THE FORUM FROM SAO PAULO, THE POLITICAL DISGUISE OF ORGANIZED CRIME

Carlos Sánchez Berzaín
July 24, 2019

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) The Forum from Sao Paulo portrayed as a stage for debate by Latin America’s leftist political parties and organizations has in fact the function of being an instrument through which; the holders of power in Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia are granted the condition of politicians, those who are no longer in power seek impunity, and those who conspire against democratic governments in the Americas gather.  It was created and is operated as a tool of the Cuban dictatorship to execute its strategy to politicize its criminal actions and to destabilize those who are perceived as a threat or as unfriendly.  It is the political disguise of the Transnational Organized Crime that usurps the political action and power.

Self-proclaimed as a forum of leftist parties and groups, the Forum from Sao Paulo was created by Cuba’s Castroist dictatorship along with Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT in Portuguese) to debate on the effects of the fall of the Berlin Wall.   What had happened was that the Cuban dictatorship was left without the USSR’s (Soviet Union) financial support and without a political discourse because of the victory of Capitalism over Communism.  In this scenario, Castro implemented a survival’s political instrument called the Forum from Sao Paulo that was practically insignificant until 1999 the year in which Hugo Chavez climbed to power in Venezuela.

Chavez, in Venezuela’s presidency has, as his immediate top priority, his allegiance with Fidel Castro that resulted in the re-creation of Castroism under names such as; Bolivarian Movement, ALBA, or 21^st Century’s Socialism, today known as the “Castroist Chavist” system.  The 21^st century in Latin America stands out due to the breakdown of democracy, the violation of human rights, the establishment of dictatorships, corruption, the existence of narco-states, political prisoners and exiles, economic crises of countries controlled by the Castroist Chavist system, institutional ruin and more, to the point of getting to Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis

During the past 20 years, the Forum from Sao Paulo has been one of the most important instruments so that the criminal, conspirator, and anti-democratic alliance of Chavez and Castro have the look of being political.  It claims, as part of its achievements, the expansion of what it calls leftist governments, such as; Lula da Silva in Brazil, Correa in Ecuador, Ortega in Nicaragua, Morales in Bolivia, the Kirchner’s in Argentina, Lugo in Paraguay, Funes in El Salvador,  Humala in Peru, Fernandez in the Dominican Republic, and others, including Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

For example, the corruption case known as “Lava Jato” in Brazil and as “the Odebrecht Case” throughout the world, is part of the Forum from Sao Paulo’s contribution to the creation and cover up of the “Transnational Organized Crime” system that the Castroist Chavist system really is.  The Odebrecht case is described as “the United States Department of Justice, along with another 10 Latin American countries, investigation of the Brazilian Construction Company Odebrecht that details that this company had paid monetary bribes and kickbacks to presidents, former presidents, and government officials of at least 12 countries”.

What we must remember is that the Odebrecht scheme was based on Brazil’s federal resources handled by the Workers’ Party.  Initially, member governments of the Forum from Sao Paulo, then friendly governments, accessed to Brazil’s credit handled by Lula da Silva and the PT’s government, to defray expenses of mega projects that had to be built by Brazilian companies.   Contracts were entered into between Brazilian companies and borrower governments.  Brazil’s government made payment to the construction companies and Odebrecht doled out the bribes.  Among the leadership of the Forum from Sao Paulo the premise was to “never again lack money” alluding to the decade of the nineties that is considered a lost decade.

In its 2018 proclamation in Havana, the Forum from Sao Paulo corroborates that it is the disguise for organized crime when, over the slogan “Towards Victory Always” it politicizes, amongst other things, the criminal actions of Nicolas Maduro, the crimes of Daniel Ortega, calls the judicial actions against Rafael Correa as political persecution, and calls the existence of the Rule of Law as parliamentary or judicial strikes, it supports and backs Evo Morales’ fourth consecutive candidacy, defends coca cultivation, covers up and justifies the violation of human rights of Cuba’s people, and calls to conspire against democracies with the plausible but invalid reasoning that dictatorships and the people’s struggle against their oppression “calls for a practical exercise of mutual internationalism between all leftist powers from Latin America”.

 

Published in Spanish by Infobae.com Sunday July 21st., 2019

Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators’ Association, ATA # 234680.