[NYTr] The Monroe Doctrine, US Imperialism & Venezuela
ny...@olm.blythe-systems.com
sent by Cort Greene
Hands Off Venezuela - Nov 7, 2005
http://www.ushov.org/monroe_doctrine.html
The Monroe Doctrine, U.S. Imperialism and Venezuela
By Cort Greene
"But this man is a terrific danger and the United States, this is our sphere
of influence and we cant let this happen ... We have the Monroe Doctrine.
We have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question this is
a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil ... We have
the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise
that ability."- Pat Robertsons comments calling for the assassination of
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
This December marks the anniversaries of two of the most important documents
of the United States ruling class imperialist policy. These documents
epitomize the American imperialists paternalistic worldview, which they use
to maintain their political and economic interests, and to expropriate the
markets, raw materials and labor of the peoples of not only the western
hemisphere but of the world.
The Monroe Doctrine of December 2, 1823, and the Roosevelt Corollary to the
Monroe Doctrine of December 6, 1904, are the bedrocks of expansionism and
intervention which has caused so much misery, death and impoverishment for
millions across Latin America. The country of Venezuela has played no small
part in this history.
In the early decades of the 19th century, the South American Wars of
Liberation were raging against Spanish domination in Chile, Peru, Colombia,
Ecuador and Venezuela. One figure who rose to international prominence
during these struggles was Simon Bolivar. His vision of freedom from foreign
domination, as well as the necessity of economic and social integration of
the region has become the inspiration for Venezuelas Bolivarian revolution
But he was not just a man of words. At the Battle of Carabobo on June 24,
1821, his brilliant military maneuvers sealed the fate of the Spanish forces
in Venezuela, and shortly thereafter, assured the demise of their empire in
the region.
The Monroe Doctrine was created to project the United States sphere of
influence into the Americas and fill the void left by Spain. It was also due
to the upstart nations fear of Latin American colonization by other more
powerful European imperialists. In short, they saw Latin America as their
own "backyard" and field for exploitation. Even before setting out to impose
their will on the peoples of Latin America, one of the first applications of
the spirit of the doctrine was the "internal imperialism" against the
indigenous peoples of North America, oppressing and obliterating entire
civilizations in the countrys move westward. Hundreds of thousands of
square miles belonging to Mexico were "acquired" as well.
A succession of presidents invoked the Monroe Doctrine in the annexations of
Texas, California, Oregon and to fend off European interest in the Yucatan
and Mexico, and it was used as the justification for the building a canal in
Central America to control shipping and commerce. President Cleveland used
it to force a settlement in land dispute between Venezuela and Britain in
1895.
The Roosevelt Corollary
In 1902, Venezuela could no longer placate the demands of European bankers
and pay back its debt, so the navies of Great Britain, Italy and Germany
blockaded and fired on its coastal fortifications. Theodore Roosevelt became
fixated on the prospects of re-colonization of the hemisphere, and in 1903,
he matched threat with threat, warning the combatants that Admiral Deweys
fleet would intervene. The navies withdrew, and negotiations returned to the
field of diplomacy.
Roosevelts Corollary, in an address to Congress, became an amendment to the
Monroe Doctrine which launched the era of the U.S. as an international
police force through the use of its infamous "big stick". This opened the
bloody history of U.S. involvement on a grand scale, which haunts the
peoples of the region and the world to this day.
Though it has gone through many ideological contortions including "dollar
diplomacy", the "good neighbor" policy, the "Reagan Doctrine" and most
recently, the "Bush Doctrine", the content has remained the same. Some of
the mechanisms of control include the School of the Americas, the
Organization of American States, the Inter-American Defense Board, Plan
Colombia, the IMF and World Bank, NAFTA, CAFTA, and now the Free Trade
Agreement of the Americas. It is clear from the above how the Monroe
Doctrine has been used to dominate the cultures, political life, and
economics of the Latin America, all the while integrating the labor, natural
resources, productive and financial structures into a system of capital
accumulation for the benefit of U.S. hegemony.
As Karl Marx explained, "The profound hypocrisy and inherent barbarism of
bourgeois civilization lies unveiled before our eyes, turning from its home,
where it assumes respectable forms, to the colonies, where it goes naked."
The U.S. has long considered Latin America its own backyard and has tried to
keep a stranglehold on the region. But through its own policies, a beacon of
light has appeared: Venezuelas Bolivarian Revolution. Hugo Chavez and above
all the Venezuelan grass roots movement have shown the masses of Latin
America a way out. Revolutionary waves are sweeping the region, and working
people are engaged in a war with the exploiters on a mass scale. The masses
have shown an unquenchable fighting spirit: there is not one stable pro-U.S.
regime from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, and Washington is terrified
of the implications.
From 1798 to 1993, the U.S. used its armed forces to intervene in other
countries 234 times. Since then we seen the bombings of Yugoslavia and
Sudan, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the U.S. intervention in Haiti
which was aimed also at Venezuela and Cuba.
In Venezuela the U.S. has been waging a protracted covert struggle, fighting
what the U.S. Army manuals call "fourth generational warfare" by using the
National Endowment for Democracy, AID, the AFL-CIOs Solidarity House, some
NGOs, corporations and others. Through these and other institutions they
have financed a terrorist opposition in order to sabotage and destabilize
the economy with lockouts, paramilitary operations and of course, the coup
of April 2002.
None of this has succeeded and the revolution has only gotten stronger. Now
we discover that there are contingency plans for a direct invasion as
outlined in the internal military briefing documents titled "FY08-13 POM",
dated October 2005. POM stands for Program Objective Memorandum and these
documents are used to analyze missions and resources for war. The threat to
Venezuela is real. The only way to defeat the plans of U.S. imperialism is
to mobilize the world labor movement, anti-war activists, solidarity
campaigns and their allies, and it must be done with a sense of urgency.
That is why the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign is working with the Latin
American Solidarity Coalition to get organizations and individuals to take
up the call for a series of events around the anniversary of the Monroe
Doctrine.
For more details on the email and educational campaigns, for information on
events taking place in your area, or to host an event yourself, please
visit:
http://www.lasolidarity.org
http://www.ushov.org
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org
*
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