Neoliberalism is of course the “Washington Consensus.” It is also imposed by the EU, for instance, in the Ukraine. One wonders why the liberals, the Left and the Democratic Party supported a fascist coup against a democratically elected government that installed a junta the first act of which was to install radical neoliberal Chicago School neoclassical “Paul Ryan” economics. The Democratic Party hates Republican Party economics in the US while imposing Republican economics on the rest of the world at gunpoint? What sort of sense does that make.
Anyway, much to the chagrin of the rightwing Democratic Party in the US (for the foreign policy of the US Democratic Party is always and forever rightwing, no matter what the domestic policy is) Barack Obama’s favorite economic system, neoliberalism, has been overthrown in many parts of Latin America. We are now looking at what I might call “postneoliberal regimes” in many of these countries where neoliberal economics has been more or less junked in favor of other models:
1. Brazil. Lula and now Dilma Rouseff (a former urban guerrilla) have been overthrown neoliberalism, albeit in favor of a fairly moderate project.
2. Argentina. The Kirchners have both junked neoliberalism, however, they have been stymied when they have tried to impose serious change on society by powerful media and agribusiness interests that for all intents and purposes control Argentina.
3. Venezuela is perhaps the paradigm example of the overthrow of neoliberalism in Latin America. Because they have gone further past neoliberalism than most of the others, the United States is now organizing a fascist coup-putsch against the Democratically elected government of Maduro. This is how Washington operates – when the US clients lose in elections, they turn to violence and try to overthrow governments by force. Bizarrely, the American people, supposed lovers of democracy, have gone along with insanity. But then America never met a fascist coup she could not love. The truth is that America hates democracy and always has. America only supports democracy when we like the results. When the wrong guys win the election, the US tries to overthrow the government by force.
4. Ecuador. In this state, Rafael Correa has done some good things as far as moving beyond a neoliberal project. Nevertheless, there are many complaints about him, mostly for following an extractive model of development that is harmful to people and the environment. One great thing Correa did was to shut down the base of US imperialism in Ecuador. The armed base of the empire was called Manta and it operated for many years until the anti-colonial president Correa demanded that the Yankees remove their armed colonial outpost from his country. Correa has been stymied in terms of moving much beyond his rather modest project. There has already been one US supported fascist coup against Correa in which he was fired on with live bullets and nearly killed. Unfortunately, patriotic Ecuadorians fought back against the Yankee-supported coup and returned Correa and Ecuadorian patriots to power. Nevertheless, Ecuador has moved further beyond neoliberalism than Brazil has.
5. Bolivia. Evo Morales has done some great things in Bolivia, in particular nationalizing the nation’s gas reserves, which are considerable in the eastern part of the country. Morales has also had to deal with armed fascists in the east supported by US imperialism who have fired on demonstrations, killing many poor and working class Bolivians. Evo Morales has done a good job of moving beyond neoliberalism.
6. Paraguay. With the election of a former priest, Fernando Lugo, Paraguay seemed headed for a new postneoliberal era. Unfortunately, he was removed in what was for all intents and purposes a rightwing coup sponsored by US imperialism. He was impeached on completely phony, specious and dishonest grounds by a devious minded rightwing Congress. Consequently, little was done in Paraguay in terms of moving beyond neoliberalism. One thing that badly needs to be done in Paraguay is a land reform.
7. Uruguay elected a former radical leftist and Tupamaro urban guerrilla Jose Mujica as president. He ran as President on a platform of moving beyond neoliberalism. It is not known what he has been able to accomplish along those lines as his economy is still controlled by US imperialism via the imperialist-controlled World Bank and IMF.
8. Nicaragua has elected the Sandinista regime again, this time running on a more reformed model than that which they used to govern the state in the 1980′s. Nevertheless, Daniel Ortega’s project calls for moving beyond neoliberalism including great increases in social spending.
9. Honduras elected a postneoliberal president Manuel Zelaya. Soon afterwards, he was overthrown by a US-sponsored military coup. A US-backed junta has been running the country ever since. They have set up CIA-backed death squads that are running amok in the country slaughtering the opposition, including people who supported the former Left regime. Journalists, peasants, workers, human rights workers and activists have all been gunned down by Barack Obama’s death squads. Since the coup, over 1,000 have been killed in Honduras by these Yankee-backed death squads.
10. El Salvador. The Leftist former rebel group the FMLN has won the elections in El Salvador, but it remains to be seen what they might be able to do. US imperialism immediately threatened the country that if they swayed from neoliberalism, the Yankees would cut off remittances from the US to El Salvador (a major part of the nation’s economy). The imperialists also threatened to deport many Salvadorans who are in the US illegally. In addition, Washington threatened to cut off aid to El Salvador if any significant progressive projects were undertaken. Hence it remains to be seen how far El Salvador can move beyond neoliberalism.
11. Chile. Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, won again in Chile. This time she ran on a much more radical program, probably the most Left program for any winning Presidential candidate since 1970. The Socialist government seems poised to move beyond neoliberalism or at least to radically ramp up social spending.
12. Peru. The winner of the last Presidential election was an Indian army officer, Ollanta Humala, who ran on a Left agenda. However, as soon as he got in, he realized that he was hemmed in by the dictates of the US imperialist controlled IMF and World Bank. Hence it remains to be seen what exactly he can do in these circumstances.
13. The Caribbean. A number of Left parties have recently won elections in the Caribbean. Some of them have formed alliances with Venezuela’s economic project for the Americas. Unfortunately, I do not know much about the recent Left governments in this part of the world other than that some of them are part of Chavez ALBA postneoliberal economic pact.
All in all, things look good in Latin America. The Left has been winning all over the region, much to the dismay of the Democratic Party in the US since the Democratic Party only supports rightwing governments overseas. A number of these governments have overthrown the neoliberal paradigm and are moving towards new models of society and economics. A red sun rises in the South!
