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And that is what this is all about--the sovereignty of Latin American countries and their right to make their own decisions on economic and other policy (on Cuba, for instance, where they almost all differ from the U.S., including Mexico which recognized the Castro government long ago).
I caught an interesting news bit about Calderon that wasn't widely reported (or reported at all) here. Back in March 2006, Bush Jr did a "tour" of selected Latin American countries and when he arrived in Mexico, Calderon's welcoming speech included a public lecture of Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and he cited Venezuela as an example. Frankly, I was floored. It told me a number of things--that the plot that we had heard bits and pieces of, to try another coup in Venezuela around the 2006 election--which included a false poll by Mark Penn's polling firm (a top Clinton adviser), which was to be the trigger for rightwing riots when Chavez won--that this plot was probably being talked about by Latin American leaders. (Chavez won big, in a transparent election system, and the plot disintegrated.) Penn & Schoen got exposed, and Penn had to go straighten things out and shed his partner. There was also an assassination plot out of Colombia, but more than likely planned in Washington, against Chavez, during this period. (The Colombian paramilitaries were caught in Venezuela.) I don't think Calderon was talking about the 2002 coup attempt. I think he was talking about something that had just happened or been exposed--fresh on his mind. Really, I was astounded that a rightwing prez of Mexico, whom the Bushwhacks probably helped to steal that very close election--more than likely in exchange for his promise to privatize Mexico's oil (which he hasn't been able to do)--would say this to Bush in public.
Then another thing came up, a bit later. The Bushwhacks larded Mexico with some multi-billion dollar U.S. 'war on drugs' boondoggle, and Calderon made a point of including Mexican sovereignty over the funds and operations. Basically, he didn't want DEA agents running around Mexico. And when the project became, literally, a "war," and hundreds of people started to get killed, Calderon's head of the anti-drug plan quit, and said that this militarized approach to drug trafficking was a failure. Some elder statesmen then issued a statement calling for the decriminalization of marijuana. In both cases, the initial funding, and the quick recognition of the failure of the U.S. "war on drugs" and departure from U.S. policy, had sovereignty as the issue behind the issue. Indeed, sovereignty is the issue behind the issue on Mexico's oil, which is a protected resource in the Constitution and belongs to the people of Mexico, who are putting up a mighty battle to keep it that way.
I learned a lot following these stories. The issue behind the issue, on a lot of things related to the U.S., is the years of savage exploitation and insulting domination by the U.S. against Latin American countries. The Reaganites and the Bushwhacks are the worst offenders, but generally U.S. policy has been very, very bad--criminal, murderous, anti-democratic, and furthermore contemptuous. In fact, I think this is the "hook" that Chavez has tried to use to reel in Alvaro Uribe--to get him to be more cooperative on Latin American integration, and to pull him away from U.S. war planners--that, no matter how cozy you think you are with the Big Powers in Washington, they have nothing but contempt for you. You are Latino. They are "yanqis." He has tried to appeal to Uribe's Latin American pride--probably a lost cause, but I've seen some evidence that that has been Chavez's tack at times--in fact, he did it again, recently, with regard to the U.S./Colombian military agreement, which sells Colombia's sovereignty to the Pentagon. Chavez said that it is a sovereignty issue (and so have others). The agreement not only invites Pentagon occupation of seven military bases in Colombia, and not only grants them use of all civilian airports and other infrastructure, it formalizes total diplomatic immunity for U.S. soldiers and U.S. 'contractors.' So Colombia will have a foreign army, navy and airforce all over the country, with no remedy for Colombians if the Americans start killing Colombians or commit other crimes against them.
In any case, we are not used to this issue--sovereignty--here. It has been deleted from our public discourse by the corpo-fascist press, because, as we know, multinational corporations and war profiteers are the sovereigns here now, and not "the people." Also, the U.S. has never before had a sovereignty problem. We are big. We are well-armed, staggeringly well-armed. We have pretty much called the shots around the world since WW II. So, for instance, an oil corp from France or England couldn't come here and dictate terms to our government for extracting our oil or other resources--unless our government was toadying to them for some reason (as the Bushwhacks were toadying to the UAE sheiks on their purchase of U.S. ports--but you notice the fuss that caused, and they quickly dropped it). But this is how, say, Exxon Mobil has treated Venezuela (until the Chavez government)--they walk in, like "God's gift" to Latin America, and dictate this and dictate that, take all the oil profits and do what they damn please, including vast pollution. Or Chiquita in Honduras. President Zeyala raises the minimum wage, in one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and guess what? Before he knows it, he is kidnapped and put on a plane out of the country, which stops at the U.S. military base in Honduras for refueling. That's what the U.S. thinks of Latin American presidents--disposable, deposable, expendable. And they will probably do something like this--or worse--to Uribe, when he has outlived his usefulness (which may be soon).
Sovereignty is IMPORTANT to Latin American countries, leaders and peoples. They have not had a lot of respect from the U.S., and, with their vast resources, they are finding it much better to be dealt with as equals by the countries and corporations that do have respect. Venezuela just signed big oil deals with eight corporations from as many countries, and only one of them was a U.S. corp. Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador--all the countries with desired resources--are finding it much more amenable to deal with other countries than the U.S. What a sad irony that Obama promised them "respect," and gave them the Honduran coup instead. (--and promised them "peace," and gave them the U.S./Colombia military agreement; and promised them "cooperation," and they have gotten "divide and conquer" tactics, and bullying and strongarming instead.)
So, they look at Mel Zelaya and say "But for the grace of God"--or but for the grace of Latin American unity--"there go I." No matter who you are. Right. Left. Center. You are nobody in Washington DC.
I think Calderon has some genuine attachment to Mexican sovereignty--despite his obvious corruption and toadying to U.S. corporate rulers and war profiteers. Few people are all black or white. Most are mixed bags of motives and passions. The two things can reside in the same soul. Also, he's under terrific pressure from the Left. They came within a hairsbreadth of winning the last presidential election. And the Leftist legislature has been blockading the oil privatization scheme. Mexicans are very protective of their sovereignty. If nothing else, he has to pretend to be a patriot. But I don't think it's all pretense.
In addition to the sovereignty issue, I think that the awful, illegal, genocidal Iraq War also helped end whatever cache the U.S. had in Latin America. They don't want to be associated with the U.S. on the world scene. They had hoped that things would be different with Obama. But now there is Afghanistan. And I think it's likely that a lot of Latin Americans are saying, "But for the grace of God"--or but for the grace of Latin American unity--"there go we." What's to stop the Pentagon plans for "full spectrum" military activity in Latin America, now that it has such a big foothold in Colombia? What's to stop an oil war in Latin America? What's to stop on-going U.S. psyops, disinformation, dirty tricks, destabilization schemes and USAID funding of rightwing groups (including coup groups who might not restrict their targets to leftists but also to moderate rightists or centrists)? What's to stop the U.S. from repeating Honduras in country after country? (Mel Zelaya was only a moderate reformer!)
There are moral and humanitarian objections to the U.S. wars. But there is also fear. The U.S., under Obama, has changed very little. The mechanisms of oppression and the motives for oppression, against Latin Americans, are still there. Chavez said, of Obama, that he "is the prisoner of the Pentagon," and I think that is not far off the mark. (I would add the prisoner of the DLC and ES&S.) In short, they have no reason to trust the U.S. Nothing much has changed. And I am very, very glad that they recognize this and are proceeding with creation of their unity group.
This will all be blamed on Obama, of course--in the "failure" narrative that the corpo-fascist press is already writing, to accompany Stolen Election Six in 2012. Previous stolen elections: 2000--by the Supreme Court; 2002--at least Georgia U.S. Senate, by Diebold; 2004--Bush-Cheney and senators, by Diebold & Rove; 2006--the (s)election of "Blue Dogs" and Pukes, mostly Diebold's doing; 2008--the (s)election of more "Blue Dogs" and Pukes. Obama I think was actually elected, by a bigger margin than we know. but was also permitted to be elected--had made deals not to be Diebolded. 2012 will likely be stolen, and the culprit will be ES&S, which just bought out Diebold, and now has an 85% monopoly on America's 'TRADE SECRET' voting system. ES&S is worse than Diebold as to far rightwing connections.
Latin American cannot count on "peace, respect and cooperation" from the Obama administration, and they can count even less on whoever the corporate rulers may decide to install here next. They are on their own, and I am glad that they realize it.
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