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The Pentagon/SouthCom (um, "U.S. Southern Command") has a plan for "full spectrum" U.S. military activities in Latin America, to deal with "drug traffickers," "terrorists" and "countries hostile to the United States" (--uncovered by Evo Golinger). Many parts of this plan have already been put in place--including U.S. military bases and "forward operating locations" in Colombia, Honduras, Panama, on the Dutch islands right off Venezuela's oil coast and other places, and the reconstituted U.S. 4th Fleet in the Caribbean, which Brazil's president has stated is "a threat to Brazil's oil" (everybody south of the border knows that it is a threat to Venezuela's).
The many new leftist governments in Latin America have resisted these U.S. war assets being put in place. Ecuador, for instance, threw the U.S. military out of its base at Manta, Ecuador, last year; Bolivia threw the U.S. ambassador and the DEA out of Bolivia; Paraguay recently refused any U.S. boots on the ground in their country; and all hell broke loose, last year, over a secretly negotiated U.S./Colombia military agreement for U.S. military presence at SEVEN more bases in Colombia (among other things). Latin America has also strongly resisted demonization of Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders. When the Bushwhacks sent down their dictate that Latin American leaders must "isolate" Chavez (circa 2006), Nestor Kirchner, then president of Argentina, replied, "But he's my brother!"
That spirit has set Latin America on a course of independence, sovereignty and the forging of collective strength against U.S. interference, and, as Evo Morales recently said, the leftist democracy movement is "3 for 1." Honduras was lost to a U.S.-supported coup (in which the U.S. military base in Honduras played a role), but Venezuelan, Bolivian and Ecuadoran democracy still stands, despite on-going U.S. efforts and special ops to topple them. (--coup attempt in Venezuela in 2002, and several subsequent coup plots in Venezuela, military attack on Ecuador in 2008 and coup attempt in 2010, and coup attempt in Bolivia in 2008, funded and organized right out of the U.S. embassy.)
Brazil proposed a "common defense" within the context of UNASUR (a new EU-style prototype organization/common market). All South American countries belong to UNASUR, which means that Colombia (a U.S. client state) can act to further U.S. interests. They did so on Brazil's "common defense" proposal, putting roadblocks in the way of its success. So countries still have to act individually, with bilateral agreements, in order to have coordination of their defense capabilities, should the need for defending each other arise.
UNASUR has shown itself extremely capable of political action in two coup attempts--Bolivia, 2008, and Ecuador, 2010. In the case of Bolivia, instant, unanimous action was critically important to stopping the U.S.-aided white separatist insurrection. And UNASUR was poised for action this year, when disloyal police/military forces in Ecuador--in cahoots with rightwing politicians likely on the CIA payroll --threatened, abused and kidnapped the president. Loyal forces prevailed and Ecuador is now stabilized. But what happens when political action and economic action (also a factor in putting down the Bolivian coup) fail to save a democracy?
They all tried hard on Honduras--and are still trying--to force the coup government out and restore constitutional order. But no formal defense pact exists--even in South America, let alone in Central America--to deal with such a situation, especially in a U.S. client state with the U.S. military on the ground and colluding in the coup. The U.S./Colombia bombing/raid on Ecuador occurred just prior (March 2008) to the formalization of UNASUR (summer 2008), and no doubt accelerated getting that organization off the ground. It was immediately activated a few months later (September 2008) to deal with the U.S. coup attempt in Bolivia. But it had no collective military clout, and still doesn't--that is, the ability to put together a peacekeeper force.
This is the dilemma of Latin American countries and Latin America as a region. These are overwhelmingly peaceful countries that find themselves under attack from the U.S. in various ways and in danger of a U.S. military attack given the U.S. military buildup in the region, wherever it can get boots on the ground under the guise of the U.S. "war on drugs." (This even includes Costa Rica, recently, a supposed demilitarized country, where big U.S. military maneuvers have now occurred.)
The U.S. military is both enforcer of U.S. "free trade for the rich," as in Honduras (where one of the main issues was President Zelaya's raising of the minimum wage against the wishes of U.S. multinationals) AND an outright threat of violence, whether by proxy (Colombia's attack on Ecuador and threatened attack on Venezuela) or direct U.S. war, likely using some "Gulf of Tonkin"-type excuse (as the former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, was so actively trying to trump up, against Venezuela). (It is a very dangerous thing to have U.S. military personnel or U.S. 'contractors' anywhere near the Colombia/Venezuela or Colombia/Ecuador borders, because, if Colombia were to pursue FARC guerrillas across the border into those countries, or if it were pretending to do so--as with the incursion into Ecuador in 2008--Venezuelan or Ecuadoran troops could be shooting at Americans, and that could ignite a U.S.-involved regional war.)
The U.S. "war on drugs," in addition to being a war profiteer boondoggle and an excuse to militarize the region (in support of fascist objectives), has fostered utter mayhem in several countries--notably in Colombia and Mexico. Colombia is CLEARLY using "the war of drugs" billions of dollars, shoveled into the military from U.S. taxpayers' pockets, for mass murder of human rights advocates, trade unionists, political leftists, peasant farmers and others opposed to fascist government. In Mexico, the political goal is not yet so clear, but I think we are only in the preliminary stages of the ruination of a society and a democracy by the "war on drugs." The extension of the war to the political left will be next.
The only defense that Latin American countries have for this kind of internal destabilization--"war on drugs" destabilization--is to elect leftist governments who won't permit it and have the cajones to throw the U.S. military and the DEA out. The U.S. will try every rotten dirty trick in the book to prevent that. But it IS possible to do it--contingent upon hard civic work on creating an honest election system--as several Latin American countries have now demonstrated. Colombia isn't even close to being able to do that. Mexico has more of a chance, but their last presidential election was likely stolen by rightwing/pro-U.S. "war on drugs" forces. They need to look to their election system.
Colombia remains a great danger to the region, as well as being an extremely unsafe place for the poor majority and their advocates. The government has been TARGETING the poor and their advocates with U.S. "war on drugs" money and direct military support. I don't see this changing in the near future. The U.S.--which is clinging to Colombia as to a "life raft" in a sea of leftist democracy--will not permit it. It has already insulted and demeaned Colombia's justice system, with egregious actions to protect Bush Cartel pet, Uribe, from prosecution for his many crimes in Colombia. It will simply NOT permit a leftist to win Colombia's presidency, and the fascist elite is so corrupt, powerful, entrenched and murderous, that a leftist dare not even run. It could take not decades but centuries for Colombia to become democratic.
To get back to the OP, this is why unified action by Latin American countries to protect each other's sovereignty is so important, and why bi- and multi-lateral efforts, such as Ecuador's, are so important as an interim measure. They are under an on-going, multifaceted threat from our multinational corporations and war profiteer rulers and their lackeys in our government.
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