The United States economic war against Central & South America
By: Carlos Piovanetti, Esq.
American imperialism consists of policies aimed at extending the political, economic, and cultural influences of the United States over areas outside its own boundaries. It is carried out by engaging in outright military occupation, gunboat diplomacy, unequal treaties, and regime change. The goal is the further enrichment of American corporations protected by its government, as it exploits the natural resources and peoples of the countries where it elects to exercise its prowess.
This monograph examines how the United States of America has used its overt and covert military might to destabilize nations to further the economic interests of its multinational corporations.
The Banana Wars (1912-1933), during this period at the end of the Spanish-American war, the United States military physically occupied Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. When the United States withdrew its military forces, it installed morally bankrupt, friendly dictators.
The longest occupation occurred in Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933. In 1937, the Dictator, Anastacio Somoza Garcia, began the Somoza dynasty that ended in 1979 when Anastacio “Tachito” Somoza was finally overthrown by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).
The C.I.A., trained, funded, and armed the right-wing, paramilitary Contras that attempted to overthrow the Sandinista regime. The Contras ultimately failed, however, their failure exposed the brutal reality that the C.I.A. was laundering drug money for several drug cartels and used the ill-gained proceeds to prop the Contras.
In 1954, the C.I.A., at the behest of the United Fruit Company, (UFC), financed a coup that removed the Guatemalan elected President, Jacobo Arbenz. The C.I.A. trained the expeditionary forces of General Castillo Armas in the jungles of Somoza’s Nicaragua. UFC became disillusioned with Jacobo Arbenz when he instituted land reform programs that benefited a vast indigenous population. The C.I.A. manufactured evidence that Arbenz was a communist, he was not, to support a coup against his democratically elected government. With Arbenz gone, UFC recuperated the lands expropriated by the Arbenz government.
In 1959, the glorious liberation forces under the command of Fidel Castro Ruz, ousted the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista from Cuba. The Americans, unhappy that Batista was gone, in 1961 attempted to overthrow the Castro regime and miserably failed. The patriotic forces of the Cuban government beat back this Yanqui incursion. Today, Cuba is an example of true socialism, despite the fact that the United States continues its illegal economic blockade against the island nation.
Since 1950, Bolivia has had the distinction of the most coups in the world. However, just three years ago, the C.I.A engineered the destabilization of the elected government of Evo Morales, a socialist. International observers have determined that the United States in collaboration with forces of radical oppression, succeeded in ending the legally elected administration of Evo Morales, and replacing it with one willing to look the other way, as miners continued to suffer exploitation to benefit rich corporations.
The real September 11, took place in Chile on September 11, 1973. Corporate American interests demanded that the C.I.A. engineer a coup to end the presidency of Salvador Allende Gosens. Allende, an avowed socialist had threatened to expropriate American interests in the Chilean copper mines, unless a host of grievances were corrected. The companies, not wanting to spend money to protect and safeguard the miners, implored the administration of Richard Nixon to kill Allende. The C.I.A. recruited Dictator, General Augusto Pinochet who in the early morning hours on September 11, 1973, brought an end to Allende’s government.
For the next 17 years, more than 200,000 Chileans left their homeland seeking refuge in other countries, tens of thousands were tortured or are still missing, and more than 3,000 died under the brutal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations while exiled in Spain. This was the first time that judges applied the principle of universal jurisdiction to rule on crimes committed in other countries by former heads of state. The United States opposed this finding, notwithstanding that fact that witnessed testified that Pinochet at the behest of the C.I.A. clandestinely manufactured biological and chemical weapons.
In 1976, the C.I.A. financed the coup that ended the presidency of Isabel Peron. They replaced her with a right-wing, military dictator, General Jorge Rafael Videla.
In 2002, right-wing, C.I.A. sponsored paramilitaries kidnapped and attempted a coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The people took to the streets of Caracas demanding the immediate return of President Chavez. The C.I.A. trained organizers, fearing that their own lives were compromised returned President Chavez who resumed his presidency until his death on March 5, 2013. Today, Venezuela under the leadership of President Nicolas Maduro continues the socialist advances implemented by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela sits at the cusp of South America and shines as an example of socialism to the rest of its neighbors.
Ecuador saw ten years of great progress under the Presidency of Rafael Correa. A socialist, Correa built schools and hospitals in areas mired by extreme poverty. Correa demanded that American corporations pay fair wages to their laborers. Today, the forces of radical oppression are once again in power, and the Ecuadoran laborer is suffering. Today, a laborer picking bananas is paid one dollar an hour and forced to work 12-16 hours per day, six days a week. Health benefits under Correa were scrapped as too costly.
Under the conditions noted above, workers throughout the region, unable to earn a decent wage in their home countries, opt to migrate to the United States. However, for the most part, they do not travel with an entry visa. They are forced to enter surreptitiously by crossing the border and traversing the desert before they can reach large, metropolitan cities. These human beings have every right to enter to work in the United States. Why? Because the United States supported and continues to support governments that exploit the working class to benefit its rich multinational corporations. If and when the United States agrees to demand that its corporations pay comparable wages, including benefits to workers in the native lands, only then will the exodus of this workforce cease to migrate north. However, until that happens, we will overtake their towns and villages, and make them ours. Spanish is the only language spoken in the territories that our workforce occupies today in capitalist America. And we will not leave until repatriation is made to the millions that suffered under the capitalist yoke.
Carlos Piovanetti