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The 9th Summit of The Americas came to an uneventful close Friday June 10th. The Summit was held in Los Angeles, California from June 6th through June 10th and from all accounts was not only a diplomatic failure but, as Democracy Now reported, award-winning journalist Roberto Lovato called it “a failure of hemispheric proportions and a global embarrassment for the United States and for the Biden Administration.”
In the first case the failure comes from that the ‘Summit’ produced no concrete or effective Plan of action to address the growing problem of persistent poverty within the developing countries; mass immigration as a result of national poverty; the ever-increasing dangers of Climate Change; the lingering Pandemic; the role of US multinationals in said developing countries and the continued United States’ interference in the internal affairs of countries of the region.
The other failure comes from the unilateral and hypocritical decision by the United States to exclude Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua because, as the United States termed it, their Human Rights record, and authoritarian governments. This is as hypocritical and self-serving as it comes; the United States is in no historical or moral position to criticize much more ostracize any country because of perceived human rights abuses, corruption, or other governmental misdeeds.
The social history of the United States tells a completely different story: The enslavement of Africans; lynching; Jim Crow Laws; government sanctioned segregation; surveillance, arrest, and imprisonment of dissidents on false and fabricated charges, are just a few of the atrocities that the United States have carried out and, continues against its own citizens.
The other failure is the exclusion also of a indigenous peoples delegation, who were denied entry into the Summit, whilst at the same time planned to meet with reactionary and climate change denier Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil.
The Theme of the Summit was “building a sustainable, resilient and equitable future;” the farce of this is evident especially by denying participation of indigenous peoples. There were leaders in attendance whose record of treatment towards indigenous people, dissidents and journalists in their own country is brutally repressive. Moreover, there cannot be a ‘Summit of the Americas’ when key countries of the region including representatives of indigenous peoples are excluded.
It was encouraging to see the leaders of Mexico, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador take a principled and truly non-aligned position in boycotting the Summit; it was disappointing that more or all countries of the region did not express solidarity with Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua by they too boycotting the Summit.
The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have deep rooted problems of socio-economic development, caused by colonialism, neocolonialism and the policies and actions of imperialist globalization led by the United States and their multi-nationals operating in these countries. Companies that rape natural resources by paying pennies on the dollar for extraction and mining Rights; create environmental hazards by depleting and destroying biodiversity; support union busting and pay-offs to corrupt politicians; material support to despotic regimes who imprison and kill dissidents are just a few of the atrocities the multinationals support and encourage to maintain their stranglehold on the sources of their enormous wealth and power.
If the United States was sincere in its intent all countries of the Region should have been invited, to openly discuss and examine the problems facing the region’s development and the critical role the United States plays in resolving or worsening the situation.
It is full time that the leaders of the developing world understand that the fight against imperialism is not only socio-economic but ideological as well; it is the ideology of hegemony, white supremacy, and great-power chauvinism, which justifies and maintains the economic exploitation and dependency of the developing countries. These leaders cannot allow themselves to be fooled or trivialize the legacy of colonialism by kowtowing to flowery speeches and self-serving comments.
Sigmund Freud spoke of the “psychopathology of everyday life;” the psychopathology of the United States is to sanitize and turn its hegemonistic and militaristic history on its head with erroneous and misleading narratives. Now is not the time for leaders, legislators, or activists to be confused or ambivalent regarding the issues; the problems of the region call for leadership that is informed, clear and decisive.
The interests and lives of the working people demand this approach.
Richard Dunn can be reached at: [email protected]
