Part 3: A Hard Look At Latin America

TRADE AS A WEAPON

Part 2: The United States “Re-Conquest” - was posted on August 6, 2011

Why does the Unites States support elitist, undemocratic governments? The answer is money. Chilean copper, Columbian oil and Ecuadorian natural gas are among the prizes. The selling off of natural resources and state enterprises such as railroads, telephone companies, and airlines to private investors is a fountain of wealth. Local elites help arrange the deals on behalf of the U.S. and other transnational elites, and are well compensated. This economic invasion takes the form of a business deal or a “development” loan.

In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins explains how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) development loans never actually reach the countries to which they are “loaned”. Up to ninety percent of the money comes back to the United States through contracts given to American companies hired to build projects being funded. Of the remaining ten percent, a large portion goes to local elites who have approved and will administer the projects. Very little of this money actually reaches the people or improves their standard of living in any way. However, the people are taxed to repay the money.

International “free trade” agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are nothing more than economic domination, a way for the rich to get richer. At a 2004 Mexico City forum, numerous scholars called these treaties a “process of subordination,” designed to give the United States control of Latin American resources. DR-CAFTA, the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement includes: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the Dominican Republic.

A wide range of grassroots social movements, recognizing the threats to the economic sovereignty of their nations, have expressed disapproval in the “free trade” agreements that benefit the rich and elite here in the United States and elites in countries where the United States has imposed economic colonialism. Developing a socially responsive model of economic integration between rich and poor economies is essential. Given the influence of the United States in setting the rules for the global economy, a visible, sustained challenge to the NAFTA model here in the United States is the most important contribution we as concerned people on this continent can make towards the building of a more just global economic system.