cubaninsider: Attacking Cuba's Friends

The Purges Are Mounting

These three women are, left to right, Dilma Rousseff, Michelle Bachelet and Cristina Fernandez. Each of them has been democratically elected and re-elected as Presidents of important Latin American countries -- Rousseff in Brazil, Bachelet in Chile, and Fernandez in Argentina. And all three have been staunch and very important supporters of Cuba. But a third significant thing they have in common is this: All three of them have come under massive assaults from what they believe are U.S.-friendly right-wing elements.

As this montage indicates, the three Latin American female stalwarts till recently were among the most powerful women in the world...along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, lower-left, and America's Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, lower-right. Cristina Fernandez, upper-left, has finished her two-terms as Argentine President and was stopped by term-limits. She has been succeeded by the anti-Cuban and U.S.-friendly Mauricio Macri. Fernandez's last term in office was harassed by what she called two "parasitic U. S. factors, right-wingers and hedge fund creeps." Michelle Bachelet, lower-middle, is also under duress in her second term as Chili's President and also, "at least in part," she blames right-wing U. S. elements. That's extremely interesting and pertinent because Ms. Bachelet's father was one of the murder victims of the blood-thirsty Pinochet dictatorship. Pinochet ruled for 17 bloody years after U. S. right-wingers put him in power via the infamous coup in 1973 that resulted in the death of the very decent and democratically elected President Salvador Allende. There are even today trials in Chile, Argentina, and other Latin American nations to seek justice concerning such past atrocities. The historic background and topicality of Ms. Bachelet personifies past Nixon-Dulles-Kissinger-Bush imperialism in Latin America although Americans are supposed to ignore the everlasting effects. Dilma Rousseff, upper-right, is the most important of the much-maligned, Cuban-loving and harassed Latin American female Presidents.

Assaults on Cristina Fernandez, Michelle Bachelet and, especially, on Dilma Rousseff are also, to a significant degree, assaults on Cuba, possibly originating or at least enhanced to combat President Obama's ongoing efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. While the three historic Latin American female Presidents are being attacked from the far-right, so are the Cuba-friendly male Presidents in the region -- Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Ollanta Humala in Peru, etc. But the assaults on Dilma Rousseff are the most significant, the most gutless and the most egregious.

Dilma Rousseff has been suspended as President of Brazil as impeachment proceedings shame Latin America's most powerful nation just weeks before it plays host to the Rio Olympics. She correctly calls it "a coup." Most observers agree with Norm Chomsky who says, "She is being impeached by a gang of thieves." In fact, most of those in the Brazilian Congress who have led the impeachment against her are themselves charged with crimes. Dilma is not; she is basically being charged with spending too much of Brazil's economy on the poorest Brazilians, the people she fought so doggedly for as a guerrilla fighter in her youth and during her two-terms as President. Indeed, during this first full week of June-2016, two recorded phone calls from impeachment advocates prove that their assaults on Dilma were designed to protect them from criminal corruption charges by preventing President Rousseff from pursuing them.

For many years Lucia Newman was the top broadcast journalist on Latin American issues for CNN and she is now the highly respected Latin American Editor for Aljazeera English. Ms. Newman yesterday conducted a 26-minute interview with Dilma Rousseff at Palacio da Alvorada, Brazil's official presidential palace where Dilma is confined while she mounts her impeachment defense. The entire interview is easily accessible online and, yes, you do need to access it to hear Dilma's words. She told Ms. Newman, "I am a victim of injustice. I believe that by defending democracy I will win back the trust of the Brazilian people."

As she fights for her political life, Dilma Rousseff is supported by a determined team of lawyers, politicians, and many millions of poor people who believe...who know...she is indeed the victim of an injustice, a coup.

Dilma Rousseff is now 68-years-old. She's been a fighter all her life against injustice and for poor, disenfranchised people. But the rich and powerful right-wingers she fought against as a youth are similar to the ones she is fighting against now. She's remains a warrior and vows to defend herself against impeachment. But the odds are stacked against her in what many consider a corrupt Congress.

President Rousseff's Vice President was Michel Temer.

When her Vice President, Michel Temer, double-crossed her, Dilma Rousseff's days as the twice democratically elected President of Brazil were numbered. Temer, like many of the Congressmen opposing her, has been charged with corruption. But today Michel Temer sits in her presidential chair in Brazil.

Yes, President Dilma Rousseff...will be...impeached.

Brazil's poor people still love Dilma very much.

Dilma supporters at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

These Cannes movie stars know what a "coup" is.

Pro-Dilma protesters in Brazil believe that U. S. billionaires -- like the Koch Brothers -- are trying to purchase the U. S. democracy and they are also trying to re-shape Brazil's democracy. In other words, Dilma is accused of "going overboard" in trying to help poor people, and greedy rich billionaires don't like that.

This Wikipedia photo shows Dilma Rousseff with her well-to-do family. That's Dilma standing up in the middle. She, the future President of Brazil, was born on December 14, 1947 in Belo Horizonde, Brazil.

Dilma as a precious, precocious toddler in Brazil.

As a very beautiful young girl, Dilma Rousseff was appalled at how a U.S.-backed military dictatorship was treating Brazilian peasants. Inspired by the success in 1959 of the Cuban Revolution against the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, Dilma became a guerrilla fighter against that Brazilian dictatorship.

Dilma was captured, becoming prisoner #3023.

This photo shows Dilma being sentenced to a brutal military prison where, for over two years, she was unmercifully tortured. Even today several Latin American nations are still holding investigations and trials of suspected perpetrators of those military dictatorships. The U. S. recently has reluctantly provided some information. And as the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff was asked to testify at the United Nations.

This heart-wrenching Washington Post photo shows Dilma Rousseff fighting back tears in a speech at the United Nations when she was asked, as Brazil's President and as a victim, to testify before the UN Truth Commission about the unspeakable torture she endured during her imprisonment at the hands of the brutal military dictatorship. She complied, in detail. Later, more composed, she said "Such dark days of foreign imperialism and military dictatorships must not afflict modern generations in Latin America and the Caribbean. But those who know about such things are duty-bound, I believe, to tell that history, as painful as it is for me to do so here today. Victims or their families deserve justice, however belated. And the perpetrators still living deserve punishment and even the perpetrators now dead deserve to be scorned." If you ignore the other Dilma photos, please study this one as, at the United Nations, she was re-living being tortured.

Dilma when she scared corrupt right-wingers.

Dilma is still powerful. Time Magazine in big red letters highlighted this quote from her: "I will struggle all my might until the coupmongers are defeated." Her struggle is both brave and honorable.

This Reuters photo is modern, just days old. It shows Dilma wiping away a tear when she found out she was being suspended as the two-term democratically elected President of Brazil. The coup that will codify her impeachment awaits her. Just like when she was brutally imprisoned as a young woman, the rich and corrupt son-of-a-bitches have won. Dilma has lost. So have the poor people. And so has democracy.