“The Andes mountain range will be the Sierra Maestra of America. From its bosom will come free men who will put an end to imperialist domination on our continent,” he proclaimed Fidel Castro on July 16, 1967, during the closing of the Conference of the Latin American Solidarity Organization (OLAS), held in Havana. The guerrillas They should expand the example of Cuba in the region. “There is no force capable of stopping the march of the people.” Fifty-eight years later and in a curious reversal of roles, two other Cubans are seeking to extend relentless political dominance, but USA in Latin America. To Marco Rubio y Mauricio Claver-Caronethe Andes mountain range must now be the mountainous route of conservative rule, the line that connects its countries with the interests of Washington. Donald Trump has been determined to demonstrate this since the beginning of September when air attacks against vessels in the southern Caribbean and the Colombian Pacific began.
To the US Secretary of State and the Special Envoy of USA For Latin America they are called precisely “the Cubanitos.” Its origins are presented as a document of legitimacy of the greening of the narratives of the beginning of the 20th century and which were summarized in the image of the “big stick”. The tone of Trump’s threats bears unmistakable kinship with the rhetoric of his distant predecessor in the White House, Theodore Rooseveltalso a Republican, who in a 1904 message assured that countries would not have to “fear” the power of the United States if they demonstrated that they knew how to “act with reasonable efficiency.” But if there was a “general relaxation of the rules of a civilized society,” Washington could “exercise a power of international police“Roosevelt did nothing more than gloss the call Monroe doctrine of 1823, known for its motto “America for Americans.”
The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, in an archive image. / MIGUEL GUTIÉRREZ / EFE
Trump gave his own interpretation of that doctrine when announcing Claver-Carone’s appointment: “Over the past four years, chaos and anarchy have invaded our borders. It is time to restore order in our own hemisphere.” The passage from words to actions begins to acquire dangerous eloquence. Analogies flourish between this present and the history of successive interventions during the last century, of Panama to the Guatemala of Jacobo Arbenzfrom Cuba in 1961 and Brazil in 1964 to Chile of Salvador Allende nine years later, after the promotion of dictatorships in the Southern Cone to the financing of the Nicaraguan “contras” starting in 1980. These comparisons acquired consistency not only from the air attacks against vessels presented as “narcoterrorists” but with the same order signed by Trump so that the CIAin a nostalgic wave of the 60s, can carry out “special operations” in Venezuela which include “lethal” actions. What started with Nicolas Maduro It has soon spread to the figure of Gustavo Petro.
The return of old habits
“Just a decade ago, the era of wars, coups d’état and US military interventions in Latin America seemed to be coming to an end when the Obama Administration declared that the Monroe Doctrine, which for a long time affirmed the military supremacy of the United States in America, had died,” The New York Times recently noted. “Now, this cornerstone of the foreign policy comes to life again, resurrecting fears about military interference American in the region after President Trump ordered the Pentagon use military force against certain Latin American drug cartels.
The “cubanitos” are the interpreters of that turn. They carry out an intense policy of reconfiguring relations between the US and Latin America. In principle, it was considered foreseeable that the recognized aversion of both to Havana, Managua and Caracas would be expressed in the political alignments of Trump’s second term. But the cannons of rhetoric also aimed against MexicoBrazil and immediately to Colombia. Any expression of disagreement with the White House They have become a confirmation of an inveterate “ultra-leftism” that demands answers.
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. / MAURICIO DUEÑAS CASTAÑEDA / EFE
The Chinese question
The war against drugs that Trump intends to wage outside the international law is not unrelated to a larger dispute: pushing back China in the region. Colombia became a special object of bitterness for the White House after Petro’s intention to make a place for himself in the BRICSthe group founded by Brazil, Russiathe IndiaChina and South Africa.
He trade of Beijing with Latin America is preparing to exceed 500,000 million dollars by 2024. exports of the US with this part of the world reached 664,000 million dollars last year. The Asian giant is increasingly close to displacing it as the first economic partner of Latin Americans.
The Chinese issue represents a problem without short-term solutions for Trump, as demonstrated in particular by the case of Argentina. Financial assistance to the far-right Javier Miley includes an unavoidable and immediate consideration: Buenos Aires must distance itself from China. This was made clear by both the North American Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessantlike Claver-Carone. Reality persists in putting limits on these demands. Beyond the ideological empathy that the anarcho-capitalist has with the Republican magnate, above his desire to be the great regional interlocutor, the economic flow has shown in September that China replaced Brazil as Argentina’s main trading partner. The imports They reached the highest level in history: 1,816 million dollars.
In the middle of the trade war global crisis launched months ago, obsessed with Chinese advance, Trump seems to have nothing more to offer than a return of the cudgel to his neighbors.
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