Making Latin America American

THE PERSISTENT PATTERN is that whenever Latin American countries duly elect socialist governments in democratic elections, electing politicians who promise to nationalize and redistribute national wealth and land to poor farmers, often they do it, sometimes they don't. This arrangement, the very threat of it, invariably arouses the ire of American corporate interests, and their spokespeople, the United States government, who have other plans. The result is that American operatives, well funded, fund and support opposition groups, who use the support to overthrow the legitimate governments. Chile, 1973, Guatemala, 1954 are but two of many such examples. This was the intention of the Monroe Doctrine, issued in 1823, declaring Latin America off limits to European powers, which was from the beginning largely ignored by said powers. The doctrine was from the beginning unenforceable, and remains so today. The newly installed puppet governments of the United States are of course beholden to the U.S. and its corporate oligarchy, and become client states, doing the bidding of the plutocracy. The American people are generally unaware of all this and unconcerned about it. American corporations insinuate themselves into local economies, appropriating resources for themselves, and taking wealth out of the country, impoverishing the client states, and causing the refugee situation about which so much has been heard in recent years. Into corporate coffers goes the wealth of other nations, with the tacit approval of capitalist puppet dictators. For an excellent overview of American foreign policy in Latin America, William A. Williams "The Tragedy of American Diplomacy", though first published in 1959, remains highly relevant, a seminal monograph. It is vital that the American people become better informed about U.S. imperialism, which imitates European imperialism, because the current refugee crisis, which now is building towards catastrophic proportions in both Europe and the United States, is the direct result of it, as well as climate change, which is also the product of mainly European and American economic consumer culture, although India, China, and other developing nations are even now emulating the fossil fuel based pattern of rapid industrialization invented by the western world. The effects of imperialistic exploitation of resources and climate change have only barely begun to be felt, bad as the problem already is. It is the moral imperative of the wealthy west to accept and integrate economic and political refugees, but its current refusal to do so is based on racism and nationalism, and a refusal to accept responsibility for its won misbehavior. This has given rise to the right wing white supremacist anti-refugee governments that have for now captured the political systems of many countries in Europe, plus Australia and the United States. Social and economic justice is impossible under these semi-fascist governments, making it all the more vital that they be voted out of office. The sooner the better.