We have met the enemy, and he is us. The corporate take over of the western hemisphere
It's almost too much to keep up with...the rapid push to take over countries in the western hemisphere. A partial list includes Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, and we've been working on Venezuela. Not to mention the corporate take over of Puerto Rico. Sadly the US is the driving most of these and complicit in the others. As former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger put it, if America could not control its own backyard, it could hardly hope “to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world.”
Let's start with the old news first. The 2009 coup in Honduras was a reaction to progressive social policies.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/15/us-role-honduras-coup-and-s...
Despite being a wealthy logger and rancher from the centrist Liberal Party, Zelaya had moved his government to the left during his four years in office. During his tenure, he raised the minimum wage and provided free school lunches, milk for young children, pensions for the elderly, and additional scholarships for students. He built new schools, subsidized public transportation, and even distributed energy-saving light bulbs. None of these were particularly radical moves, but it was nevertheless disturbing to the country’s wealthy economic and military elites.
A non-binding referendum on whether such a constitutional assembly should take place was scheduled the day of the coup, but was cancelled when the military seized power and named Congressional Speaker Roberto Micheletti as president.
Calling for such a referendum is perfectly legal under Article 5 of the 2006 Honduran Civil Participation Act, which allows public functionaries to perform such non-binding public consultations regarding policy measures.
The leader of the coup, Honduran General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, was a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas, a U.S. Army training program nicknamed “School of Assassins” for the sizable number of graduates who have engaged in coups, as well as the torture and murder of political opponents.
Ann-Marie Slaughter, then serving as director of Policy Planning at the State Department, sent an email to Clinton strongly encouraging her to "take bold action" and to "find that [the] coup was a 'military coup' under U.S. law." However, Clinton's State Department refused to suspend U.S. aid to Honduras -- as required when a democratically-elected government is ousted in such a manner -- on the grounds that it wasn’t clear that the forcible military-led overthrow actually constituted a coup d'état.
Emails released last year by the State Department also show how Clinton rejected calls by the international community to condemn the coup and used her lobbyist friend Lanny Davis -- who was working for the Honduran chapter of the Business Council of Latin America, which supported the coup -- to open communications with Micheletti, the illegitimate interim ruler installed by the military.
Despite the refusal to call it a coup and the insistence on recognizing the new government as legitimate, the U.S. knew it was a coup. By July 24, 2009, less than a month after Zelaya’s ouster, the White House, Clinton and many others were in receipt of a cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Honduras. Clearly never meant to be public, the cable was titled: “Open and Shut: the Case of the Honduran Coup.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/01/a-us-hand-in-brazils-coup/
One down!
Now on to Paraguay
The so-called constitutional coup that ousted Paraguay’s elected President Fernando Lugo on June 22, 2012 is another indication of the mounting class tensions that are gripping Latin America and the world as a whole, making democratic forms of rule under capitalism ever more unsustainable.
The principal pretext for the impeachment was a massacre unleashed by Paraguayan security forces as they attempted to evict some 100 peasant farmers occupying the land of a wealthy former Stroessner-era Colorado politician. Eleven peasants and six policemen were killed, while scores more were wounded and arrested. The right-wing parties in the Paraguayan Congress blamed Lugo not for gunning down peasants, but for failing to carry out more thorough repression.
The parallels between the June 2012 coup in Paraguay and the June 2009 coup that toppled the elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, are obvious. In both cases, the political representatives of oligarchical ruling classes threw out presidents who had postured as “lefts,” bitterly opposing even the paltriest reforms as intolerable infringements upon their wealth and power. And in both cases legal and constitutional statutes were twisted to serve wholly antidemocratic ends.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/07/pers-j03.html
For more:http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2013/12/paraguay-forg...
Two down!
Now for Brazil.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Pulitzer-Winner-Media-Should-Call-...
U.S. Pulitzer Prize winner and renowned journalist Glenn Greenwald suggested that all media should begin referring to the impeachment trial against suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as a coup.
Greenwald's news outlet The Intercept is responsible for the leak of audio exposing a plot by Brazilian politicians — linked to the massive corruption candal involving the state-run oil company Petrobras — to oust Rousseff in order to protect themselves from indictment.
(The audio transcripts) show explicit plotting between the new planning minister (then-senator), Romero Jucá, and former oil executive Sergio Machado — both of whom are formal targets of the 'Car Wash' corruption investigation,” he said.
The journalist added that both politicians mention that the only way to put an end to the investigation putting their careers at risk is by ousting Dilma.
The call — between Romero Jucá, who was a senator at the time and is currently the planning minister in the new Michel Temer government, and former oil executive Sergio Machado — lays bare “a national pact” to remove Rousseff and install Temer as president. Jucá reveals that not only opposition politicians but also the military and the Supreme Court were conspirators in the coup.
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/06/01/a-us-hand-in-brazils-coup/
There can no longer be any doubt that the impeachment of Brazil’s democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff was an illegitimate act of power politics. The maneuvering by opposition politicians has been revealed for what it clearly was all along: a quiet coup dressed in the disguise of good governance.
The recent publication (by Brazil’s largest newspaper, Folha de São Paulo) of transcripts from secret conversations that took place in March, just weeks before the impeachment vote, has done for Brazil what the intercepted phone call between Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt did for Ukraine: it provided proof that the removal of the elected president was a coup.
Though the precise U.S. role in Brazil’s current political crisis remains unclear, there has been some suggestive, though not conclusive, evidence. Weisbrot said, “there is no doubt that the biggest players in this coup attempt — people like former presidential candidates José Serra and Aécio Neves — are U.S. government allies. Brazil is awash in financing from American sources, including “CIA-related organizations.
The willingness to go ahead with the planned meetings with Nunes right after the impeachment vote suggests at least tacit acceptance or approval on the part of Washington. So far, the U.S. government has been conspicuously silent about the coup in Brazil.
So the US merrily goes to Brazil for the Olympics with no talk of the coup (because we were complicit).
An interview with the impeached president by Glen greenwald 20 min subtitled
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1nE8E-0u5E]
Three down on to the next...
On to an electoral coup in Peru. In the new president's defense he did resign from 14 corporate boards.
Like here in the US some coups happen with elections.
12 min
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUgWZrQhG8A]
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has narrowly won the Peruvian presidential runoff, defeating Keiko Fujimori by 0.23 percent of the vote. But his "interests are more close to the interests of multinationals than the citizenry", said sociologist Francesca Emanuele.
While serving as Prime Minister during the presidency of Alejandro, Kaczynski was also working as an advisor to the Hunt Oil company. Kuczynski pushed for changes to laws that had required extracted resources to be used for internal consumption. The changes allowed for exports of natural gas to Mexico. Peru lost an estimated $20 billion in revenue.
Emanuele cites Kuczynski's call to fight narco-trafficking, and his unwillingness to privatize the water system, as positives for the new presidency. But Kuczynski is likely to request military aid from the United States and subsequently align himself with US interests.
"He's going to be allied with the US. He's going to be allied with the new governments like Macri, for example, and he is going to support this new allies of right-wing government against, in many ways or many aspects, against sovereignty in the region, and that's unfortunate," said Emanuele.
From wiki:
in 1980, after the election which named Fernando Belaúnde Terry as president, Kuczynski was invited to return to Peru to serve as Minister of Energy and Mines. In this position, he sponsored law 23231 which, through tax exemptions and other incentives, promoted oil and gas exploration after a period of relative neglect. Kuczynski resigned in 1982 in order to return to the private sector in the United States.
During the rest of the 1980s and 1990s, Kuczynski was mainly involved in the private-equity fund-management business in the United States. He made small personal donations to the presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush and of George W. Bush and to the state-senator campaign of his wife's cousin in Wisconsin.
In 2000, Kuczynski joined the presidential campaign of Alejandro Toledo Manrique, then an economics professor at the ESAN university in Lima. After Toledo was elected president in 2001, Kuczynski served as Minister of Economy and Finance from July 2001 to July 2002, and again from February 2004 to August 2005. In August 2005, he was appointed as Prime Minister, a position he held until Toledo's presidential term expired in 2006.
After working with the Toledo administration, he founded Agua Limpia, a Peruvian non-governmental organization that provides drinking water systems to communities in Peru. Agua Limpia is supported by the Inter-American Development Bank, Scotia Bank of Canada and others.
Kuczynski won 21 % of the popular vote in Peru's general elections on April 10 to qualify for a runoff vote against Keiko Fujimori, in which he narrowly triumphed (50,12 %).
Four down and the fifth in progress... the attempted coup in Venezuela.
Key to the US control of Latin America is the repossession of Venezuela after the death of populist leader Hugo Chavez in 2013. Chavez’ successor, Nicolás Maduro, is not considered nearly the skilled political leader that Chavez was but Maduro did continue the run of Bolivarian Revolution victories, albeit by a narrow margin over Henrique Capriles, Washington’s choice.
Though some 150 international monitors observed the election and an audit of more than half the vote tally found no problems, the United States refused to recognize the election results, the only country to do so. Since then, political pressure on the Maduro government has continued, often cheered on by the U.S. news media and made worse by the drop in world oil prices that contributed to an economic crisis.
President Maduro recently declared a state of emergency, accusing the U.S. of conspiring with right-wing groups in Venezuela to overthrow his government. Maduro said, “Washington is activating measures at the request of Venezuela’s fascist right.”
20 min from Democracy Now
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5OsJxN4tiU]
Last but not least is the subjugation of our own territory Puerto Rico.
We demand ever more austerity from the poorest among our own people.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/06/22/the-takeover-of-puerto-rico/
It was the House Natural Resources Committee, which passed a bipartisan bill resulting in a complete takeover of Puerto Rico’s economy. The bill calls for an oversight-committee of seven people to manage the entire financial economy of the island. Only one of the seven is required to be a resident of Puerto Rico. Four of the remaining six will be chosen directly by the Republican congress. The other three can be selected by President Obama; however, his choice will be from a list provided by the House Republicans. Aside from this economic-junta, further austerity measures are required in the proposal. Undoubtingly, austerity in the face of the current Puerto Rican depression will further disparage the working class and poor of the island.
the oversight-committee (economic-junta) is obviously formal colonialism. However, the more insidious 21st century style imperialism, which is economic and political manipulation, has been taking place on the Island for decades as well. For example, when the U.S. wants to control a Latin American country they pass so called “trade deals,” in collusion with the elites of that particular country. If they do not like leaders in Haiti, Honduras, Chile, Venezuela or Brazil the U.S. stages a coup, finances opposition groups and foments protests. If the U.S. wants to maintain military dominance in the hemisphere or maintain agricultural dominance over Mexico and Columbia, the U.S. simply declares a “War on Drugs.” How does Puerto Rico fall into this 21st century empire? The municipal bonds issued by Puerto Rico were triple tax exempt, making them attractive to wealthy non-Puerto Ricans. The money Puerto Rico was borrowing, in the form of bonds, was being used to fund the government. As a results the Puerto Rican government was spending more than it was taking in, which is the whole premise of state issued bonds.
As a colony they cannot fight against extortion like that of Argentina, they cannot maintain their dignity and manage internal affairs like that of California and they cannot pull out of their depression in the fashion of FDR.
In conclusion we must admit our role in building the corporate empire...
President Evo Morales of Bolivia has called on the remaining left-wing governments of South America to counter American plans to retake control of the region. Morales said, “It is the plan of the American empire that wants to regain control of Latin America and the Caribbean, and especially in South America, and there surely is an ambition to establish a United States presence in these countries and recover subservient governments as a model, as a system.”
And while we fret over our election (fraud), quietly in the night, the corporations grab ever more.
We have met the enemy, and he is us (or at least US corporations and the MIC)!
EDIT dancingrabbit added below Ecuador needs to be included. Here is the link and dr's comment below adds details. Thanks -
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/The-Why-and-How-of-Media-Attac...
Comments
I woke this morning...
thinking of all the countries subjected to corporate take over in the last few years. Do you think they are rushing to dominate as many as possible while people are still dependent on main stream media? Sure seems like it is dominoes.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I think it's a resource grab
They may pretend they don't believe in climate change, but they do. And getting their hands on as much of the world's resources as possible just makes good fiscal sense, don'tcha know?
Although, how anyone is going to PAY for that all that peddled water, oil, food, whatever, they are grabbing, is something I haven't figured out. Or maybe it's not about that, maybe it's just for their own benefit.
They've gotta get this
done before those with pitch forks discover they've been had.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
we don't need no stinking pitchforks ;->
The love of money is the root of all evil.
There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams
The Obama administration's foreign policy sickens me
First, thank you for this post. Second, the Obama administration has done its best to overthrow any slightly progressive government in Latin America and has yet to meet a right wing narco-dictator it doesn't love (maybe not full open mouth kissing in public, but we know what happens behind closed doors). Paradoxically the incompetence of the GW Bush administration allowed a flowering of democracy and improvements for the poor in Latin America. The Obama administration (with HRC a driving force) is doing its best to install corporate-friendly governments and it doesn't matter how badly they treat their citizens or how legitimate they are. I am sure Obama is lining up his corporate paybacks right now-half million dollar speeches, boards of directorships. Wall Street rewards its lackeys. It is a clear message to up and coming politicians that if they sell out they will be richly rewarded. I realize I am repeating a lot that is in your post, but I get so pissed off with this that I have to rant.
this is not new
as you know Roy, we have a long history of taking over other countries. This morning I just started going over in my mind how many and how quickly this corporate take over was happening.
Obomba has been complicit all along. He took me in at first, but it became apparent his hope and change involved more corporate profit. When he accepted his peace prize declaring escalating the Afghan war was necessary for peace, I was done with his foreign policy.
How do we help people see? I think that is our biggest problem...a dishonest and complicit media.
Thanks for reading my essay!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Obama has a US military presence in the majority
of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The monopoly capital engine of destruction is in high gear throughout the global south. Entities such as the World Bank and WTO facilitate this takeover which will enrich a few and impoverish the majority while disrupting their ways of life. And it's all for money.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Absolutely!
I was afraid dealing with just this hemisphere made the essay too long. But you are so right this is a world wide grab. The WTO indeed facilitates takeovers. Freeing up trade does not “open new markets” as much as it enables giant, multinational corporations to become even more giant and more multinational – at the expense of smaller companies and the rest of us. Economists say that low labor and environmental-protection costs are a comparative advantage. They say it is good for U.S. companies to take advantage of countries with governments that exploit labor and the environment, because they offer lower costs for manufacturing. (Of course, the ultimate form of such a comparative advantage would be slavery.)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Precisely! I think the term global south refers to
so-called undeveloped countries - not totally under neoliberal domination more accurately - most of which are south of the equator but some are in non-industrialized Asia.
India resisted opening its borders to corporate raiders until recently when the decision was made, and forced upon the majority, to become part of the consumer loop. India had recently undergone colonial-induced famine that killed millions and the majority wanted to keep the colonizers out. No more.
Thanks for a thought provoking and well written essay.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Unfortunately we've been meddling from the Cold War on...
Includes Guatemala, El Salvador, too. Have we left alone any country in Latin America?
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking
NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc
It goes back to well before the cold war
For example, we helped carve Panama out of Columbia, so that the Panama canal could be built under US direction. Some of our activities were investigated by Congress in the early 1970s while I was living abroad so I am not completely familiar with the investigations. However, the bottom line was that the US intervened militarily in Latin America > 100 times. Our support of US trained dictators isn't included in this number, but many of them came later with the School for the Americas (aka the School for Dictators).
Not that I'm aware of...
There's a great comic book "Addicted to War" You can read the 2004 version online
http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html
Goes into the history of all our shenanigans.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
No, the enemy is THEM.
Speaking specifically to the idea off the quote of part of the title:
We are so not a part of them. The word 'us' in Corporate power does not include the people thus ist does not include 'us', no matter what country these corporations decide to call home at the moment.
Unless one is a controlling entity within these corporate power structures - excuse me - among these people (corps are people after all), they don't consider you, or me part of them.
And the idea that the enemy is US…well, you can include yourself in that grouping among THEM. They won't mind socializing the blame as long as they privatize their profits.
us being US
of course that is less and less the case these are multinational corporations working in collusion with our government. However your point is well made. It's not us as in you and me.
My point is while no one is really paying attention, slowly but surely there is a large corporate take over occurring.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
most assuredly
Occurring?
The corporate take over already occurred. It's already complete. What we're seeing now is power consolidation, not a takeover. A little late there. The takeover started well before what we're seeing now.
Ever since corporations became people, those are the people the politicians represent since that was from where the bulk of the money flowed if they wanted to enter the wealth class and guarantee themselves a seat at the table, even if it was only the kiddie table, or the trough.
People are just people, but some people are more equal than other people.
Corporations = People
Corporations are more equal than average people so Corporations > Average people
Politicians represent the people - not average people, but corporate people.
Makes one think a lot when rereading 'We the people' in the constitution, you know, that dirty dried up old document that the founders wrote who couldn't possibly have known how things would be now so none of it matters because it's the current year.
May as well enjoy the decline because it's not going to get much better. The clamp down will continue, along with the expected outrage to how 'our dear leaders' only manage to screw things up for the people they were supposed to represent. But while there will be plenty of outrage, and plenty of distractions to discuss the outrage, there won;t be much in the way of actual change.
Hey look, Hillary Clinton can be honest. Incrementalism is her promise for a lack of change. She just hasn't leveled with all of the rest of us how we can suck it up and deal because our betters in office and our owners (the wealth class) don't have to give a fuck anymore. LOL
Everything Burns.
how about..
ongoing?
This is nothing new, but as some leftist governments have gained traction in Latin America the corporate hand comes down with a thud.
Hillarity and Obomba have both be players in these coups. Have you heard any talk of the US not participating in the Olympics unless Brazil's elected president is re-instated? You won't.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The Imperial Homeland is already under control
There's some unhappy Imperial citizens, but they are easily managed and controlled. Some imperial citizens even wish to help the Imperium to disarm other members of the citizenry.
With friends like that, the government has little concern that their consistent attack on homeland citizenry rights will not be a success over time.
External imperial corporate acquisitions are just part of the ongoing power consolidation.
The takeover has been a done deal form some time.
But whatever. If it makes people feel better to think they can slow the momentum, and even stop the juggernaut, more power to them.
But you do make a point. Pretty lies and deceptions are easier to deal with than difficult truths. So we'll agree that it's all ongoing. Ongoing…because it'll make people feel better and also make them feel like they still have a chance to make a difference when reality lies elsewhere. It's not really true, but we can agree that it is.
Have a good day. Have a good life.
I'm lucky...
to have a good life in a beautiful place...and a pension. I maybe the fool with rose-colored glasses, but I'm still working for working people and believe in practicing kindness. I refuse to throw up my hands and quit.
Of course when I'm frustrated I can dig in the garden and find a little peace.
Here's wishing you peace.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You confuse giving up for spending one's time wisely
This one's even better.
No matter what is going on, never give up your valuable time on futility. Develop other interests. Too much energy is spent attempting to change that which can not be. Be compassionate, to yourself and to others, and work for peace of mind. In your heart and in your world, work for peace of mind. And I say again, never give up valuable time on futile things no matter those trying to distract you with pointless endeavor in unchangeable things. Never give up your personal time unless it is time you wish to spend in such a manner. Your time is the most valuable. Be sure of how you spend it.
It may be time to take the advice I have to Older and Wiser Now….hmmmm. Probably so.
Everyone must meet the struggle in their own way
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
You can add Ecuador to the list.
And, yes, the MSM has something to do with it. Probably more importantly, these countries were all moving toward regional integration based on the needs of their peoples rather than the neoliberal model.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/The-Why-and-How-of-Media-Attac...
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Thanks for that addition dr!
Isn't it bizarre when other governments start working for poor and working people we (our MIC) steps in and arranges a coup? Not only do we deny our working people but we do our best to subject all working people. Debt is the new chain of slavery.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
This is fine work and research, but
I am not buying your originating premise.
Supposedly, decades ago the Banana Company tried to take over Latin America. Then there was the support from the Gubmint and CIA attempting to assassinate and install "friendly" regimes. Oh and that Panama Canal thing.
We backed off decades ago when it came to light the crap we were attempting to do. Rightfully so.
Since then, what?
Dictators, Facists, Communists (oh my).
And after more than 50 years they're a mess.
None of the "leaders" are worthy. Power grubbing dictators. " Let's change the Constitution so I can stay in power just like Robert Mugabe".
Blah.
The people need to do something and throw of the yokes placed on them by the oligarchs and facists that keep them subjicated.
100 hundred years ago, did we contribute to this mess. Yes.
At what point do they take responsibility for themselves?
Guess never.
Cause it's always our fault.
Phhttt.
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
Sorry but this is laughable
Decades ago? As in when and who exactly?
Many parts of the comment begs questioning, starting with "Supposedly."
Chile; Honduras; Brasil(1960s); Dominican Republic; Cuba
I think history shows the USA is still at its meddling and disrupting and murderous interventions. I think it's factual to say the people of Honduras tried to have a democratically elected president serve his full term but was prevented by force from doing so.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Look no further than
this current prez race - and what "They" did to Bernie - to see that this not only still goes on, but it's more open and brazen than ever before. "They" don't even try to hide it anymore. "They," in fact, say, yes, we are in fact fucking you and everyone else. So? What are you going to do about it?!
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
corruption knows no borders
and all blame can't be laid at our feet, but based on the evidence I think we (MIC, CIA, other industrial interests) have got our hands dirty trying to keep out socialism and promote corporate control.
At what point do we take responsibility for ourselves is also a valid question.
Thanks for your thoughts. You're certainly correct that corruption isn't just a US commodity.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Speaking of "borders" Lookout....
you might want to add California's deadly Southern border built by Clinton. It's another disgusting inconvenient truth, and I'm guessing its what earned them their invite to Trump's stupid wedding.
Multi-national Corporate power grabs.
There have been a lot of thoughtful Americans totally opposed to the fossilized, prehistoric greedball mindset which wreaks havoc everywhere it shows up. We have walked in an intellectual wilderness dominated by dumbing down the populace. It is a relief to finally no longer be a minority. None of these power grabs are surprising. They are just very depressing! Rec'd!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.