"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.htmlThis is a matter that goes way beyond the privatization of Mexico's oil, and the impact of that on union labor and on Mexico's sovereignty, as important as those issues are. Rumsfeld & co. have been denied easy pickins of Mideast oil, with the civil war in Iraq and China's and Russia's (and possibly the U.S. military) blockade of their plans to selectively nuke Iran. They are desperate for more oil, and the ungodly wealth and power it brings them, so they are now looking at South America, and the rich oil fields in the Andes region that are now controlled by leftist democracies, which believe in using a country's resources to help the people who live there. Rumsfeld calls for economic warfare against Venezuela--the strongest leader of the Bolivarian democracies--and Exxon Mobil has answered that call, recently, by seeking to freeze $12 billion of Venezuela's assets, in a dispute over Venezuela's 60% share of its own oil (--a deal that Norway's Statoil, France's Total, British BP, Conoco and even Chevron consider reasonable).
I believe Exxon Mobil's purpose is not to recover the $1.2 billion that it thinks the Venezuelan poor owe them, but rather destabilization and weakening of Venezuela--a la Rumsfeld's war plan--preparatory to a preliminary move, probably first against Bolivia, with the ultimate goal of controlling ALL the oil and other resources of the Andes region, and reinstallation of rightwing/fascist regimes that will serve global corporate predator interests--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, especially. Venezuela and Ecuador have lots and lots oil and are members of OPEC. Argentina is their close ally, and also there was a recent big oil find in Argentina, making Argentina a resource war target as well.
Bolivia has some oil, and mostly gas reserves. These are concentrated in Bolivia's rural provinces, where the rich landowners have started a separatist movement--no doubt abetted by Bush/U.S. money and other support--to split the resource-rich rural provinces off the central government of Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a big majority indigenous country), and a Chavez ally, to deny benefit of the oil/gas resource to the vast poor indigenous population in the urban areas.
Bolivia is less further along in the reform process than Venezuela is, and is less stable. The Bush Junta has been trying to topple the elected government of Hugo Chavez at least since 2002, when they supported a violent rightwing military coup attempt, and they have failed every time. Chavez was re-elected, in highly transparent elections, with 63% of the vote in 2006, and enjoys a 70% approval rating. Evo Morales also has high approval numbers, but hasn't been able, yet, to achieve constitutional reform against a very entrenched and corrupt rightwing elite. The rightwing is using the separatist movement to sabotage the constitutional assemblies, and to retard reform as long as possible. There has been a lot of rightwing violence in Bolivia. The rich rural landowners have militias and kill and intimidate poor indigenous farmers who attempt political or union organization. That's why so many have fled to the cities. And Bolivia's ruling elite has a very ugly history of racism. As Judi Lynn has pointed out, as late as the 1950s, the indigenous were not permitted to walk on the sidewalks. And the rightwing elite imported white South Africans to try to boost their numbers.
Fallow ground to the likes of Rumsfeld. Encourage racial hatred and greed. Provide funds and guns. Get things stirred up. And if Evo Morales reacts to hold the country together, have this rightwing faction declare its "independence" and ask for U.S. support. Maybe even draw Chavez and Venezuela into the fray, in defense of Bolivia and the Morales government. Create chaos. Grab the resources. And plot further hostilities, from this new rightwing enclave in the heart of the Bolivarian revolution.
I think we had better be prepared for something along these lines--major trouble stirred up, led and funded by the Bush Junta in South America, and even U.S. military intervention. Rumsfeld urges "swift" U.S. action in support of "friends and allies" in South America. Whatever can he mean, except support of fascist thugs planning coups?
As for Mexico, I do think that the Bushites had a hand in the stolen Mexican presidential election, which leftist Lopez Obrador lost by a hair (0.05%). The trend in Latin America is overwhelmingly leftist (majorityist). Leftist governments have been elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua, and we will likely see another one, Paraguay, this year, and Guatemala elected its first progressive government, ever, this year (not leftist, but a big improvement). Most of these governments are strongly allied with each other, due in no small part to Chavez's leadership. It is only a matter of time before Mexico's overwhelmingly poor and leftist population achieves the grass roots organization to prevent election theft. Most of Latin American has achieved this--transparent elections. And the main
reason for the Bushite election theft in Mexico is, of course, to control the oil. (A related reason is the militarization of Mexico, and support of its fascist elite, through the "war on drugs" boondoggle--Darth Vader cops and weapons to suppress social movements like Lopez Obrador's, and like the year-long revolt in Oaxaca led by the teachers' union that was stomped on by the federal police, just after Calderon was (s)elected.)
Mexicans have gotten an extremely raw deal from "free trade" and Bush Junta interference. Millions of small farmers have lost their land, and can't feed their families or communities, and have migrated to the cities and shantytown squalor. We see the same pattern all over Latin America. And it is the heart of the illegal immigration "problem." Global corporate predators have devastated these countries, and have impoverished multi-millions. And corn biofuel production is now raising the price of corn tortillas, a basic food. The situation is very volatile, and if Mexicans can't count on some sort of help from their oil profits--if those are sold away by the Calderon government--we may well see another bloody revolution in Mexico. Mexico's oil profits--like Venezuela's, Bolivia's, Ecuador's and Argentina's--should rightfully be used to bootstrap this vast poor population. This is simple justice. Exxon Mobil and Donald Rumsfeld making more ungodly profit is something akin to pure evil, in this situation. They are almost literally taking the food out of the mouths of starving babies, in their efforts to deprive these countries of one of their few resources, by violence, by stealth, by coup, by election theft, by kneecapping and bribery, by economic warfare, and/or by outright war.
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