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Today's
Stories
April 3, 2008
Peter Morici
The Deepening Recession
April 2, 2008
Diane Farsetta
Indian
Point on the Potomac
Harry Browne
Bertie
Ahern Laid Low by Secretary
Wajahat Ali
The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer
George Wuerthner
Open Season on Wolves
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Philippe Marlière
The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
Bernard Chazelle
Saving the American Left
Reza Fiyouzat
Bowling in Hell
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
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Apri1
3, 2008
Driving a Wedge
Between Brazil and Venezuela
Condi's
Divide and Rule Strategy in South America
By NIKOLAS KOZLOFF
When you can't stamp out progressive
social change, the next step is to try to desperately derail
it or otherwise water it down. That's exactly the kind of strategy
being pursued right now by the likes of Condoleezza Rice, who
recently concluded a South American tour designed to ostracize
the bad countries, namely Venezuela, Bolivia, and increasingly
Argentina, and to cultivate ties with the good countries such
as Brazil and Chile.
Rice and her colleagues are
alarmed because, notwithstanding their ideological differences,
South American nations appear to be moving towards extensive
political and economic integration. The only question now is
which economic development model will predominate within the
region and what the eventual complexion of integration will look
like.
The vehicle for closer integration
could well be Mercosur, a trading bloc of South American countries.
At present the bloc's members include Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay
and Uruguay. Venezuela is in the process of joining the bloc,
and a number of countries including Bolivia and Chile are associate
members. Mercosur nations have declared their intention of forming
a South American Community of Nations modeled after the European
Union.
The bloc is beginning to take
on political projects rather than pursuing strictly economic
objectives. For example, Mercosur now has a European Union-styled
regional parliament in Montevideo, and many Uruguayans hope their
capital might evolve into the "Brussels of South America."
In a repudiation of Washington's diktat, Mercosur nations openly
debated what the future of free trade should be in South America
during a heady 2007 summit.
In line with his usual penchant
for over the top rhetorical flourishes, Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela stressed the need for Mercosur to be "decontaminated"
from the ravages of neo-liberal economics. Mercosur, noted the
Venezuelan leader, was an "outdated mechanism and is leaking
like a sieve." The trade bloc, Chávez added, was
"founded in the context of a free- market economic model
and offers integration for the élites, for business, for
transnational companies, not integration for the peoples."
Such remarks have riled the Bush White House which has come to
distrust Mercosur, an entity which has acted to block the corporate-friendly
Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Having woken up to the fact
that its free trade and neo-liberal agenda for the region lies
in tatters, and that wielding a Big Stick to defang its enemies
cannot work politically in the present milieu, the Bush White
House is now pursuing stealthy diplomacy. Rice's strategy is
to divide and rule, to contain radical social change and to steer
it within acceptable boundaries.
These are important geopolitical
developments which have largely fallen beneath the media radar
screen. It's a deficiency I seek to rectify in my new book,
Revolution! South America and The Rise of The New Left
(just released with Palgrave-Macmillan), based on extensive interviews
with activists, intellectuals, political experts, and government
officials in six countries throughout the region.
Venezuela
and Brazil: Their Differing Visions for the Future
Officially, Venezuela and Brazil
are close allies and are not vying for regional political control.
But waning U.S. prestige has led to something of a power vacuum
and the two countries are now pushing very different economic
agendas. On the one hand, Brazil seeks to create economic opportunities
for itself which in turn might offer advantages for smaller South
American countries. Within  President Lula's scheme, these
smaller nations would buy Brazilian goods and supply Brazil with
energy resources. With Brazil as the hub of a southern bloc
of countries, the region would head towards a more equitable
development model mitigating the savage effects of globalization.
Lula's model is market-friendly though not explicitly "neo-liberal;"
it is predicated upon government support for domestic companies
which are intent on exploiting regional and global opportunities.
Lula's agenda stands in contrast
to that of Hugo Chávez who has overseen an avowedly socialist
and strong statist approach to the economy. Rhetorically, Chávez
rails against the market and globalization, thus sparking fear
in Brazil that the Venezuelan leader will scare off investors
from flocking to the region. Chávez would like to see
a more "un-savage" version of globalization spread
forth from Venezuela into neighboring countries.
In order to advance Venezuelan
interests, Chávez provides development assistance and
oil at discount prices to sympathetic regimes in the hemisphere.
He has sought to bring Venezuela into Mercosur and hopes to
subvert the bloc from within, presumably by shifting the entity's
focus from free trade to more equitable, reciprocal trade. Simultaneously
however he has hedged his bets by promoting the Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas (known by its Spanish acronym ALBA), a scheme
based on solidarity and barter trade outside of the usual corporate
strictures.
Driving
a Wedge between Brazil and Venezuela
Rice is trying to exploit these
differences and to effectively drive a wedge through South America's
incipient left bloc. "Brazil has a president from the left.
He's one of America's closest friends and partners in the region
and on the globe. I will go on to Chile, another country where
the president is from the left and again, we have excellent relations
with Chile," the Secretary of State remarked in an interview
with Brazil's Globo TV.
Now that South America is headed
on a new trajectory which is more independent of Washington,
Rice hopes that the "responsible" left as exemplified
by Brazil's Lula and Chile's Bachelet will steer the region away
from the likes of Venezuela's Chávez and Bolivian President
Morales. "This is not about where you are on the ideological
spectrum," she said. "It's a question of: Do you respect
democratic values and democratic institutions; are you working
for the good of your people; are you working for the good of
your neighbors. Those are the issues that are important to the
United States, but it's certainly not a matter of whether you
come from the left or from the right."
Rice then urged nations such
as Venezuela to meet their United Nations obligations by keeping
terrorists out of their territories. In sounding the alarm,
Rice was merely parroting her boss who had earlier remarked that
Venezuela's response to the recent border crisis in Colombia
and Ecuador was "the latest step in a disturbing pattern
of provocative behavior by the regime in Caracas." (In
March, Chávez and Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa,
ordered troops to their Colombian borders and withdrew their
ambassadors from Bogotá after Colombia killed a top rebel
leader, Raúl Reyes, on Ecuadorean soil. During the raid,
Colombia obtained computer hard drives that U.S. officials claim
show the Venezuelan government may have had dealings with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which the U.S.
labels a terrorist group). When she was asked whether the U.S.
was considering designating Venezuela a state sponsor of terror,
Rice declared: "We will watch the situation and act accordingly."
From Bio
Fuels to Free Trade
In the fight for geopolitical
influence, energy politics looms large: that's why the issue
of bio fuels was at the top of Rice's agenda during her Brazilian
trip. In recent years, Brazil has become an energy giant by
producing ethanol, a fuel made from sugar cane, which is even
more environmentally destructive than oil in certain respects.
It's all part of Lula's bid to rival Chávez, who has
used oil for diplomatic and political advantage in the region.
In Brasilia, Rice discussed
progress on an initiative launched by Bush last year to develop
ethanol industries. At a press conference, she surprised the
audience by seemingly becoming a born again environmentalist.
Putting bio fuels on the map, she remarked, was "a way
to deal with the terrible problems that we face in energy supply
and climate change."
Brazil would like to become
a more important political player on the world stage, and Rice
was careful to bring up the issue of United Nations Security
Council reform. The South American giant has long hoped to obtain
a permanent seat, and the Secretary of State offered the carrot
of possible U.S. backing for the move.
In Chile, Rice sought to revive
a long-standing, but largely dormant, strategic partnership between
Chile and the U.S. state of California. State Department officials
argue that both have complimentary economies; spokesman Sean
McCormack said that a centerpiece of Rice's visit was a proposed
educational exchange program. For Rice it was important to visit
Chile, a country with which the United States has a free trade
agreement: the Bush White House hopes the accord will serve as
a model for other free trade initiatives in the region, including
a pending deal with Colombia.
Snubbing
Argentina by Refusing To Set Foot in the Country
What is truly startling to
consider is that Rice altogether skipped Argentina during her
tour. That's a monumental diplomatic snub of a major country
within the region. What's it all about?
Relations between the United
States and Argentina have been plummeting ever since Bush's first
term. Argentina still blames the American-controlled International
Monetary Fund for its financial collapse in late 2001 (Argentina
was forced to default on billions of dollars in debt to the IMF).
In 2003 incoming President
Néstor Kirchner played on anti-American sentiment as a
means of consolidating leftist constituencies, while simultaneously
becoming a key Chávez ally. When I was in Buenos Aires
researching my book, I was truly amazed at the extent of the
growing Venezuelan-Argentine alliance. The two nations now barter
and trade everything from cattle, to oil, to agricultural products
and ships.
In 2005, things got worse when,
right in front of Bush, Kirchner criticized the neo-liberal policies
of the 1990s that the United States sponsored. Kirchner delivered
his riposte at a meeting of Latin American leaders in Mar del
Plata. The Argentine president did little to stop anti-American
protests, leading Bush to leave the summit feeling totally humiliated.
In an effort to avoid further embarrassment, Bush avoided Argentina
altogether during his South America tour last year, preferring
instead to pay his respects to Brazil and Uruguay.
The White House hoped that
things might turn around with last year's election of Cristina
Fernández de Kirchner, the former president's wife. But
then relations took a further nose dive when American prosecutors
in Miami named four Venezuelans and one Uruguayan in connection
with a plot to cover up $800,000 found in a suitcase at a Buenos
Aires airport allegedly meant as a secret campaign contribution
from Venezuela's government to Kirchner. The new Argentine president
lashed out at the U.S., calling the investigation "garbage
operations." Kirchner argued that the investigation was
politically motivated and designed to drive a wedge between Argentina
and Venezuela.
In retaliation, Kirchner restricted
the diplomatic access of the American ambassador in Argentina,
Anthony Wayne. Rubbing Bush's face in the mud yet further, Kirchner
has cultivated even greater ties to Chávez: the Argentine
leader has continued to sell more consumer products to Venezuela
as well as some $4 billion in Argentine bonds to help refinance
the country's debt. What's more, energy-strapped Argentina will
be the proud recipient of more than 10 million barrels of Venezuelan
fuel oil and diesel per year.
What's behind Argentina's geopolitical
maneuvers and what do the Kirchners want from Venezuela? Argentina
seems to be playing a rather Byzantine game in an effort to offset
Brazil's big footprint in the Southern Cone. The Brazilians
have always seen Mercosur and the Southern Cone as their backyard
which offends Argentina's sense of national pride. When Néstor
Kirchner and now Cristina further ties to Venezuela, it's a way
of poking the eye of their northern neighbor.
To an extent, the growing rapprochement
is also based on shared ideological affinity. Indeed, Néstor
Kirchner once stressed that Mercosur needed to transcend its
mere emphasis on economic growth. "We are not interested
only in economic integration," he remarked. "We are
not interested in a region of the world where integration is
full of poverty, exclusion and unemployment."
Chávez
to Brazilian Senate: "You're Parrots"
For Chávez, the advantages
of Argentine friendship are eminently clear. By securing important
support from his ally to the south, Chávez makes it easier
for Venezuela to join Mercosur and hopefully overcome Brazilian
skittishness. That support has become more and more critical
as Venezuela's bid to join Mercosur has been held up and stalled.
Though Argentina and Uruguay have ratified Venezuela's bid,
Paraguay and Brazil have still not agreed.
In Brazil, the biggest thorn
in Chávez's side has been the Senate, which was outraged
by Venezuela's refusal to renew Radio Caracas Televisión's
broadcast license; the station was a hotbed of opposition sentiment.
Characteristically, Chávez flew off the handle and accused
the Brazilian Senate of being subservient to the United States.
In a move which hardly ingratiated himself amongst the Brazilian
elite, Chávez said that the Senators were "puppets
of the (U.S.) empire" and "oligarchs" more interested
"in their pockets than the people." Memorably, the
Venezuelan leader said that the Senate was a "parrot that
just mimics Washington." Meanwhile, a Venezuelan negotiator
remarked that the United States did not want "the strong
bloc of the present Mercosur plus Venezuela leading the way to
South American unity."
Chávez's outburst led
the leader of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party in the Senate,
Arthur Virgílio, to declare that his colleagues would
try to prevent Venezuela's entry into Mercosur. Both the Social
Democracy Party and the Democrat Party declared that Venezuela
could not be admitted to Mercosur because it was "a country
that cannot respect disagreement in a civil fashion." President
Lula himself told Venezuela to mind its own business. In anger,
Chávez issued an ultimatum, saying that Venezuela would
withdraw its application to join Mercosur unless its bid was
approved within three months. "We won't wait any longer
than that. The Brazilian and Paraguayan Congresses have no reason
not to approve our entry: no political, legal, economic or moral
reasons," Chávez said. Incensed, Brazilian government
officials retorted that they would not accept deadlines from
anyone.
Contours
of Further Integration Unclear
Despite such incendiary tit-for-tats,
some experts believe that integration will eventually occur,
even though it may take 30 or 40 years to complete the process.
While in São Paulo researching my book I caught up with
Valter Pomar, Secretary of International Relations with Brazil's
Workers' Party. Regional integration, he said, would have a
significant geopolitical impact because it "would take place
within the context of a rising left movement. That is important,
because the European Union was pushed for and created under conservative
governments."
Perhaps, but what will be the
precise contours of economic and political integration? For
the time being, the future is still plenty murky. Even if Venezuela
becomes a member of Mercosur, the trade bloc faces daunting economic
and political pressures which are far too complicated and arcane
to even enumerate here. With Mercosur, and implicitly the South
American Community of Nations future in some doubt, Chávez
has turned his attention elsewhere.
By far the most enlightened
and socially progressive initiative guiding South American integration
today, Venezuela's ALBA is designed to serve as a counterweight
to free trade blocs. In particular, growing integration between
Venezuela, Cuba, and Bolivia has led to important developments
in health care which have benefited millions. On the other hand,
ALBA has had little effect on the overall volume of trade between
member nations. It's difficult to see how particular South American
nations, for example Brazil or Chile, would ever accept ALBA
as a viable economic model. Meanwhile, Chávez's plans
to transform ALBA into some kind of a military alliance have
foundered and gone nowhere as I have previously explained (see
"`We Will Respond Jointly,' Hugo Chávez's Anti-Imperialist
Army," February 16/17, 2008).
Such lack of political clarity
has given the White House a slight opening. Though the Bush
administration is reviled throughout the region and Washington
cannot hope to turn back the rising pink tide of progressive
regimes, Rice believes she can mitigate Venezuelan influence
by cutting bilateral energy and trade deals with individual South
American countries. As long as Brazil and Venezuela play out
their big power rivalry, smaller countries may choose to either
wait on the sidelines or secure advantages from either Lula or
Chávez based on their particular needs at any given time.
Despite his constant rhetorical
outbursts directed at the likes of parrots within the Brazilian
Senate, Chávez has expressed regret at the lack of overall
diplomatic progress. If they are ever to achieve meaningful
integration, the big powers of Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil
must find a way to resolve their differences. Up to now, all
three have been engaged in a precarious geopolitical dance, an
irony not lost on Chávez himself. Recently the Venezuelan
leader remarked, "Neither Venezuela alone, nor Brazil alone,
nor Argentina alone can become a world power. We can only achieve
that together."
Nikolas Kozloff is the author of Hugo
Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), and Revolution!
South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave Macmillan,
April 2008).
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