Who Lost Uruguay?

Back in the day, the US never would have allowed this:

Uruguay president’s entire assets: a VW Beetle

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica has declared that his entire wealth is nothing more than a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.

In a sworn statement detailing his assets, Mr Mujica said he has no bank accounts or other assets and put his small flower farm in his wife’s name, only possessing the ageing car, worth £1,300.

Mr Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla, took office in March and he is popular in the small ranching nation for his modest lifestyle and down-to-earth attitude.

The 75-year-old president’s sworn statement, made public this week, shows Mr Mujica has no debt – or savings – and does not own any other property.

Mr Mujica’s presidential salary is £8,000 per month, but he donates most of that to the ruling leftist coalition and a public housing programme.

He has refused to move to the official presidential residence, opting to stay in the simple home his senator wife owns on the outskirts of the capital, Montevideo.

A leftist with sincere convictions ruling a Latin American country. Historically, that’s a recipe for the big dirt nap, courtesy of Uncle Sam. But not this time. While we’re busy playing Rambo in the Middle East, South America has been very quietly slipping through our chains and is in the process of becoming truly independent for the first time since the Conquistadors — both Spanish and then Yankee — arrived. People like Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa of Ecuador have long been on to something that has only recently begun penetrating the calcified brains of the Washington Establishment: America has fatally weakened itself conducting permanent war games in the Middle East (while simultaneously hollowing out its own economy), and now it can no longer effectively control its Latin fiefdoms down south. They’re taking full advantage of our imperial overstretch to break free, and they will.

So now we’ve got a pinko hippy who grows flowers and drives a VW Beetle operating with impunity in our own backyard. ¡Ay, Dios mio! If that doesn’t signal the end of the American Imperium, what does? John Foster Dulles must be rolling in his grave (or screaming even louder in Hell).