In the annals of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), the 1996 "Intergalactica "was a high water mark of international solidarity. Formally dubbed a "Forum In Defense of Humanity and Against Neo-liberalism", the conclave drew 6,000 activists from five continents to the wilds of Chiapas's Lacandon jungle to brainstorm on the growing menace of the corporate globalization of the Planet Earth (the World Trade Organization had just been formulated the previous year). The event is often considered to have been the seedbed for historic demonstrations against the WTO in Seattle 1999 from which the anti-globalization movement blossomed.
Washington, DC: A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research looks at the Venezuelan economy during the last eight years and finds that it does not fit the mold of an "oil boom headed for a bust," as is commonly believed.
Almost a year has passed since I last wrote an essay on socialism in Venezuela and Latin America. A lot has happened during that time, and I reckoned that it was time to ‘revisit’ the subject with a second, more in depth, essay.
The last week of June was probably the Bush administration's worst period ever in terms of Latin America policy. Its nemeses in the hemisphere—Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Bolivia's Evo Morales, Ecuador's Rafael Correa and perhaps soon Guatemala's Alvaro Colón and even Argentina's Néstor Kirchner—form an increasingly cohesive coalition and are reaching out to rogues on other continents. After neglecting Latin America for five years, Washington's influence is at a low point. And its new rival, Russia, is gaining ground.
First used in Serbia in 2000, Washington has now perfected a new imperial strategy to maintain its supremacy around the globe. Whereas military invasions and installing dictatorships have traditionally been the way to control foreign populations and keep them out of the way of business, the U.S. government has now developed a new strategy that is not so messy or brutal, and much sleeker; so sleek, in fact, that it’s almost invisible.
Progressive social and political movements joined the governments of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in their aim to bring about integration based on solidarity and social justice.
The Government of Venezuela yesterday announced it would leave the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. President Hugo Chavez announced the move saying, "We will no longer have to go to Washington, nor to the IMF, nor to the World Bank, not to anyone." The move is an unprecedented decision by a government to break with the IMF and World Bank, and follows the institutions' plummeting influence in Latin America in recent years.
