MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolivian president rushed to Cuba for medical attention is recovering with “positive outlook”
Bolivian President Evo Morales has been treated for a throat viral infection in Cuba and will stay on the Caribbean island for several days of medical observation, Bolivia's Vice President and acting head of state Alvaro Garcia Linera said on Thursday. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesAnother one marked for death by the evil Empire?
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 02:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0One would think that they would learn their lesson by now and realise that receiving health care in Cuba is a death sentence.
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 04:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“A sore throat robbed him of his voice” should mean
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 05:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Cancer of the larynx until proven otherwise.
Seems his sniffing has finally caught up with him....good to see he is following Hugito's example by going to Cuba for treatment.....don't let him stop now !
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 05:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0So, do all Bolivians get flown to Cuba for a throat infection treatment, or are some more equal than others in the Bolivarian revolution?
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 06:05 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Says a lot about The Bolivian health system an their doctors when they can not deal with a throat infection
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 07:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@EB
Mar 03rd, 2017 - 07:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Right on. Obviously 'some' are more equal than others....just like Lula, when he has a medical problem, he is rushed to one of the top hospitals in Sao Paulo, while the average citizen, unless he has an expensive private health plan, must face queues from here to next week just to set up a medical appointment, and then, if he's lucky enough, in 6 months he might be attended by a competent doctor (if they aren't on strike, demanding better work conditions), who might recommend some treatment, or a surgery, to be started / done in about a year, due to the lack of hospital equipment and/or suitable installations...and that, provided the patient, by then, is still alive. Lula of course, when he claimed that Brazil's health system was as good as the best in the world, must have been referring to his treatment, which unfortunately has kept him alive and causing trouble.
I am reminded of a line from the film 'Neruda'. Not a true story but a fictional tale based on Pablo Neruda during his flight from the right-wing authorities after he joined the Communist Party. Neruda was the consummate champagne socialist and the scene has him drinking and dining lavishly in a Club whilst on the run. He is served by a poor woman who poses the question. “Don Pablo, when we are all equal will we be equal like you or like me?”.
Mar 04th, 2017 - 11:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Can't fault his poetry.
Very interesting question.....to which, in this case, there was probably no honest answer...
Mar 04th, 2017 - 09:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0He pauses and then says, “Like me, of course”. I guess he wanted dessert and if you want to remain popular you tell people what they want to hear.
Mar 05th, 2017 - 12:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@JB
Mar 08th, 2017 - 11:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thread got closed again; I wasn't able to post much while I was on holiday...
Where can I see this 'manifesto'? Wikipedia says the Foro de São Paulo is a conference of leftist parties that was started by the PT, and has quite a range of participants. It doesn't mention a manifesto though.
Are the PT still selling Venezuela as a model? Seems like everyone should know by now that things aren't going so well there, even if they do give cheap oil to their friends.
And you just told me you most likely wouldn't have done anything to protest if the communists were in power, but you sure would have voted against them if you had the chance, right? I can totally agree the average citizen just wanted to get on with their life and was probably willing to put with with the dictatorship as long as the economy was doing okay, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't have supported a communist government just as much or more.
@DT
Mar 09th, 2017 - 06:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Right. Foro de SP was the int’l conference of left-wing parties and organizations in 1990, sponsored by the PT and Fidel, while the 'manifesto' is the ”Declaração de São Paulo” ('google' and translate it). The 'declaration' says how they intended to integrate LatAm, economically, culturally and politically, implementing 'their' version of socialism. This declaration praised the Cuban revolution, reiterated the participants’ solidarity with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, and emphasized the need to implement socialism and ”democracy''(??)… well understood, 'their' version of it. They had connections to revolutionary groups, as well as to drug trafficking, to finance their struggle. They still hold conferences every 2 / 3 years, to renew their left-wing commitment and fight against what they label as 'imperialism'...a rather vague concept in their 'declaration', but sufficiently to attract all those that want something for nothing.
One of the most vocal critics of the ‘Foro de SP’ is Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho. He criticizes communism, and in his book called (free-translation), “The least you need to know to not be considered an idiot”, he says abt the ‘Foro de SP’ : “The world has never seen, on such a large scale, such an intimate, persistent, organized and long lasting coexistence between politics and crime”….. that sentence says it all.
While in power, and even now, the PT refuses to criticize, far less acknowledge the mess VZ is in, as it would tarnish the image of the so-called 'Bolivarian paradise' they sell to their ignorant followers.
If the commies had taken over, vote for whom ? there’d be no elections. Communism, to the ignorant, may sound nice on paper, but in practice it’s a whole different thing. Back then, had the commies succeeded, the mostly ignorant population, not realizing the implications, 'might' have supported them - initially - but would soon realize their mistake. By then, too late.
JB
Mar 09th, 2017 - 11:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I found the 'Final Declaration' from what I think was their most recent meeting. It has a weirdly old-fashioned sound to me, I guess both those theories and that style of writing are out of fashion in the UK.
They have some nice bits about Cuba:
“We express our support of and trust in the historic leadership of the Cuban Revolution and in the Communist Party of Cuba leading the process of updating the economic and social model towards a consolidation of prosperous and sustainable socialism, with great strategic and economic importance for the country and for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
They also condemn the US's “criminal, unfair and inhuman commercial, financial and economic blockade of the Island”, which is all very well, but nothing about the lack of democracy in Cuba, and nothing about the human rights abuses.
Also according to them: “Venezuela is a democracy besieged by imperialism and its allies. In fact, it is being submitted to a permanent war on political, economic and psychological fronts.”
There are a lot of mentions of imperialism, and it is indeed vaguely defined. But what seems most striking, is that they spend a lot of time 'standing in solidarity', and talking about all the forces they need to counter, but very little on what the various parties are doing to improve the countries they do control, and none at all on criticising their own members.
I wonder if it is a policy not to allow criticism of other members? I guess the PT not criticising VZ fits in with that anyway. But it seems they are not big on self-criticism either, which seems very foolish. If something doesn't work, change it, don't continue to follow a theory blindly.
Anyway, it's certainly an interesting insight into how the PT etc see the world, so thanks for pointing it out.
@DT
Mar 10th, 2017 - 03:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The pseudo commies of LatAm have no idea what real communism was, however they plug it as a vague utopian model of govt to seduce the ignorant, and those who expect to be at the top pf the pyramid. It is, as you said, totally obsolete and has no room in today’s world…yet the PT and the 2 communist parties in Brazil seem to have a hard time admitting it. They have developed their own style of ‘tropical communism’, which instead of the Soviet model, is one where they would rule in a one-party system, without elections . Regarding your comment on their view of the US’s blockade of Cuba, don't they always only point out what suits them ?
That VZ is a victim of foreign powers is hilarious, but you’d be surprised how some people lap it up as the Gospel truth….with those idiots, dialogue is impossible. Their solidarity is moving, and as far as it’s kept in the spiritual field, OK, but when it translates into humungous loans from our social development bank (BNDES) to other corrupt foreign leaders (Lula’s ‘friends), under conditions better than ‘father to son’, with enormous payoffs built in, in detriment of the Brazilian people, you can see what is really behind it….greed for money and power, at any cost. That is why, one sees here on a daily basis, the growing desperation of the ‘petistas’ (and most other politicians) as the ‘Lavajato’ proceeds.
If a member gets involved in undeniable corruption, such Chavez/ Maduro in VZ, the PT govt used to ignore it completely, and when they could, they’d insinuate that ‘occult’ forces were at work to destroy them…they couldn't afford to have the truth coming out, so they twisted the facts and shrouded them in doubt . I’ve seen this over and over again, since the early 60’s. But since when has the far-left ever criticized itself, or allowed others to ?
Criticism, self or otherwise, is one of the strong points of democracy, but when allowed to be abused, it can turn into chaos.
@JB
Mar 10th, 2017 - 07:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's weird that actual communism is still so popular there. Not too many people in Europe are still fans, after half the countries suffered under it for decades. And it's also pretty hard to understand why they are so happy to support Russia, given that it has a right-wing government these days. From the previous year:
”We also point out the foreign meddling in Ukraine by the alliance between the USA and the European Union (EU) with neo-Nazi groups, which is designed to isolate Russia...We condemn the Ukrainian attacks against the civilian population and demand immediate ceasefire.”
They condemn the Ukrainian attacks against the civilian population, but not Russia invading Ukraine and annexing the Crimean Peninsular!
But I suppose in a way it is a mirror image; in Europe Russia is the country that invaded its neighbours and installed oppressive governments, and America is the best help against that. But in South America, it was the US that was propping up the dictators and training them in torture techniques. I'm still doubtful that that makes Russia a good ally for them though.
Agreed it's hilarious to say VZ is a victim of foreign powers. Whatever the US may or may not have done, hasn't done a tenth of the damage the government did to their own country. Even the truly communist countries in Eastern Europe had functional economies.
Thinking about it, democracy is a kind of criticism, in a way. Every government gets judged on its performance and reelected - or not. And every government knows this too, so it's a spur to them to perform well... unless they think they can hide things from the voters like in Brazil. Hopefully in the future they won't be so confident of that.
And I don't know whether the far-left criticises itself. Seems more likely to go in to in-fighting, but it's not very visible over here. We hear more from the far-right these days unfortunately, as they are the second biggest cause of terrorism after the Islamists.
@DT
Mar 11th, 2017 - 05:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Brazil's big problem is the lack of education. It permits the PT and the pseudo-communist parties to find an abundance of supporters in the lower, less-educated social classes, which haven’t the slightest idea what communism, or the ‘far-left’ really is, and are easy targets for unscrupulous politicians who sell their ‘tropical’ version of it . They are totally unaware what the USSR was, or even what Russia is like, today. Anyway, I say ‘their’ version, because it’s not the repressive Soviet-style communism, but cheap populism, based on lies and false promises, giving lower social classes the impression it's the “silver bullet”. ...what they don’t say is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Those at the top are the notorious ‘champagne socialists’, who defend the socialist utopia, in that everyone will be equal, have equal opportunity etc, while they live the capitalist dream, in its most savage form. To achieve this, they infiltrate and inflate government, on all levels, and brainwash the people into thinking it’s the 8th wonder of the world, by throwing money at them – just enough to keep them ‘happy’ – until it runs out, as it always does. But before the money runs out, the socialists, of course with the support of their ignorant followers, systematically undermine all significant opposition, by either ‘buying’ their loyalty (with corruption money, like from PB) or discrediting them publicly…their objective is to create a political system in which they are the undisputed, dominant force, and once they’ve consolidated their grip on power - like Lula and Dilma thought they had - they live a few years of false prosperity until their populist policies ruin the economy and the social structure of the country. To garner support, Lula successfully threw the poor and the blue-collar workers against big business and those who are better-off, creating social tension and a favourable environment to carry out his nefarious plan. Luckily he failed.
That's very unfortunate. The Bolsa Família is supposed to improve school attendance, so that should help. But how good is the education they are getting?
Mar 11th, 2017 - 10:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As for Russia, maybe the ordinary voters know nothing about it, or the former USSR, but the leaders and everyone at the Foro de São Paulo have no such excuse.
And maybe the populism is the reason Venezuela is even worse off than the old communist countries. They never had strong economies but they didn't have to keep their citizens happy; people just did without consumer goods. Whereas VZ spent all their oil money on imports from what I heard. Of course it could also have been that the government fired all the competent people (or they quit) and put their unqualified supporters in their place. Those communist countries never had a problem with brain-drain; they wouldn't let anyone leave.
And are you so sure that Lula has failed? He's still ahead in the polls isn't he? And even if they put him in jail and he can't stand, someone else from his party will. Besides, there's still the question of whether the corruption investigation will reach Temer before the end of the term. What would happen if Temer was impeached too? Is there someone else who's supposed to take over in that circumstance?
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!