* The struggle against colonialism, submission and exploitation

* Cuba, the attempt to destabilize from within

* Washington, coup attempts: Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil

It’s a question of the "strategy" of a decadent empire, that of the United States, thrashing about but still resisting death. They continue "working" in the way that they know how to: imposing their policies on the world to obtain their ends, in a time frame of a few decades, a few years. That is, with policies redefined or redesigned from the self-inflicted events of September 11, 2001 in the Twin Towers of New York until now.

Just remember that for the US, in Latin America the notion of "terrorism" doesn't fit, as a pretext for intervening in these countries by attacking under a "false flag". This has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan to take over energy and drugs. Not here. But the "war against drugs" works perfectly, in the interest of controlling the business and militarizing countries such as Colombia and Mexico, establishing bases for destabilization. With both countries, above all the latter, the perverse "anti-drug war" functions very well, in the shadow of the "aid" of "Plan Mérida".

Here’s some examples of how this strategy works:

1. The plans for the defence of the interests of US enterprises generate situations of crisis, destabilizing governments in Latin America that are not sympathetic to the US, such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, etc.  These countries have, can and should look for their own way out of their backward state, develop and apply their own better economic policies. And turn their backs on hundreds of years of colonialism, exploitation and submission.

2. Employing destabilizing plans, but at a slower pace (the style of a "low intensity war", by other means), in the case of those governments that are "allied", the United States destabilizes them, but at the same time uses them as a springboard against others that attempt to maintain a relative “autonomy” or independence in their internal policies. Countries that are submissive or controlled such as Mexico, Colombia or Peru, where they can promote their plans of imperial destabilization, others such as Honduras and Colombia (both with military bases) serve the US as a platform against others, those of the rest of Central and South America.

3. Against Cuba the tactic is different from that of the last 50 years.  Barack Obama, who has become one of the less reliable presidents for the world, since he perfectly serves Anglo-American business interests, has come back to the old policy of "the carrot and the stick". With the old trap of "realizing" that the policy of an economic, commercial and financial blockade against the island has not worked – though neither has he seen this as a defeat – he has begun to operate with other methods to gain the same ends: to destabilize the Cuban regime of the Castros from inside, while seeking to break the old protocol, the example of high morality that Cuban "dignity" in the face of the Empire has meant for Latin America. Still, nothing can be done against educated peoples.  Vietnam is the best example. Cuba follows.

4. The strategies to achieve these ends are orchestrated by intelligence and espionage agencies with the approval or direction from Washington and by centres of operation such as the embassies in all countries, and other "aid" bodies such as USAID (at a lesser level) to those that are clearly destabilizing, such as the CIA and DEA.  If there is no coup d'état in the United States it is because there is no US Embassy there, as Evo Morales has frequently noted. But the reality is an old story (from the 60s and 70s) of coups against governments in Latin America. Nevertheless, wasn’t the assassination of Kennedy a kind of coup d'état? Surely, and orchestrated by the CIA itself.

5. Whatever serves the interests of the multinational oligopolies or companies based in the US States also works for the imperial interest of the US. From the point of view of the "free market" economy, this discourse is one of the better "contrivances" of capitalism to economically control countries through companies that generate "investment" and "employment" for "development". These are the neo-liberal guidelines that impose macroeconomic policies that lead to the destruction of the middle and working classes, and threaten the population in general. Commercial agreements are a tool of control of governments for ends that are external and clearly perverse. Both of these devices, commercial agreements and neo-liberal policies, are instruments of the so-called globalization that supposedly would rescue peoples from extreme poverty.

None of the aforementioned tactics are favourable to Latin American States. On the contrary, they are attacks on the peoples’ national and State organization. The destabilization resulting from neo-liberalism breaks the structures of nation states that required decades to establish, and generates the bases for the incorporation of other methods, often violent ones (eg the spaces gained by the mafias, not infrequently protected by corrupt local politicians). This hits directly at the heart of the structures of the State, to governments and mechanisms of social control for the attainment of balance and well-being. It breaks with systems of political organization, upsets aspects such as elections, representation, legitimacy and long term national goals.

In spite of this, the policies of Washington continue setting their traps in order to overthrow governments not aligned with their interests. Venezuela is a beating heart in South America. Ecuador is another. In Honduras, (following the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya by a coup d'état), the positions assumed, then by Micheletti, and up to the present, are simply submission.

We have no alternative but to look ahead and act. It is crucial to denounce, given that the policies of the United States are constant, they do not stop for a moment. In Mexico in particular, and in Latin America in general, from governments to other circles of society, including the academic sector and the media, there is an ingrained habit of seeing things as dead ducks, that is to say, to analyze them, revise, conclude, plan and then react when the acts are already faits accomplis.

The strategy of the gringos is constant, utilizing prospective to analyze and offensive to create reality in their own image.  The government works permanently as a State at war. It means violence, day after day, because they apply the strategy of the Roman Empire of vassalage, subjection, violence and constant wars. First, one has to denounce. Then come solidarity, organization and reaction, both individual and collective. The question is not only a Latin American one, but worldwide, because the same thing is happening in other regions.

22/06/2015

(Translated by Jordan Bishop for ALAI)

- Salvador González Briceño

Correo: sgonzalez@reportemexico.com.mx