Although there are multiple definitions of what can be a failed State - Thürer, Chomsky, Clapham, Woodward, Duffield ... -, we can conclude that a State has failed when it is not able to guarantee security nor has the capacity to provide basic services, when the Corruption and institutional instability are high and legal deficiencies constant. Given these elements, Latin America is a failed continent.
Proof of this would be the last months, with crisis in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Mexico and Bolivia. The balance is terrible: two presidents self-proclaimed in an accomplished coup d'etat and another failed, dozens dead, multiple complaints of rapes, sexual abuse and killings. To this disturbing scenario we should add the cases of Brazil - commanded by an ultra-rightist with weaknesses from the past dictatorship -, Argentina - in a situation of extreme economic fragility - and Mexico - with the sound of sabers. It is the portrait of a continent near the collapse.
The origin of this failure in Latin America can focus on the many consequences reported - corruption, institutional instability, lack of judicial independence ... - but that would be a mistake. We must turn to the cause: the liberalism imposed by the United States. The Latin American continent has been subjugated since the middle of the last century to liberal economic principles - Chicago Boys, for example -, which were imposed thanks to the saber of the generals - Pinochet, Videla, Figueiredo, Stroessner ... - in an endless flight of the condor "Kissinger."
Of all the consequences reported, the most important is inequality. The wealth generated in Latin America does not revert in its citizens but in the elites and the big companies - many of them North American in part or in its totality. This generates that the poor every day are poorer and the rich, increasingly rich, so that social progress, although existing, is so scarce that it is essentially broken.
The war - and the contenders - has been the same in all the battlefields, equally during the last decades than during the last months: in Venezuela or Cuba its leaders must be overthrown to plunder the country; in Bolivia the coup d'etat has already taken place and soon the condor will destroy what it finds in its path, but not before leaving its trail on the asphalt; in Chile and Ecuador, the military has defended the elites with great brutality; in Brazil, the extreme right rides and the army cleans the streets as in good times; in Colombia, the positives return to the front line; in Mexico, the sabers of the generals sharpen after the detonations of the criminal gangs ... The elites want to end the redistribution of the wealth of the progressive governments and, of course, prevent this from happening where the liberals govern.
Integration, the first step
At this point, the descriptive exercise has little value if it is not accompanied by proposals, because it is necessary for Latin America to find a remedy for the main problems that plague it and one of the few solutions that exist, if not the only one, passes for Latin American integration and the creation of an army.
An integration that includes judicial, economic and fiscal institutions, with corrective measures for the redistribution of income and the reduction of both inequality and poverty and territorial imbalances. A model similar to that adopted by the European Union, but that goes much further - in Europe they stayed in business - and overcome the pitfalls that Europeans have not been able to overcome.
An integrated Latin America would generate multiple benefits. First, it would be a turning point to solve two of the most pressing problems: the lack of internal security and the lack of political stability. Fighting organized crime and avoiding coups among all will be simpler than separately, it is something that has been achieved in Europe. A continent in which today it is unthinkable to suffer problems of these characteristics, but that during the last century received considerable attacks - Portugal, Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany ... -.
Secondly, he would become a geopolitical actor, which would give Latin Americans a greater degree of independence, in the same way as in Europe. In addition, it would allow negotiating with the rest of the powers - the US, China, Russia, Europe - from a more advantageous position, be they economic, environmental, war or other matters.
The problem, as is the case in the European Union, is that integration by itself - especially if it is based on economics - can solve problems of crime and stability, but it is not enough to deal with the other two major problems: the subordination to the US - and the elites and large companies - and the inequalities generated by liberalism.
Liberalism cannot be confronted - due to its globality - from national or regional coordinates, it will surely collapse on its own and we are already contemplating the first failures, but the degree of dependence with the US does have a solution: a single army. The possibility of creating an army has been promoted - without success - in Europe due to the opposition precisely of the Americans, who continue to claim that the Old Continent is a modern protectorate at their service.
The unique army, the end of independence
However, this should not cause discouragement, much less abandon the idea. Integration and the single army must be the objectives to get Latin America to stop its journey to collapse. To leave the edge of the cliff.
In a context of modern colonization in which the vast majority of Latin American and European countries are modern protectorates, because they can make decisions internally — provided they are liked by the United States. or else they will have problems - armies have only one real reason to exist, at least in the way they currently exist: they are the engine of the arms industry - the US is the main supplier of weapons on the planet.
According to different sources, the ten most numerous armies in Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Ecuador) total about 1.2 million military personnel. But does Latin America need so many military? If we verify that the United States, deployed throughout the world and with great operational needs, has 1.3 million military personnel and that Russia, also with great deployment and operation, has between 500,000 and 750,000 troops, it is not difficult to answer that question: no. Latin America does not need so many military; but the arms industry and the United States - as long as the armies are not united - yes. Therefore, Americans would be the main obstacle that Latin Americans would encounter.
Because a united continent that had an army would only need between 500,000 and 800,000 military, with the savings that would entail. In addition, a Latin America with a single army would be much more difficult to control from the US as is the case today and would allow the entire continent to provide institutional stability and internal security that it now does not have.
But not everything is bad news. Latin America has allies and must rely on them. Both Russia and China, for a matter of geopolitical balance, and Europe, for their own spirit of independence, are powers that can and should help to travel the road.
Latin America has more than 22 million square kilometers and more than 620 million inhabitants. Too large and too populated to be a failed continent that the United States uses as if it were a backyard. They must decide: modern protectorate close to collapse or solid geopolitical power.
Author
Luis Gonzalo Segura
Nov 20, 2019
Reference:
https://actualidad.rt.com/opinion/luis-gonzalo-segura/334296-latinoamerica-continente-fallido-integracion-ejercito-unico
No comments:
Post a Comment