Rumsfeld in Paraguay posted by bat020

posted by bat020

As if the American Imperium hasn't got enough on its hands already, Donald Rumsfeld has today been making belligerent noises about Bolivia during his official visit to neighbouring Paraguay.

Commenting on the recent mass uprising that toppled Bolivia's president, Rumsfeld claimed that Cuba and Venezuela had been "involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways". He added, apparently without irony: "Countries like Paraguay and other neighbors are all interested in being able to grow and function in a manner that's free of external influence."

Is this just the usual sabre rattling talk from the US? Possibly. But there have been persistent rumours that the US is planning to step up its military presence in Paraguay (a long time ally). This recent article by radical journalist Benjamin Dangl offers a good briefing on the situation:

The U.S. military is conducting secretive operations in Paraguay and reportedly building a new base there. Human rights groups and military analysts in the region believe trouble is brewing... With Bolivia’s recent uprisings, their enormous gas reserves, and a presidential election on the way, this questionable activity could pave the way for a U.S. intervention.

On May 26, 2005 the Paraguayan senate approved the entrance of the troops, granting them total immunity, free from Paraguayan and International Criminal Court jurisdiction... Since December 2004, the U.S. has been pressuring Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela and Paraguay into signing a deal which would grant immunity to US military. The Bush administration threatened to deny the countries up to $24.5 million in economic and military aid if they refused to sign the deal. Paraguay was the only country to accept the offer.

One final and somewhat tangential point - from 1954 to 1989 Paraguay was ruled by the rabidly anti-communist right-wing dictator Alfredo Stroessner. His regime, as Zizek noted three years ago, exemplified the paradoxical "state of emergency" now being rolled out across the globe whereby political rights are suppressed but formal "democracy" remains in place:

Under Stroessner, Paraguay was - with regard to its Constitutional order - a 'normal' parliamentary democracy with all freedoms guaranteed; however, since, as Stroessner claimed, we were all living in a state of emergency because of the worldwide struggle between freedom and Communism, the full implementation of the Constitution was forever postponed and a permanent state of emergency obtained.

This state of emergency was suspended every four years for one day only, election day, to legitimise the rule of Stroessner's Colorado Party with a 90 per cent majority worthy of his Communist opponents. The paradox is that the state of emergency was the normal state, while 'normal' democratic freedom was the briefly enacted exception.