Op-Ed
By Arnold August
From Montreal, Canada

The founding of the Simón Bolívar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among Peoples on September 6, 2020 marks a new political milestone. In the most difficult of circumstances, having to cope with not only the U.S. and Canadian sanctions but the pandemic as well, the Bolivarian Revolution has made this effort for the benefit of all who believe in its liberatory ideals across the planet. The goal of the Institute is to coordinate global solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution and the Venezuelan people, and the solidarity of the South American nation toward struggles for social and economic justice of peoples throughout the world. It will also develop research, training, and promote critical discussion.

The Institute also answers to the current and urgent crisis facing the planet. The first paragraph of the statement by the by the Simón Bolívar Institute reads:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that the capitalist model of society based on individualistic values, with the sole goal of accumulating wealth, is not capable of defending humanity, guaranteeing fundamental rights, or safeguarding life on the planet. In light of this failure, the model uses violence to maintain its hegemony, appropriates for itself the people’s natural resources, attacking the working class, and those who seek to build an alternative model.”

Viewers virtually attending the ceremony in Caracas from all over the world were shown that another world is possible, with more than 100 special guests, among whom were social leaders, former presidents, and activists, from numerous countries, including the prestigious musican Roger Waters.

One of the first to speak was Fernando González Llort, president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship of the Peoples (ICAP). The Cuban people have been victims over the last few years of an intensification of the criminal U.S. embargo. Yet, González Llort’s focus was on international solidarity among the peoples and not the U.S. two-party system as a source of salvation.

Other participants included Evo Morales and Rafael Correa, both of whom would have an ax to grind as a result of the recent coup in Bolivia and judicial corruption in Ecuador. Both former presidents are being affected by politically motivated court decisions to prevent them from competing in elections. There were many others as well, including Colombian activist Laura Capote, representing Marcha Patriótica, whose fellow social leaders are being murdered in increasing numbers. In fact, in one of the first public statements of the Simón Bolívar Institute for Peace and Solidarity Among Peoples, the organization expressed its condemnation of 10 recent murders in Colombia perpetrated by police officers. The Institute also denounced the assassinations of more than 600 social and indigenous leaders over the last 2 years and of the killing of two hundred demobilized former guerrilla fighters that were protected by the Peace Accord of 2016.

A Refreshing Talk

As the proceedings progressed and while I was reflecting on the content, so appropriately flourishing outside the box of the stifling mainstream U.S.-political paradigm, one of several representatives from the U.S. spoke, the academic Adrienne Pine. She stressed the importance of keeping the focus on the need to develop the revolutionary movement against the poisonous ideological notion of reforming a decaying system. I immediately commented on Twitter about her great and refreshing words: “the problem of fascism is not to vote for one or another party, but the solution is revolution.”

The hosts spoke in much the same way, leaving no wiggle-room for pinning any hopes of transformation, of humanization, on the US duopoly that has applied harsh and illegal sanctions that mainly harm the Venezuelan people.

We also had the honor to be connected virtually with President Maduro whose message was directed to us, representatives of the peoples of the world, when he said:

“I request the full support of the solidarity movements in disseminating the truth about Venezuela and with the truth, winning peace, sovereignty, independence and respect for our people.”

Minister of People’s Power for Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, stressed this initiative was created to coordinate solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution, but also solidarity from Venezuela and the Americas with all the revolutions and just causes of the world. In a recent op-ed published by COHA, he laid to rest any illusions about November 2020 when it was clear that the Democrats were attacking Trump from the right:

“Trump would do better if he followed his initial instinct of talking to President Maduro. A respectful dialogue with Venezuela is what is really in the interest of the U.S.”

During his inaugural speech, Minister Arreaza also said that “This Institute belongs to you, it belongs to the peoples of the world and we want you to take advantage of it, to use it as your own (…) From Venezuela we stand in solidarity with all those struggles, with Julian Assange and his prison more than unjust, with the Palestinian people, Saharahui, with all those who are oppressed, subjected to unjust wars, and to imperialism ”.

Many of us from the capitalist West, like those in the South, feel at home in Venezuela. Solidarity is not a one-way street. Solidarity is rather adhered to as mutual support for the same cause of opposing capitalism, its offshoot racism, the unipolar hegemony of imperialism and its genocidal wars. We all stand on an equal footing for the same cause of a multipolar world, sovereignty of the peoples, peace, and a new social-economic system.

As Carlos Ron told us at the launching ceremony:

“My friends, be aware that you have a people who knows about your struggles, who recognizes them and shares them.” In fact, we in Canada, like our sisters and brothers in the U.S., experienced the profound sincerity of Carlos Ron’s remarks.  We shared two events in 2020 alone. Firstly, we savored the defeat of the Trudeau government’s bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council (and I am convinced that one of the reasons for this victory over Trudeau’s submission was the Canadian government’s Venezuela policy). Secondly, the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, with the collaboration of many others,held a virtual Zoom conference with Jorge Arreaza organized from Canada, which was viewed by many thousands. Arreaza delivered a diplomatic and yet scathing political critique of Trudeau’s interference in Venezuela via his leadership of the Lima Group.

The launching of the Simón Bolívar Institute coincided with the anniversary of Bolívar’s Letter from Jamaica of September 6, 1885, whereby he reaffirmed and deepened the outlook and goals of the independence movement from Spain. Taking one sample paragraph from this historic letter, we can fully appreciate the perennial relevance of Bolívar’s legacy, by just replacing Spain with the U.S.

“At present the contrary attitude persists: we are threatened with the fear of death, dishonor, and every harm; there is nothing we have not suffered at the hands of that unnatural stepmother-Spain. The veil has been torn asunder. We have already seen the light, and it is not our desire to be thrust back into darkness. The chains have been broken; we have been freed, and now our enemies seek to enslave us anew. For this reason [South] America fights desperately, and seldom has desperation failed to achieve victory.”

The Institute  is wielding Bolivar’s sword to immediately carve out a space for itself in cyber communications. Its Twitter account jumped from zero to over 3,400  followers by September 15 with many daily updates still being posted in the aftermath of the Institute’s founding. Likewise, its two new YouTube channels (English with over 300 subscribers and Spanish with over 800) are constantly developing, as are its Telegram and Instagram accounts and web site. The launching ceremony can be seen here in Spanish, and here in English.

Tribute to lawyer and activist, Kevin Zeese

The event was dedicated to the memory and legacy of Kevin Zeese, known internationally as part of the Venezuelan Embassy Protection Collective in Washington DC. He passed away suddenly on the early morning of September 6, the day the Caracas-based event took place. At only 64 years of age, his death came as a shock to us all. Carlos Ron, vice-minister for North America of Venezuelan Foreign Affairs and the newly-appointed president of the Simón Bolívar Institute, immediately turned our sorrow into a collective joy. He dedicated the launching of the Institute to Kevin. It was not a matter of a formal dedication. On the contrary, both the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and Carlos Ron wove a memorial and fitting tribute to Kevin into the very fabric of the Institute’s founding.

I never met Kevin. I closely followed his heroic defence of Venezuelan sovereignty right in the belly of the imperial beast. However, although I would have flown to Washington to offer my support and write articles, I have been barred from entering the U.S. since March 2019. At that time, a year and a half ago, I was on my way to Washington DC with a message of support from the Canadian movements for that historic demonstration in the U.S. capital in support of Venezuela.

I therefore dedicate this article to Kevin Zeese, his partner Margaret Flowers, his family and comrades.

Arnold August is a Montreal-based author, journalist, speaker and Fellow at the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. He has written 3 books on Cuba, Latin America and the US. His articles appear in English, Spanish and French in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Current focus: geopolitics of the relations between U.S., Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and the role of Canada.

[Credit of all photos: Foreign Relations Ministry of Venezuela]

Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes and Lara Sartorio Gonçalves
From Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It is a recurring debate. In 2011 journalist and activist Darcus Howe commented on the civil unrest that had happened in England in August of that year saying, “I don’t call it rioting. I call it an insurrection of the masses of the people. It is happening in Syria. It is happening in Clapham. It’s happening in Liverpool. It’s happening in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment.” It is now June 2020 and that quote does not seem figurative as we observe a growing wave of protests, riots, and violence met with harsh repression and the criminalization of activism. But we must also remember that this is often how important rights and changes are won.

Behind every protest and riot there is invariably a Black man or a Latin American Indigenous person lying on the street of any given city in the Americas: in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and New York, US in 2014; in Minnesota, US in 2015; in Santiago, Chile in 2017; in Tierralta, Colombia in 2019; in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2020,^[1] among thousands of others. The “No Justice, No Peace!” actions that have followed call attention to the killing of unarmed Black people in broad daylight by state agents (Abt, 2020). Then things invariably get complicated, with protests depicted as starting “largely peaceful, before taking a violent turn.” Outside of social movements and hegemonic narratives, what is violence, after all? Is it flaming objects?

Fire is commonly associated with riots, both in witness statements and in images of the events. The phrase “London is burning!” did not start with the 2011 riots, but with the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780 (Navickas, 2011). Social movements have historically experimented with violence, as illustrated by the suffragettes in 1918. While they are traditionally depicted as empowered young women holding placards, determined to win the right to vote and have a voice on equal terms with men, they also participated in numerous acts of violence, including explosions and bombs throughout the United Kingdom for several years prior to winning voting rights.^[2]

We would like to draw attention to the magnetic attraction to fire in protests. It is no wonder, humans have been using fire for over 400.000 years. The human ability to control fire is linked to our ability to evolve as a species, as we have learned to use it to cook, forge tools, and stay warm. Among the many things that fire may depict are passion, desire, rebirth, resurrection, eternity, destruction, hope, and purification. People have written extensively about fire and its ability to nourish and protect, but also cause harm and kill. Along with water, air, and earth, it is considered one of the four elements essential to life.

The images of burning buildings, stores, and public sculptures seem to fascinate humanity. But they are often misunderstood, even among activists and social movement scholars. Direct actions^[3] are often controversial. Public opinion has moral objections to civil disobedience, believing that violence is the sole prerogative of the State. Even the political Left sometimes creates a tight separation between spontaneous and organized actions. In this light, (literally) inflamed actions can be interpreted as a simulation of non-existent radicalism, if it is not accompanied by political strategy.

Therefore, what we propose is that burning should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a ritual with potential for communication and mobilization. Direct action has been recurrent in racial and food riots throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, most often used by those most directly targeted by the state and who, therefore, have less bureaucratic methods of response, since they are disconnected from the social compact. Fire, as a flaming symbol of a decaying world, is here understood to be a performative tactic that produces meaning and inflammatory reactions.

The current protests were sparked by the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd. An African American male, 46 years old, recently unemployed, father of a six-year-old girl,^[4]  was savagely killed by a white male  police officer named Derek Chauvin. This tragic event resulted in people going out into the streets in the midst of  the COVID-19  health crisis. It all started in Minneapolis, but by the following Sunday, protests had broken out in 75 cities across the US, and many more in Brazil, shedding light on the persistent racism in our societies, with at least four deaths and around 1,700 arrests.^[5]  A protest speech by #BlackLivesMatter activist Tamika Mallory went viral: : “We cannot look at this as an isolated incident. The reason why buildings are burning are not just for our brother George Floyd. They are burning down because people here in Minnesota are saying to people in New York, in California, people in Memphis, to people all across this nation: enough is enough.”^[6]

By late May 2020 the protests had taken on a certain aesthetic which has historical precedent. By now many of us have seen, read about, and probably shared pictures of the Midwestern city of Minneapolis and its flaming buildings. Those images are indeed very powerful and are assumed to be effective. If buildings are burning, then people are fed up and the protests must be working, demands will be met and minorities’ voices will be heard–or so other social movements will say.

But this is not always how protests operate. Literature on protests considers them to be key components of democracy, an expression of ideals and principles that necessarily challenge dominant orthodoxies. In the past, the civil rights movement applied many different tactics, from bus boycotts to sit-ins to freedom-rides to community-wide protest campaigns (Tufecki, 2017). In the last few years, actions have been more performative, in both strategy and tactics (Butler, 2015). Visual activism has ranged from protest graffiti (Thomas 2018) to fine art photography in which the protester has some control over the framing (Hallas 2012). This form of struggle is broadly related to forms in political protests that emerged following the economic and financial crisis of 2008.

Also, they happen when people come together to react against inequality, injustice, exclusion, and other vulnerabilities. The aesthetics of protest primarily include humour, graffiti, slogans, art, symbols, slang, gestures, bodies, colors and other elements of performance that can be digitally shared across media platforms. All protest aesthetics are both performative and communicative (McGarry, Erhart, Eslen-Ziya, 2019).

Visuals matter. But so does what happens following the protests. These fire-related protests are frequently followed by looting, and looting sometimes causes a setback for the movement. George Rudé, Edward Thompson, and Eric Hobsbawm have documented riots from the 18th to 20th century in Europe, and found that looting, plunder, and fire were rather common. In Brazil, although historically disputed among the Left (Gorender, 1987), since the 1930s, and particularly in the state of Sao Paulo in the 1980s, direct actions appeared spontaneously as a form of struggle with heavy repercussions. Looting can illuminate a specific historical moment by exposing the contradictions, conflicts, and tensions in the political, economic, and social spheres.

Accordingly, literature about riots (Briggs, 2012, Ferreira, 2009, Kelley and Tuck, 2015, Bowden, 2014, Abt, 2019, Abu-Lughod, 2006) indicates that when objects and buildings are burned in protests, this invariably provokes curfews, a police backlash, (un)justified repression, and even the rise of the far Right. We will not focus on these repercussions, but on the link between burning objects and people not being able to breathe. We are experiencing the systematic suffocation of Black people, which did not start with Eric Garner´s murder in 2014, when his dying words were, “I can’t breathe.” This is part of the long history of populations being enslaved based on the color of their skin. The subjugation of the original peoples of the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade are a large part of this vivid memory, forcefully kept alive through police brutality.

The idea that everything must burn down in order to start a new world is not new, but the mere act of burning is emblematic of contemporary struggles. A sort of pyromania is an integral part of these contemporary riots–including the response that these images invoke among both social movement protesters in the streets and scholars. Fire is fascinating to the broad political spectrum:  from right-wing groups ready to incriminate as soon as they see flames, to left-wing activists celebrating what they consider to be a victory.

George Floyd´s horrific death at the hand of a former US police officer not only shows the murder of a human being, but the domination of one enormous group of people by another. Black people account for 13% of the US population and 55.8%^[7] of the Brazilian population,^[8] but persistent racial inequalities have triggered anger and distrust of institutions in the Americas. It is not far from the truth that fire implies radicalism  to a certain degree, but protesters and scholars’ hypotheses must take into account the changing patterns of protest. The global Left seems to think that Revolution is coming when they see images of burning cars and buildings, knowing that history repeats itself and people have had enough.

In a brief semiotic exercise, the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation, we gather from the images below that victory, revenge, and fatigue have fueled the last few weeks of protest in the Americas. But since the extraction of meaning is not a straightforward process, it is evident that the burning of objects may be interpreted as success by the participants and scholars, while they are also quite likely to be both the cause and effect of repression of further protests.

Fire is a handy resource in protests because it does not allow the insistent actions and voices of rioters to leave the landscape unscathed, as Thompson once said about “hunger rioters.” Because fire is also a specific way to destroy what exists, “a complete destruction, because the trail that the fire leaves is itself, the fire that passed through here” (ILHARCO, 2008: 150). It also finds its way into mass media, since it becomes impossible for state agents not to respond, leading to increased repression. And there are variations on how much repression they will unleash: President Donald Trump enraged many with his tweet, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” giving an historic endorsement of police violence,^[9] and it is not far fetched to say, an endorsement of white supremacist shootings of rioters.^[10]

Breathing is not optional

Achille Mbembe (2020) calls our attention to the day after COVID-19 and how it ought not come at the expense of the same people the economy was sacrificing prior to these protests. The day after will come but only if there is a reinvention, since it has become evident that we are surrounded by rings of fire. The philosopher states that before this virus, humanity was already threatened with suffocation and unable to choose the terms of death, given that entire segments of the world population, entire races, are condemned to a life of oppression. Mbembe calls for the universal right to breathe–not just biological breathing–but  breathing as full enjoyment of the human experience.

The mesmerizing, dystopian scenario that the pandemic unleashed paved the way for the moment we now face: the curious observation that the apocalypse is nothing more than our everyday existence. The survival mode the vast majority of the world’s population has been living in is like holding one’s breath, waiting for death, or rather, its relief. As Walter Benjamin said in 1940, “The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule. We must attain a conception of history that is in keeping with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our task to bring about a real state of emergency, (…).”^[11] It is no coincidence then that red images of insurrection make us feel heat. Fire. The moment when the burning present day makes us face our fears, and we panic at the prospect of losing what little we have, is also seductive. Just as heat is agitation, fire can function as an extension of creative acts: transformation.

To the end

Disruptive events can cut history time, as Hannah Arendt once said. A significant example is 9/11 in the US, for which there is a before and an after. The world afterwards is marked by asymmetry and significant changes in global war paradigms, as highlighted by Chamayou (2015). Counterinsurgency was the effort to control those who, through their demands, confronted States, fighting as sectors of the population with fundamental rights. An important change occurred after 9/11, when fighting terrorism replaced counterinsurgency, and the enemy came to be depicted as a dehumanized, generic “terrorist.”

Consider hellfire, which plays a role in constituted memory. To put it in divine terms, we find ourselves in a world divided between good and evil – a form of Manichaeism appropriate to a context of (permanent) war. We know it is irrational, but different notions of “otherness” have been developed to define the terrorist enemy. This is not just semantics, but a legal concept. Following the example of the United States, most countries have adopted anti-terrorism laws in the last few years. The dynamics of this, the way collectives, political organizations, social movements, and protesters have been framed, allows them to be the best next terrorists.

For example, this was the first reaction of Presidents Bolsonaro and Trump when referring to the recent #BlackLivesMatter protesters. Use of the fire aesthetic seductively plays into this discourse,  as we have become accustomed to political imagery that associates fire with terror. Explaining the problem of political violence as the reaction of the oppressed is, thanks to the politics of fear, fertile ground for authoritarianism, social control and increased surveillance of the population.

The two sides in the protests were never evenly matched. The weapons and subsequent violence one side can mobilize easily overwhelms the power of the multitudes. The growing state security apparatus to control and repress protests is worrisome, quite often enhanced by drones,^[12] which seem to “construct a bodiless force, a political body with no organs” (Chamayou, 2015). Drones have been increasingly used to monitor, repress and eliminate targets, while maintaining immunity since there is no logic of reciprocity in state violence.

Modern democracies, usually antagonistic to authoritarianism, are founded on inclusion of the masses in decision-making processes. This is supposed to coincide with the notion that fear of popular uprisings should guide the practice of political power. Indeed, the policy of fear, meaning fear of the most marginalized sectors of society, feeds into the aforementioned state of emergency. In the words of #BLM activist Tamika Mallory, “This is a coordinated activity happening across this nation. So we are in a state of emergency. We [as Black people] are dying in a state of emergency.”^[13] In these terms, the description of what is said to be an emergency–be it the burning of buildings and police vehicles or other forms of reaction–is instilling fear in the powers that be, which in turn is freeing for the protesters.

Simone da Silva Ribeiro Gomes is Associate Professor of Sociology at Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel), and an activist on popular education.
Lara Sartorio Gonçalves is Phd Candidate in Sociology by Social and Political Studies Institute (IESP), of State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).

Fred Mills and Jill Clark-Gollub assisted as editors of this article

[Main photo: protest in Rio de Janeiro, 2019. Credit: Thayla Fernandes da Conceição]

End notes

^[1] “Black lives shattered: outrage as boy, 14, is Brazil police’s latest victim,” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/brazil-black-lives-police-teenager

^[2] “Suffragettes, violence and militancy,” https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/suffragettes-violence-and-militancy

^[3] “As “direct action” we understand actions which reject mediation instruments, that are not filtered by the institutions. They are situated in the field of civil disobedience and direct confrontation with the repressive forces of the State, […] involves damaging the private property of multinationals and other companies, looting of stores, graffiti on walls, breaking of shop windows and occupations of public spaces “. (SARTORIO, 2014).

^[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/29/george-floyd-who-was-he-his-friends-words

^[5] Numbers of Saturday May 30th, available at: https://www.gadsdentimes.com/news/20200531/protest-roundup-lsquowersquore-sick-of-itrsquo-anger-over-police-killings-shatters-us

^[6] Available at https://www.facebook.com/164188247072662/posts/1871493659675437/?vh=e&d=n

^[7] Following the trends of academic research on the theme of inequality, here we use Black to mean the sum of those who call themselves blacks and browns (RIOS, PEREIRA, RANGEL, 2017). Available from: http://cienciaecultura.bvs.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0009-67252017000100015

^[8] Source: IBGE https://educa.ibge.gov.br/jovens/conheca-o-brasil/populacao/18319-cor-ou-raca.html

^[9] “Racist History Behind Trump’s Threat to Shoot Minneapolis Protesters Spurs Twitter to Act,” https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/twitter-restricts-access-trumps-threat-shoot-minneapolis-protesters/

^[10] “Donald Trump threatens to send in troops amid Minneapolis riots sparked by death of George Floyd,” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-29/donald-trump-tweet-minneapolis-violence-protest-police-precinct/12299136

^[11] Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, https://www.sfu.ca/~andrewf/CONCEPT2.html

^[12] “Customs and Border Protection Is Flying a Predator Drone Over Minneapolis,” https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dzbe3/customs-and-border-protection-predator-drone-minneapolis-george-floyd

^[13] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/164188247072662/posts/1871493659675437/?vh=e&d=n

References

ABU-LUGHOD, Janet L. Race, Space, and Riots in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Social Forces, 2006, vol. 88, no 3.

ABT, Thomas (2019). Bleeding Out – The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence. Basic Books.

BUTLER, Judith (2015). Notes toward a performative theory of assembly. Harvard university Press, 2015.

CHAMAYOU, Grégoire (2015). A Theory of the Drone. The New Press.

GORENDER, Jacob. (1987). Combate nas trevas: a esquerda brasileira: das ilusões perdidas à luta armada. São Paulo: Editora Ática.

ILHARCO, Fernando (2008). A catarse do fogo: a simbologia do fogo nos ecrãs da televisão. Comunicação & Cultura, n.o 5, 2008, pp. 139-153

KELLEY, Tuck (2016). The Other Special Relationship – Race, Rights, and Riots in Britain and the United States. Springer.

MBEMBE, Achille. (2020). Le droit universel à la respiration. Mukanda, Buala. Available at: https://aoc.media/opinion/2020/04/05/le-droit-universel-a-la-respiration/

NAVICKAS, Katrina (2011). Fire and fear: rioting in Georgian London and contemporary Britain History Policy. Available at: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/opinion-articles/articles/fire-and-fear-rioting-in-georgian-london-and-contemporary-britain

MCGARRY, Aidan, ERHART, Itir, ESLEN-ZIYA, Hande, et al (2019). Introduction: The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication. In : The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication. Amsterdam University Press. p. 15-35.

THOMPSON, Edward. (2016). The making of the English working class. Open Road Media.

TUFECKI, Zeynep (2017). Twitter and Tear Gas. Yale University Press.

In the context of police brutality in the US, which has many similar dynamics around the world, stories like that of Alejandro Treuquil in Chile call our attention. His assassination is still under investigation, but declarations by his family verify that the Mapuche leader was regularly harassed and his life threatened by the Carabineros police. In 2018, another Mapuche leader, Camilo Catrillanca, was also assassinated by a police officer. The anthropologist, Enrique Antileo, also Mapuche, analyzes this new crime for COHA. He describes an atrocity that took the life of a father and defender of the rights of his ancestral community. Police brutality is a continent-wide problem that gravely impacts the most vulnerable communities. In both the US and Chile, the police, who enforce multiple hierarchies of domination, are meeting with ongoing resistance and growing international denunciation.

Por Enrique Antileo Baeza
Desde Chile

Last June 4, the spokesperson for the “We Newen Community”, Alejandro Treuquil, was assassinated, shot by unknown assailants while he was searching for his horse; three other persons were wounded in the incident. This all happened in the town of Collipulli, in the Araucanía region (Southern Chile).

This crime, from the perspective of those familiar with the context, is related to a series of threats made by Carabineros and other paramilitary groups that constantly harass communities organized in the struggle over Mapuche land. In this case, Alejandro, along with 60 families who participated in the recuperation of the San Antonio Institute, drew the attention of hitmen from power groups in the area who are often protected by the Chilean police and judicial system.

Although the facts remain to be clarified, and although the Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Police are working on the matter, for the wife of the werken (spokesperson) Alejandro, there was a clear motive involved in what happened. Andrea Neculpán pointed out to Interferencia media outlet that “about two weeks ago we began to be harassed by Carabineros. In fact my husband was shot in the head. They even called him to threaten him.” Andrea’s report to the journalist Paula Huenchumil also indicates that the Carabineros had entered the area on June 3, 2020, and being driven away by the werken Alejandro, the uniformed men threaten to kill him.

This cruel murder has left Andrea without her life companion and his three children, 9, 5 and 4, without their father. It is a devastating crime in human terms that has dealt a serious blow to Mapuche communities and organizations.

The power groups, constituted to defend the large estates and the forestry business, have been perpetrating criminal and murderous actions for many years, driven by rabid racism and its concomitant disregard for the lives of the Mapuche. That contempt is also reflected in the sparse coverage of the Chilean media and in the insensitivity of many about what happened.

Today the lives of many leaders of Mapuche political processes of  resistance are in danger. In countries such as Mexico, Honduras and Chile, the selective murder of land defenders, and the indigenous leadership, has become a perverse practice, financed by groups  hungry for wealth. That is why maximum solidarity is urgent, maximum unity in the fight against racism, to denounce these acts and ensure they do not go unpunished like many previous attacks.

Today, the Mapuche people and their organizations are in the process of claiming their rights to self-determination and to the recovery of their ancestral lands that have been seized by the State and by private individuals. This fight has the support of hundreds of social organizations in Chile and other countries.

This is a call to fraternity among the peoples who struggle. It is vital to the advancement of our collective denunciations and the development of improved collective security, that we combat the racial attacks and organize ourselves in various spaces. And above all, to indicate in letters wrought large that Mapuche lives, and the lives of all oppressed  peoples, matter.

Enrique Antileo Baeza, Mapuche, is an anthropologist, Doctor in Latin American Studies from the University of Chile. Also a member of the studies and research center “Mapuche History Community”

(Main photo-credit: Alejandro’s family) 

Translation from original Spanish by Fred Mills

By Roger D. Harris
Corte Madera, California

As Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza spoke to COHA Friday night, five Iranian oil tankers headed to Venezuela in defiance of Washington. Within hours the first tanker arrived through the Caribbean where an armada of US warships were deployed. The Venezuelan navy escorted the Iranian ship into Puerto Cabello serving the El Palito refinery, followed by a second ship. This was a victory for Venezuela and Iran, which are both heavily sanctioned by the US, but have joined in mutual aid.

Arreaza spoke from Caracas in a special video interview arranged by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), aired on Facebook Live and YouTube. COHA co-director Patricio Zamorano moderated from Washington, D.C., and Senior Research Fellows Alina Duarte from Mexico City and Danny Shaw from New York City, asked questions. Co-director Fred Mills from Washington DC expressed COHA’s commitment to fostering critical dialogue in the spirit of its founder, Larry Birns.

As Arreaza explained, “Venezuela is in the epicenter of this part of the world because we are trying to build our own democracy our own way.” Before the Bolivarian Revolution, which brought first Hugo Chávez (1998) and then his successor Nicolás Maduro (2013, 2018) to the presidency, for some Venezuela was considered almost a colony under US influence. 

Because of illegal US sanctions, Venezuela has been unable to use the international banking system, making it virtually impossible to engage in foreign trade or refinance their debt. This has caused shortages of fuel, food, and medicines and it is further crippling the economy. Arreaza defended the shipment of gasoline and related products from Iran as a legal commercial activity protected by international law. Because of the US blockade, Venezuela has been unable to buy the necessary parts to service its own oil industry or purchase additives to refine its own petroleum. Hence the need to import gasoline to support essential services in this time of pandemic.

Now, Arreaza observed, “the sanctions are much worse than the coronavirus” in terms of the human toll. Over 100,000 Venezuelans have perished from lack of essential medicines and food. But, he added, “I would not say ‘devastating,’ because we have managed to control the situation.” 

The key to the incredible resistance of Venezuela has been the unity of the government with the people. “We are not only resisting but we are constructing.” 

Arreaza views the American people as Venezuela’s “friends” and “the first victims of imperialism.” “We want a good relationship with Washington, working together. What the US wants is to overthrow our government and establish a government of neoliberalism.” He warned that “If the US were to invade Venezuela, we will respond. Like what happened in Vietnam, we will prevail. But it would be a disaster for both parties.”

Three weeks ago, Venezuela thwarted an incursion of mercenaries, including former US Special Forces veterans. While the US government claimed “plausible denial,” their fingerprints were all over the botched coup. Arreaza revealed that the Venezuelans had infiltrated the operation and knew it was happening. Regretting that eight people had been killed, Arreaza admonished that more of the same is expected because the US backs these acts of aggression and has even posted multi-million-dollar bounties for top Venezuelan officials. 

Arreaza denounced Colombia as complicit, doing what the US dictates. He was critical of the Colombian government’s failure to stop the illegal bases inside its territory where some 60 Venezuelan deserters and other paramilitary forces had been training  for the raid into Venezuela with full knowledge of Colombian authorities.

Before Chávez, Arreaza related, the Venezuelan military was viewed by him and most Venezuelans as an occupying army under the control of the US. “Now we have a civil-military union” along with three million armed citizens in the militia. Proof of this patriotic unity came, Arreaza pointed out, when the mercenaries attacked three weeks ago, and local fishermen and the militia were the ones who first detained the invaders. 

The US proxy self-proclaimed president for Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, has “broken all the laws.” But it is up to the independent judicial branch of government, Arreaza clarified, and not the executive, to prosecute. Within the opposition, Arreaza explained, Guaidó and his boss Leopoldo López have lost their legitimacy but are still backed by the most powerful nation in the world. So, the opposition has only a “fake unity,” which is unraveling. 

Reflective of the democratic aspirations of his government, Arreaza said, “we don’t want a one-party state; we want an opposition.” But Venezuela needs an opposition that is independent of a foreign power and wants to serve the interests of the Venezuelan people. Guaidó, in contrast, has welcomed the sanctions by the US, punishing the Venezuelan people, and has even endorsed a US invasion. Arreaza is hopeful regarding the moderate opposition that is committed to the electoral process. Guaidó, who espouses violent overthrow of the elected government, is finding himself increasingly isolated. 

Arreaza espoused a multipolar world, respecting the sovereignty of nations. An informal group of states in defense of the UN charter is developing with allies and friends of Venezuela such as Cuba, Nicaragua, China, Russia, and Iran. “We need international law and not the law of the empire of the US.” 

“The future of the world will be different after the coronavirus [passes]; people are rethinking; something new is coming.” The Bolivarian Revolution is now in a better position than three years ago, according to the Foreign Minister. “We are on the right side of history.” Venezuela’s contribution to the world has been, Arreaza concluded, “to prove that we can resist. We know how to resist, adapt, and advance.” 

Roger Harris is Associate Editor at COHA

Facebook video recording, here.

Watch the interview here: 

Support this progressive voice and be a part of it. Donate to COHA today. Click here

Five Iranian supertankers, filled with approximately 45.5 million gallons of gasoline and related fuel products are presently crossing the Atlantic with Venezuela their likely ultimate destination. US authorities speculate that Venezuela will pay for these shipments in gold.^[1] Venezuela and Iran, both subject to crippling US sanctions, are natural allies in the struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic while providing food and medical supplies for their peoples. If Washington deploys the navy to block these commercial vessels from arriving at their destination, it could ignite a serious international conflict.

By William Camacaro, Frederick B. Mills, Danny Shaw
From Caracas, Washington DC, and  New York City

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of a warning by the UN World Food Program that “we are also on the brink of a hunger pandemic,”^[2] Washington is ratcheting up its economic war against Venezuela and Iran to the detriment of efforts by these nations to contain the virus and obtain food and medical supplies. One of the consequences of the US blockade of Venezuela is a gasoline shortage, as any nation that sends the necessary additives to process Venezuelan crude into fuel faces heavy handed sanctions. Yet without gasoline, Venezuelans are unable to transport food and other necessities from the point of sale to their homes and workplaces. And this precious commodity, which was virtually pennies on the gallon just months ago, is presently being sold on the underground market at exorbitant prices in US dollars.

Five Iranian supertankers on the way to Venezuela, carrying approximately 45.5 million gallons of gasoline and related products.^[3] According to Reuters, an anonymous senior Trump administration official said the Iranian fuel shipment “is not only unwelcome by the United States but it’s unwelcome by the region, and we’re looking at measures that can be taken.” This message, as yet unconfirmed by the Trump administration, has been taken seriously by Iran as a threat to impede the arrival of the supertankers. Also, unconfirmed reports over the weekend that the US Navy has deployed four additional warships to the Caribbean along with a P-8 Poseidon multimission aircraft^[4] has raised alarm bells in Tehran, as Iranian authorities warn against US interference with commerce between sovereign states.

In response to the perceived threat to their oil tankers, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying: “Coercing nations into complying with the United States’ illegal demands threatens multilateralism, as the foundation of international relations, and sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for those who aspire to rather divide, not unite, nations.”^[5] Tehran lodged a protest with the Swiss ambassador to Iran, who represents US interests, against any possible actions to impede its ships. The Iranian news agency, Nour, warned “If the United States, like pirates, intends to create insecurity on international highways, it will take a dangerous risk that will certainly not go unnoticed.”^[6] And the leader of the Islamic Revolution, the Ayatollah Seyed Ali Jamene, highlighted “the repugnance” the world’s people feel towards US intimidation, attacks and occupation. The ayatollah went on to declare that “the US will be expelled from [Iran’s neighbors] Iraq and Syria.”^[7]

As political analyst Carmen Parejo Rendón points out, “In the face of US eagerness to dominate two regions of the world, Venezuela plays in Latin America the role that Iran plays in West Asia.”^[8] Both countries insist on preserving their national sovereignty and intend to exercise the right to trade on mutually beneficial terms without the interference of an outside power. Though Venezuela has a different social system than Iran, it has incurred a similar fate. Despite whatever differences, their crime, in the ideological framework of US exceptionalism, is daring to exist outside Washington’s sphere of influence. Nearly two centuries after the Monroe Doctrine, the US continues to see both regions as part of its backyard.

Both Venezuela and Iran have been historically subjected to US intervention against democratically elected governments and have paid a heavy price for forging independent domestic and foreign policies. Since the election of Hugo Chávez in 1998, Washington has backed a broad spectrum of regime change strategies, most recently on behalf of the self-proclaimed president of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. After several failed coup attempts, Guaidó’s most recent debacle was acting as “commander in chief” of a foiled mercenary attack on this South American nation just two weeks ago.^[9]  And Iran’s experiment in democracy was subverted by a CIA backed operation in 1953 when Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup, leading to more than two decades of US backed dictatorship.

Iran has good reasons to take the threat against its vessels seriously. In May 2018, President Trump broke with European partners and pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear program, and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Last summer, in a remarkable display of double standards, British Royal Marines stopped and raided an Iranian ship “suspected of carrying oil to Syria.” Days later, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, “contrary to international law, three Iranian vessels attempted to impede the passage of a commercial vessel, British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz.”^[10] The Trump administration’s targeted assassination in January of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who coordinated anti-terrorism efforts in the Middle East and was a national hero, sent shock waves throughout the Middle East and brought these two nations to the brink of war.^[11] On April 22, in the context of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, Trump tweeted: “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”^[12] In both the Persian Gulf and the Caribbean, US warships have become the explicit arm of Washington’s gunboat diplomacy.

Any US military action to impede the arrival of five Iranian oil tankers at Venezuelan ports could set up a clash between Washington and two of the principal nations it has targeted for regime change. If US warships block the Iranian vessels in international waters and Iran makes good on its threat of retaliation, other nations may quickly be drawn into a conflict that would undermine efforts by the UN to foster a worldwide cessation of hostilities. However, should Iranian oil tankers arrive safely at Venezuelan ports, two sanctioned nations will have opened a breach in the US imposed economic blockade through an act of mutual assistance during a health and food emergency. As Carmen Parejo Rendón observes “what the US does not realize is that it keeps creating more enemies for itself and with this it is reinforcing multilateralism.”

[Credit, main photo:  combat ships in the Caribbean, U. S. Southern Command. By U. S. Navy]

End notes

^[1] “Exclusive: U.S. weighs measures in response to Iran fuel shipment to Venezuela – source,” https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-fuel-iran-usa-exclusive/exclusive-u-s-weighs-measures-in-response-to-iran-fuel-shipment-to-venezuela-source-idUKKBN22Q2RL

^[2] “WFP Chief warns of hunger pandemic as COVID-19 spreads (Statement to UN Security Council),”https://www.wfp.org/news/wfp-chief-warns-hunger-pandemic-covid-19-spreads-statement-un-security-council

^[3] “Iran vs USA: Tehran threatens ‘immediate response’ if US blockades Venezuela bound tankers,” https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1283831/iran-usa-latest-news-us-venezuela-oil-tankers-caribbean-sea-world-war-3

^[4] “US Sends 4 Warships to Caribbean for Possible Encounter with Iran Tanker” https://ifpnews.com/us-sends-4-warships-to-caribbean-for-possible-encounter-with-iran-tankers. See also “US Navy Patrol Squadron 26 ‘Tridents’ Deploy to 4th Fleet.” https://militaryleak.com/2020/05/18/us-navy-patrol-squadron-26-tridents-deploy-to-4th-fleet/ and https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=112980

^[5] “Iran asks U.N. chief to push back against U.S. sanctions on foreign minister,” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-un-idUSKCN1UW2AQ

^[6] Ibid.

^[7] “Líder de Irán: EEUU no se quedará en Irak y Siria y será expulsado”, https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/politica/466300/jamenei-eeuu-explusar-irak-siria

^[8] “Venezuela juega en Sudamérica el papel de Irán en Asia Occidental,” https://www.hispantv.com/noticias/politica/466301/petrolero-iran-venezuela-eeuu

^[9] “New information: Guaidó was the “commander in chief” of the failed mercenary operation against Venezuela,” http://www.coha.org/new-information-guaido-was-the-commander-in-chief-of-the-failed-mercenary-operation-against-venezuela/

^[10] “Iranian boats attempted to seize a British tanker in the Strait of Hormuz,” https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/10/politics/iran-attempted-seize-british-tanker/index.html.

^[11] “Trump authorized Soleimani’s killing 7 months ago,” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-authorized-soleimani-s-killing-7-months-ago-conditions-n1113271

^[12] “Iran-US tensions rise on Trump threat, Iran satellite launch,” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-tweets-ordered-navy-destroy-iranian-gunboats-7028451

We, the undersigned US organizations condemn the civic-military coup in Bolivia and the brutal repression unleashed by the police and military authorized by the self-proclaimed anti-Indigenous “President” of Bolivia, Senator Jeanine Áñez. 

The regime has burned the Wiphala, flag of the Indigenous nations of Bolivia; decreed an exemption to prosecution for the police and military for the use of lethal force against demonstrators; and has criminalized democratically elected officials and rank and file members of organizations associated with the deposed government. These decrees led to the massacre in Cochabamba on November 15 in which police and the armed forces opened fire on demonstrators killing five people and wounding more than 100, as well as the massacre of Senkata on November 19 in which at least 8 people were killed and at least 30 wounded. They have also led to the deployment of military, police and private intelligence agencies to hunt down and arrest political opponents of the coup regime.

We urge an immediate investigation by the UN of the killing of at least 32 people and the wounding of more than 700 by the police and security forces since the coup against President Evo Morales on November 10, 2019, based on official data from the Office of the People’s Defender  (“Defensoría del Pueblo”). We also call for the release of all political detainees.

We support calls by the constitutional President, Evo Morales as well as the United Nations, for dialogue to avoid further bloodshed. We call for the return of security forces to the barracks and an investigation into the crimes committed by the police and military, as well as those who authorized the use of lethal force, to hold perpetrators accountable. 

We also reject the illegal self-proclamation as “President” of Senator Jeanine Áñez, elected without a quorum and without the presence of MAS members of congress, whose safety is under permanent threat. This self-proclamation also violates article 161 of the Bolivian Constitution, according to which Congress must accept the President’s resignation in order for it to be valid, which so far hasn’t taken place.   

We urge the US Congress and the Organization of American States (OAS) to condemn the coup against the constitutional government and support the path of dialogue over escalating confrontation.

WE DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THE KILLING OF INDIGENOUS BOLIVIANS!

PEACE FOR BOLIVIA!

SIGNATURES

1. Forum of Sao Paulo, Executive Committee in Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia
2. CODEPINK, USA
3. ANSWER Coalition, USA
4. Democratic Socialists of America, Richmond, Virginia chapter
5. Socialist Unity Party, USA
6. International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, USA
7. Friends of the Congo, Washington DC
8. National Network on Cuba, USA
9. Popular Resistance, Washington DC
10. Party for Socialism and Liberation, Washington DC
11. Black Alliance for Peace, Washington DC
12. Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, Washington, DC
13. Communist Party, USA
14. Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party of California,  San Diego, California
15. Council on Hemispheric Affairs, COHA, Washington DC
16.  Peace Council, Greater New Haven, Connecticut 
17.  Red Nacional de Salvadoreños en el Exterior, RENASE, USA
18. Carolina Peace Resource Center, South Carolina
19.  Leonard Peltier Defense Committee,  San Diego, California
20.  Congreso de los Pueblos, Colombia, international committee in DC
21.  FigTree Foundation, USA, 
22.  Comité de Salvadoreños en Washington DC
23.  Friends of Latin America, Columbia, Maryland
24. Rutilio House, Takoma Park, Maryland
25. Committee Against Police Brutality, San Diego, California
26. Women in Struggle, Washington DC
27. Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, CISPES, Washington DC
28. International Womxns Alliance-DC (DIWA)
29. Comité del FMLN de Washington DC
30. All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (GC), Washington, DC
31. World Development Alliance, South Carolina

Former Brazilian president grants an interview for the first time since leaving prison on November 8

By Erick Gimenes
Originally published in Portuguese on Brasil de Fato

Lula granted this exclusive interview – for the first time since leaving prison on November 8 – to journalists Fernando Morais, Aline Piva (editor at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, COHA), and Ana Roxo of the Nocaute blog.

“After reading a lot about slavery, I have the thesis that we need to retell the history of Brazil. The true Brazilian heroes are not in the photos. They are anonymous, because they were beheaded, hanged, and did not appear in the pictures,” said the Workers Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) leader.

Citing riots such as Cabanagem and the resistance of the Palmares Quilombo led by Zumbi and Dandara, Lula stressed that the richness of history has to be told to the youth: “Kids know more about the history of the Russian Revolution than the struggles that were waged here in Brazil”.

“That’s why people say that Brazilians do not like fighting, that we like to reach agreements. They say it because those who fought  before were killed.”, he said.

The former president reaffirmed his insurgent spirit and said that he will travel around the country to fight for the strengthening of the Workers Party, the social struggles, and the Latin American left.

Lula also spoke about the congressional maneuvers against his release after the sentence in second instance, the PT’s next steps, alliances with other progressive parties, the political crisis in South America and the Bolsonaro government’s strategies.

See the main excerpts from the interview:

To the streets

The PT leader stated that he must go to the streets to reunite the left, which, according to him, is now disheartened. “I don’t know how long I can travel around this country, but I will walk. That’s what I can do: discuss politics with the people and encourage the troops. The troops are demoralized,” he said.

The former president assures that he will face the Bolsonaro government by dialoguing with the people: “Bolsonaro wants to rule with fake news, to lie everywhere; Guedes takes advantage and goes selling off Brazil,  all that was built as the patrimony of the people; and the country is being broken. My role is talking to the people. And don’t ask me for patience with Bolsonaro, Moro, or Dallagnol.”

Second instance and Supreme Court

Lula hopes that the National Congress will be wise in analyzing the maneuvers proposed through Proposals for Amendment of the Constitution (Propostas de Emenda à Constituição, PEC) and bills (Projetos de Lei, PL) that discuss the arrest:

“A Constitution is not a newsletter, a manuscript, something you can rip and throw away all the time. Regrettably, there is a narrow-minded Brazilian elite that now says that the Constitution is obsolete for the country. I hope that Congress has sufficient backbone to not overturn the principles of res judicata”, he said.

He also expects the  Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal,  STF) to recognize his innocence.

“I hope the Supreme Court will have the wisdom of recognizing its role in ensuring compliance with the Constitution and in judging the merits of a case like mine. I’m not asking anyone for a favor. What I want is for this country to return to normality. And to get back to normality, the process against me has to be annulled, and the responsible parties have to be punished.”

Polarization and alliances

Lula said  it is necessary to polarize political discussions so that progressive ideas are propagated and effective. According to him, PT will polarize the next elections to forcefully project its ideas.

“If you don’t want to polarize, don’t have a party. PT was born to polarize. We will polarize in 2022; polarize and win”, he said.

He acknowledged that PT made mistakes, although “more right than wrong”, but stressed again that it is not the party’s role to make self-criticism. “Why do you want PT to do self-criticism? If I do self-criticism, then there is no need for opposition. They ask for self-criticism because they know that no matter how much PT has been wrong, no party has done more for the country than PT; no party has taken care of the people more than PT.”

Lula said the party must prioritize its own candidates in all electoral offices, although he agrees to make alliances with progressive parties in cases such as an electoral runoff, for example.

“I am not against PT supporting Freixo, making alliances in São Paulo, but a party the size of PT has to have its own candidates, even to defend the party’s theses. If PT does not go to the runoff, then it can support a progressive candidate, a candidate  from the left.”

Regarding the break with Lula announced by Ciro Gomes after his release, the former president said he had only gratitude for the former minister of his government. “I am grateful to him for working with me and being loyal. Ciro is not a man of political debate. He is a man of only one truth, that of his own.”

Fake news and the right

Lula acknowledged that the left needs to evolve in the political use of social networks, as the right has massively done.

“The PT has to be clear that the right has a role, that the right has learned to use social networks better than we do, because a lie goes by plane, and a truth goes crawling”.

For him, opposing fake news involves spreading true speech on the street, off the internet. “We have to prepare ourselves to fight lies by saying things in the most serious way possible. It is street speech that can help our people when they go on the internet. One has to have a political message.”

He assured that PT will prioritize the use of the internet in future campaigns. “PT is still crawling. By its size, we should have an almost unbeatable network. But let’s get there. I can tell you it’s a party concern.”

Latin America

Lula said he has been closely following the politics of governance in neighboring countries. He said that although he is concerned about the US threat, it is good that there is alternation of power, citing the trend change in Argentina with the election of Alberto Fernández.

“There is no party that rules forever. I think it’s good for democracy to have these alternations. It’s important that one day you win and another you lose. What we have to prove is that the right is incompetent in addressing the main problems the country is experiencing, which is the quality of life of its people.”

He said he had doubts about Evo Morales’ fourth mandate in Bolivia. “I didn’t understand why Evo resigned. Maybe he has a motive that I don’t know. Since I don’t understand much of these things, I want to be sure before commenting.”

For Lula, there is a clear interference of the United States in the policies of Latin American countries. “I am convinced that the Americans have decided to make Latin America their backyard again. They don’t want any country here being the protagonist of its own future,” he said. “What is unfortunate is that a country the size of Brazil submits to it,” he added.

Historic release

Lula was released on November 8, after 580 days in detention at the Federal Police Superintendence in Curitiba.

The release was made possible by the decision of the Supreme Federal Court that ruled that defendants may remain free while they exhaust appeals in criminal cases.

The former president was prosecuted for corruption and money laundering in the case of the Guarujá triplex, with a sentence set by the Supreme Federal Court at 8 years, 10 months and 20 days in prison. There is still a possibility of an appeal.

Lula has another sentence, at first instance, in the case of the Atibaia country house. The punishment in this case is 12 years and 11 months in prison for corruption and money laundering.

By Frederick B. Mills
From Washington DC

Over the past month, ruling elites in Ecuador and Chile as well as the Secretary General of the OAS, Luis Almagro, have been warning that the specter of the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, is behind rising anti-neoliberal sentiments throughout the region. A continental-wide effort of the right is trying to avoid recognition of the actual deep social and economic inequalities afflicting the population and the clear responsibility of the neoliberal political class for these maladies.

For example, on October 8, President Lenín Moreno blamed Rafael Correa and Nicolás Maduro for the protests in Ecuador:

“The satrapy of Maduro has activated along with Correa their plan of destabilization. They are the corrupt who . . . are behind this coup attempt and are using and instrumentalizing the indigenous sectors; taking advantage of their mobilization to sack and destroy everything in their way.”^[1]

Ecuadorians reject IMF policies

Within days of this statement, it became evident that the deployment of brutal repression by Ecuadoran security forces only further galvanized the popular uprising. It also became increasingly clear that this was a broad based movement in response to Moreno’s imposition of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) adjustment policies at the expense of the large majority of constituents. So Lenín Moreno, in a dramatic about face, dispensed with conspiracy theories and addressed the nation with some contrition, promising to repeal the decree removing gasoline subsidies and to engage in dialogue with various sectors clamouring for economic reforms. His tone was now conciliatory:

“This is how to struggle for peace: talking. A transparent roundtable of dialogue, with nothing to hide! Everything before the eyes of compatriots.” (Tweet, Oct. 13, 2019)^[2]

On October 16, despite Moreno’s own change of posture, a statement was issued by the Organization of American States (OAS) General Secretariat resuming the charge against Maduro and adding Cuba for good measure:

“The crisis in Ecuador is an expression of the distortions that the Venezuelan and Cuban dictatorships have installed in the political systems of the hemisphere. However, what recent events have also shown is that the intentional and systematic strategy of the two dictatorships to destabilize democracies is no longer as effective as in the past.”^[3]

Although there was no evidence for these accusations, we could expect no less from OAS General Secretary Luis Almagro, a fanatical anti-Chavista who has been scouring the hills for communists while undermining the multilateralism of the Washington-based OAS.

Chilean population says “enough!”

In Chile, a similar scenario has been unfolding. After several days of mass demonstrations and brutal repression by the security forces, President Sebastián Piñera went on national television surrounded by military leaders and issued an ominous warning to the nation:

“We are at war against a powerful enemy, implacable, that does not respect anything or anyone and is prepared to use violence and delinquency without any limit, and that is ready to burn our hospitals, metro, supermarkets, and the only purpose of causing the most damage possible.” (Oct. 20, 2019)^[4]

Given Piñera’s antipathy for President Maduro, this was likely an allusion to the Chavista government in Venezuela^[5], as confirmed by his Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera, who used Twitter to denounce the “intervention of dictator Maduro.”^[6] While calling Maduro a dictator, Piñera’s  declaration of war against his own people literally brought back the repressive machinery of the Pinochet dictatorship, including the infamous Carabineros and torture centers, and multiplied the indignation of a broad based citizen’s resistance.

Conservative politicians in Chile and overseas quickly backed conspiracy theories to blame a foreign enemy, including the Russians, a claim made by the U.S. State Department diplomat Michael Kozak.^[7] The foreign intervention theory was also supported by right-wing leaders in Argentina, like Miguel Ángel Pichetto, VP candidate with Mauricio Macri^[8], and Venezuela, with Juan Guaidó´s operative, Julio Borges, denouncing an “international destabilization strategy” designed by Cuba and Venezuela.^[9]

On October 25th, the OAS doubled down on this conspiracy theory in the case of Chile, releasing another press statement accusing again the Venezuelan and Cuban governments of intervening in the social unrest.^[10]

The conservative media in Chile also played a role. La Tercera was obligated to correct false information it had published on its front page, accusing imaginary “Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants” of being the instigators and actual perpetrators of the fires that destroyed some metro stations and trains.^[11] The outrageous accusations were dismissed by the judicial investigators,^[12] and criticized by several sectors for how such unsubstantiated allegations could negatively impact the growing immigrant community in the country.

Just days after this new OAS declaration, as the blood of protesters stained the streets of Santiago by the hands of military troops and police forces,  Piñera asked the nation for forgiveness for his “lack of vision.” A million people^[13] demonstrated in the streets of Santiago on a historic October 25th to once and for all refute the conspiracy theories. The giant peaceful march, the biggest since the end of Pinochet’s dictatorship, provided a strong voice for significant reforms to address the extreme inequality in Chile and the permanent economic suffering of most of the population. Piñera said:

“It is true that the problems have accumulated over many decades and that the distinct governments, neither they nor we were able to recognize the magnitude of this situation.” (Oct. 23, 2019)^[14]

Three days later, with mounting casualties from his “war,” Piñera asked his cabinet to proffer their resignations.^[15] In the end, it was not Maduro or Cuba, but the erosion of the quality of life of millions of Chileans that inspired the uprising and calls for a constituent assembly.

The actual enemy is inequality

In short, once it became undeniably clear that these were home grown popular uprisings in Ecuador and Chile, the same leaders who blamed Maduro and declared war on their own people abruptly changed course, calling for dialogue to save their own skins, demobilize the massive outcry, and offer piecemeal instead of structural reforms of failed neoliberal economic models.

Scapegoating Maduro and other leftists for the epochal changes underway in Latin America and the Caribbean belies the social-historical-economic contexts of push-back against neoliberalism in the region. The election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico (July 2018); the re-election of President Evo Morales in Bolivia (October 21, 2019), the election of Alberto Fernández in Argentina (October 27);  the first round lead in Uruguay’s presidential election by Daniel Martínez (October 27); and the loss of Uribistas in local elections in Colombia (October 27) have not been procedures hatched in Caracas, but signals a growing public rejection of IMF mandated adjustment policies and a desire for economic models that put people’s needs before private accumulation. 

The same anti-neoliberal and decolonizing sentiments driving these recent electoral victories of the left have inspired uprisings in Haiti, Ecuador and Chile, and protests in Honduras and Panama. It appears that announcements of the ebb of the pink tide, by intellectuals across the political spectrum, were premature. Despite the imposition of the Monroe Doctrine by Washington, the attacks on progressive governments by the Lima Group, and the extreme right wing partisanship of the Secretary General of the OAS, conservatives have not consolidated their hold on the continent; on the contrary, they have demonstrated the failure of the neoliberal economic model.

The comic legend of “Super-bigote”

The conspiracy theory that blamed Maduro for the epochal change sweeping the Americas quickly gave rise to comic relief, as the legend of the power of super-bigote (referring to Maduro’s prominent mustache) to topple governments, spread through social media, with comic-book and video depictions of Maduro exhibiting his super powers.^[16]

Maduro, for his part, has taken the claims about his great power to move millions of people to rebellion with good humor:

“Yesterday President Lenín Moreno said that what was happening was my fault, that I move my mustache and overthrow governments (…) I am thinking about the next government I can overthrow with my mustache, super mustache.” (Oct. 8)^[17]

So the legend of the super-mustache will go down in history as a joke, but one that was used to justify crimes against unarmed demonstrators in Santiago and Quito. This will not stop the neoliberal ruling elites, however, from continuing to propagate this conspiracy theory as part of regime-change propaganda against Caracas.

While the anti-neoliberal tide rising throughout the Americas cannot be credited to the movement of Maduro’s mustache, there is no doubt that a “bolivarian breeze,” perhaps even a “hurricane” is indeed being felt across the continent.  But this breeze is not limited to politics in Caracas. It is present wherever people are resisting recolonization and keeping alive the dream of the Patria Grande.

Frederick B. Mills is Professor of Philosophy at Bowie State University and Co-Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Editors: Roger Harris and Patricio Zamorano

Translations by the author are unofficial.

End notes

^[1] Original Spanish: “El sátrapa de Maduro ha activado junto con Correa su plan de desestabilización. Son los corruptos que han sentido los pasos de la justicia cercándolos para que respondan; ellos son quienes están detrás de este intento de golpe de Estado y están usando e instrumentalizando algunos sectores indígenas, aprovechando su movilización para saquear y destruir a su paso.” CNN en Español. October 8, 2019. URL accessed on Oct. 28, 2019 : https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2019/10/08/lenin-moreno-culpa-a-maduro-y-correa-por-protestas-en-ecuador/

^[2] Original Spanish: “Así se lucha por la paz: hablando. ¡Una mesa de diálogo transparente, sin nada que esconder! Todo ante los ojos de los compatriotas”. From Twitter. URL accessed on Oct. 28, 2019. https://twitter.com/Lenin/status/1183561920311369728?s=20

^[3] Statement of the OAS General Secretariat, October 16, 2019. URL accessed on Oct. 28, 2019. https://www.oas.org/en/media_center/press_release.asp?sCodigo=E-081/19

^[4] Original Spanish: “Estamos en guerra contra un enemigo poderoso, implacable, que no respeta a nada ni a nadie y que está dispuesto a usar la violencia y la delincuencia sin ningún límite, que está dispuesto a quemar nuestros hospitales, el metro, los supermercados, con el único propósito de producir el mayor daño posible”. (Oct. 20, 2019) Infobae, October 21, 2019. URL accessed on Oct. 19, 2019. https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2019/10/21/sebastian-pinera-estamos-en-guerra-contra-un-enemigo-poderoso/

^[5] See El Impulso, September 24, 2019. URL accessed Oct. 28, 2019. https://www.elimpulso.com/2019/09/24/sebastian-pinera-en-la-onu-tenemos-que-terminar-con-la-dictadura-en-venezuela-24sep/

^[6] https://twitter.com/TeodoroRiberaN/status/1185988967973478406

^[7] “The Russians are meddling again, this time in Chile, warns US diplomat.” https://www.rt.com/news/471945-russian-interference-chile-protests/

^[8] Miguel Ángel Pichetto: “Hay un proceso de desestabilización en América Latina con injerencia venezolana-cubana”. https://www.infobae.com/politica/2019/10/22/miguel-angel-pichetto-hay-un-proceso-de-desestabilizacion-en-america-latina-con-injerencia-venezolana-cubana/

^[9] “Julio Borges culpa a Maduro y a Cuba por las protestas en Chile y Ecuador”. https://www.diariolasamericas.com/america-latina/julio-borges-culpa-maduro-y-cuba-las-protestas-chile-y-ecuador-n4186456

^[10] “Statement of the OAS General Secretariat on the situation in Chile”. https://en.mercopress.com/2019/10/25/statement-of-the-oas-general-secretariat-on-the-situation-in-chile

^[11] “Aclaración sobre artículo publicado por La Tercera: un error del que nos hacemos cargo.” https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/aclaracion-articulo-publicado-la-tercera-error-del-nos-hacemos-cargo/881975/

^[12] FISCALÍA DESCARTÓ INFORMACIÓN SOBRE POSIBLE SOSPECHOSO DE LOS ATENTADOS AL METRO. http://lanacion.cl/2019/10/28/fiscalia-descarto-informacion-sobre-posible-sospechoso-de-los-atentados-al-metro/

^[13]“Chile protests: One million join peaceful march for reform”. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50191746

^[14] Original Spanish: “Es verdad que los problemas se acumulaban desde hace muchas décadas y que los distintos gobiernos no fueron ni fuimos capaces de reconocer esta situación en toda su magnitud.” BBC, October 23, 2018. URL accessed Oct. 28, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-50148380

^[15] BBC, October. 26, 2019. URL accessed Oct. 28, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-50196006

^[16] From Twitter. URL accessed Oct. 28, 2019. https://twitter.com/SuperBigote_?s=17

^[17] Original Spanish: “Ayer salió el presidente Lenín Moreno a decir que lo que está ocurriendo allá es culpa mía, que yo y que muevo mis bigotes y tumbo gobiernos (…) estoy pensando qué próximo gobierno puedo tumbar con los bigotes, súper bigote.” Mazo, October 8, 2019. URL accessed Oct. 28, 2019. https://mazo4f.com/super-bigote-asi-maduro-ridiculizo-acusaciones-del-traidor-lenin-moreno-en-su-contra

by Patricio Zamorano
From Washington DC

The media had to double down through a constant barrage of violent photos and videos arriving through social networks so that especially non-Chileans, who are accustomed to the mythical image of a stable and exemplary country, could internalize and believe the spectacle of fire and blood on their screens.

The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, realized a feat impossible to imagine after almost 30 years since the return of democracy: provoke street clashes between Chilean youth, who were not raised during the dictatorship, and military troops, while enforcing  a curfew, a state of emergency, and the suspension of some constitutional guarantees. These measures create a ghostly continuum of the dictatorship embedded in the Chilean collective psyche.

The outcome thus far will go down in history: as of October 23rd, the official count is 16 deaths (5 of them by military and police forces), 226 wounded and 1,692 detained.^[1] In addition to the human cost, more than 70 metro stations were damaged, with 20 set on fire, and some trains destroyed. A large amount of public and private infrastructure has also been destroyed.

Of course, the analysis by apologists for the government, that this was all a surprise, is meant for foreign consumption. Last weekend Chileans knew all too well what was coming. The population of the country has been subjected to state violence for decades. The images of these past days are the same ones seen during the painful protests of the ‘80s, when the country seethed from the poverty and desperation produced by the political and economic repression of the Pinochet dictatorship. The images recall the state repression inflicted against secondary school students 10 years ago during the so called “Penguin Revolution” (“penguin” is a nickname for students, based on the colors of school uniforms), when children were attacked by police dogs. And the images also remind us of the legal coercive methods such as the violence of the anti-terrorist law applied to the Mapuches in southern Chile.

The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, realized a feat impossible to imagine after almost 30 years since the return of democracy: provoke street clashes between Chilean youth, who were not raised during the dictatorship, and military troops, while enforcing  a curfew, a state of emergency, and the suspension of some constitutional guarantees.

The Chilean police, called “carabineros,” have always been a repressive force, adding to the other  repressive institutions that have converted Chile into a great pressure cooker. The government struggles to maintain a made-up face before the international community. Far from creating a narrative of reconciliation in response to social upheaval, the government uses the idea of “war” against an “internal enemy.”^[2] Pinochet used this painful metaphor to justify the violation of human rights of Chileans and provide a moral basis for soldiers to exercise repression directly against their compatriots.

One has to remember that despite the advances of the social agenda since the end of the dictatorship, Pinochet managed to implant neoliberal privatizations that still impact the daily lives of 17 million Chileans. He privatized education and created an underfinanced public sector that compromises the well being of millions of children, condemning them to substandard technical-professional training that leaves them ill-prepared to compete with the sons and daughters of the national elite. He privatized health care making it into a totally regressive system, creating constant desperation for the nation’s majority who must either use the public system — slow, bureaucratic, and of poor quality — or pay for private care. He also privatized pensions, which regressively provides benefits according to the level of one’s lifetime income and personal savings, favoring the privileged.

Social trauma generated by the economic and political model

All of these privatizations have been creating a social trauma that one can breath in on each visit to Chile. It is a feeling of permanent institutional harassment by economic pressures and by the news media. The Chilean soul has been converted into an expression of permanent frustration.

Salaries are at pauper levels. A study by the Sol Foundation shows that 70% of Chileans earn less than $700 dollars per month, and 50% earn less than $500 dollars, little more than the minimum wage.^[3] The lives of middle class Chileans are plagued by chronic debt, with millions of people trying to attain a quality of life similar to that projected by the media of those living in higher income neighborhoods.

Chronic debt and generalized depression

Approximately half of the 9 million Chilean workers^[4] are in debt.^[5] A June 2017 study showed that 31% of those in debt have a financial burden greater than 40% of their income, and 22% of debtors have a financial burden greater than 50%. Also, 43% of debtors have monthly income less than 500,000 pesos, equivalent to a little less than $700 according to present exchange rates.^[6] It is simply impossible to make ends meet with peace of mind.

A 2014 international study places Chile in second place in Latin America for credit card debt per capita.^[7] Under these conditions, the possibility of saving or spending on leisure are very difficult.

This situation has repercussions for mental health in the country. Chile has one of the highest rates of depression in the world, afflicting more than 18% of the population. And this is a problem affecting mostly the poor in Chile. Mariane Krause, psychologist and director of the Instituto Milenio de Depresión y Personalidad, points out that high income sectors have an 8% rate of depression, while the poor reach a rate of 25%. This is to say, shockingly, that one of every four persons living in poverty suffers from depression in Chile.^[8]

The reasons for the social debacle of recent days leaves no room for doubt. The extraordinarily high rate of chronic stress may even be under-represented considering the limited access to mental health services in a privatized system.

Transportation: a sensitive topic

The topic of the cost of riding the metro as well as other public transportation is not merely symbolic or just a matter of an increase of a few cents by decree. One needs to study the details. To figure out the real cost, note that a worker spends on a daily basis between $3 and $6 dollars combined on public transportation, depending on the distance between home and work, and the number of trips taken, for work or other daily activities (picking up children from school, errands, emergencies, shopping, etc.). This is between $60 and $120 per month. About 50% of workers earn less than 500,000 pesos, a little less than $700 per month. If a father or mother are the only breadwinners, and there is a son or daughter that needs paid transportation, for example, to attend university or take care of some business or go out to eat some night . . . the picture emerges of constant financial pressure on millions of families.

Let’s compare this to a city like Washington, DC. A young worker with some experience can aspire to a salary of $4,000 per month. The metro in DC is expensive and in one day can cost about $10 for two trips or $200 per month. Yet that cost does not come to even 5% of monthly salary of the worker in Washington.

Chile: the same recipe as Ecuador and Argentina

This system of institutional violence is based on the impunity of the elite. As Professor Javier Ruiz Tagle of the Universidad Católica points out, the extent of sacking of public funds revealed by prosecutions of large Chilean corporations has exceeded $4 billion over the last few years.^[9] This includes tax evasion, price fixing, and illegal monopolies, all of which involve large business groups, including that of Piñera himself.

The social explosion under the government of Piñera is not isolated from the international context. In Ecuador, the government of Lenin Moreno has reversed the social policies of his progressive predecessor, Rafael Correa. Moreno, for example, decreed a tax amnesty for the bank system and other large corporations that have not paid taxes for decades. This loss in State revenue comes to more than $4 billion.^[10] Lenin Moreno transferred this debt of the private finance sector to the Ecuadorian people, along   with the elimination of gas subsidies. This blow to the population was felt immediately only a few days ago, especially among the indigenous peoples. More than 500 were wounded and several killed. This was a crude reminder of the instability suffered by Ecuador for decades and the cost of the structural adjustment package and conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The approval rating of Lenin Moreno has fallen to as little as 20%, one of the worst on the continent.^[11]

A parallel  situation has occurred in Argentina. The fiscal and monetary policies of President Macri have dismantled almost entirely the subsidies and social programs of the former progressive government.^[12] Macri eliminated subsidies for public transportation, water, natural gas, and electric services, provoking a 500% rise in the cost of the latter.^[13] The looting and despair could not wait.^[14] Just this past month,  an enormous demonstration demanded measures that would stave off hunger among the population.^[15] The IMF is also behind these fiscal policies of  austerity in social spending, despite the fact that the banking system brought in $170 billion in profits in 2018, 120% more than the 2017 figure.^[16] What is the result of these social policies? The poverty rate in Argentina exceeds 30%,^[17] childhood poverty is at 50%, and one in six children experiences hunger.^[18]

Chile’s regressive tax system: economic violence

In Chile, the neoliberal economic model, has been perpetuated by all presidents (including the socialists Lagos and Bachelet) since the Pinochet dictatorship without any significant structural changes  The taxation feature of this model places excessive weight on citizens and a minimal burden on companies. More than 40% of the tax collection in Chile comes from VAT (sales tax for products and services).  The burden falls on citizens, not companies. This  regressive and unfair situation disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. People with higher incomes only represent 9% of tax revenue[19]. Companies in Chile also have great advantages when filing taxes that, in some cases, allow them to pay as little as 0%[20] . Companies in the mining sector, one of the most important sources of revenue for the country, have also greatly benefited. According to a study by economist Eduardo Titelman, between 2004 and 2009, the state stopped receiving more than $10 billion due to special dispensations offered to mining companies, privileges that few Chileans have[21] .

Everything leads to inequality. According to a 2019 ECLAC report, the richest 1% of Chile hold 26% of the nation’s wealth[22] . And Chile ranks seventh among the most unequal countries on the planet, as reported by the World Bank in 2018[23] .

More than 40% of the tax collection in Chile comes from VAT (sales tax for products and services).  The burden falls on citizens, not companies. This  regressive and unfair situation disproportionately affects the most vulnerable. People with higher incomes only represent 9% of tax revenue

The economic model then, is based on a regressive tax policy that exacerbates inequality. The system is so rooted in the Chilean socio-political culture, that there are no institutional mechanisms in place to transform this model of economic violence into one that is more equitable and fair. The electoral route, in that sense, has been totally incapable of bringing about a change that benefits the whole country. Street mobilization and violence appears, then, as the only way out, the cry of despair in the face of the chronic stress of daily life. And as we have seen, other governments in the region, also faced with the lack of substantive tools to respond to these crises, are also resorting to extraordinary measures such as, in the case of Piñera, using curfews, military troops, the state of emergency or the anti-terrorism law.

A fury fueled by 30 years and the recipe for change

As in the cases of Argentina and Ecuador, both governed by right-wing presidents, Piñera impacted a basic service of critical importance ​​to the population, by increasing the price of the Metro ticket and the public transportation system of Transantiago. Although the increase was only a few cents, it precipitated the people’s fury against “30 years of state violence”, as the popular slogans on the streets say. Piñera and the powerful financial sector he represents are incapable of providing a solution to the Chilean problem. Chileans gain nothing by appealing to Piñera for a lasting solution; it would be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot.

The recipe is clear: the corporate groups ( Angelini’s, Luksic’s, Piñera’s and a long etcetera), must voluntarily cede part of their factual power and allow a real tax reform that floods the state coffers.

The privatization of the health system must be reversed immediately, and a universal insurance system must be created that covers all the needs of the population. That is, health care is a human right. It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel: it prevails in Canada, Europe, and even in embargoed Cuba.

The pension system must also be universal, although mixed variants should be allowed that provide the option of private pension accounts for those who can collect more as a fair reward for their previous income. But the state must guarantee a fair and substantial fund for every retiree in the country. All proceeds from the investment operations of these public funds must be returned to each citizen.

And the salary structure must be urgently reformed. The objective is to create income and consumption conditions that foster a strong domestic market, unlike the one now based on chronic indebtedness. The structure of consumption in Chile is based on the permanent debt of the middle and working classes, which is not only unsustainable but  keeps the domestic market permanently depressed. The current equation exhausts the population by a constant sense of job insecurity, harming productivity, professional morale, and the quality of life of families. If large business groups want more commerce, more dynamism, more production, it is incomprehensible why they opt for the economic repression of millions of potential consumers. Simply put, there is conformity with the current profit levels, and even greater conformity with the submissive passivity suffered by millions of workers in the country.

Economic freedom, only for the elite

The most important challenge is to produce a new mindset of the Chilean business elite. By supporting and financing the political and economic values ​​of the Pinochet dictatorship, the holders of big Chilean capital opted for repressive and often lethal social control by the State, while pretending to advance the values of individual development and “freedom” championed by free market economists Milton Friedman and his followers. Non-intervention of the State in the economy is a myth. In reality, the State intervenes strongly to guarantee a permanent position of economic privilege  of a specific sector of the population. The way in which this logic has been developed for more than four decades leaves no doubt. There is no interest in developing the productive potential of the Chilean people. There is a huge distrust in the population that is perceived by the ruling elites as a mass that must be controlled and rendered docile.

By supporting and financing the political and economic values ​​of the Pinochet dictatorship, the holders of big Chilean capital opted for repressive and often lethal social control by the State, while pretending to advance the values of individual development and “freedom” championed by free market economists Milton Friedman and his followers.

Chile’s low quality and expensive private health system keeps them sick and indebted with the private hospital system. The educational system frustrates the vast majority of young people and keeps them under-employed and under-educated. They are locked in a stagnant and insufficient salary structure, which prevents the accumulation of capital and savings, and truncates the possibility of sufficiently financing leisure, spiritual and creative activities. The electoral system does not provide an avenue for profound structural changes.  It does not matter if the governments are nominally socialist, social democratic or right-wing; oligarchic rights are maintained at the expense of civil society. The law and constitutional coercive measures are used to crush the expression of social protest, leaving the door open to the raw expression of violence.

The Chilean explosion this weekend is not a new phenomenon. It has always been present, latent, sometimes submerged, but ready to overflow the streets. The international community generally misconstrues Chilean reality, convinced by the mirage created by macroeconomic figures. Thus Santiago suffers, destroyed and rebuilt several times a year, in a cadence of rage that has already become a painful litany. The Chilean people, hardworking and persevering in a land full of natural calamities, political calamities and social calamities, got tired this October of 2019, of turning the other cheek.

Patricio Zamorano is a singer-songwriter, journalist and academic in political science. He is also Co-Director of COHA.

Translation by Fred Mills. Editing assistance by Roger Harris

[VISIT the Photo-Report of COHA prepared by four young Chilean photographers to document the social unrest in Chile]

End notes

^[1] INDH anuncia querellas por cinco personas fallecidas en Estado de Emergencia. https://www.indh.cl/indh-anuncia-querellas-por-cinco-personas-fallecidas-en-estado-de-emergencia/

^[2] Presidente Piñera: Estamos en guerra contra un enemigo poderoso. https://www.telesurtv.net/news/pdte-pinera-estamos-guerra-contra-enemigo-poderoso-20191020-0047.html

^[3] “Los verdades sueldos de Chile”. http://www.fundacionsol.cl/estudios/sueldos-chile-2018/

^[4] Banco Mundial. https://datos.bancomundial.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.IN

^[5] SBIF realiza radiografía del endeudamiento en Chile https://www.sbif.cl/sbifweb/servlet/Noticia?indice=2.1&idContenido=11889

^[6] SBIF realiza radiografía del endeudamiento en Chile https://www.sbif.cl/sbifweb/servlet/Noticia?indice=2.1&idContenido=11889

^[7] Chilenos tienen la segunda mayor deuda en tarjetas de Latinoamérica. http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id=124482

^[8] MARIANE KRAUSE: “Chile requiere un cambio sociocultural para superar la depresión” https://www.conicyt.cl/blog/2019/02/01/mariane-krause-chile-requiere-un-cambio-sociocultural-para-superar-la-depresion/

^[9] La cifra de la indignación: Académico calcula en más de cuatro mil millones de dólares las pérdidas que sufrió el Estado en beneficio de unos pocos. https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/10/20/la-cifra-de-la-indignacion-academico-calcula-en-mas-de-cuatro-mil-millones-de-dolares-las-perdidas-que-sufrio-el-estado-en-beneficio-de-unos-pocos/

^[10] Ecuador: gobierno de Lenin Moreno sacrifica a los sectores empobrecidos para satisfacer al FMI. http://www.coha.org/ecuador-gobierno-de-lenin-moreno-sacrifica-a-los-sectores-empobrecidos-para-satisfacer-al-fmi/

^[11] Consultora Mitofsky. https://radioequinoccio.com/inicio/item/9179-presidente-lenin-moreno-con-pesima-aprobacionsegun-consultora-mexicana.html

^[12] Macri persiste en su política de eliminar subsidios a los servicios. https://www.elciudadano.com/latino-america/argentina/macri-mantiene-su-politica-de-eliminar-subsidios-a-los-servicios/05/31/

^[13] Gobierno de Macri elimina subsidios a electricidad, se esperan alzas de hasta 500% https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/mundo/8/argentina-aumentodeprecios-luz-tarifazo-macri

^[14]Crisis económica en Argentina: Intento de saqueo terminó con un niño de 13 años muerto por herida de bala. https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2018/09/04/crisis-economica-en-argentina-intento-de-saqueo-termino-con-un-nino-de-13-anos-muerto-por-herida-de-bala/

^[15] Argentina y una semana marcada por protestas que exigen la emergencia alimentaria https://www.france24.com/es/20190911-argentina-protestas-emergencia-alimentaria-crisis

^[16] El sector financier sigue siendo el gran ganador de la era Macri. https://www.infobaires24.com.ar/el-sector-financiero-sigue-siendo-el-gran-ganador-de-la-era-macri/

^[17] Argentina se hunde en la pobreza mientras el dólar se dispara. http://www.rfi.fr/es/americas/20190429-argentina-se-hunde-en-la-pobreza-el-fmi-aplaude

^[18] Más de la mitad de los niños argentinos son pobres. https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/06/07/actualidad/1559927136_602178.html

[19] Chile recauda cuatro veces más impuestos por el IVA que por lo que pagan los más ricos. https://www.publimetro.cl/cl/noticias/2017/11/24/chile-recauda-cuatro-veces-mas-impuestos-iva-lo-pagan-los-mas-ricos.html

[20] Cómo y por qué el gobierno permitirá a las empresas no pagar impuesto corporativo. https://ciperchile.cl/2019/07/18/como-y-por-que-el-gobierno-permitira-a-las-empresas-no-pagar-impuesto-corporativo/

[21] Los enormes beneficios tributarios a los que acceden las empresas mineras en Chile. https://ciperchile.cl/2011/07/19/los-enormes-beneficios-tributarios-a-los-que-acceden-las-empresas-mineras-en-chile/

[22] Cepal describe a Chile como un país desigual: Un 1% concentra el 26,5% de la riqueza https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/cepal-describe-a-chile-como-un-pais-desigual-un-1-concentra-el-265-de-la-riqueza_20190116/

[23 ] Aparece Chile: estos son los 10 países más desiguales del mundo. https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2018/07/04/aparece-chile-estos-son-los-10-paises-mas-desiguales-del-mundo.shtml