From mrzine
Preparations for renewed US intervention in Latin America are underway. To protect its hegemony and economic interests, the US government is using the threat of terrorism as an excuse for military operations aimed at destabilizing leftist movements and governments and securing natural resources such as oil and gas.By focusing on land reform and social programs such as education and healthcare, many of the new leaders in Latin America have put the needs of the people ahead of the demands of multinational companies. This leftist resurgence in the region makes corporate investors and other champions of the free market nervous. Recently, the George W. Bush administration has gone to extreme measures to check the resurgence.
Hundreds of US troops arrived in Paraguay on July 1st for secretive operations and are believed to be populating a military base 200 kilometers from the Bolivian border. Political analysts in the region believe this questionable activity is part of a strategy to quell popular uprisings in Bolivia -- where upcoming presidential and and national assembly elections are expected to favor a leftist candidate -- and take over the country's vast gas reserves.
Bush administration officials blame left-leaning "instability" in Latin America, particularly in Bolivia, on funding and support from President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Lately, Bolivia has gone through politically tumultuous times; protests against plans to privatize the country's gas reserves have ousted two presidents in two years.
