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When Latin American leaders reach out to their people they're 'fascists'

Thursday, March 24, 2005


When Latin American leaders reach out to their people they're 'fascists'
EDITOR:
A March 19 guest editorial (How Others See It) condemns Hugo Chavez' presidency in Venezuela as "heading towards fascism." Strange that when a leader serves the needs of the majority of the population in his country he is labeled a fascist for & quot;encouraging populist tendencies."
That's the kind of propaganda that they used against Aristide in Haiti before the United States armed the rebels (former death squads) and launched a full-scale coup on the popularly elected Aristide government, even going so far as kidnapping him and flying him out of the country against his will. Since then there has been a reign of terror on the poor people of Haiti, which never makes the news in America's corporate media, even though they spent much time castigating Aristide for alleged human rights abuses that were nowhere near what is happening there now and were mostly unfounded.
The kind of capitalism that is being foisted upon Third World countries, especially now with the rush to "globalization" is a kind of predatory capitalism that drives down wages and eliminates needed public services while escalating profits of the wealthiest classes to unheard of heights. The CIA has operated freely within these countries, sponsoring dissent, assassinating leaders, and paying off politicians and military leaders to betray the people.
Finally with Chavez they seem to have hit a wall. A wall of solidarity. The society that capitalism has built is like a house with the ruling class living on the top floor, the middle class on the ground floor, and the majority, the poorest, in the basement. With the policies of globalization, the trapdoor to the basement is being sealed off forever. That is why the people of the world are rising up and coming out of the basement to live in the light of day before it is too late. Throughout South America, people are waking up to their rights to choose and elect who they want and keep and use their resources for their own people not for American corporate interests.
ROGER LAFONTAINE
Youngstown
Holy Week execution
EDITOR:
I write this during what Terri Schiavo's church calls "Holy Week, & quot; as she is being executed for the crime of being disabled. She was convicted on the testimony of one man.
Eventually, disabled people who have not written down their wishes, if they are unlucky enough to be unwanted by their legal guardians, will be killed swiftly, and much more humanely, by lethal injection or perhaps a revolver to the forehead.
But that is probably a decade away. It takes so long to get a decent law passed. Too late for Terri.
In Florida it is illegal to starve a puppy to death. I guess some legislators must have imagined how excruciating that would feel to a cute little ball of fur.
I heard a priest say the greatest evil in the world is not sin, but the denial of sin. May God have mercy on us.
THERESA D'ANGELO
Niles
Day seven approaches
EDITOR:
Words cannot express how we should be feeling as day seven of Terri Schiavo's publicized starvation approaches. In the past week most people have had 21 meals and 400 ounces of liquid.
What's the plan, Florida? When this woman's body can take no more, are you sending a spokesman out to announce Terri Schiavo passed away at such and such a time and then add no further comment? After all, that is standard procedure when the death penalty is carried out. Except there's one big problem: This woman is not a convicted criminal.
Terri Schiavo has loving parents and a family willing to take on the responsibility of her care. Unfortunately she also has a husband who has rejected the offer of divorce as well as a monetary settlement to leave her feeding tube attached. Death is the only outcome that will please this man.
When this tragedy finally comes to an end, I hope that enough suspicion has been raised that an investigation into his motives results.
CHRISSY FLESCH
Mineral Ridge