[Marxism] Che Rides Again

[Russell Morse <russell.morse@xxxxxxxxx>]

[ brief excerpts from a much longer item at
http://www.tomdispatch.com/indexprint.mhtml?pid=71996 ]

Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike) By Nick Miroff

Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure?

At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional
independence and self-determination. He's helped forge new trade
partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his
leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that's sweeping the
hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next.

Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? Venezuelan
fireball Hugo Chavez? Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva?
Bolivia's coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales?

¡Epa! It's George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary.

[...]

Bush has ... presided over one of the most significant political re-
alignments in the history of the Western Hemisphere. By this summer,
every major Latin American nation but Colombia is likely to be run by
elected leaders with stronger backgrounds in Marx than free markets. If
Cold War-era "domino theory" has been a bust in the Middle East, it's
working with textbook precision in Latin America.

[...]

The Bush administration has been most frazzled by the growing regional
influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whom Donald Rumsfeld
recently likened to Hitler. Chavez has his own nickname for Bush -- "Mr.
Danger" -- and he's effectively shaped the American president into his
political foil.
                
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