>From: "Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >En relaci�n a Bolivarismo, >el 30 Jan 00, a las 11:19, Larry Rohter del New York Times dijo: > >> >> QUITO, Ecuador, Jan. 29 -- In presidential palaces and defense >> ministries all across Latin America this week, the same question was >> being nervously asked in the wake of the military coup here that >> toppled President Jamil Mahuad: can it happen again somewhere else? > >What is really important here, however, is not what do the palaces >and ministries worry about, but the spark of hope that the masses may >be beginning to feel at hearing these news. > >The comment by "La Naci�n" quoted by our journalist of the NYT is >twice as important, particularly because this papes is by no means a >_leading_ newspaper (in this, he is wrong), but because _La Naci�n_ >is the captain's logbook of Argentinian oligarchs. Their feeling that >something is wrong with the scheme imposed after 1976 has a lot to do >with the fact that this social class is the only one with a f�r sich >consciousness in our country, and it is quite older than American >imperialism and the IMF. > >> >> "The political leadership of the continent should not be sleeping too >> heavy a sleep today," Argentina's leading newspaper, La Naci�n, warned >> in an editorial titled "The Ecuadorean Mirror." "Something is >> happening in Ecuador and in other countries of Latin America, and the >> forecast is not for an easy passage." >> >> Coming after the recent rise to power of Hugo Ch�vez in Venezuela, the >> coup here indicates that groups of military officers all over Latin >> America are coming under the spell of an old ideology that is being >> dressed up in new clothes. Mr. Ch�vez calls it "Bolivarismo," after >> the 19th-century liberator Sim�n Bol�var, and posits a system in which >> the armed forces bypass traditional political parties seen as corrupt >> and ally themselves directly with the masses. > >Where the NYT has it wrong is here: > >> >> During the cold war, in contrast, the armies of Latin America >> enthusiastically embraced the anti-Communist "doctrine of national >> security," originally developed by American policy makers, as >> justification for their repeated intervention in the political >> process. The result was right-wing military dictatorships in Central >> America and countries like Argentina, Brazil and Chile and many abuses >> of human rights. > >The Armed Forces have never been monolithic on these issues. The >dictatorships that the NYT refers to were the results of political >cleansing of these Armed Forces, many times tarnished with human >blood. The "Bolivarian" ideas are the new version of the very old >struggle within our Armed Forces between the popular and the colonial >elements. This struggle, by the way, is the expression of the >weakness of our ruling classes, of their historical cowardice, and of >the terrible fate that imperialism begins to show as our only way >forward, the military included. So that it is just a new version of >what generated Peronism, Varguism and so on. > >This is why what follows lacks any sense but that of the shameful >betrayal to their own countrypeople by current "progressive" >politicians. It is a slander to bracket the Bolivarian military with >the pro-imperialist military: > >> >> Not surprisingly, the loudest complaints about the coup here have come >> from countries that survived the cold war experience and do not want a >> repetition. "It is not tolerable that when governments face difficult >> situations or economic crises, all it should take to generate a >> situation of instability is an uprising by a group of colonels," the >> foreign minister of Chile, Juan Gabriel Vald�s, said. >> > > >It is not that > >> ...the passage of time, combined with the political squabbling and >> economic hardship that have accompanied the restoration of democratic >> rule, have softened some of the bitter memories of repressive military >> rule. "Governments haven't produced results, politically or >> economically, and people are fed up and looking for an alternative >> that is functional and coherent," said Michael Shifter, a senior >> policy analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. > >On the contrary, governments have produced results, the results that >they were expected to produce. While years ago it was the military >who produced the same results, it is civilian sepoys today who are in >the lead. The fact that military now want to produce OTHER results >has no meaning for the NYT journalist, which is quite relieving. > >As I am fond of quoting the _Mart�n Fierro_, I will just add this >verse to what follows, as if putting a title to the paragraphs below: > >El tiempo solo es tardanza de lo que est� por venir > >> >> A poll taken here just before the coup, for instance, found that the >> military in Ecuador has reached a level of popularity even higher than >> the Roman Catholic Church. >> > >And what follows is the reason why: > >> >> >> Even before last week's coup, diplomats here and in Colombia were >> acknowledging the existence of a "Chavista" faction within the >> military. Indeed, one of the colonels who was involved in the seizure >> of Congress here on Jan. 21 cited Mr. Ch�vez's pan-American ideals in >> a letter he made public after he sought political asylum in the >> Venezuelan Consulate in Guayaquil. > >So that we are having the horsemen of Bol�var crossing the Continent >again: > >> "I saw 25,000 Indians asking for their rights, and I saw military >> units supporting them," Mr. Ch�vez, who was elected to office in >> December 1998 after a prison term, said approvingly. "Who are we to >> judge the people of Ecuador?" he asked, adding that, "We cannot >> condemn people when they take to the streets." >> > > >OK, the NYT has declared war on Chavez. He is on the best track! One, >ten, a hundred Venezuelas! > > > > > >N�stor Miguel Gorojovsky >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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