[News] Latin America Tells Bush to "Get Out!"
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Mon Mar 26 13:30:03 EDT 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/fuentes03262007.html
March 26, 2007
Continental Unity
Latin America Tells Bush to "Get Out!"
By FREDERICO FUENTES
Shortly before leaving to inspect what was once viewed as the US's
backyard, US President George Bush told a March 5 event organised by
the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "I want to talk about [an]
important priority for our country, and that is helping our
neighbours to the south of us build a better and productive life".
Explaining that he was embarking on a trip to Brazil, Uruguay,
Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, Bush said: "These are countries that
are part of a region that has made great strides toward freedom and
prosperity. They've raised up new democracies, They've enhanced and
undertaken fiscal policies that bring stability.
"Yet, despite the advance, tens of millions in our hemisphere remain
stuck in poverty, and shut off from the promises of the new century.
My message to those trabajadores y campesinos [workers and peasants]
is, you have a friend in the United States of America. We care about
your plight."
Those present responded with a round of applause. Yet unsurprisingly,
the reaction to Bush south of the border left no-one in Washington
doubting that the neighbours are revolting.
In Brazil, Bush proposed that President Luis Inacio "Lula" da Silva
join forces to create a new ethanol alliance, given that the two
countries produce 70% of the planet's supply between them. However
Lula's request for a reduction in tariffs on ethanol and agricultural
products going into the US was rebuffed.
Lula responded by declaring, "We want to maintain this historic
relation without us renouncing our greater commitment, which is this
whole process of the strengthening of Mercosur [the Common Market of
the South], the construction of the Community of South American
Nations and the process of integration that we are engaged in."
Meanwhile, tens of thousands took to the streets of Sao Paulo to say
"Bush, get out!"
'War criminal'
In Uruguay, not wanting to spoil his photo opportunities, Bush met
with Uruguayan President Tabare Vasquez in a tiny tourist resort,
well away from the massive demonstrations in the capital that
denounced the presence of a "killer" and "war criminal".
While the Frente Amplio government is generally referred to as part
of the rise of leftist governments in the region, a demobilised
population, along with a rightward shift internally within the FA and
conflicts with Argentina over the proposed construction of a paper
mill on their shared border seem to be pushing Uruguay into the orbit
of the US. Yet Bush didn't leave with much apart from some nice
photos of his barbeque in Colonia.
Even in Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, where the host governments
are more firmly in the pocket of the US, Bush did not get the desired
response. Focussing his intervention on defending the wall of shame
being built to keep out Mexicans and others who want to cross the
border to the US, and the forced deportation of more than 18,000
immigrants last year (780,000 Guatemalans are currently living and
working without proper documentation in the US), Bush managed to put
the locals offside--so much so that the after visiting a Mayan
temple, the indigenous people carried out a cleansing ritual to warn
off evil spirits.
This chain of events led Eduardo Dimas to write in Progreso Weekly,
"Whenever the United States experiences a failure in its policy
toward Latin America--and recently it has suffered plenty--experts,
analysts and observers immediately begin to make statements to the
effect that the problem is that the US government does not have a
defined, 'delineated' policy toward the region."
Yet according to Dimas, this view is wrong: "There is a policy toward
Latin America, but it is an absolutely absurd one, overtaken long ago
by events and time. Except for a few moments in history, the region
was the 'safe backyard' where US administrations could do and undo at will.
"The scheme of domination for the past 60 years--and even before--and
the links of dependency between the Latin American oligarchies and
the Empire have been overtaken by the reality they themselves created
and perhaps do not understand.
"The truth is that many changes have occurred in Latin America in
recent times, to the degree that the economic and social situation
has awakened people, made them understand what their interests are,
and--in some countries more, in some, less--that awakening has led to
new nationalist or progressive, or openly leftist and socialist governments."
New plan of action
This new situation was symbolised by the visit by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez to Argentina--on the other side of the river to
Colonia--the same day that Bush was in Uruguay. Addressing a mass
rally at the Ferro Stadium, Chavez asked which direction the border
was and, along with 40,000 others, turned to face it and shout
"Gringo, go home!"
Luis Bilbao wrote in America XXI that the rejection of Bush's tour
"was not only manifested in the generalised rejection by the people",
which he said would multiply if Washington decided to attack Iran.
"Now, the anti-imperialist clamor has a program and plan of action:
the program of the Bolivarian revolution and the project of South
American unity, which take form through the voice of the Venezuelan
president."
Writing about this new situation for the Canadian Socialist Voice,
John Riddell commented that "Mass movements marked by a clear class
polarization have given rise to governments that preside over a
capitalist state and take measures for structural reform within
capitalism. Such governments vary enormously in character. Some are
prone to cave in to the pressures of imperialism and local
pro-imperialist sectors. To some degree, and in some countries, there
has been a shift in the locus of action from the streets to government.
"But the development as a whole is not a step backward. Rather, the
counterattack against neoliberalism is profoundly progressive Above
all, Latin American countries are asserting and realizing their
sovereignty against foreign domination. The Empire has been forced
into retreat. Improved conditions are being won for national economic
development. Even if this process does not go beyond capitalism, it
creates better conditions of life and struggle for working people and
deserves wholehearted support by socialists everywhere."
Continental unity
Today in Latin America, the unfolding rebellion is taking the form of
a movement towards continental unity, which Bush's tour was aimed at
countering. While the struggle may not be one for socialism in the
first instance, the Venezuelan revolution, which has explicitly made
socialism its goal, shows how these rebellions against imperialism
and its local quislings can develop into open confrontation with the
capitalist system. As they do, those leading the struggles are forced
to decide which side of the class divide they are on.
Projects such as the Bank of the South, Petrosur, the strengthening
of Mercosur and its incorporation of new member countries, while far
from socialist, shift the balance of forces in favour of the
oppressed nations against imperialism. They can help create the
conditions for the popular movements to strengthen their
anti-imperialist consciousness and pursue more audacious objectives.
That is why, as Alberto Muller Rojas, who from retirement was
reinstated by Chavez as an active general in the Venezuelan army and
is now also on the committee to help set up Venezuela's new unified
socialist party, wrote on March 3: "The objective of the Yankees is
to hold back the process of South American integration, whose final
result depends on the alliance between Argentina and Brazil. That is
what presents a threat to the empire.
"The hostility of the neoconservatives to the Caracas regime is only
an indirect maneuver to impede the political unification of the
subcontinent, made effective by the catalysing role that [the
Venezuelan] government plays, which has allowed the acceleration of
this dynamic ... [This] offers the possibility of converting the
region, at least as it is known today, into a grand autonomous
participant in the international system."
Venezuela is showing today--as Cuba has for the past six
decades--that only socialism can present a real future for this
movement. Each step forward in this direction deserves our support
and solidarity.
Frederico Fuentes writes for Australia's
<http://www.greenleft.org.au/>Green Left Weekly. He can be reached
at: <mailto:fred.fuentes at gmail.com>fred.fuentes at gmail.com
The Freedom Archives
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