Plan Colombia and Beyond

Plan Colombia and Beyond

by Mateo Pimentel / April 21st, 2015


In conjunction with many geopolitical interests, general stability and prosperity in the Western hemisphere (i.e., the stratification and disparity in wealth) have kept Latin America, in Washington’s eyes, ripe for free trade and economic alignment. There exist unimaginable caches of resources, such as Venezuela’s oil stores, which could foreseeably feed into America’s global capitalist system over the course of its now decline. Hence the free trade agreements and America’s subversive efforts throughout the region. Additionally, the United States floats weak states with military aid when it is advantageous. And, as for nonaligned groups who resist and defend their sovereignty and/or constitutions, they acquire for themselves the title of “terrorist” and are easily persecuted without too much formidable pushback from an outraged American public.

To be sure, there are many powerful mechanisms that makes US interest securable no matter the foreign locus. Plan Colombia, which is largely ongoing proof of this, has come to affect many countries other than Colombia. Included are the Latin American and Andean nations where America’s drug war yet rages. As the drug war expands and precipitates an unending capitalist genocide as far north as Mexico, the effects of Plan Colombia grow in scale. What is yet unclear but nonetheless palpable is the extent to which the Plan will end up eradicating the sovereignty of Andean peoples and their nations. What is clear, however, is that Plan Colombia has principally been a step towards regionalizing the coca- and marijuana-growing zones of the northern Andes.

Soviets and Drug Trafficking

The US survived the Second World War as the definite hegemonic power in the West. Military capacity, a lengthy post-war cycle of expansion (throughout the overall capitalist economy), and elemental advances in science and technology each added to America’s growing strength as a global hegemon. US supremacy, however, did not go unchecked. The Soviet Union (USSR) proved a potential economic and political competitor on the world stage. Washington understood this competition as a threat, one that posed a formidable impediment to its lawless international expansion and growing global hegemony. The Soviet threat to American “security” meant that it was also a threat to globalizing capitalist system. Ensuing fears precipitated the US agenda for the containment of Soviet power around the world and very much so in Latin America.

In defense of its desire to pursue and secure its national interests anywhere on earth, the US has promoted coups against legitimate constitutional governments, sabotaged reformist movements, supported both dictatorial as well as democratic regimes, and more. Washington’s two-faced approach to international politics became the “constant” in US foreign relations in Latin America as well. To this day, relentless emphasis on national security remains instrumental to US economic, political, cultural, and military domination—all of which links back to America’s unbelievable self-image as the world’s foremost democratic guardian of “freedom.”

More:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/04/plan-colombia-and-beyond/