Joanna
boddi satva wrote:
>Yes the military is a well-known champion of democracy.
>
>Oh, wait, I guess that can't really be true, can it?
>
>
>boddi
>
>On 12/3/05, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
>
>
>>Michael wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>>>>dhenwood at panix.com 12/02/05 10:38 AM >>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>joanna wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>I was asking a knowledgeable friend about how to account for the
>>>>Venezuelan army's swing to the left, when the military of so many
>>>>other Latin American countries swung in the other direction, and he
>>>>guessed that it had something to do with the fact that the officer
>>>>corps in Venezuela is not drawn from the elites but from the
>>>>aspiring lower classes of the countryside and the cities.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>Richard Gott has some good stuff on this in his book on Chavez. He
>>>points out that the militaries in LatAm do have strong left, as
>>>well as right, traditions. In a stunning phrase, Gott describes a
>>>Venezuelan officer as being Harvard-trained and of Trotskyist
>>>leanings.
>>>Doug
>>><<<<<>>>>
>>>
>>>recall peruvian military of late 1960s, junior officers from
>>>'lesser' social strata revolted against their role as agents of
>>>landed-elite used to repress rural indian insurgencies, they
>>>carried out successful revolt against gov't of balaunde terry
>>>(stereotypical liberal pol who made campaign promises he either
>>>could not nor intended to fulfill)...
>>>
>>>under leadership of velasco alvarado, military gov't initiated
>>>significant reforms, beginning with expropriation of land *and*
>>>establishment of worker cooperatives on large estates, velasco
>>>gov't also began nationalizing 'commanding heights' of the economy
>>>(including u.s. oil. copper, sugar interests)...
>>>
>>>gov't did not carry out comprehensive nationalization of private-
>>>owned industrial production, however, it required 'profit-sharing'
>>>and transfer of stock to workers until they controlled 50%, goal
>>>was to create worker/management 'co-determination'...
>>>
>>>cultural changes occurred as well with recognition of indian
>>>peoples, adoption of bilingualism with declaration of quechua as
>>>official language alongside spanish, and selection of tupac amaru
>>>as national symbol...
>>>
>>>above happened quite 'peacefully' until internal conflict among the
>>>officers resulted in ouster of velasco,
>>>
>>>
>>Left-republican movements in the military existed in the Middle East
>>also: Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, etc.
>>
>>Yoshie Furuhashi
>><http://montages.blogspot.com>
>><http://monthlyreview.org>
>><http://mrzine.org>
>>
>>
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