carried out last year found that, in the
four departments where soy production is the highest, 78% of
families in rural communities near soy fields showed a health
problem caused by the frequent crop spraying in the soy fields,
63% of which was due to contaminated water.[30]
As opposition to the soy industry
builds among farmers and human rights groups, presidential candidates
are posturing themselves either against soy expansion or in favor
of it. Lugo's promise of land reform addresses this issue.[31]
Playing up the populist rhetoric of Colorado Party, presidential
candidate Blanca Ovelar has said that as president she will change
agro-legislation and fight against the development of a "soy
fatherland."[32] At the same time, the majority of Lugo's
base is made up of farmers who have been hurt by the industrial
soy companies.
As the election nears, the
Duarte administration has made particularly vicious attacks on
the political rights of social organizations. In February and
March of 2008, three candidates of the Patriotic Socialist Alliance
Party were arrested for visiting land occupied by campesinos,
a political leader of the Tekojoja Popular Movement was assassinated
under unclear circumstances, and the media published articles
about supposed guerrilla connections to two campesino organizations
with candidates in the upcoming elections.[33] According to a
recent article in LaSojaMata.org written by social analysts based
in Paraguay, "As the election nears, greater acts of violence
and criminalization are generated against critical sectors and
the opposition."[34]
On Wednesday, April 9, a drive
by shooting seriously injured radio commentator Alfredo Avalos,
and killed his partner, Silvana Rodríguez.[35] Avalos
is a leader in the leftist movement Tekojoja, which is part of
the coalition supporting Lugo. The attack took place in the town
Curuguaty in the Canindeyúby state which is 250km northeast
of the capital, Asunción. Journalist Dawn Paley [36] wrote
that the Paraguayan news outlet Jaku'éke [37] explained
"death threats to the Alliance Campaign are being followed
through." Lugo told Reuters [38] that this violence was
"in keeping with the fear campaign led by those who are
afraid of losing power." Paley reported that Carrillo Iramain,
an organizer in Canindeyúby, said "there are constant
telephone messages, indirect messages and direct threats happening
in these final days [before the elections]. This is an area where
fear rules." According to Reuters, this is the second politically
motivated murder of a Tekojoja organizer in two months.[39]
Lugo's Proposals
Rattle Colorado Rule
Lugo has recently promised
to implement land reform, fight corruption and the conservative
forces of the Colorado Party.[40] The presidential contender
has also pledged to renegotiate the treaty of Itaipu, the biggest
plant for hydroelectric power in the world, producing 20% of
Brazil's electricity. This renegotiation plan would secure more
of the massive financial and electric bounty of this project
for Paraguay rather than primarily benefiting Brazil. If Brazil
refuses to negotiate for better terms for Paraguay, Lugo has
promised to take the case to the International Court of Justice.
Analyst Raul Zibechi points out that though Lugo may win the
presidency, his political bloc may gain only a minority in Congress
with the Colorado Party having the majority.[41]
Lugo has also campaigned on
a platform that allies itself with the poor majority of the country.
He was quoted in Open Democracy as saying, "There are too
many differences between the small group of 500 families who
live with a first-world standard of living while the great majority
live in a poverty that borders on misery." Indeed, his alliances
with the Catholic Church may be a key to broad support as the
institution is viewed as clean of the rampant corruption in the
country.[42]
He also aligns himself closer
to leftist presidents like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales than his
opponents, and is more anti-imperialist at least in his rhetoric.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs quoted Lugo as saying, "Paraguay
is feeling the new winds growing across the region."[43]
Similarly, author Richard Gott points out that a victory for
Lugo in Paraguay, "will signal that the new mood in Latin
America is not just the creation of a competent economist in
Ecuador, a charismatic colonel in Venezuela, or a couple of union
leaders in Brazil and Bolivia, but the result of a heartfelt
and deep-rooted desire for change."[44]
On March 24, Lugo told Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color that as
president he would be against a free trade agreement with the
US: "I would rather try to keep deepening regional integration
through adhesion and work with the South Common Market (MERCOSUR)."
He also advocated for agrarian reform, saying, "Every Paraguayan
citizen has the right to be settled on his own land."
Lugo: A
Step in the Right Direction
While Fernando Lugo is the
only candidate that represents change from the Colorado regime,
for many Paraguayans he is at most a step in the right direction,
and does not represent a new face in the pantheon of leftist
leaders being elected across the continent. As a centrist, Lugo
finds himself in the perhaps uncomfortable position of being
a radical alternative to the 60 year Colorado rule. Lugo is evidence
that to be considered a "leftist" in Paraguay only
requires having political views that are "less right."
Though many see Lugo as someone
who has experience with rural social conflicts and connections
with the campesino movement, it would be a mistake to see him
(as many on the right do) as "the red bishop," a radical
heir to the liberation theology movement. In fact, when Oviedo's
popularity was on the rise last September, Lugo even said he
could work with Oviedo as a vice president, or vice versa.
Lugo has been careful to distance
himself from leaders who have used natural resources to fund
new government programs. "Paraguay," he says "
. . . cannot be like Venezuela because it has no oil. Nor can
it be like Bolivia because it has no natural gas and it can't
be like Chile because it has no copper." Pragmatic as his
assessment may be, Lugo doesn't seem to think nor desire that
Paraguay's government can be like that of these countries either.
Lugo has taken pains to maintain a friendly distance from Caracas,
and has not used anti-Washington rhetoric to stir up his supporters.
Though Lugo praised the social aspect of Chavez's government,
he criticized the "strong dose of statism, totally at the
service of one person . . . which is dangerous for a real democracy."
In terms of economic changes,
Lugo seems unlikely to cause too many ripples. In fact, in a
distinctly Paraguayan fashion, caving in to Washington's pressure
to privatize resources and public services could be in Lugo's,
and the new right's, agenda. The clientilism of the Colorado
Party relies almost entirely on the state, and is therefore in
opposition to neoliberal policies favoring corporate control
of services. Unlike other countries in the region where neoliberalism
has flourished, many Paraguayan roads, water and electricity
systems remain under state control. Right-wing proponents of
neoliberalism advocate corporate control of public services and
further deregulation of the economy. This large, cumbersome political
apparatus could be the Colorado Party's downfall, as splits within
threaten to kill the old, statist right.[45]
However, Lugo has also seen
no conflict in Chilean president Michelle Bachelet's Socialist
government signing a free-trade agreement with the United States.
During a visit to Washington on June 18, 2007 Lugo gave a speech
at George Washington University titled "Political Alternatives
to the World's Longest Ruling Party." The Council on Hemispheric
Affairs reported that "What Lugo seems to be saying is that
he wants access to the U.S. market, as well as to be a beneficiary
of Chávez's now well known generosity."
On the other hand, if Lugo
does win, there is no guarantee that he would be able to make
any changes. If he wins the April 20 election, he will not take
office until August; plenty of time for the defeated Colorados
to strategize on how to use their likely congressional majority
to their benefit. This would allow plenty of time, too, for Lugo's
aggregate political alliance of socialists, farmer and indigenous
groups, liberals and ex-Colorados to crumble into in-fighting.
Count Down
to the Election
An April 9th election poll
published in the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color, and conducted
by First Análisis y Estudios, showed that Lugo is in the
lead with 33.6% support of those polled. Oviedo came in second
with 27.4%, Blance Ovelar in third with 24.6%. Current president
Nicanor Duarte won the 2003 election with 37.1% of the votes.[46]
As Lugo leads in the polls
right now, the Colorado Party is deeply worried. If the opposition
wins, Duarte has said he believes the Coloradoans will be "chased
down as the Jews were in the time of Hitler," which is ironic
in light of the Colorado Party's alliance with the axis during
World War II. As political analyst Marcelo Lacchi puts it, "For
the first time in 20 years, the Colorados are facing the possibility
of losing and they're worried." The party is abysmally divided
between Oviedo, Ovelar and even Lugo with the election rapidly
approaching. Yet, Lacchi reminds us, similar divisions were in
place in the 1998 elections, and the results were the re-unification
of the party and a Colorado win. "There is still a large
part of Colorado voters who haven't been captivated and mobilised,"
he said.[47]
The Colorado Party has never
lost a presidential election, and once the usual tools of employment,
bribes and threats are in place, things could look very different.
However, writes Zibechi, if the Colorado Party apparatus can't
be set in motion, it's possible that this election could be different.
He points out that "the crisis within the Party, the enormous
unpopularity of Duarte, and the appearance on the scene of a
center-left candidate who can break the eternal two-party split
between the Red and the Liberal Parties" as three reasons
to expect the unexpected in this historic election.[48]
April Howard is a journalist, translator, and adjunct
lecturer of Latin American studies at the State University of
New York, Plattsburgh.
Benjamin Dangl is the author of The
Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia,
(AK Press, March 2007). Email Bendangl(at)gmail.com
Both are editors at UpsideDownWorld.org,
a website on activism and politics in Latin America.
For more information, see "New
Versus Old Right in Paraguay's Elections" by the same authors
in the January/February issue of NACLA Report on the Americas
and "Paraguay's Peculiar Politics" by Teo Ballvé,
editor of Nacla News.
Notes
[1]. Nickson, Andrew. "Paraguay:
Fernando Lugo vs the Colorado machine." Open Democracy (02-28-2008).
[2]. Schaeffer, Jenna. "Is
Paraguay Set to be the Next Latin American Country to Lean to
the Left?" Council on Hemispheric Affairs (06-29-2007).
[3]. "Lugo se postula
por la Democracia Cristiana" ABC Color.
[4]. "Opposition Opens
Space for Debate in Paraguay. |
