Long ago, I lost interest in beauty pageants. When I was young, I did enjoy the swimsuit competition. Then the feminists screwed it all up by pressuring the pageants to minimalize the swimsuit competition, claiming that it was degrading to women. In its place, up popped a silly question and answer segment designed to determine the brightest of the contestants.
The only time I pay any attention to these spectacles is when they are involved in some sort of scandal or controversy. Which brings me to the Miss Universe pageant which just concluded in Mexico City. Poor Rachel Smith, Miss USA. She slipped and fell on her butt during the evening gown competition, Yet, she showed a lot of class when she picked herself back up. Unfortunately for her, the Mexican audience had absolutely no class, booing Rachel throughout the pageant.
What did Rachel do to derserve this booing? Absolutely nothing whatsoever! Poor Rachel was a victim of the hatred Mexicans and other Latinos have for the government of the United States. This hatred is based a lot less on our immigration and Iraq policies than on the long history of our interference in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. In order to protect our business intrests, we have supported tinpot military dictators who ignored or oppressed the poverty stricken masses and we openly or clandestinely supported the overthrow of elected leaders with communist leanings.
In the past, our government has done everything possible to ensure that the leaders of "Banana Republics" were friendly to the American businesses which exploited Latin America for its rich resources and for its cheap labor. These leaders and their families and friends were often rewarded with huge payoffs and other perks, such as mansions and secret bank accounts in the United States.
Throughout Latin America, society has consisted of a small percentage of extremely wealthy families and a huge population living in the squalor of abject poverty, a perfect breeding ground for communism. Thus, it should not have come as a surprise to our government when communists were elected to power or when dictatorships were overthrown by Marxist insurgents claiming to fight for the poor masses. The Cold War with the Soviet Union served to intensify our efforts to defeat Latin America's Marxist insurgencies and to topple leftist leaders from office.
In Cuba we supported an oppressive and corrupt dictator, General Fulgencio Batista, who was in league with the American Mafia and with American corporations. Immediately after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, our government supported his overthrow, not because of his suspected communist leanings, but because he was seen as unfriendly to the established American business interests in Cuba, Thus, we drove Castro into the arms of the Soviet Union.
In 1973, we clandestinely participated in a military coup which overthrew Salvador Allende. a Marxist who had been elected President of Chile. For years, we contunued to support the military dictaorships of Chile, including that of General Augusto Pinochet, a cruel, oppressive and corrupt dictator.
In Nicaragua we were long-time supporters of the Somoza family dictatorship, another group of corrupt military officers who accumulated immense wealth from American corporations. In the 1970s, the Sandinistas, a Marxist group led by Daniel Ortega, came to power after fighting and defeating the Somoza family's National Guard. The Reagan Presidency then bankrolled and supplied the Nicaraguan Contra rebels who, after a long and bloody civil war, overthrew Ortega's Sandinista government.
And now, we are in conflict with Hugo Chavez, a populist and socialist, who was elcted President of Venezuela in 1998. Chavez won on the promise of helping the poor by forcing foreign oil companies and other corporations to share more of their profits and wealth with Venezuela. In 2002, a military coup sponsored by the wealthy and supported by the United States, overthrew Chavez. But, in just a few days, Chavez was able to resume his Presidency when the poor took to the streets in huge numbers, demanding that their popular leader be returned to power.
So, because of our opposition to pro-poor Latin American leaders, Rachel Slmith had to endure the indignity of booing at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City. Even though our interference in Latin America's internal affairs may have earned their disrespect, that in no way justified the rude behavior of the audience. Which begs the question - if the Mexicans hate us so much, why should we support immigration legislation and other policies which will benefit Mexico's economy and its wealthy class, all to the detriment of our taxpayers and many American workers?
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