U.S. Giving Latin American Leaders Cancer Farfetched? Maybe Not (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Despite his cautious language clarifying he was making no accusations, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was denounced by the State Department on Thursday, according to the Associated Press, for his speculation that the rash of cancer that recently developed among diverse, leftist Latin American leaders might have been somehow induced by the U.S. government.

Not only did Chavez contract cancer recently, according to a Reuters report, but so too did the current and past president of Brazil, and the presidents of Paraguay and Argentina, all of whom are less than popular with the U.S. government.

The U.S. government would like the world to dismiss the Venezuelan leader's pondering as poppycock. To that end, the State Department called the comments " horrific ," "reprehensible" and "unworthy of further response," AP said.

But while seemingly paranoid speculation like that voiced by Chavez might normally be dismissed out of hand, longtime U.S. policy in the region could give a reasonable person doubts. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a leftist like the recent cancer-stricken presidents, was the subject of many a shocking destabilization effort by the American government over the course of decades.

As early as 1959, the U.S. government made it official policy to get rid of Castro, even by assassination if necessary, George Washington University's National Security Archive notes. Plots the Central Intelligence Agency considered and sometimes implemented included infecting Castro with fungus capable of causing debilitating disease, exposing him to an exploding conch shell, poisoning him, and gifting him exploding cigars contaminated with botulinum, the Guardian reported.

The U.S. government also considered lacing Castro's cigars with hallucinogens in the hopes he would publicly embarrass himself and sprinkling thallium salts in his shoes to make his beard, eyebrows and pubic hair fall out, History House wrote. That history lends Chavez's comments more credibility than they would warrant otherwise.

When it comes to "horrific" and "reprehensible," the U.S. government needs look no further than its Castro playbook. Chavez's casual musings about U.S. schemes to infect foreign leaders with disease should be something that reasoning people can immediately dismiss as outlandish.

But the reasoning people of the world can't so readily dismiss the horrific possibility that the U.S. would attempt to inflict disease on foreign leaders with whom it doesn't see eye-to-eye, thanks to the U.S. government's unfortunate history in the region.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oped/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120103/cm_ac/10785705_us_giving_latin_american_leaders_cancer_farfetched__maybe_not

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