Cubadebate (English) » Latin America

The United States “is ruining” economies in the world, accuses Petro

Cubadebate — Thu, 20 Oct 2022 14:46:30 +0000

The United States “is ruining” economies around the world, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Thursday, given the strong devaluation of the local currency against the dollar as a consequence, according to the president, of Washington’s economic policy.

Petro, the first left-wing president of Colombia, predicted a global crisis due to the “stagnation” of activity and what he called the “gas war” in Europe, after the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“The United States is practically ruining all the economies of the world”, he launched during a meeting with authorities and communities in the town of Turbo (northwest).

According to Petro, the countries are threatened by recession and “the high interest rate” set by the US Federal Reserve (FED), which attracts “capital from South American countries.”

“In the United States, decisions are made to protect themselves, sometimes without thinking about what will happen through their measures. The economy of Latin American nations is being emptied (…) Our currencies are all falling, not just the Colombian peso”, he added.

Inflation is hitting the economies of the world, mainly those of poor and developing countries.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve (FED) has increased the reference rates to face the rise in prices in a range between 3-3.25%.

As a result, the Colombian debt in dollars could skyrocket and at the same time a capital flight could take place due to the prospect of investors of a higher profit.

In Colombia, the green ticket is quoted at 4,700 pesos per dollar, a figure never seen before. So far this year, the Colombian currency has depreciated by 16% against the dollar, according to estimates by several analysts.

President Petro called on the governments of the region to “establish a common agenda to defend Latin America from the global crisis that is coming.”

(Taken from El Comercio)

Latin America in intensive care

Cubadebate — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 23:01:06 +0000

The health crisis generated by the pandemic continues unchecked in Latin America, where corruption is rampant in the distribution of vaccines; insufficient health coverage is the norm; institutions are overwhelmed; and personnel on the front lines fighting COVID lack basic protective equipment.

The region reports 45.6 million infections and one million deaths. In 23 countries vaccination plans have been developed, while efforts have begun in Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Chile, Bolivia and Brazil, although inequitable distribution has been condemned, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

In Ecuador, the National Assembly approved the dismissal of Health Minister Juan Carlos Zevallos, and the initiation of impeachment proceedings as a result of his mismanagement of the national COVID-19 vaccination plan. The minister is accused of prioritizing his relatives and a private nursing home in Quito, disregarding the list of public hospitals prepared by the Ministry of Health.

Likewise, police are investigating a clandestine clinic to the south of Quito, where an unknown substance has been distributed as a vaccine against the coronavirus, at a cost of 15 USD per dose.

Brazilian Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello is also being investigated by the Federal Supreme Court, to determine responsibility for the lack of oxygen, desperately needed to treat COVID-19 patients, in the state of Amazonas, principally in the capital, Manaus.

This Brazilian state experienced two weeks of total collapse of its services, with an insufficient number of beds available and no plan to refer patients to other cities. Also under investigation is the use of 120,000 units of hydroxychloroquine to treat the disease, although no scientific evidence of its effectiveness exists.

In the wake of these scandals, the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro is being considered, based on his irresponsibility and negligence. Faced with the government’s passivity in the face of the epidemic, the coalitions Brasil Popular and Pueblo sin miedo organized 87 mobilizations throughout the country to demand the President’s resignation.

Colombia’s situation is grim as well, with intensive care units reaching a 90% occupation rate, mostly COVID-19 patients. Health workers are exhausted and protective biosecurity equipment, medicines and supplies for the care of critical patients are in short supply. The government and President Iván Duque have responded with silence and ambiguous speeches.

According to the Chilean Ministry of Health, only 192 beds are available nationwide to treat patients in intensive care, and Minister Enrique Paris stated that the number of infections has recently increased by 6%. In addition, a complaint has been filed against the private clinic CareFullHome, which has charged some 80 USD for PCR tests, reported as negative without performing the necessary molecular study.

This is the panorama faced in many Latin American nations, and it is not yet known how much longer the pandemic will continue to rage.

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean warned, in October of 2020, that the region is experiencing the worst crisis seen in the last 100 years, with major social and economic impact.

(Taken from Granma)

ALBA-TCP, world champion of the just causes, dignity and the right to life

Cubadebate — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 16:43:55 +0000

“We shall prove that there is a solution to many of the planet’s tragedies. We are proving that man can and must better himself. We are proving the value of conscience and ethics.”

With these convinced words of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro, the President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Díaz-CanelBermúdez greeted the 16th anniversary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the America- People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), in his intervention at the 18th Summit of this organization held online.

The Cuban president especially celebrated the return of Bolivia to the Alliance, condemned the US-promoted attempts at destabilization against several countries of Latin America and called for greater unity and cooperation, mainly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the continent.

“By means of a fraternal and diaphanous dialogue, we will coordinate ideas and actions that help us strengthen cooperation, solidarity, unity, integration and the defense of peace in the region,” he said.

Also in favor of strengthening the complementation of the Americas spoke the Heads of State of Venezuela, Dominica, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and representatives of the rest of the state members. In the summit, the members also went over the reactivation of the Economic Council of ALBA, of Sucre as currency of exchange, the reactivation of the cryptocurrency, the strengthening of the bank of ALBA, and the creation of a center for vaccines and medical consumables to treat COVID-19.

“Big challenges lie ahead for ALBA to keep tending to the cooperation and development of our peoplesin an integral way,” said the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, who paid tribute to the memory of Fidel and Chávez as founding fathers of the multinational body, which he described as “world champion of just causes, dignity, the right to life, peace and development.”

An anti-neoliberal, supportive, popular and humanist alternative

The importance of continuing to uphold and promote the principles based on the sovereignty, cooperation, solidarity and Independence of the state members was the common point in the interventions at the 18th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of the America- People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) held online on Monday.

The heads of State and Government of the member states and other representatives confirmed their commitment to strengthen the integration mechanism years after it was created by Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruzand Commander Chávez Frías.

The debate focused mainly on the analysis on the current political situation and the challenges posed by the COVID-19pandemic, as well as the importance of the reincorporation of Bolivia to the bloc. Another reason to celebrate was the victory of the Great Patriotic Pole inVenezuela and the re-elections of Ralph Gonsalves as Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadinesand Timothy Harris as Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis, respectively.

The President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, in his capacity as moderator of the Summit, explained that the decision to create the ALBA-TCP was to provide an anti-neoliberal, supportive, popular and humanist alternative and that the challenges ahead can be faced by means of cooperation and development of the peoples of the Americas.

He added that the ministries of foreign affairs have been working jointly on a set of proposals and documents to enter the year 2021 with greater strength and dynamism. “ALBA is a world champion of just causes, dignity, the right of humankind to life, peace and development.”

The President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega; the prime ministers of Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda; Roosevelt Skerrit, Ralph Gonsalvesand Gaston Browne, respectively, among other representatives, condemned hegemony and advocated for multilateralism, and rejected the coercivemeasures against sovereign nations and the interference of powerful countries in the internal affairs of developing countries. They tanked the support provided by Cuba to the countries of the region and the world in the struggle against COVID-19, and highlighted the importance of ALBA as a political leading force and as a forum to coordinate the courageous and revolutionary standings in the region.

BOLIVIA COMES BACK HOME

The participants in the Summit celebrated the return of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the Alliance. The President of Bolivia Luis Arce said via video message: “We return to the ALBA-TCP and now we reaffirm our commitment to the principles of solidarity, integration, complementarity, mutual respect, justice, equality, respect for cultural diversity and harmony with nature.”

He added that the achievements in more than a decade and half were not easy nor scarce, however, “our duty is to advance to reach the unity of our countries and to carry on the work of our predecessors.” In the current times, it means to take measures that stimulate growth and the strengthening of sovereign and sustainable instruments with humankind at the center. He also emphasized the role of ALBA as an instrument against neoliberalism, submission and exclusion and strengthening it is not an option, but something urgent to do.

MAIN AGREEMENTS

Some of the main agreements made at the Summit included the reactivation of the ALBA’s Economic Council and the Sucre as exchange currency, the activation of cryptocurrency, the strengthening of Petrocaribe and the Bank of the organization that provides financial aid and funds to the state members.

Alba Comunicativawas another of the proposed mechanisms in which the national agendas and common interests would be discussed every two weeks at the level of the ministries of foreign affairs. It was also proposed that the coordination of the Social Bloc of the body was coordinated from Bolivia with the approach that, in order to attain integration, it is necessary to increase the exchange among governments and the peoples.
The creation of a Medicine Bank, namely for vaccines to treat the SARS-COV-2, was a frequent request among the representatives of each delegation and it was decided that Cuba and Venezuela coordinate this project.

The participants voted unanimously for the election of the former minister and former permanent representative of Bolivia to the United Nations Sacha Llorenti as Secretary General of the Alliance. Once elected, Llorenti read the Declaration of the 18th Summit of the ALBA-TCP, where it was vindicated the ideas of the leaders of the independence of Latin America and the Caribbean “as the historical and cultural memory that brings us together in an instrument of unity and development of our people” and declared the Alliance in permanent consultation and activity.
Photocaption:

Translated by ESTI

ALBA-TCP, world champion of the just causes, dignity and the right to life

Ana Laura Palomino and Milagros Pichardo

“We shall prove that there is a solution to many of the planet’s tragedies. We are proving that man can and must better himself. We are proving the value of conscience and ethics.”

BOLIVIA COMES BACK HOME

MAIN AGREEMENTS

The creation of a Medicine Bank, namely for vaccines to treat the SARS-COV-2, was a frequent request among the representatives of each delegation and it was decided that Cuba and Venezuela coordinate this project.

(Taken from Granma)

Cuba to participate in Ministerial Meeting

Cubadebate — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 23:58:33 +0000

Cuba will participate in the Informal Meeting of Foreign Ministers from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held virtually on Dec.24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the island reported today.

In the meeting, the Cuban delegation together with the rest of the delegations will hold talks on the need of a joint response to Covid-19, as well as the use of new information and communication technologies, in that context.

They will also discuss the initiatives to tackle climate change, and post-pandemic multilateral cooperation, which takes into account the different development levels in our nations, the source pointed out.

(Taken from Prensa Latina)

Reaction and revolution in Latin America: the Venezuelan civilian-military union

Cubadebate — Fri, 22 May 2020 14:33:47 +0000

In October 2019, when a wave of protest swept over Chile, President Sebastián Piñera called out the army, invoking the “state of emergency” clause of the Constitution. The image of soldiers in the streets and the enforcement of curfew immediately evoked a dark history. Since then, the majority of the bloody repression has been carried out by the national police, which has been reporting to the military commanders in Santiago, Valparaíso and other cities under the state of emergency.

These situations are oppressive not only for Latin America but also for countries like Canada, where Pinochet remains part of the collective memory handed down by a progressive generation that opposed his horror to its descendants. The experience also remains vivid in the minds of the many Canadians and Quebecers of Chilean origin who had to flee the Pinochet dictatorship.

Simultaneously, in Colombia as in Chile, uprisings and strikes have had to confront the armed forces, either directly or indirectly.

In Brazil, the peoples’ resistance to the right-wing Bolsonaro government has been ubiquitous since he won the 2018 elections, following the imprisonment of his main opponent, Lula da Silva.

In Bolivia, the scenario was different: the United States and its allies, backed by the army, fomented a coup d’état based on the lie that Evo Morales’s election had been fraudulent. It is known that the chief army officials involved in the coup were trained at the School of the Americas in the United States.

The experiences of Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia all stand in stark contrast to that of Venezuela. Indeed, they are poles apart: reaction on the one hand, revolution on the other. It is not that the United States has not attempted to subvert the Venezuelan Armed Forces; indeed, much effort has been expended to try and turn them into a replica of their counterparts in those countries where reaction has dominated. The effort has not succeeded.

What is the explanation? Let us compare these different cases. In an online interview, Claude Morin, a professor retired from the Department of History at the Université de Montréal and possibly the most important Latin Americanist in Quebec, stated that the Colombian army is composed of soldiers trained to fight an insurgency, to kill guerrillas and commit massacres against any communities that may be inclined to support them. The recruits have been conditioned to perform these tasks; that is, to see people and civilians as a threat. The officers have been trained with manuals from the US School of the Americas.

In its fight against the guerrillas, the army has built ties with paramilitary groups and has contracted out assassinations. Under the term of former President Álvaro Uribe, the army received bonuses for killing peasants and then dressing them up as guerrillas (the scandal of the “false positives”). This was “an industry of death carried out in bad faith,” concludes Morin.

Until 1973, the Chilean army was considered faithful to the Constitution. But, with the arrival of the Popular Unity government, US opposition to the democratic socialism of Salvador Allende and the polarization of Chilean society caused the army to side against the government. Pinochet succeeded with his coup d’état and established a radically different military government. The coup plotters purged the army of officers and soldiers who had opposed the coup, and subsequent acts of state terrorism left more than 3,000 dead or disappeared.

The Chilean officer corps has always recruited from the elites, while soldiers have generally come from the working class. “I don’t know the extent to which the army could have been someone’s stepping stone to higher social status,” says Morin, “but I believe that the armed forces have inculcated in working-class recruits an ideology favourable to the elites, the oligarchy and the status quo.”

Moving to Argentina, Morin compares the ideology of national security prevalent during the “dirty war” in that country (1976–1984) with that of Colombia. High-ranking officers were recruited from the oligarchy; anti-Communism was the common factor holding all the factions together. “The unrest in Argentina during the 1960s, the anti-Peronist authorities, a succession of military governments between 1954 (Perón’s overthrow) and 1984 (return of civilian government with Alfonsín), and the ‘dirty war’ created a context of repression of all effective or apprehended protest against the established order, which considered the protesters as subversives.”

As a reader of the Argentine press, Morin concludes that under Macri’s presidency, the officers have been able to show their faces once more, taking their places as a bulwark against a mass uprising.

When the coup took place in Brazil, US Ambassador Gordon egged on the Brazilian officers, and the coup perpetrators were reassured by the presence of US warships off the coast. “The United States and the officials involved were concerned by Goulart’s ties to Cuba and the fact that Che Guevara had been inducted into the Order of the Southern Cross. Here again, anti-Communism came on the scene.”

In a 2003 article, Marta Harnecker states that the Venezuelan military had seven defining features that made it not only different from the ones described above, but almost the polar opposite. It served as a natural growth medium for Chavism.

First, Venezuelan officers and soldiers were profoundly influenced by the ideas and thinking of Simón Bolívar on national and people’s sovereignty. Second, soldiers in Chávez’s day were trained at the Venezuelan Military Academy, not the School of the Americas. Third, the historical conditions were different. Guerrilla insurgency was not a big problem, so indoctrination in the Cold War anti-communist ideology was much less necessary. In fact, when Chávez’s generation entered the academy in 1970, guerrilla activity had already been rooted out. Fourth, the Venezuelan military was not controlled by an elite military caste. Fifth, in 1989, the popular uprising known as the “Caracazo” politicized many lower-ranking officers, making them sympathetic to left-leaning ideas and more hostile to the political elite. Sixth, the decade preceding the Caracazo,characterized by an abrupt rise in socioeconomic inequality, had already begun to radicalize lower-ranking officers. Finally, Chávez’s proposal to restructure the armed forces after his election in 1998 gave them a new purpose and a way to channel the frustrations built up in previous decades.

These characteristics have laid a solid foundation for the consolidation of the Venezuelan civilian-military union and efforts to fend off the continual US-led attempts to overthrow the government, from January 2019 until the present, thus confirming that revolution is winning out over reaction, not only in Venezuela but throughout the region.

(Source: Granma)

Operation Condor: The CIA is not innocent

Cubadebate — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 15:25:46 +0000

Over the years, the CIA has spied on the diplomatic and military communications of hundreds of nations by using encryption machines from a Swiss company owned by the CIA and Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), as revealed by the National Security Archive, an independent research center.

Both the Washington Post and the German public-service television broadcaster (ZDF) have recently published this investigation, with great media impact worldwide, as hundreds of international news agencies reported the news and commented on the information.

It turns out that the Swiss company Crypto AG, owned by the CIA and BND, has for years sold and installed thousands of encryption machines in several nations, including Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, Indonesia and the Philippines, among others.

The encryption machines enabled the CIA to decode, for example, thousands of messages closely related to Operation Condor; the 1973 military coup against the Popular Unity Government in Chile; the 1976 coup in Argentina; the 1976 assassination of former Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier in Washington; the Falklands War; and more than a few others.

According to the National Security Agency, the CIA used Crypto AG’s machines to spy on those implementing Operation Condor – a coordinated extermination plan carried out by several Latin American dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s to eliminate leftist, democratic and revolutionary forces in those nations, They, the executioners, encrypted their communications, “without knowing the United States might be listening.”

The encryption machines used by “Condortel”, Operation Condor’s communications network, were provided by Crypto AG by agreement with the CIA and the repressive governments involved in Operation Condor.

According to The Washington Post and ZDF, the spy project was first known as “Thesaurus”, and then “Rubicon”. The Post pointed out that both the CIA and the U.S. National Security Agency have controlled nearly all aspects of Crypto AG since 1970, in collaboration with BND.

Most of the media outlets, that commented on or simply published the information, put forward the incredible theory that the CIA acquired knowledge of crimes committed by Operation Condor through the spy operation. Referring to either Thesaurus or Rubicon, some went further in their “naiveté” and took up the story that some CIA officials were “frightened” by information regarding the horrors perpetrated by the military dictatorships, and wanted to denounce them.

Did the CIA know about Operation Condor or not?

Plans for repression, the forerunners of Operation Condor, emerged from the School of the Americas and the Conferences of American Armies in the 1960s, where U.S. sponsored “preventive” actions in the region were mapped out, as part of intelligence, psychological and cultural warfare operations conducted under the slogan of “no more Cubas.”

Declassified CIA documents dated June 23, 1976, published by the Uruguayan newspaper La República, July 29, 2007, revealed that security officials from Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia met in Buenos Aires as early as 1974, “to organize coordinated actions against subversive targets.”

The National Intelligence Daily’s top secret report, prepared by the CIA director for high-ranking officials only, likewise reported that Argentines had conducted spy operations against subversive elements, as did Chileans and Uruguayans.

U.S. researcher Patrice McSherry states that this document proves that coordination of repressive efforts by South American dictatorships began in 1973 and 1974, before the extraterritorial plans were named “Operation Condor” at a meeting in Chile in 1975, and that the CIA was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the actions.

Operation Condor was an intelligence plan designed and coordinated by the CIA and security services of Latin American military dictatorships, to annihilate the left. Along with the Gladio and Phoenix Operations, it was part of the United States’ global strategy during the Cold War to confront “the advance of communism in the world.”

Declassified CIA files indicate that, in 1975, Chilean Chief of Intelligence Manuel Contreras was invited to the CIA’s Langley headquarters, where he stayed for 15 days. After this visit, Contreras met with leaders of military intelligence services from Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay on November 25, 1975. Later, Brazil joined the group.

According to the “Archives of Terror” discovered in Paraguay, Operation Condor led to the tragic loss of more than 50,000 civilian lives, over 30,000 missing, and some 400,000 prisoners.

Gladio was a secret organizational structure composed of military and civilians who, in collaboration with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), operated in Europe from the late 1950s through October 1990. Gladio’s secret armies in Europe, mainly Italy, carried out multiple acts of terrorism and selective crimes, under the pretext of confronting the threat of the Red Army occupying the region, in the event of a third world war.

It was Cuban-born terrorist Orlando Bosch Avila, involved in the infamous Barbados bombing with Luis Posada Carriles, who fired the machine gun that seriously wounded Bernardo Leighton and his wife in Rome, in an assassination attempt organized by Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, a member of Operation Gladio.

Phoenix was a top secret program, developed by the CIA in Vietnam in 1967, in an attempt to “neutralize” the Vietcong by killing South Vietnamese civilians suspected of supporting combatants in the North and Vietcong soldiers.

William Colby, CIA director in that time, admitted in 1976 that Phoenix operations killed more than 20,000 between 1967 and 1972. The My Lai massacre was just one Phoenix operation.

Phoenix methods and techniques were used in Operation Condor.

United States intelligence services did not learn about Operation Condor via espionage. The CIA organized, planned, advised and was involved in implementing the gruesome extermination plan. It is responsible for crimes against humanity, crimes for which the U.S. government should be brought to justice. The CIA has enjoyed impunity for years, but cannot escape history, which has already conducted a trial and issued its ruling.

IN CONTEXT

A few examples of Operation Condor crimes:

-In Buenos Aires, Chilean Army General Carlos Prats and his spouse Sofia Cuthbert were killed by a remote-controlled bomb.

-High-ranking Uruguayan army officers secretly travelled to Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and kidnapped a couple, activists in the Uruguayan opposition, Universindo Rodriguez Diaz and Lilian Celiberti, with their two children, Camilo and Francesca, eight and three years of age, respectively.

-Orlando Letelier, former minister in Salvador Allende’s government, was killed by a car bomb in Washington. His assistant, Ronni Moffitt, a U.S. citizen, also died in the explosion.

-Kidnapping and disappearance of the Zaffaroni couple in Argentina.

(Source: Ecured , Prensa Latina)

UN agency announces lowest growth rate for Latin American and Caribbean economies in 70 years

Cubadebate — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 21:27:48 +0000

The region has experienced a generalized, synchronized economic slowdown in most countries and sectors, completing six consecutive years of limited growth, ECLAC reported on Thursday, in its latest annual report released by its headquarters in Santiago de Chile.

In the preliminary report on the performance of Latin America and Caribbean economies in 2019, the United Nations agency indicates that in 2019 the region will grow only 0.1% on average, while growth projections for 2020 will remain low, around 1.3%. As a result, 2014-2020 would be the period of lowest growth for the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean in the last seven decades.

In terms of growth projections, according to the report, 23 out of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (18 out of 20 in Latin America) will show a slowdown in their growth during 2019, while 14 nations will show an expansion of 1% or less by the end of the year.

Thus, the macroeconomic profile for recent years shows a trend toward decreasing economic activity, with a decline in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), less investment, a drop in per capita consumption, lower exports and a sustained deterioration in the quality of employment.

Likewise, the report indicates that the region’s GDP per capita will have contracted by 4.0% between 2014 and 2019. Meanwhile, unemployment will increase from 8.0% in 2018 to 8.2% in 2019, which implies an increase of one million people without work, reaching a new high of 25.2 million.

For 2020, ECLAC projections indicate that Caribbean nations will continue to lead regional growth (with a sub-regional average of 5.6%).

According to the report, despite difficulties and constraints currently facing policy decision-making, most countries in the region are experiencing historically low inflation and maintain relatively high international reserves, while economies generally have access to international financial markets, and international interest rates are low. These conditions favor the implementation of macroeconomic policies directed toward reversing current low-growth rates, according to ECLAC.

(Granma)

The real interest of the United States and transnational corporations in Latin America and the Caribbean

Cubadebate — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 21:16:48 +0000

Our America is again suffering escalating aggression by U.S. imperialism and local oligarchies. The region is experiencing a sad reality involving dangerous turmoil and socio-political instability, promoted by Washington. The hemisphere’s most reactionary forces are attacking sovereign governments with coups, methods of unconventional war, brutal police repression, militarization, unilateral coercive measures, rigged judicial persecution of progressive leaders, while proclaiming the validity of the Monroe Doctrine and McCarthyism.

What are the real interests of the U.S. and corporations in the region? Freedom, democracy, human rights? No. Their goal is to preserve imperialist domination of our natural resources

IS OUR AMERICA’S WEALTH ALSO OUR CURSE?

Since European empires first found important resources in the Americas, plundered and colonized our lands, the history of the region’s countries has been the theft of their natural wealth, a story similar to that of other geographical areas on the planet. In our case, Spain, France, Portugal and England came first, in the colonial period; later, the United States and giant transnational corporations. Once our formal independence was won, imperialist economic domination continued, and continues, in most nations in the hemisphere.

“Just like the first Spanish conquistadors, who gave Indians mirrors and trinkets for gold and silver, the United States trades with Latin America. To conserve that torrent of wealth, to seize more and more of America’s resources and exploit its suffering peoples: that is what is hidden behind Washington’s military pacts, military missions and diplomatic lobbies,” warned the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, in the Second Declaration of Havana, February 4, 1962.

Progressive governments challenged monopoly interests when they nationalized, and recovered for the people, a large portion of their natural resources. These economic emporiums, which see the world as a cake to be divvied up, cannot accept losing the “juicy slice” that is Latin America and the Caribbean.

Suffice it to say that several countries in the region hold a significant portion of the world’s mineral deposits: 68% of the world’s lithium (Chile, Argentina and Bolivia), 49% of silver (Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Mexico), 44% of copper (Chile, Peru and, to a lesser extent, Mexico), 33% of tin (Peru, Brazil and Bolivia), 26% of bauxite (Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela and Jamaica), 23% of nickel (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and Dominican Republic), and 22% of iron (Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico), according to the Natural Resources report: Situation and trends for a regional development agenda in Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

Hence the strategic importance to U.S. interests of this part of the world, also the region closest to its national borders. Any direct or indirect intervention, under any pretext, would be less costly as compared to others carried out in Africa or Asia, although these are not renounced either. A look back at regional history shows the astonishing clarity of the phrase expressed by Simón Bolívar in 1829: the United States “appears destined by providence to plague America with miseries in the name of freedom.”

WASHINGTON’S INTEREST IN VENEZUELA AND BRAZIL

The term petro-aggression refers to the tendency of oil-rich states to be targeted by foreign aggressors, using pretexts of all kinds. The recent wars in the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria) promoted by the United States and its allies have this character.

According to data from the Venezuelan corporation Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the Hugo Chávez Frías Orinoco Oil Belt is the largest oilfield in the world. On December 31, 2010, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) made official the certification of these reserves conducted by the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mining. In this way, OPEC “revealed the true situation of the oilfields that exist in the Hugo Chávez Frías Oil Orinoco Belt, with the certification of 270,976 million barrels (MMbls) of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil… With this certification, in addition to the certified reserves of 28,977 MMbls of light and medium crudes, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela totals 299,953 MMbls, attesting to the fact that the country holds the largest reserve of crude on the planet,” states PDVSA in its Oil Sovereignty Notebooks Collection.

According to the publication, Venezuela has 25% of OPEC’s reserves and 20% of those known on a world scale – oil that could provide for the country’s development over the next 300 years, at a recovery rate of 20%.

Likewise, in 2007, Petróleo Brasileiro S. A. (Petrobras) announced the discovery of substantial oil and natural gas resources in reservoirs located beneath an impermeable layer of salt on the country’s coastline, deposited 150 million years ago. The discoveries in Brazil’s pre-salt reserves are among the most important in the world, during the last decade. These reservoirs contain a large volume of excellent quality light oil, with significant commercial value, according to information from Petrobras.

The Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy highlights that the pre-salt field is currently one of the most important sources of oil and gas on the planet, and that around 70% of the nation’s reserves are located in these areas.

THE LITHIUM TRIANGLE IN SOUTH AMERICA

Who doubts that the recent coup in Bolivia, promoted by the United States, was motivated by economic and political interests? The nationalization of hydrocarbons and strategic companies led by President Evo Morales meant economic freedom for Bolivia, but also a blow to the energy monopolies. For imperialism it was intolerable that the Bolivian people recover earnings from oil and gas, or that U.S. companies lose out on the business of mining a coveted mineral like lithium, in the nation with 30% of the world’s deposits.

This metal is referred to as “white gold” or “the mineral of the future” for many reasons. Its chemical properties make it the lightest solid element known, with half the density of water, excelling as an efficient conductor of heat and electricity. These electrochemical properties make lithium ideal for electric batteries (Li-Ion batteries), essential to the manufacture of electronic devices (cell phones, tablets, etc.) and electric cars, among other uses.

Access to this mineral is now at the center of global disputes. “Coincidentally,” the world’s largest known reserves are located in the so-called Lithium Triangle, in the border region between Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Some 68% of the global reserves are concentrated here, and Bolivia has 30%, with the largest deposit on the planet in the Uyuni salt flats; Chile has 21%, and Argentina 17% of the total, according to a study published in the Revista Latinoamericana Polis, quoted by RT.

Some analysts are already predicting future wars over lithium, as has occurred with oil. Another sign to alert those of us south of the Rio Bravo, all the way to Patagonia, as to the importance of defending the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, against the voracity of the United States and local oligarchies. Only regional unity can prevent a new predatory war and the balkanization in Our America.

(Granma)

Our America confronts escalating attacks by imperialism and oligarchies

Cubadebate — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 20:01:19 +0000

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Statement

The most recent events in the region confirm that the U.S. government and reactionary oligarchies as responsible for the dangerous political and social upheaval and instability in Latin America and the Caribbean.

As the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, foresaw January 1, 2019: “Those who have illusions about the restoration of imperialist rule in our region should understand that Latin America and the Caribbean have changed and so has the world (…) The region resembles a prairie in times of drought. A spark could generate an uncontrollable fire that would harm the national interests of all.”

President Donald Trump proclaims the validity of the Monroe Doctrine and appeals to McCarthyism to maintain imperialist domination of the region’s natural resources, impede the exercise of national sovereignty, and aspirations of regional integration and cooperation; in an attempt to re-establish its unipolar hegemony on a world and hemispheric scale; eliminate progressive, revolutionary and alternative models to savage capitalism; reverse political and social conquests and impose neoliberal models, regardless of international law, the rules of the game of representative democracy, the environment, and the welfare of peoples.

On Monday, December 2, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threateningly accused Cuba and Venezuela of taking advantage of and helping to expand agitation in countries of the region. He distorts and manipulates reality and ignores, as a principal cause of regional instability, constant U.S. intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The legitimate protests and massive popular mobilizations taking place on the continent, particularly in the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, are caused by poverty and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth; the certainty that neoliberal formulas aggravate the exclusionary and unsustainable situation of social vulnerability; absent or inadequate health care, education and social security; attacks on human dignity; unemployment and the restriction of labor rights; privatization, higher prices, cutbacks in public services, and increased citizen insecurity.

Revealed is the crisis of a political system; the lack of real democracy; the extent to which traditional conservative parties are discredited; rejection of the historical corruption typical of military dictatorships and right-wing governments; limited popular support for official authorities; lack of confidence in institutions and the judicial system.

The people are also protesting brutal police repression, the militarization of the police under the pretext of protecting critical infrastructure, the exemption of repressors from criminal responsibility; the use of war weapons and riot police that cause deaths and serious injuries, including hundreds of young people with irreparable eye injuries caused by pellets guns; the outlawing of demonstrations; rapes, beatings and violence against those arrested, including minors; and the murder of social leaders, former guerrillas and journalists.

The United States defends and supports repression against demonstrators using the pretext of safeguarding the so-called “democratic order.” The duplicitous silence of some governments, institutions and figures, who are actively critical of the left, is a disgrace. The complicity of the corporate media is shameful.

People rightly ask where is democracy and the rule of law; what are institutions supposedly dedicated to the protection of human rights doing; where is the much touted independent judicial system?

Let us revisit some facts. In March of 2015, President Barack Obama signed anpreposterous executive order declaring the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, economy and foreign policy” of the great power. In November of 2015, a costly electoral defeat of the left in Argentina occurs.

The neoliberal offensive take a decisive step in August 2016, with the parliamentary-judicial coup in Brazil against President Dilma Rousseff, the criminalization and imprisonment of Workers Party leaders, and later of former President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva himself, with the early participation of the U.S. Department of Justice, through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, to install a dependent government, willing to reverse important social conquests through neoliberal policies; make nefarious changes to the development model, allow the destruction of state enterprises and devastating privatization, permit the cut-rate sale of the country’s resources and infrastructure to U.S. transnational corporations.

At the end of 2017, Hondurans protest the outcome of elections and face terrible repression.

In January 2018, the United States disrupts the signing of an agreement between the Venezuelan government and the Washington-run opposition. A month later, the Secretary of State proclaims the validity of the Monroe Doctrine and calls for a military coup against the Bolivarian Chavista Revolution.

In March 2018, the atrocious assassination of Brazilian councilwoman Marielle Franco takes place, causing a wave of indignation in the country and around the world, and raising unanswered questions about the suspicious role of powerful groups. In April, Lula is imprisoned through spurious legal maneuvers. Copious evidence emerges of U.S. intervention in Brazilian elections through specialized companies that use “big data” and polimetric technologies to individually manipulate the will of voters, like those wielded by ultra-reactionary Steve Bannon and the Israeli right wing.

In this period, judicial proceedings against former Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Rafael Correa are launched. In April 2018, an attempt is made to destabilize Nicaragua through external interference and the application of unilateral coercive measures.

On August 4, 2018, an assassination attempt against President Nicolás Maduro Moros occurs. In January 2019, the self-proclamation of an unknown corrupt Juan Guaidó, (as President of Venezuela) is organized in Washington. In March 2019, President Trump renews the executive order labeling Venezuela a threat. On April 30, an attempted military coup in Caracas fails miserably, and the United States, vindictively, escalates its unconventional war against the South American nation, that resists tenaciously and heroically with its people’s civic-military union.

Throughout this period, the U.S. government has implemented savage anti-immigrant policies, and adopted aggressive, hateful measures to fuel fear and division within the electorate. An attempt is made to erect a xenophobic wall on the border with Mexico. This country and Central American nations are threatened with terrible tariffs and sanctions if they do not stop those fleeing poverty and insecurity, and the U.S. increases deportations. Thousands of children are cruelly separated from their parents, 69,000 minors detained and attempts made to deport the children of immigrants born and raised in U.S. territory.

Showing shameless subordination to the United States, the far-right Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro resorts to lies, a xenophobic, racist, misogynist and homophobic discourse, combined with delirious projections about social and political phenomena such as climate change, indigenous populations, fires in the Amazon, and emigration, which have generated the repudiation of many leaders and organizations. His administration is dismantling social programs that allowed Workers Party governments to notably reduce levels of poverty and social exclusion in Brazil.

Since May 2019, tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets against cuts in education, pension reforms, discriminatory policies and gender-based violence.

The Brazilian government has intervened in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, including Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and has taken hostile positions against Cuba, in violation of international law. As reported in the Brazilian press, in April 2019, the Foreign Ministry instructed 15 of its embassies to coordinate with U.S. embassies to urge receptive governments to condemn Cuba in international forums.

For the first time since 1992, this year Brazil – accompanied only by the United States and Israel – voted against the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, which the United States is now tightening, and for an end to the extraterritorial application of its laws against third states.

At the same time, the Colombian government abstained in the vote on the resolution it has supported since 1992, at a time when the genocidal U.S. blockade of Cuba and its extraterritorial scope is intensifying. To justify this reprehensible decision, the country’s authorities resorted to disgraceful, politically motivated manipulation of Cuba’s altruistic, devoted, modest, unobjectionable contribution to peace in Colombia, for which our country is universally recognized. The broad, critical debate that the process generated in this nation is well known, one which Cuba, despite everything, will continue to support in its efforts to achieve peace.

U.S. slanders, attributing to Cuba supposed responsibility for the organization of popular mobilizations against neoliberalism in South America, constitute an incredible pretext, to justify and tighten the blockade and hostile policies directed against our people. Likewise, it is useless to attempt to hide the failure of the capitalist system; to protect failing, repressive governments; to cover up parliamentary, judicial and police coups; and to revive the ghost of socialism to intimidate peoples. In doing so, the U.S. also seeks to justify repression and the criminalization of social protest.

Cuba is only responsible for the example set by our heroic people in defending our sovereignty, in resisting the most brutal and systematic aggression, in the invariable practice of solidarity and cooperation with sister nations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

It bothers imperialism that Cuba has demonstrated that another world is possible and that an alternative model to neoliberalism can be built, based on solidarity, cooperation, dignity, fair distribution of income, equal access to professional advancement, citizen safety and protection, and the full liberation of human beings.

The Cuban Revolution also provides evidence that a firmly united people, owner of its country and its institutions, in constant, profound democracy, can resist victoriously and advance in its development, despite aggression and the longest blockade in history.

The coup in Bolivia, orchestrated by the United States, using the OAS and the local oligarchy as tools, demonstrates the aggressiveness of the imperialist escalation. Cuba reiterates its condemnation of the coup, of the brutal repression unleashed, and expresses its solidarity with compañero Evo Morales Ayma and the Bolivian people.

While the U.S. government continues its unconventional war to attempt to overthrow the legitimately constituted government of President Nicolas Maduro Moros and invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR), Cuba reaffirms our unwavering intention to maintain cooperation with the Venezuelan government and people.

To the Sandinista government and people of Nicaragua, led by President Daniel Ortega, who face destabilization attempts and unilateral coercive measures, we reiterate our solidarity.

The legitimate government of the Commonwealth of Dominica, and its Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, deserve international solidarity and already have that of the Cuban people, at a time when this island nation is a victim of external interference that has provoked violence and is intended to undermine the electoral process.

In this complex scenario, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico confronts neoliberalism, and defends the principles of non-intervention and respect for sovereignty, while the election of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández as President and Vice President in Argentina expresses the unequivocal rejection by that nation of the neoliberal formulas that impoverished it, indebted it, and seriously hurt its people. The liberation of Lula is a victory of the peoples, and Cuba reiterates its call for a worldwide mobilization to demand his full freedom, recognition of his innocence, and restitution of his political rights.

The corruption that characterizes the behavior of the current U.S. government is obvious. Its impact on the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean has cost lives, suffering, instability and economic damage.

Given the dramatic situation that the region and the world are facing, Cuba reaffirms the principles of sovereignty, non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states, and the right of all peoples to freely choose and construct their own political system, in an environment of peace, stability and justice, without threats, aggression or unilateral coercive measures; and calls for adherence to the postulates of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

Cuba will continue to work toward the integration of Our America, which includes making every effort to ensure that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), soon to be chaired by Mexico, continues to promote the common interests of our nations by strengthening unity within diversity.

Cuba responds to the relentless onslaught of the most reactionary forces in the hemisphere with the unwavering resistance of our people, and the will to defend the unity of our nation, its social conquests, sovereignty and independence, and socialism, at whatever cost necessary. We do so with optimism and unwavering confidence in the victory bequeathed to us by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, with the guidance of our Party’s First Secretary, Army General Raúl Castro, and the leadership of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

Havana, December 3, 2019.

Latin America: Imperialist subversion forges full speed ahead

Cubadebate — Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:11:38 +0000

The United States is losing ground. Its projected dream of an American century, in the 21st, is fading away, and the Yankee battleship sinking. For its experts, it is no secret that the People’s Republic of China, with its booming economy, is on its way to becoming the world’s number one power by 2030, and Russia is not far behind. The confluence of the international interests of these two powerful nations, and their allies, make them an influential counterweight to U.S. power.

In these circumstances, the United States believes it more necessary than ever to control its “backyard”, to completely subjugate the restless nations of the continent. Even its closest satellites cannot do without trade and business with China and Russia. On the other hand, the integrationist seed revived by Fidel, Chavez, Kirchner, Evo, and Correa, no matter their efforts to destroy it, sends up new sprouts again and again.

The rescue plan – carefully elaborated in the 1980s, after the bloody military dictatorships began to show signs of exhaustion, and the rebirth of dangerous, radical revolutionary processes that could end the power of the servile oligarchy, despite the systematic elimination of left-wing leaders – also failing miserably, along with “democratic transition” projects, or what was the same, maintaining dictatorships with a democratic mantle, without the expected results.

The continent south of the Rio Bravo began progressive processes, some authentic revolutions, as in Venezuela, and the peoples began to construct the integration that had historically frightened the empire: Latin America and the Caribbean united in a Bolivarian project. Bolívar’s guards were once again appearing on the horizon.

The U.S. trembled; its servants and lackeys trembled. The task of the imperial special services, and in particular of their praetorian guard, their think tanks and “Straussian knights,” was thus to stop, and destroy, the integrationist revolutionary movements that were taking shape. Overthrowing inconvenient governments was the task of the company, an organization with great experience in this field. The diabolic machinery that was oiled in the struggle against Eastern European socialism, especially the USSR, was set in motion.

The right-wing offensive was not long in coming in Latin America; one after another governments of the “progressive decade” began to fall, product of a multifactorial strategy, well thought out, unscrupulous, supplied with all logistic and financial resources. The few resources and little importance afforded by progressive governments to the political preparation of the masses, among other factors, influenced the initial success of these plans to restore neoliberalism.

All the variants of unconventional warfare, created in U.S. laboratories, some of them tested with variable success in the Middle East and Europe, have been applied on the continent: soft coups, judicial coups, parliamentary coups, with greater or lesser presence of the military and police forces – always faithful to neocolonial states – and sowing Trojan horses, the most infamous example being Lenín Moreno in Ecuador.

There is always a “but.” The right does not have much to offer, its plan is simple: restore neocolonial neoliberalism – the worst variant of neoliberalism – but the plan is doomed to failure. America revolts, it rises, neoliberal governments are rejected at the polls, and the threat to U.S. power becomes greater.

Now the empire is a crouching beast waving its paws right and left, its machinery of destruction and subversion is working overtime. Worse yet is that this machinery is directed by a group of troglodytes, dinosaurs anchored in the time of gunboat diplomacy, which they learned in comics and television series – not history books. These powerful cavemen are profoundly ignorant, their vision of the world has been built in the closed environment of fundamentalist opinion; they don’t even know their own country.

Anything can be expected of them, the lesser evil challenges this group, not because of deep disagreement with their basic objectives, but because they consider them a real danger to U.S. interests, to the future of the empire.

Gathered in a coalition that has not achieved the necessary unity, they are trying to take out the Trump clique, betting on impeachment of the magnate President as a way to save themselves. It is a desperate measure, because they know that the country has deep internal problems, in the economy and in its structure as a nation, and a crisis could lead to disaster.

They are like the classic caricature of a boat full of leaks. As soon as one hole is plugged, another appears. They cover a hole with lies, with slander, with blood, and a new one opens up.

They are facing the people’s vindication, the history they have tried to erase with money and weapons. Returning are the immortal spirits of our liberating soldiers, the warriors of our original peoples, the “Indians” of the highlands, Sandino’s troops, Che’s men, who sit in their saddles and grease their rifles. They are Bolívar’s guards that are ready to weather the storm and triumph. Yes, now.

IN FIGURES

- CHILE

In 40 days of protest

– 24 dead

– 720 injuries involving firearms

– 230+ eye injuries from rubber bullets

– 2670 complaints of human rights violations

– 7259 arrests

- COLOMBIA

In six days of protest:

– 4 dead

– 120+ injuries

– 170+ arrests

- BOLIVIA

In 20 days of protest:

– 30+ dead

– 700+ injuries

– 600+ arrests

- HAITI

During the first seven weeks of protests:

– 42 dead

– 19 of these shot by police or the armed forces

– 86 injuries

- ECUADOR

During protests October 3-13:

– 7 dead

– 1 injury

– 152 arrests

(Sources: Prensa Latina, Russia Today, teleSUR)