This video by John Pilger is called War on democracy – Countries attacked in Latin America.
Is George Bush Restarting Latin America’s ‘Dirty Wars‘? See here.
The ghost of Pinochet, by John Pilger: see here.
From Al Jazeera:
Brazil reveals military killings
The Brazilian president has called for a deadline to be set to uncover the fate of hundreds of people who disappeared during the country’s military government.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made the demand following the publication of a book detailing the repression of hundreds of dissidents now missing, presumably killed, from 1964 to 1985.
The book cites 475 cases of people who were killed or disappeared during military rule, including seven Argentines.
Silva said the murder, rape and torture of alleged subversives remained an open wound for Brazil and Brazilians had “the just and sacred right” to bury their loved ones.
The president is a former union leader who was arrested and jailed in the 1980s by military rulers for leading an illegal labour strike.
He warned Brazilians not to expect prosecution of members of the military government as they are protected by a 1979 amnesty.
He also did not promise to open the era’s secret military archives, which families of victims believe could reveal the location of the remains of 140 “disappeared” opponents of the government, according to the National Human Rights Secretariat.
Demanding answers
“[I want] to bury my son, to know what happened to him”
Elzita Santa Cruz, mother of victim
The government’s 500-page book, “The Right to Memory and the Truth,” took 11 years to prepare and was released on the 28th anniversary of the 1979 Amnesty Law, which pardoned all Brazilians – civilian and military – for alleged crimes committed under army rule.
See also here.
Brazil this week marks the 50th anniversary of the April 1, 1964, military coup that subjected Latin America’s largest country to 21 years of brutal dictatorship: here.
Disapperances during dictatorship in Argentina: here.
Prisons in Argentina: here.
From daily The Guardian in Britain:
Brazil’s attorney general has filed criminal charges against a notoriously misogynistic congressman who taunted a fellow lawmaker with the words: “I wouldn’t rape you. You’re not worth it.”
It was the second time Jair Bolsonaro, a representative from Rio de Janeiro, had used the slur in Congress, which is supposed to be the country’s highest forum for debate – but frequently descends into a source of national shame.
Bolsonaro – a rightwing apologist for the 1964-85 military dictatorship – directed his comments at representative Maria do Rosário, a former human rights minister, after she praised a report by the country’s Truth Commission on the murder, rape and torture carried out by the government of that era.
As she left the podium last Tuesday, he yelled, “Stay here, Maria do Rosário. Stay! A while ago, you called me a rapist in the Green Room and I said: ‘I won’t rape you because you’re not worth it.’ Stay here. Listen!”
He was referring to an incident in the parliamentary Green Room in 2003, when he also shoved Rosário, described her as a slut and then jeered her with the words: “Go cry!”
On that occasion, there was no punishment for Bolsonaro, but this time his insults have stirred up an international storm of public revulsion.
Related articles
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Raúl Zibechi
5-9-2007
(from: La Jornada, in Rebelion)
Brazil as a problem
In recent days, two prestigious left wing
economists coincided in pointing the finger at
the government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for
its responsibility in holding up the launch of
Bancosur (Bank of the South). In doing so they
uncovered the fact that, behind all the
declarations in favour of regional integration,
interests linked to multinationals that are
blocking the best intentions of Venezuela and
Ecuador supported by most of South America, play
an important role.
In his article “Brazil versus Bancosur” Peru’s
Oscar Ugarteche very clearly indicated that the
only thing lacking is political will since all
the technical problems are resolved and the bank
already has its statutes : “The Brazilian
government’s main resistance to the regional
architecture is that it wanted Bancosur to fund
the South American Regional Infrastructure
Initiative (IIRSA)”. Lula’s government has put
that series of infrastructure works, which are
aimed at fomenting inter-oceanic trade between
the Pacific and the Atlantic, at the centre of
its regional policy so as to place natural
resources in first world markets more cheaply and
more quickly.
Really Brazil has no need of a regional bank that
works as a development agency since it already
has its own bank, the National Social and
Economic Development Bank that has more
resources to invest in the region than the
Inter-American Development Bank and the World
Bank. For that reason, as Ugarteche points out,
Brazil dug in its heels to slow down the launch
of Bancosur, scheduled for July in Venezuela. In
the end, according to this economist, “opposing a
South American financial architecture serves the
status quo, the United States Treasury and
Washington’s weakened, discredited financial
institutions.”
The Belgian Eric Toussaint, president of the
Committee for the Annulment of Third World Debt,
argued in an interview, “Brazil does not support
the Bancosur initiative because it has no need of
it for its economically powerful projects.”
However, Lula’s government does participate
formally in the initiative, “since, if this bank
is set up, Brazil cannot be left out because it
could lose some of its dominance.” Toussaint
concludes that while the governments of Hugo
Chavez, Rafael Correa and Evo Morales want to
accelerate the setting up of Bancosur, “Brazil
tries to slow it down”.
The issue is of some importance and depends on
long term strategies rather than on personal
wills. Brazil wants to be South America’s global
power and for that it needs to secure regional
leadership. IIRSA is one of the tools, since the
principal regional beneficiary will be the Sao
Paulo bourgeoisie, in two ways : it will assure
rapid transit of traded goods north and also the
bulk of the construction companies for these
gigantic works will be Brazilian. However IIRSA
is not Lula’s creation but that of the previous
government under Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Lula
restricts himelf to continuing it and deepening
it.
So it is necessary then to understand Brazil’s
strategy. In a recent book (1), Samuel Pinheiro
Guimaraes, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry number two
explains his country’s long term objectives.,
“Brazil’s ascent to great power status should not
be thought of as utopian, but rather as a
necessary national objective. Not to realize it
would mean failure to confront the challenges
ahead and therefore accelerate entry into a
period of great instability (and eventual
internal conflict).” One of the principal
challenges is related to distribution of wealth,
since Brazil is regarded as the “world champion
of inequality”. He adds that South America “is
the key region and base for Brazil’s world
strategy.”
The diplomat’s clarity makes it possible to
understand the type of integration Brazil is
looking for. The Brazilian bourgeoisie is
operating in the same way it did at the dawn of
imperialism : so as not to be forced to
redistribute wealth, it had to expand into the
poorest regions where it could obtain
supplementary profits. Is that not what the
Brazilian elites are doing now when their
companies already dominate important parts of the
productive capacity and natural resources of
Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador and Argentina?
It is the case, as Ugarteche says, that now is
Brazil’s opportunity, when the government of
George W. Bush is weak and unable to oppose an
autonomous South American integration in the
dollar zone. It would not be the first time a
nation in this continent has played along with
the super-power. But it would be the first time
that a government describing itself as “left
wing” will have contributed to consolidating the
ties of dependency. For that reason open debate
is a priority. The region’s governments, for
elementary diplomatic reasons, cannot point the
finger at the leaders of other countries. But the
rest of us cannot and should not dissemble the
existence of two opposed and contradictory paths.
Certainly the situation of Brazil is very
difficult, above all for the movements that are
really the only left in existence. The ethanol
option taken on by Lula when he received Bush
last March is equivalent to clearing the path for
multinationals to advance on the Amazon and on
family based agriculture. For that reason it is
interesting that European intellectuals like Toni
Negri, on a tour of various countries in the
region, maintain the surprising argument that all
the progressive governments are heading in the
same direction since they all strnegthen
multilateralism. That’s true, but it presupposes
a eurocentric gaze. Right now in this continent
real multilateralism is to be reached by
promoting an integration able to challenge United
States hegemony, not reinforcing it.
notes:
translation copyleft Tortilla con Sal
Notes
1. “Desafios brasileiros na era dos gigantes”, Contraponto, 2006
LikeLike
Abuses to be investigated
Brazil: Secretary of State for Human Rights Paulo Vannuchi has revealed that prosecutors will finally begin to investigate abuses carried out during the 1964-85 military dictatorship.
Mr Vannuchi said at the weekend that President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva had authorised the creation of a National Truth Commission to investigate the arrest, torture and disappearance of more than 400 activists from peasant worker and union organisations under the regime.
President Lula has vowed to press ahead with the commission despite threats to resign from military commanders and even his own defence minister.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/87920
LikeLike
Pingback: Interview with English musician Robert Wyatt | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Paraguayan dictator Stroessner’s party loses election at last | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Right-wing murders of South American Operation Condor prosecuted in Italy | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Argentine dictatorship’s murderer Astiz convicted | Dear Kitty. Some blog
75 years ago: Right-wing Brazilian dictator foils fascist coup
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas
On March 11, 1938, the anti-communist Brazilian dictator Getulo Dornelles Vargas suppressed the country’s indigenous “Integralist” fascist movement after learning of their plans to depose and kill him and his cabinet. Most leading members of the fascist Acoa Integralista Brasileira (AIB) were quickly located and arrested. In the sweep the authorities discovered evidence of a conspiracy, including a target list and an arsenal of weapons.
The fascist paramilitary Greenshirts of the AIB movement had aided Vargas’s dictatorial rise and their growth had been encouraged by his presidency. But just prior to the discovery of plans for a coup against Vargas, the fascists had been campaigning against state measures to forcibly assimilate German, Italian and Japanese migrants into Brazilian society. When the German ambassador to Brazil requested that the cultural activities of the Nazi Party in Brazil be allowed exemption from such measures, Vargas refused the request.
The AIB was not satisfied that Vargas’s regime, which borrowed many of its policies from the Portuguese dictatorship of Salazar, was sufficiently right-wing. Integralist leader Plinio Salgado had established the Brazilian fascist movement after a visit to Italy where he met Mussolini, and subsequently both the fascist regimes in Rome and Berlin helped finance their South American surrogate.
When the Brazilian police raided Salgado’s house they discovered all manner of firearms, 3,000 daggers embossed with fascist insignia and large amounts of Brazilian currency. Holed up in the Japanese embassy, Salgado denied any knowledge of the plot and told the press there was an ideological schism within the party and his leadership had been usurped by those elements who wished to foment a fascist coup.
Vargas responded by passing a decree whereby all imports and exports to Germany would be inspected. All immigrants were forbidden from hosting any form of potentially political organization, displaying political insignia, organizing demonstrations or maintaining print publications.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/05/06/twih-m06.html#75
LikeLike
Pingback: The US Tomdispatch website on war and imperialism | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Mass demonstrations in Brazil | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Author Gabriel García Márquez dies | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Augusto Boal, Brazilian theatre director, dies | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: CIA whistle-blower Philip Agee dies | Dear Kitty. Some blog
BRAZIL: The country’s National Truth Commission delivered its final report today, documenting acts of torture, disappearances and killings committed during the 1964-85 military dictatorship.
Commission members presented the findings of the three-year investigation to President Dilma Rousseff.
It documents 434 killings and disappearances under the dictatorship.
The commission called for changing the 1979 amnesty law that still shields military personnel from possible prosecution.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e455-World-in-brief-101114#.VIjFQHuQhpk
LikeLike
Pingback: Photographer Sebastião Salgado, filmed by Wim Wenders | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Britons against coup in Brazil | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazil, after coup, back to dictatorship? | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Homophobic Brazilian politician pro-coup, pro-torture | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazilian coup regime, police brutality and corruption | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazilian coup regime and other South American governments | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Michel Temer, Brazil’s coup president | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Aquarius, Brazilian film on gentrification | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: CIA, Pentagon attacks on democracy | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: CIA torture and Britain | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Volkswagen helped Brazilian dictatorship torture workers | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Murdered Brazilian Marielle Franco, don’t forget her | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazilian military killing civilians | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazil’s far-right President Bolsonaro, musical parody | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Trump’s Bolton cozies up to Brazilian fascist Bolsonaro | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Ex-US President George H. W. Bush, his AIDS policies, his necrologies | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: ‘Volkswagen helped Brazilian dictatorship torture workers’ | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazil’s neo-fascist President Bolsonaro, by Noam Chomsky | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Donald Trump’s new attacks on Venezuela, Cuba | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Far-right Brazilian Bolsonaro, ‘free’ market darling | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazilian far-right Bolsonaro’s far-right astrological Rasputin | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Trump, Bolsonaro, the fascist danger | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazil’s Bolsonaro celebrates 1960s military dictatorship | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Brazilian Bolsonaro’s new fascist party | Dear Kitty. Some blog