From Che to Chavez: Latin America revolts against the empire
Stuart Munckton The February 12
Sydney Morning Herald ran an article by David Segal entitled “Viva Che, the comandante of capitalism”, which argued that the widespread use of Che’s iconic image by corporations to sell products amounts to the “nails in Che’s coffin”. The revolutionary ideals Che fought for are dead, Segal argued; “capitalism won”.
Someone must have forgotten to tell this to the impoverished workers and peasants across Latin America, who have probably never heard of — and couldn’t afford anyway — Magnum’s “Cherry Guevara” ice-creams. Clearly Morales never got the message. Asking for a minute’s silence for Che and “the millions of human beings who have fallen in all of Latin America”, Morales said in his inauguration speech that the struggle he is leading is “a continuation of the fight of Che Guevara”.
In recent years several pro-US and pro-corporate governments have been brought down by popular revolt in Latin America, and a growing number of governments have been elected on platforms that challenge Washington-pushed neoliberal policies. An opinion piece in the February 13 LA Times by Niall Ferguson argued that “while the United States has become fixated on the Muslim world, a region much closer to home has been quietly spinning out of American control”.
The increasing isolation of the US in the region was demonstrated at the Summit of the Americas meeting in November, where the US failed to force through its key project for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would further expose the continent to domination and exploitation by US corporations.
In the 1980s and ’90s, the US and international financial institutions forced severe neoliberal policies onto Latin America, impoverishing millions of people.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/657/657p24.htm
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