The global power center of gravity is rapidly changing to the East on the one hand, and towards the South on the other. A case in point is Latin America, where a newly found assertiveness and unity of voice might well be the direct result of US weakness.
The global power center of gravity is rapidly changing to the East on the one hand, and towards the South on the other. A case in point is Latin America, where a newly found assertiveness and unity of voice might well be the direct result of US weakness.
Last month, a similar attempt on the dignity of the US as that perpetrated by the infamous shoe attack against Bush took place in the city of Bahia, Brazil, where, led by world statesman and President of Brazil Lula, a mega summit brought together the meetings of the organization of Latin American and Caribbean countries, MERCOSUR and UNASUR. As president Correa from Ecuador argued, the gathering was symbolically important as it was the first time in history that all Latin American countries met by themselves in a meeting agreed by themselves without the presence of the US.
Three key resolutions at these various meetings can be seen to challenge US power in the region. The first is the decision to accept Cuba as member of the Rio group. Coming on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and after 46 years as a political pariah in the continent when, following US demands, Cuba was expelled from OAS in 1962, the tide is finally turning, thus beginning the political rehabilitation of the country at a Latin American level.
It could have gone further as President Morales of Bolivia demanded that the US either accepts Cuba back to the OAS or leaves the organization. Lula disassociated himself from that position arguing that the new president of the US needs time to outline his policies towards Latin America before Latin America either welcomes or condemns these views. Lula did, however, condemn the US embargo on Cuba and joined a chorus of support for the island and expectation that the new US administration will review this policy.
Secondly, the presidents of UNASUR officially received the report by the investigative commission they themselves set up in September to look into the murder of 20 peasants in the northern region of Pando, Bolivia. They unanimously confirmed that what took place in Pando was a massacre and a serious breach in human rights and were united in supporting the democratic process of change in Bolivia and in declaring impunity a thing of the past. The declaration is a clear affront to extreme right wing groups in Bolivia and to their supporters in the US who, through the expelled US ambassador in the country, were fomenting civil strife and violence in August and early September. The United States has been conspicuously quiet about these events.
Thirdly, the meeting in Bahia creates a Latin American Security Council and common defense program. [1] Does this mark the last rites for a US Monroe Doctrine that, since 1823, has given itself the right to intervene in any number of Latin American countries, both directly and indirectly, supporting every dictatorship as long as it defended American interests? Is this a salvo to the IV fleet re-established this year to patrol Caribbean and Latin American waters? [2]
Clearly, the events in Bahia mark a new departure for a region that is proceeding towards an accelerated process of political, economic and military integration. In the process, Latin America also aims to be more independent from the US. And so the proposals first discussed barely a month ago at the ALBA meeting in Caracas of creating a single Latin American currency are reinforced by the creation of a development Banco del Sur that replaces dependency of countries in the region on the World Bank and the IMF.
Clearly there is a new correlation of forces in the world and some of the more assertive and self-assured – even hostile and rancorous – views expressed in Bahia are an indicator that the countries of Latin America are starting to question every bastion of US power, from its self-appointed role as the world’s policeman, to that of defender of the international financial institutions that countries like Ecuador claim have inflicted on them illegitimate, immoral and illegal debts.
They say that former Mexican President Porfirio Diaz once lamented that his country was ‘so far from God and so close to the United States’. Recently that distance to the United States seems to have increased just a little bit.
Notes:
[1] ERBOL Aprueban creación del Consejo de Defensa Sudamericano. 17/12/08. http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483914504&id=1
[2] Mayer, A. (2008) Permanencia del imperio Americano. Le Monde diplomatique (Bolivian edition), September, pp. 24-6