[News] Chomsky - Latin America and Asia are Breaking Free

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/

March 15, 2006


The Crumbling Empire


Latin America and Asia are Breaking Free of Washington's Grip

By NOAM CHOMSKY

The prospect that Europe and Asia might move 
towards greater independence has troubled US 
planners since the second world war. The concerns 
have only risen as the "tripolar order"--Europe, 
North America and Asia--has continued to evolve.

Every day Latin America, too, is becoming more 
independent. Now Asia and the Americas are 
strengthening their ties while the reigning 
superpower, the odd man out, consumes itself in 
misadventures in the Middle East.

Regional integration in Asia and Latin America is 
a crucial and increasingly important issue that, 
from Washington's perspective, betokens a defiant 
world gone out of control. Energy, of course, 
remains a defining factor--the object of contention--everywhere.

China, unlike Europe, refuses to be intimidated 
by Washington, a primary reason for the fear of 
China by US planners, which presents a dilemma: 
steps toward confrontation are inhibited by US 
corporate reliance on China as an export platform 
and growing market, as well as by China's 
financial reserves--reported to be approaching Japan's in scale.

In January, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah visited 
Beijing, which is expected to lead to a 
Sino-Saudi memorandum of understanding calling 
for "increased cooperation and investment between 
the two countries in oil, natural gas and 
investment", the Wall Street Journal reports.

Already much of Iran's oil goes to China, and 
China is providing Iran with weapons that both 
states presumably regard as deterrent to US 
designs. India also has options. India may choose 
to be a US client, or it may prefer to join the 
more independent Asian bloc that is taking shape, 
with ever more ties to Middle East oil producers. 
Siddharth Varadarjan, the deputy editor of the 
Hindu, observes that "if the 21st century is to 
be an 'Asian century,' Asia's passivity in the energy sector has to end".

The key is India-China cooperation. In January, 
an agreement signed in Beijing "cleared the way 
for India and China to collaborate not only in 
technology but also in hydrocarbon exploration 
and production, a partnership that could 
eventually alter fundamental equations in the 
world's oil and natural gas sector", Varadarjan points out.

An additional step, already being contemplated, 
is an Asian oil market trading in euros. The 
impact on the international financial system and 
the balance of global power could be significant. 
It should be no surprise that President Bush paid 
a recent visit to try to keep India in the fold, 
offering nuclear cooperation and other inducements as a lure.

Meanwhile, in Latin America left-centre 
governments prevail from Venezuela to Argentina. 
The indigenous populations have become much more 
active and influential, particularly in Bolivia 
and Ecuador, where they either want oil and gas 
to be domestically controlled or, in some cases, oppose production altogether.

Many indigenous people apparently do not see any 
reason why their lives, societies and cultures 
should be disrupted or destroyed so that New 
Yorkers can sit in their SUVs in traffic gridlock.

Venezuela, the leading oil exporter in the 
hemisphere, has forged probably the closest 
relations with China of any Latin American 
country, and is planning to sell increasing 
amounts of oil to China as part of its effort to 
reduce dependence on the openly hostile US government.

Venezuela has joined Mercosur, the South American 
customs union--a move described by Nestor 
Kirchner, the Argentinian president, as "a 
milestone" in the development of this trading 
bloc, and welcomed as a "new chapter in our 
integration" by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president.

Venezuela, apart from supplying Argentina with 
fuel oil, bought almost a third of Argentinian 
debt issued in 2005, one element of a region-wide 
effort to free the countries from the controls of 
the IMF after two decades of disastrous 
conformity to the rules imposed by the 
US-dominated international financial institutions.

Steps toward Southern Cone [the southern states 
of South America] integration advanced further in 
December with the election in Bolivia of Evo 
Morales, the country's first indigenous 
president. Morales moved quickly to reach a 
series of energy accords with Venezuela. The 
Financial Times reported that these "are expected 
to underpin forthcoming radical reforms to 
Bolivia's economy and energy sector" with its 
huge gas reserves, second only to Venezuela's in South America.

Cuba-Venezuela relations are becoming ever 
closer, each relying on its comparative 
advantage. Venezuela is providing low-cost oil, 
while in return Cuba organises literacy and 
health programmes, sending thousands of highly 
skilled professionals, teachers and doctors, who 
work in the poorest and most neglected areas, as 
they do elsewhere in the third world.

Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed 
elsewhere. One of the most horrendous tragedies 
of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan 
last October. Besides the huge death toll, 
unknown numbers of survivors have to face brutal 
winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.

"Cuba has provided the largest contingent of 
doctors and paramedics to Pakistan," paying all 
the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), 
writes John Cherian in India's Frontline 
magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed 
his "deep gratitude" to Fidel Castro for the 
"spirit and compassion" of the Cuban medical 
teams--reported to comprise more than 1,000 
trained personnel, 44% of them women, who 
remained to work in remote mountain villages, 
"living in tents in freezing weather and in an 
alien culture", after western aid teams had been withdrawn.

Growing popular movements, primarily in the south 
but with increasing participation in the rich 
industrial countries, are serving as the bases 
for many of these developments towards more 
independence and concern for the needs of the great majority of the population.

© Noam Chomsky


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