Militarizing Latin America

Militarizing Latin America
By Noam Chomsky

The United States was founded as an "infant empire," in George Washington's words. The conquest of the national territory was a grand imperial venture, much like the vast expansion of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. From the earliest days, control over the Western Hemisphere was a critical goal. Ambitions expanded during World War II, as the US displaced Britain and lesser imperial powers. High-level planners concluded that the US should "hold unquestioned power" in a world system including not only the Western Hemisphere, but also the former British Empire and the Far East, and later, as much of Eurasia as possible. A primary goal of NATO was to block moves towards European independence, along Gaullist lines. That became still more clear when the USSR collapsed, and with it the Russian threat that was the formal justification of NATO. NATO was not disbanded, but rather expanded, in violation of promises to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not even fully extend to East Germany, let alone beyond, and that "NATO would be transforming itself into a more political organization." By now it is virtually an international intervention force under US command, its self-defined jurisdiction reaching to control energy sources, pipelines, and sea lanes. And Europe is a well-disciplined junior partner.

Throughout the expansion of US Empire, Latin America retained its primacy in global planning. As Washington was considering the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile in 1971, Nixon's National Security Council observed that if the US couldn't control Latin America, how could it expect "to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world?" That policy has become more severe with recent South American moves towards integration, a prerequisite for independence, and establishment of more varied international ties, while also beginning to address severe internal disorders, most importantly, the traditional rule of a rich Europeanized minority over a sea of misery and suffering.

In July 2009, the US and Colombia concluded a secret deal to permit the US to use seven military bases in Colombia. The official purpose is to counter narcotrafficking and terrorism, "but senior Colombian military and civilian officials familiar with negotiations told The Associated Press that the idea is to make Colombia a regional hub for Pentagon operations." There are reports that the agreement provides Colombia with privileged access to US military supplies. Colombia had already become the leading recipient of US military aid. Colombia has had by far the worst human rights record in the hemisphere since the Central American wars of the 1980s wound down. The correlation between US aid and human rights violations has long been noted by scholarship.

AP also cited an April 2009 document of the US Air Mobility Command, which proposed that the Palanquero base in Colombia could become a "cooperative security location" (CSL) from which "mobility operations could be executed." The report noted that from Palanquero, "Nearly half the continent can be covered by a C-17 (military trans- port) without refueling." This could form part of "a global en route strategy," which "helps achieve the regional engagement strategy and assists with the mobility routing to Africa." For the present, "the strategy to place a CSL at Palanquero should be sufficient for air mobility reach on the South American continent," the document concludes, but it goes on to explore options for extending the routing to Africa with additional bases.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/militarizing-latin-america-by-noam-chomsky

I was reading about Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and how he set out to build a coalition with Peru and Colombia. He was a great supporter of human rights. Had he lived, it's possible that the Peru and the Colombia of today would look very different.

If you have any info. you'd like to post here about it sometimes, believe me, we're all ears (eyes)! What an important situation.
I don't even know if Amy Goodman has gotten him on her show....

Took a quick look at the Wiki. on Jaime Roldós, and I nearly passed out. After what we've seen by now, this is a CLASSIC candidate for a vicious assassination from the right-wing. Right-wingers give filth a bad name.

I must post the Wiki. right here for OTHERS who haven't seen the material contained in it yet:

Jaime Roldós Aguilera (1940-1981) was President of Ecuador from 10 August 1979 to 24 May 1981. In his short presidency, he became known for his insistence on human rights. His death in a plane crash has given rise to accusations he was surreptitiously assassinated. The Ecuadorian Roldosist Party is named after him.

Early life and career
Roldós was born in Guayaquil on November 5, 1940. He attended high school at the Vicente Rocafuerte National School. He studied jurisprudence and social science at the University of Guayaquil. He excelled in school and won many awards.

At the age of 37, he ran for president on a populist platform. In the first round, he received the greatest number of votes, but not the 50% plus one needed to avoid a runoff.<1> He won the second round of elections against Sixto Durán Ballén, and became president on August 10, 1979.

Presidency
On October 11, 1979, Roldós signed a decree reducing the workweek to 40 hours. On November 1, 1979, he issued another decree doubling the minimum wage, to 4,000 sucres per month. ($160 in 1979 US dollars). On March 8, 1980, he established the National Development Plan. On April 15, 1980 he established a committee of leaders to find a solution for the battle for power with the National Congress, presided over by his former mentor Assad Bucaram.

He named 1981 the "year of advances". In late January and early February 1981, there was a military confrontation with Peru, in the Cordillera del Cóndor. Clashes occurred in the regions of Paquisha, Mayaycu, and Machinaza. With skill and diplomacy in the midst of this crisis, he left the territorial dispute to the Organization of American States. (Later, in 1988, a definitive peace agreement was established with Peru.)

Roldós's most important accomplishment was his policy in support of human rights, in an era in which most Latin American countries were military dictatorships. In September 1980, Roldós met with the democratically elected presidents in the Andean region (Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru), and proposed the signing of a Charter of Conduct, in which the principles of universal justice and human rights were established, signaling the protection of human rights was more important than the principle of non-intervention.

This policy was questioned by American conservatives, who considered it an excuse to justify Soviet meddling in the region, especially in Central America. They condemned the "Roldós doctrine", as they did that of Panamanian Omar Torrijos, who also died in a plane crash several months later. As a result of the election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States on November 4, 1980, these conservatives had the opportunity to make this opposition clear, leading to international tensions. In January 1981, Roldós declined an invitation to Reagan's inauguration because of their differences on the subject of human rights. He also tightened links with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua and the Frente Democrático in El Salvador, which opposed the military regime in that country.

Death
Roldós governed Ecuador for less than two years before being killed in an unexplained plane crash. On May 24, 1981, a plane carrying Roldós crashed into Huairapungo Mountain, in Celica Canton of Loja Province. All the other passengers in the plane died as well: Roldós's wife Martha Bucaram, Minister of Defense Marco Subía Martínez and his wife, as well as two military officers and three other passengers.

The controversy about the cause of the crash began immediately, when the Accident Investigation Committee (Junta Investigadora de Accidentes, JIA) of the Ecuadorian Air Force attributed the crash to pilot error, supposedly caused by an overloading with cargo. The parliamentary commission formed months after, after pressure from the families of the victims and political groups allied with the president, found contradictions and inconsistencies in the JIA report, but could not reach definitive conclusions. The Zurich Police, who also conducted an investigation, concluded that the plane's motors were shut down when the plane crashed into the mountain. This expert opinion, which contradicted the Air Force Report, was not investigated further by the Ecuadorian government.

The American author and activist John Perkins, in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, concludes that Roldós was assassinated because of his plan to reorganize the hydrocarbon sector would have threatened U.S. interests. Roldós had entered into a pact with neighboring Colombia and Peru, a pact which US President Reagan saw as a tilt toward the Soviet Union. American author John Perkins alleges in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man that Roldós was assassinated by a bomb located in a tape recorder. Just months after Roldós died, another Latin American leader who had been at odds with U.S. interests in the control of the Panama Canal, Panama's Omar Torrijos, died in what was allegedly just a plane crash, which also is widely perceived to have been a CIA conducted assassination, again according to John Perkins.

New declassified documents may indicate that the Peruvian Air Force was instead behind the accident.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Rold%C3%B3s_Aguilera

~~~~~
I'm so glad you've brought up Jaime Roldós and given us the incentive to want to find out FAR more about the guy. What a damned shame they didn't allow him to get farther along with his plans for the people of his country, instead of their parasitic slime minority elites.

Thanks, EFerrari. Enjoy your visit with a great, great man.

"Roldós's most important accomplishment was his policy in support of human rights, in an era in which most Latin American countries were military dictatorships. In September 1980, Roldós met with the democratically elected presidents in the Andean region (Venezuela, Colombia, and Peru), and proposed the signing of a Charter of Conduct, in which the principles of universal justice and human rights were established, signaling the protection of human rights was more important than the principle of non-intervention."

Who knows what the people of Colombia and Peru might have been spared had this alliance been allowed to grow to fruition.

I found a mention from John Perkins which I'm sure you've heard or read already, but it's worth reading again:

John Perkins, former economist for the World Bank, revealed that during his time in office, he had to persuade and corrupt politicians so that their countries would hand over lucrative projects to US-based businesses. He also confirmed that the former president of Ecuador, Jaime Roldos, and that of Panama, Omar Torrijos, were assassinated and did not die in accidental plane crashes. He also warned that the life of President Rafael Correa is in danger.

"We economic hit men would arrive in country, saying 'Great! You can't pay your debt', so now they had to do us a favor, namely selling their petroleum to our companies at a low price, or vote with us in the United Nations, or let us put a US military base in their country, such as Manta in Ecuador, and that's how we built this global empire, the first in the world," said Perkins.

Perkins explained that when he or his colleagues could not complete their mission, the so-called "jackals", or assassins, would spring into action. Examples of this, he said, were Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama.

"I knew that if I failed, the 'jackals' would step in to assassinate, and that's what happened," Perkins told an interviewer for the news program "Contextos", on Telemundo.

<...>

He also assured that the same rules apply today, which is why he considers that the life of President Rafael Correa, a progressive, is in danger.

"I'm very afraid of what could happen to Rafael Correa. I believe his life is in peril," Perkins said.

As to why the life of Rafael Correa is in danger and not that of Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, Perkins said: "In the United States, I believe, they are very afraid of Hugo Chavez, because Venezuela has so much to provide and we will be needing more and more of it in the US, and Venezuela is very important for us. For this reason we have to tread softly and be careful of Hugo Chavez. By contrast, I believe Ecuador is not as important, because it doesn't have as much petroleum, and a president like Rafael Correa could become an example."

http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/2008/01/john_perkins_rafael_correa_is.html

~~~~~~
~snip~
So we go back at some point and say, “You know, you can’t pay your debts. Give us a pound of flesh. Sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies. Vote with us on the next critical UN vote. Allow us to build a military base in your backyard.” Something along these lines.

And when we fail—as I talk in my books, I failed with Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, Omar Torrijos of Panama—the Jackals go in and either overthrow or assassinate these leaders. And if the Jackals fail, as they did in Iraq, then we send in the military.

AMY GOODMAN: And what personal experience do you have to prove this?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was there. You know, I was with Jaime Roldos in Ecuador. I was the guy—one of the guys who was supposed to corrupt him, bring him around, and Omar Torrijos of Panama and many others. When I failed with those two gentlemen, the Jackals went in and assassinated both of them. And I was there; I was in those front lines. My official title was chief economist of Charles T. Main. I had about three dozen employees working for me and did this for ten years, and finally saw the light.

But I think what’s—you know, what’s really important about all this is that in this period of time, since the 1970s, and really beginning very strongly in the 1980s, we’ve created what I consider a mutant, viral form of capitalism. Earlier on the program, you showed the statistics of 37 percent of the people in the survey not believing that capitalism is working. I don’t think the failure is capitalism. I think it’s the specific kind of capitalism that we’ve developed in the last thirty or forty years, particularly beginning with the time of Reagan and Milton Friedman’s economic theories, which stress that the only goal of business is to maximize profit, regardless of the social and environmental costs, and not to regulate businesses at all—regulation is bad, all forms—and to privatize everything, so that everything is run by private business. And this mutant form of capitalism, which I think is really a predatory form of capitalism, has created an extremely unstable, unsustainable, unjust and very, very dangerous world.More:
So we go back at some point and say, “You know, you can’t pay your debts. Give us a pound of flesh. Sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies. Vote with us on the next critical UN vote. Allow us to build a military base in your backyard.” Something along these lines.

And when we fail—as I talk in my books, I failed with Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, Omar Torrijos of Panama—the Jackals go in and either overthrow or assassinate these leaders. And if the Jackals fail, as they did in Iraq, then we send in the military.

AMY GOODMAN: And what personal experience do you have to prove this?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was there. You know, I was with Jaime Roldos in Ecuador. I was the guy—one of the guys who was supposed to corrupt him, bring him around, and Omar Torrijos of Panama and many others. When I failed with those two gentlemen, the Jackals went in and assassinated both of them. And I was there; I was in those front lines. My official title was chief economist of Charles T. Main. I had about three dozen employees working for me and did this for ten years, and finally saw the light.

But I think what’s—you know, what’s really important about all this is that in this period of time, since the 1970s, and really beginning very strongly in the 1980s, we’ve created what I consider a mutant, viral form of capitalism. Earlier on the program, you showed the statistics of 37 percent of the people in the survey not believing that capitalism is working. I don’t think the failure is capitalism. I think it’s the specific kind of capitalism that we’ve developed in the last thirty or forty years, particularly beginning with the time of Reagan and Milton Friedman’s economic theories, which stress that the only goal of business is to maximize profit, regardless of the social and environmental costs, and not to regulate businesses at all—regulation is bad, all forms—and to privatize everything, so that everything is run by private business. And this mutant form of capitalism, which I think is really a predatory form of capitalism, has created an extremely unstable, unsustainable, unjust and very, very dangerous world.

So we go back at some point and say, “You know, you can’t pay your debts. Give us a pound of flesh. Sell your oil real cheap to our oil companies. Vote with us on the next critical UN vote. Allow us to build a military base in your backyard.” Something along these lines.

And when we fail—as I talk in my books, I failed with Jaime Roldos, president of Ecuador, Omar Torrijos of Panama—the Jackals go in and either overthrow or assassinate these leaders. And if the Jackals fail, as they did in Iraq, then we send in the military.

AMY GOODMAN: And what personal experience do you have to prove this?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was there. You know, I was with Jaime Roldos in Ecuador. I was the guy—one of the guys who was supposed to corrupt him, bring him around, and Omar Torrijos of Panama and many others. When I failed with those two gentlemen, the Jackals went in and assassinated both of them. And I was there; I was in those front lines. My official title was chief economist of Charles T. Main. I had about three dozen employees working for me and did this for ten years, and finally saw the light.

But I think what’s—you know, what’s really important about all this is that in this period of time, since the 1970s, and really beginning very strongly in the 1980s, we’ve created what I consider a mutant, viral form of capitalism. Earlier on the program, you showed the statistics of 37 percent of the people in the survey not believing that capitalism is working. I don’t think the failure is capitalism. I think it’s the specific kind of capitalism that we’ve developed in the last thirty or forty years, particularly beginning with the time of Reagan and Milton Friedman’s economic theories, which stress that the only goal of business is to maximize profit, regardless of the social and environmental costs, and not to regulate businesses at all—regulation is bad, all forms—and to privatize everything, so that everything is run by private business. And this mutant form of capitalism, which I think is really a predatory form of capitalism, has created an extremely unstable, unsustainable, unjust and very, very dangerous world.More:
http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/why-the-economic-markets-imploded-john-perkins-on-democracy-now/

~~~~~
~snip~
Ecuador for many, many years had been ruled by pro-US dictators, often relatively brutal. Then it was decided that they were going to have a truly democratic election. Jaime Roldos ran for office, and his main goal he said as president would be to make sure that Ecuador's resources were used to help the people. And he won, overwhelmingly, by more votes than anyone had ever won anything in Ecuador, and he began to implement these policies , to make sure that the profits from oil went to help the people.

Well, they didn`t like that in the United States. As John Prekins(former hitman) confesses "I was sat down as one of several economic hit men, to change Roldos, to corrupt him, to bring him around. To let him know, you know, ok, you know, you can get very rich you and your family if you play our game, but if you continue to try to keep these policies you`ve promised, you`re gonna go… he wouldn`t listen".Later , he died in a plane crash.It is no doubt he had been assasinated.

As soon as the plane crashed, the whole area was cordoned off. The only people that were allowed in were US military from a nearby base, and some of the Ecuadorian military. When investigation was launched, two of the key witnesses died in car accidents before they had a chance to testify. A lot of very, very strange things that went on around the assassination of Jaime Roldos."

"In my position as an economic hit man I was always expecting something to happen to Jaime, weather it be a coup or an assassination I wasn`t sure, but that he would be taken down because he was not being corrupted, he would not allow himself to be corrupted the way we wanted to corrupt him." - John Perkinshttp://www.truthortale.com/economic-hitmen.html

~~~~~
It's so sad such evil things have been done by the same people who promote their way of life as the more virtuous, cleaner, finer!
As bad as the lowest scum every born, and worse due to the low, slimy dishonest HYPOCRISY.

~~~~~
You probably heard him, too, on C-Span Books when someone asked him if threats have been made on his life, and he conceded he has to travel with bodyguards.

THAT'S how much our lowlife maggots respect people who tell the truth, and those who work for the good of the people.

He went very directly where Mark Danner would not go, into the intersection of economics and politics in Latin America. I hope to write this up and have it ready for Friday morning. I'd love to have an all day seminar with him because his grasp of the region is deep and wide.

unlike anything anyone else is likely to bring, unless they have a quickening of consciousness.

So glad you took on this opportunity, EFerrari. Congrats, so glad it went so well.

And yes, the US took out a lot of great men like him, it is shameful. We need more men like him, and not repressive thugs like Chavez and Castro.

I notice you hang these "not like" little digs on your post.

It's sophomoric. And rather transparent. :hi:

And I still note your behavior.

:hi: