Neocolonialism in Latin America for Rent

The Conquest by Spain and subsequent Colonialism saw the direct political, social, religious, and economic ownership of Latin America to outside powers. The mechanisms of external control in Latin America have become more complex and less blatant thanks to the globalization of the Western neoliberal economic system. Now, as the ascendant economies deplete arable land at home in the pursuit of Industrialized status, they are forced to turn to other Global South nations. A race to buy up land in Africa saw its beginning stages in 2009, and is now in full swing, with several U.S. universities buying land on the continent through hedge funds.

Now, the beginnings of a similar push for land is coming to Latin America.

The Patagonia region of Argentina have gained the interest of a Chinese multinational corporation seeking to lease the land and use it to grow soy beans. Patagonia is known for being dry, and the Chinese investors will bring in Chinese engineers to create an elaborate irrigation system to provide water for the fields. Many small landowners are concerned about the prospect of a Chinese corporation coming in and renting thousands of hectares of Argentine land. The Chinese will be using genetically modified soy bean seeds for their crops, and GMOs are not typically used by the typical non-agribusiness Argentine farmer. Couple this with the possible environmental damage wrought by a newly created irrigation system, and the importation of Chinese workers and engineers signals that this enterprise will not mean jobs for local Argentines, and it becomes clear why foreign interest in arable land is met with skepticism.

Colombia has been singled out by Oxfam because of the disparity in land ownership between the wealthy and rural farmers. Oxfam points out that the further concentration of land in the hands of the wealthy and multinationals will lead to an increase in poverty, especially in rural areas. The increase in poverty would be due to the lack of land for farmers to subsist with or sell to local markets. Also, the leasing and purchasing of arable land in Colombia is not being utilized by the purveyors to create edible crops to alleviate hunger abroad or even in Colombia. Most of the land is being used for biofuels and flowers.

Argentina recently introduced tough laws to prevent foreign ownership of land in Argentina. Colombia is described to have the second least amount of land ownership regulation in all of Latin America. These two opposing levels of ownership regulation become irrelevant when many multinational corporations (MNCs) are more interested in leasing or renting the land for anywhere between 10-40 years at a time. The land will be utilized, its nutrients reaped, and it will be left to rot so long as the economic or agricultural needs of the MNC’s host nation are met.

Latin@ voices from Occupy Wall Street NYC

These past two weeks have been hectic for the Occupy movement here in New York City. Two weeks ago the encampment was violently removed, an injunction by a NY Judge said the protesters could return, and then a higher appellate Judge said protesters could only return without camping equipment, food or instruments. All of that was in one day. Occupy then showed the whole country its strength with a march of between 30-40,000 New Yorkers across the Brooklyn Bridge. Prior to the physical eviction of the movement I had the opportunity to speak with Latin@s at Liberty Square. I asked these folks simple questions as to why they were at Liberty on that day and these are their responses, unedited. (forgive the difficult audio quality)

Julian Pimiento, Author and Filmmaker from Queens:

Gladys Frias (left) and Ruthy Leon (right), Students from New Jersey:

Alexandra Gonzalez, widowed single mother of three from Brooklyn:

A moment of racial truth during Occupy Washington Square Park

As the Occupy movement in the United States grapples with internal racism and more people of color join the movement, there are still many people of color who feel alienated and unwelcome in what are supposed to be “open” political spaces. I have heard and shared in a feeling of being

The Puerto Rican flag flies next to an image of Ernesto Guevara in Times Sq (photo: Kevin Alvarez)

an outsider when occupying Liberty Square at times. The majority white (and male) occupation is not so open to critiques of Western economics (socialist, communist, etc) or histories of oppression (U.S. Apartheid, genocide of Indigenous Americans, etc.) and this can turn many people of color away. An incident this past monday on World Indigenous People Day (Columbus Day) highlighted the coarseness and ignorance of some of our fellow protesters. A video shows several people engaging in indigenous song and dance when they are forcefully stopped by a white male and the reason as to why is unclear. So, obviously it has been hard to speak racial historical truth to the Occupy movement. But, last night I witnessed a passionate, genuine, and honest display of that first hand.

As Occupy Times Square ended, the protesters marched to Washington Square Park in hopes of occupying a new space. As midnight rolled around NYPD’s riot squads and counter-terrorism units combed through the park and arrested a dozen people. The overwhelming show of force is striking to people who do not grow up witnessing police violence or living in fear of the police. The crowd at Washington Square Park last night was overwhelmingly white and young, with smatterings of people of color (all of us with our own amounts of privilege). A young black man took note of this and as those of us outside the park watched NYPD riot police arresting and forcing people out of the park, he spoke racial truth to the power of the Occupy movement.

“Tonight we are all ni**ers! Black people have lived through this since we got here. And now you all can go home and tell your parents that you know what it’s like to be a ni**er in America!” The young man went on to say that what he was saying came from a place of love and a hope that those of us there understand that the world is not color blind and we cannot pretend as such. His words were met by a crowd that did not look at him, did not acknowledge his words, and did not even bother to agree or disagree with him. A friend of mine and myself (both people of color) applauded him for having the courage and honesty to speak the truth. It was this moment of desperation in a man in a sea of privilege to just speak his mind that has led me to realize how vitally important it is for our marginalized communities to not be “invited” to Occupy but to forcefully make our voices and concerns heard.

If our communities wait to be invited to the discourse, and we do not create our own spaces, then when this movement achieves something it will continue to ignore those quashed by this system. A friend of mine put it right, “This is a white middle class movement. And the moment that they get some simple piece of legislation that will appease them, this movement is dead. And when it’s dead we will all be stuck in the same spot where we started.”

Entonces, mi gente. A la lucha!

Why Occupy Wall Street should matter to People of Color

I have been a proud participant of the Occupy Wall Street movement for over a week. It is one of the most beautiful and organic political experiences I have ever had in my life. It is truly participatory democracy in action with a group of hundreds. It is a self-sustaining community that seeks to check corporate corruption and power in the United States. The movement has become such a threat that the NYPD arrested over 90 activists last Saturday (myself included) for exercising our rights to challenge and unjust system. They even beat and maced (I witnessed this)

The People taking back the streets of New York (photo: Kevin Alvarez)

peaceful protesters.

However, only one thing has been a recurring ill for me with being part of the movement. The disparity in the number of members/participants/citizens/activists of color that are taking part compared to the number of white people (esp. males). Now, I expect a “why do you have to make it about race?” response, because that is typical when someone’s privilege is confronted, but I want this to be constructive.

If the poor, marginalized people of color from all over NYC do not take part in the movement, take over leadership roles, and ultimately share in the destiny of this movement and its direction then all we will see is a replication of the failures of the Civil Rights and Wimmin’s Movements. By failures I mean the immediate hijacking of the movements by those in power (institutionalization of Whiteness and Black self-hatred, and white wimmin ignoring the needs of womyn of color) and the ultimate dilution of the message and direction.

Everyone wants Occupy Wall Street to have “one demand,” but that is counterproductive to the movement at the moment because the movement is not completely inclusive. The people of the General Assembly, the leaders of the workgroups have done well to express that they want more people, diverse ideas, and every voice to be heard despite some typical hijacking of assemblies and meetings. But, the waiting for the people can only happen for so long until something decisive happens and the time for molding the movement ends.

If blacks, latin@s, indians, indigenous americans, wimmin, asians, africans, islanders don’t jump into the fray and lead meetings and assemblies and remind our white peers that EVERYONE’S PRIVILEGE must be checked at the door then we can’t expect to be disappointed with the results of the movement. And while I understand that the poor and marginalized do not have the same privilege to go and protest there must be more than have been attending. If you cannot personally, tell your friends/family and encourage others to become involved.

Without the voices of the disenfranchised people of color, lgbtq, differently abled, and other marginalized groups then this will become a revolution of those with privilege against those with privilege. There is a difference between revolutionary change and just being allowed access to the power, status, and wealth of the dominant culture. And Occupy Wall Street should not be co-opted by those seeking a watered down version of this systematically murderous economic and political system.

Police trapped us with kettle nets and arrested everyone (photo: Kevin Alvarez)

Channel Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, bell hooks, Ida B. Wells, Dolores Huerta, and the spirit of all the marginalized s(he)roes to become empowered and make this nation’s rhetoric of equality and justice match it’s actions!

Rural, Afro-descendant, and Indigenous peoples call for peace in Colombia

25,000 people convened Barrancabermeja, Colombia for the National Meeting of Rural Communities, Afro-Descendant and Indigenous Peoples for Land and Peace to discuss an end to the civil war and economic strife in the nation. The meeting was made up of organizations of campesin@s (rural farmers and fisherfolk), small landowners, Afro-Colombian organizations, and Indigenous organizations that have organized marches and protests in the past against the continued war between left-wing guerrillas and the right-wing government. The purpose of the meeting was to unite the strongest organizations for peace in Colombia and to use their grassroots strength to urge the government to enter into peace talks and cease putting the nations’ livelihood at the mercy of multinational corporations and international monetary organizations.

The National Meeting concluded that the route of war will not solve any of Colombia’s problems but will only prolong the conflict and leave festering issues. The participants came together and agreed on several points to urge a national dialogue of reconciliation and reconstruction that leaves behind the decades of war, reconciles the differences between the guerrillas and the government, and respects the rights of the marginalized rural, afro-descendant, and indigenous communities.

Their calls for peace were rebuffed when the government of Juan Manuel Santos reneged at the last minute to participate in the meeting. IPS reports that aides close to Santos are seeking to control right-wing paramilitaries in order to quell the violence in the country. However, this would ignore the festering issues brought up by the guerrillas and the pillaging of the land by the neoliberalization of Colombia’s economic policy. We can only hope that the meeting of 25,000 of Colombia’s most marginalized people can make inroads into the halls of power in Bogota.

Only in Venezuela is feeding the poor labeled political pandering

President Hugo Chavez’s popularity in the West has never been high, and among the pro-capitalist and pro-Western media outlets he is typically skewered. So, it’s no surprise that the capitalist rag The Economist offers a scathing, sarcastic, and probably accurate depiction of Chavez’s economic policies. If there’s one thing the team at The Economist is good at it is deconstructing capitalist failures because that’s what they do, perpetuate capitalist thought, and nothing beyond. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the entire article completely ignores how while Chavez may be a capitalist failure he has alleviated poverty and increased social spending exponentially. But, that’s not important because spending on “human capital” (as the capitalists like to call human development) is not profitable in the short term. Social spending does not bring in investors, multinational corporations, or pave the way for neoliberal free trade policies. So, I can see why The Economist wouldn’t care; because it does not fit the world view of their readers.

However, The Economist was outdone with this story. The UK’s “Telegraph” went above and beyond with an article that outlines President Chavez’s anti-poverty food price controls as political pandering to appease “his core support, the poor.” This was shocking because the writers and their readers will assume that the ONLY purpose of controlling food prices is to pander to the electorate. Controlling food prices has nothing to do with keeping food in the stomachs of the poor, it has nothing to do with the government’s responsibility to protect, feed, and house the people. The labeling is a disgusting, but telling, sign that several different sectors of Western media believe that programs that keep the masses fed are inherently wrong, corrupt, or evil.

It’s this sort of thinking that prevents nations from taking the radical steps necessary to restructure our economies and governments to do the most good for the most people instead of serving as defined markets for the global capitalist system. Until the day arrives when the poor aren’t viewed with contempt, and assisting them is seen as the true purpose of government and the economy we will continue to have the vulture capitalists busting this system every so often in pursuit of record “profits” at the expense of entire nations.

Peruvian drug gangs attacking uncontacted peoples to expand coca farming

Another sad chapter in Latin America’s drug war opened earlier this month. As governments mobilize their militaries in an effort to combat the growing influence and power of the drug cartels with physical violence, the cartels are seeking new and hidden lands to cultivate their profits. This thirst for ever higher profits has pushed drug gang members from Peru into the Brazilian state of Acre, which is home to the highest concentration

Uncontacted peoples in Acre aim their weapons at low-flying plane (photo: Gleison Miranda/FUNAI)

of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Last July the gang members pushed out members of Brazil’s indian affairs agency (FUNAI) from their watchpost at the Xinan river which is south of the home of the Asháninka people.

The Brazilian government routed the invaders, briefly, and when the pursuit of the gang members only turned up one captive they abandoned the FUNAI post. Several members of FUNAI’s Uncontacted Tribes divison decided they would take it upon themselves to stay at the outpost and work with the local peoples to prevent further incursions by the drug gangs. Asháninkas came to the post with weapons and ammunition so the 5 FUNAI members could defend themselves, the Asháninka and the FUNAI outpost maintain communication with a two-way radio.

The drug gangs are still in the region and FUNAI members believe they have already murdered local people, evidenced by a broken arrow found nearby at the gang’s encampment.

The war that began in Colombia has effectively blanketed Central America, Mexico, Bolivia and is now penetrating into the lands of peoples who have nothing to do with the global drug market, politics, or even government. This attack on indigenous peoples shows not only the ruthless and greedy nature of the cartels and gangs, but the Brazilian government’s indifference to protecting the native peoples of Acre. If it were not for the heroism and bravery of those 5 members of FUNAI the peoples of Acre would be left to their own devices to defend against heavily armed, murderous, and treacherous gang members.

The time for real solutions to the drug war is at hand. Every facet of life in Latin America is being infiltrated, disturbed, or destroyed by the Drug War. Innocent people are dying every day and now some of the last “free peoples” on Earth are being threatened by this war over the control of drug production and markets. The militarization of the region has failed, training local armed forces has failed, and the only way to sanitize the region is to take away the profit from the illegal manufacture and distribution of the drugs. Without the massive profit incentives the cartels power would dwindle. With money saved from militarization education, social welfare, and anti-corruption programs can be instated to begin rebuilding these nations.

Stolen Taíno artifacts returned to the Dominican Republic

The governments of the Dominican Republic and the United States are working together to repatriate over 60 pre-Columbian artifacts to the Dominican Republic. The US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement intercepted the transport of several artifacts through Florida. The pieces were destined for a private buyer in Jacksonville, Florida. The pieces were identified by archaeologists at several universities and were dated as far back as 2,000 years old.

The theft of indigenous pieces is a lucrative underground market fetching high prices from private collectors and private museums. The last pieces of ancient lifeways and cultures are being sold and traded by wealthy elites and northerners in a form of personal colonialism that usurps the right to history of an entire nation.

Latin American Herald Tribune has video of the pieces salvaged from the poachers.

Today we hit 100 posts.

I started this blog to have a log of my trip to Nicaragua. It’s evolved to be more than that. I started off a bit naive, and while I might still be I have learned a lot since starting this blog. I have found new and different opinions on Latin America. I am broadening my knowledge in the region beyond that of the social sciences. And I have learned that each and every reader is a gift, and I hope to give back with new stories and refreshing takes on news in Latin America. Thanks to everyone for reading, commenting, and debating here. I hope that at the least you can leave this site learning something new or seeing Latin America from a different perspective.  Here’s to at least 100 more posts and to more amazing readers like yourselves.

Btw, I changed the layout of the site and added contact info. Enjoy!

USAID money is not just for aid in Colombia and Bolivia

In Colombia U.S. aid has been used by the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), Colombia’s intelligence agency, to spy on the political rivals of former President Alvaro Uribe. Several of Uribe’s aides are on trial for a slew of crimes against humanity. However, U.S. aid is being used across Latin America for illicit activities and to fund opposition politicians and organizations. In Colombia U.S. aid was used to pay for the murders of union activists, to wire tap the phones of political rivals and Supreme Court Justices, and in Bolivia Evo Morales is accusing U.S. aid of instigating protests among indigenous groups once loyal to the President.

Uribe's former Chief of Staff on trial over abuses at DAS (photo: AP)

Uribe’s first DAS head, Jorge Noguera, stands accused of coordinating the murders of union activists and he was recommended for Interpol Latin America. Former U.S. officials have claimed they would not be surprised if U.S. aid was tied up with illicit activities and the DAS, because of the need to “preserve the relationship” with Colombia. The proceedings have not implicated any U.S. officials in directly aiding the illegal activities of Uribe and his aides, but the procedures are ongoing.

Evo Morales has accused U.S. officials of inciting artificial anger among indigenous protestors who are now against the building of a Brazilian-backed highway through a protected preserve of the Amazon. Morales has had a difficult time balancing the demands and needs of the indigenous majority of Bolivia with demands of development for the poor and marginalized. Morales has already kicked the Drug Enforcement Agency out of Bolivia citing them of aiding the political opposition. Morales now threatens to kick USAID out of the country as well. These accusations are not empty as it was just revealed that U.S. aid money has systematically been siphoned to the political enemies of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his movement.

The Obama administration has said it wants to elevate the importance of USAID in U.S. foreign policy to the same level as the State Department and the Defense branches. This is a shift towards a less apparent use of U.S. money to achieve U.S. strategic interests. Instead of committing resources to espionage or political pressure, the U.S. can just funnel money through development and democracy “promotion” programs that can undermine or bolster political enemies and friends. At a time when all the politicians call for fiscal conservancy and austerity we should be taking a close look at how our government preserves business and geopolitical interests at the expense of the citizens of this nation and not necessarily in our best interests.