While Obama was busy coddling the brutal communist dictatorship enslaving Cuba, Latin Americans from Ecuador and Brazil to Venezuela, Cuba, and beyond were busy trying to throw off the chains being imposed on them by their governments. In Ecuador, massive protests against the regime of socialist strongman Rafael Correa exploded into violence amid a nationwide uprising against Correa’s bid to stay in power indefinitely and make himself a “dictator.” Brazilians in more than 200 cities gathered by the tens and hundreds of thousands to demand the impeachment of Marxist-Leninist President Dilma Rousseff’s regime, which barely held on to power amid an avalanche of scandals and what multiple analysts said was a rigged election. And this may be just the start.
Unrest against the rapid and dangerous resurgence of communism across Latin America has been growing steadily stronger for years — but so have the region’s socialist and communist autocrats. As The New American has been reporting for a decade or more, a tight-knit network of communist and socialist parties, brutal dictators, Marxist narco-terrorists such as the FARC in Colombia, and other totalitarian forces have been leading what much of the establishment has tried to downplay as a mere “pink tide.” In reality, the totalitarian network, known as the Foro de São Paulo (FSP, or São Paulo Forum in English), has been responsible for what could more properly be characterized as a red tsunami.
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Founded by murderous communist dictator Fidel Castro, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the brutal Marxist Sandinistas, and various other terrorist organizations, the alliance now controls most of Latin America’s governments. The U.S. government is well aware of the scheming, yet it has said virtually nothing, even while showering FSP operatives and regimes with American taxpayer funds. But while the communist takeover of the region was able to proceed largely under the radar for years, the public seems to be catching on — and is now becoming increasingly restless as FSP regimes across the region step up the extremism and clamp down hard on what little freedom remains.
Last week in Ecuador, for example, long-simmering public outrage about the autocratic regime of FSP operative and Hugo Chávez protege Correa officially exploded. The sparks that lit the fuse: a plot by the regime to impose 75-percent taxes on property sales and inheritance, along with a bid by Correa to defy the constitution and stay in power indefinitely. Correa, who came to power a decade ago, wants to run for another term in 2017. Like his FSP comrades in other Latin American capitals, he seems determined to do anything to maintain and expand his power: arresting journalists and critics, sending out “security” forces to quash demonstrations, censoring the press, rigging elections, corrupting and usurping control of the judiciary and the legislature, ruling by decree, and much more.
The furious people of Ecuador, despite being divided into various factions, are united by their opposition to Correa, and they organized a general nationwide strike in protest. The effort reportedly paralyzed the capital, major highways, and other important cities nationwide. Demonstrations even boiled over into violence, with news reports saying that some protesters fired rockets at government forces. Protest leaders denounced the violence and said it was launched by infiltrators, possibly from the Correa regime itself, as a justification for the brutal crackdown and mass arrests of protest leaders that followed. A broad coalition of protesters from across the political spectrum and society— from lawyers and doctors to laborers, pensioners, and tribal Indians — also shut down the Pan-American highway with logs, burning tires, and trucks.
While much of the outrage at the socialist and communist policies of the regime has come from the cities, a growing coalition of indigenous groups has also been out in force. “If we don’t get answers we’re prepared to continue the protest for two days, or 15 days — whatever it takes to open the deaf ears of President Correa,” indigenous protest leader Carlos Perez was quoted as saying in foreign media reports, adding that the strikes and protests would continue unless and until Correa starts listening. The indigenous groups, which once were largely supportive of the regime, have turned against it as a desperate Correa has sought to seize and exploit their natural resources to bolster his regime’s finances — without even discussing it with them.
Like his mentor in “21st Century Socialism” from Caracas, the late strongman Chávez who practically destroyed the once relatively prosperous nation of Venezuela, Correa lashed out at his critics, painting them as “right wingers” and foreign agents opposed to his glorious socialist revolution. “These things must be rejected, not by the security forces but by the citizenry,” the Ecuadorean strongman told a youth group about the barricades erected by protesters, calling on his alleged supporters to clear the streets of those opposed to his increasingly totalitarian rule. “A small group is trying to impose its policies on us.”
That small group, apparently, includes most of the nation.
In typical FSP strongman fashion, the conspiracy-theorist ruler insisted there was a “right-wing attempt” at a “soft coup” against his regime and the “people’s revolution” he imagines he is leading. “We are facing a national and international right-wing revival,” Correa warned the La Republica newspaper, accusing the protesters of being infiltrated by “foreign intelligence agencies” doing the bidding of evil capitalists and imperialists. In the real world, of course, the people of Ecuador simply do not wish to surrender what remains of their freedom and their wealth to yet another wannabe Latin American tin-horn dictator.
On August 16 in Brazil, meanwhile, official estimates suggest almost a million people turned out across hundreds of cities nationwide to demand the impeachment of Rousseff’s radical regime. The real numbers were probably far higher considering polls show Rousseff’s approval rating at about one or two percent, and almost three-fourths of the public upset at her scandal-plagued regime. Protesters wore shirts calling for Rousseff’s impeachment while chanting “fora PT,” which translates to “out with the PT (Workers’ Party).” Crowds carried huge banners reading “impeachment,” or Brazilian flags, while marchers chanted, “Communism is the cancer and the people are the cure!” Most Brazilians support impeachment, polls suggest.
Many protesters also carried signs touting renowned Brazilian anti-communist philosopher and author Olavo de Carvalho, who has played a critical role in exposing the subversive Foro de São Paulo network that now controls most of the region’s governments. “The message needs to be simple and direct: Dilma Rousseff, you are NOT the president. We will NEVER obey you,” the liberty-minded Brazilian leader told supporters on social media, blasting much of the media in Brazil as lackeys of the regime that need to be crushed. “If Dilma Rousseff comes with little apologies, respond that they will only be accepted if they come accompanied with her resignation.”
Locals on the ground were equally passionate about the need to evict the ultra-left, ultra-corrupt Workers’ Party from power. “Dilma, show some shame on your face and resign, otherwise we are going to bring you down!” the Free Brazil Movement (Movimento Brasil Livre) coordinator for the city of Curitiba, Eder Borges, declared in front of some 60,000 protesters in his city. “The Foro de São Paulo destroyed Venezuela, that with its immense oil reserves should be a rich country but today doesn’t even have toilet paper. We will not permit this system of tyranny that is socialism take our country Brazil.”
In the capital of Brasilia, protesters carried a giant inflatable Lula, Rousseff’s radical predecessor from the same party and a founder of the FSP, wearing a prison jumpsuit. Indeed, much of the outrage against the “Workers’ Party” (PT) aside from its totalitarian ideology, surrounds a series of explosive corruption scandals involving the state-run oil giant funneling cash to PT political coffers to help it stay in power. Marxist narco-terrorist money has also long been linked to the radical party, which openly celebrates its strong alliance with the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Brazil.
In Venezuela in late May, tens of thousands of protesters defied the FSP-aligned regime of Nicolas Maduro, socialist strongman Chávez’s successor, in support of jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, who was on a hunger strike in the regime’s dungeons, pushing free elections and the release of political prisoners. The protests followed a massive uprising across Venezuela in 2014 that some analysts expected might drive the autocrat from power. Maduro responded with brute force, gunning down and arresting demonstrators while his thugs mercilessly beat down students opposed to totalitarianism. Now he wants to seize two-thirds of neighboring Guyana as his own nation’s economy implodes.
In Cuba, meanwhile, the brutal communist autocracy, which despite its international image as a pariah maintains strong alliances with totalitarian dictatorships from Beijing and Pyonyang to Caracas and Tehran, cracked down hard on protesters. Last week, Castro arrested some 90 dissidents, including 50 “Ladies in White,” protesting ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit. One protester wearing an Obama mask was quoted by AFP blasting Obama and saying his support for Havana led to even more brutal crackdowns. “It’s his fault, what is happening,” said former political prisoner Angel Moya, referring to Obama. “The Cuban government has grown even bolder. That’s why we have this mask on. Because it’s his fault.” Shortly after that, he was detained by Castro’s goons.
Whether the escalating public backlash against tyranny and socialism across Latin America will produce results remains to be seen. Analysts say more than a few FSP regimes are quietly getting nervous as socialism-caused economic implosions wreak havoc and popular outrage about totalitarianism and the FSP threatens to boil over. FSP strongmen and their allies have pledged to keep the “revolutions” going no matter the cost. But increasingly popular and emboldened opposition leaders, faced with a choice between absolute tyranny and resistance, have vowed to keep fighting for freedom.
Photo of protest in Caracas, Venezuela: durdaneta
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is normally based in Europe. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU. He can be reached at [email protected].
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