In an ongoing operation, the US imperialist hawks seek to wipe out the last Leftist governments in Latin America
Ten
years ago, most of Latin America was governed by Center-Left
progressive or even Leftist governments. For example, Cristina
Fernandez in Argentina, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in
Ecuador, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua,
Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, and Lula da Silva in Brazil, just as an
example. And Hugo Chavez, of course, in Venezuela. Since then, the
so-called 'pink tide' has receded quite dramatically. Of these 10
governments that were Left of Center, only four remain. Nicolas
Maduro in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, Vazquez in Uruguay, and
Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. What happened? Some would argue that the
US played an important role in at least some of these changes.
Speaking
to Greg Wilpert and the RealNews,
Mark Weisbrot explains the impact of the Leftist or Center-Left
governments on Latin America, as well as the US efforts to overthrow
these governments and replace them by Rright-Wing puppet regimes.
This is a struggle that has become common in a region that heavily
suffers for decades by the US dirty interventions as it is considered
the backyard of the US empire and the primary colonial field for the
big US corporations:
If you
look at the region as a whole, the poverty rate dropped from 44 to 28
percent. That was from around 2003-2013. And that was after the two
decades prior where poverty had actually increased, there was no
progress at all. So that was a huge change, and it was accomplished
in different countries, in different ways.
There
were large increases in public investment in Bolivia and Ecuador. In
Brazil you had also some increase in public investment, big increases
in the minimum wage. Every country did different things to help bring
healthcare, and increase, in some countries, access to education. And
there were a whole lot of reforms, changes in macroeconomic policy,
getting rid of the IMF.
So there
were a lot of different things that these governments did that prior
governments were either unable, or unwilling to do to improve
people's living standards during a period of higher economic growth,
which they also contributed to.
When
Right-Wing governments took over most of the continent you have
different things that have changed.
One is,
of course, they're implementing, as you would expect, Right-Wing
reforms. Trying to cut pension system, the pension in Brazil. Passing
a constitutional amendment which, even most economists in the world
wouldn't support in Brazil, which prohibits the government from
increasing spending beyond the rate of inflation. You have huge
increases in utility prices in Argentina, laying off thousands of
public sector workers. So, everywhere where the Right has come back,
you do have some regressive changes.
The US
has been involved in most of these countries in various ways.
Obviously in Venezuela they've been involved since the coup in 2002,
and they tried to overthrow the government and tried to help people
topple the government on several occasions there.
In
Brazil, they supported the coup against Dilma, the parliamentary
coup. So, they didn't do that strongly, but they sent enough signals,
for example, as the House was voting to impeach Dilma without
actually presenting a crime that she committed. The head of the
Foreign Relations Committee from the Senate came and met with the No3
official from the US State Department, Tom Shannon. And then, in
August of that year, the Secretary of State, John Kerry, went down
there and had a press conference with the Acting Foreign Minister,
Jose Serra. And they talked about how great relations with the US
were going to be before Dilma was actually removed from office. So
these were ways of endorsing the coup.
The FBI,
the Department of Justice contributed to the investigation that was
instrumental in imprisoning Lula. What they did in that investigation
we don't know exactly, but we do know enough about it to know that it
wasn't a neutral investigation. That is, the investigation did end up
decapitating the Workers' Party for now. First helping get rid of
Dilma, but more importantly, or more substantially, in terms of its
contribution, they helped put Lula in prison and prevent him from
running for office.
In
Paraguay, the US helped in the consolidation of that parliamentary
coup by organizing within the Organization of American States.
In
Haiti, in 2004, they took the president and put him on a rendition
plane, and flew him out of the country. That was in broad daylight.
In
Honduras, is probably the biggest role that the US has played, both
in consolidating the military coup in 2009. Hillary Clinton
acknowledged her role in making sure that President Zelaya, the
democratically elected president, would not return to office, and
then more recently, in November, they helped consolidate the results
of an election which pretty much all observers regarded as stolen.
In
Argentina, other branches of government were involved as well as the
executive, but the executive cut off lending from multilateral
development banks such as the Inter-American Development Bank, and
tried to block loans at the World Bank, as well. And they restored
everything as soon as the Right-Wing government was elected. And
then, there was Judge Griesa in New York, who took over 90 percent of
Argentina's creditors hostage in order to squeeze them so that the
government would pay off the vulture funds. And this was very
political, because he also lifted the injunction as soon as you had
the Right-Wing government.
This is
very important, because obviously it's not necessarily a conspiracy
of all these branches of government. The legislative branch was
involved in this as well, in the United States. But they all have the
same mindset, and they're all trying to get rid of these Left
governments, and they had a massive contribution. In Argentina, that
did contribute to the downfall of Cristina Kirchner. It contributed
to balance of payments problems that they had there. So this was
important, and it's totally ignored in the United States.
You have
intervention in Mexico, for example. US officials have already said
how worried they are that AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is
the frontrunner in the upcoming election in July. And he's probably
going to win, but they're already trying to undermine him, lobbying
accusations of Russia involvement, which is the new trend. Of course,
completely unsubstantiated.
In
Venezuela they're doing something probably never done in the last 50
years, openly calling for a military coup, and actually a financial
embargo they've put in place, and threatening even a worse embargo if
they don't get rid of the current government. So that's a more
aggressive form of intervention than you had even under the prior
administrations.
As has
been mentioned
previously:
A wave
of neoliberal onslaught shakes currently Latin America. While in
Argentina, Mauricio Macri allegedly took the power normally, the
constitutional
coup against Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, as well as,
the usual
actions of the Right opposition in Venezuela
against Nicolás Maduro with the help of the US finger, are far more
obvious.
The
special weight of these three countries in Latin America is extremely
important for the US imperialism to regain ground in the global
geopolitical arena. Especially the last ten to fifteen years, each of
them developed increasingly autonomous policies away from the US
close custody, under Leftist governments, and this was something that
alarmed the US imperialism components.
Brazil
appears to be the most important among the three, not only due to its
size, but also as a member of the BRICS, the team of fast growing
economies who threaten the US and generally the Western global
dominance. The constitutional coup against Rousseff was rather a
sloppy action and reveals the anxiety of the US establishment to
regain control through puppet regimes. This is a well-known situation
from the past through which the establishment attempts to secure
absolute dominance in the US backyard.
The
importance of Venezuela due to its oil reserves is also significant.
When Maduro tried to approach Russia in order to strengthen the
economic cooperation between the two countries, he must had set the
alarm for the neocons in the US. Venezuela could find an alternative
in Russia and BRICS, in order to breathe from the multiple economic
war that was set off by the US. It is characteristic that the
economic war against Russia by the US and the Saudis, by keeping the
oil prices in historically low levels, had significant impact on the
Venezuelan economy too. It is also known that the US organizations
are funding the opposition since Chávez era, in order to proceed in
provocative operations that could overthrow the Leftist governments.
The
case of Venezuela is really interesting. The US imperialists were
fiercely trying to overthrow the Leftist governments since Chávez
administration. They found now a weaker president, Nicolás Maduro -
who certainly does not have the strength and personality of Hugo
Chávez - to achieve their goal.
The
Western media mouthpieces are doing their job, which is propaganda as
usual. The recipe is known. You present the half truth, with a big
overdose of exaggeration. The
establishment parrots are demonizing Socialism,
but they won't ever tell you about the money that the US is spending,
feeding the Right-Wing groups and opposition to proceed in
provocative operations, in order to create instability. They won't
tell you about the financial war conducted through the oil prices,
manipulated by the Saudis, the close US ally.
Regarding
Argentina, former president, Cristina Kirchner, had also made some
important moves towards the stronger cooperation with Russia, which
was something unacceptable for Washington's hawks. Not only for
geopolitical reasons, but also because Argentina could escape from
the vulture funds that sucking its blood since its default. This
would give the country an alternative to the neoliberal monopoly of
destruction. The US big banks and corporations would never accept
such a perspective because the debt-enslaved Argentina is a golden
opportunity for a new round of huge profits. It's happening
right now
in eurozone's debt colony, Greece.
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