Latin America has been in a struggle between imperialistic militarism, neo-liberalistic efforts and organized crime since the 1950ties. This struggle was exacerbated by the endeavours of the USA to assemble regimes sympathising with them, which led to civil wars and ethnic conflicts, e.g. in Guatemala where approximately 200.000 people were killed during the civil war and its consequences. The aftermath is still effecting the situation in Latin America and the problems are yet to be solved but since each Latin American country has its specific circumstances with regard to economic, ethnic and social issues and geological factors there is no general solution. However, there have been a lot of trials on socio-scientific and politico-economic levels of which the most common one is the Neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism spread fast around Latin American countries such as Peru, Colombia and Mexico and refers to an intellectual and political movement that espouses economic liberalism as a means of promoting economic development and securing political liberty. But since its advocated policies implement global capitalism through government/military interventionism it has encountered resistance. Thus, the present situation in Latin America is still difficult and a new debate has risen about the question how to progress from the positive advances of the past, how to learn from the mistakes of the present and how to build new coalitions in order to go beyond protest toward the politics of social transformation.
Despite all these facts there is still the same pattern: Presidents win elections, pact with the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the multi-nationals and banks and lose the streets – as the great majority of the people turn against the “elected” president mostly motivated and led by the US. The latter are said to intend the colonization and militarization of Latin America through the treaty of “Free Trade Area of the Americas”. This has to be seen as the primary danger since Bush’s militarization strategy has already been implemented by local presidents such as the president of Bolivia Sanchez de Losada. His regime has caused the death of over 60 workers and peasants since 2003 and also several activists and rural workers in Brazil and in Guatemala have been assassinated by para-military forces linked to big landowners, a lot of them coming from the USA, who possess two-thirds of the whole land in Guatemala.
But Latin America also demonstrates that US imperialism can be defeated. Cuba was able to dismantle US-financed terrorist networks, Venezuela defeated two US-sponsored coups and in Bolivia the left is the dominant political force in the streets and a powerful opposition in the parlament today. The present situation promises to be a period of growing social and political polarization in Latin America. It is likely that we are about to see a new alignment of political and social forces from below and perhaps some “regime changes” from above or from below.
Now it is up to the G8 Summit to find solutions to support the endeavours to assemble democratic administrations. But increasing the amount of money for developing aid cannot be the right answer and one can only hope that the G8 States will pass effective resolutions.
