Pence: Another Tour for the Monroe Doctrine

By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on June 28, 2018

The third Latin American tour of Mike Pence, vice president of the United States, is mainly aimed at ending the constitutional government of Venezuela. It is not a secret. The official spokesman has reiterated that one of the purposes of the trip is to strengthen the isolation of Caracas and we already know what that means. As a reminder, President Nicolás Maduro has been elected by a higher percentage of votes than most of the leaders of the Lima Group, a despicable anti-Venezuelan imperialist coalition. Another objective of the trip is the attempt to calm the spirits in the region witnessing the cruel separation of migrant children from their parents and in general, the policy of zero tolerance, that has been internationally repudiated. That explains his meetings with the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, countries most affected by this measure.

But aside from that issue, Trump’s envoy is travelling for more than monitoring and strengthening the conspiracy against the homeland of Bolívar. It is no coincidence that his first visit was to the pro coup government of Brazil. This is where Washington’s keenest interest is in keeping Lula, a leading candidate, in jail to prevent at all costs him winning the presidency in next year’s elections. Imagine the setback that a new government of Lula in Brazil would mean for the empire next year, together with the imminent election of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico, two geo-economic and geo-political giants, that with popular governments, can greatly tilt the balance of power in Latin America and the Caribbean back towards the interests of the people.

That outcome would be a real nightmare for Washington after the enormous effort it has made to sweep away different forms of the progressive and revolutionary governments of the region. Whether through coups d’etat against presidents Manuel Zelaya (Honduras), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay) and Dilma Rousseff (Brazil). And the frustrated attempts to overthrow Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, where, in view of their failures, the Southern Command and the CIA experience are digging as a prelude to a military invasion there h which President Donald Trump has threatened. Also, the frustrated blows and the permanent subversion against the presidents Evo Morales and Rafael Correa (the latter until fulfilling his mandate). Let’s not  forget the fierce media campaign and subversive attempts against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, which greatly hampered her ability to conduct her government. The package, of course, includes strengthening the blockade and subversion against Cuba.

Let’s link all this to the decomposition of neoliberal regimes, as seen in the gigantic unpopularity of Temer and Macri, or the historic advance of the left in Colombia with Gustavo Petro. This, added to the increasing resistance in those countries and, in general, our America, against the dispossession, the criminalization of social protest and the environmental degradation caused by neoliberalism. It is easy to understand why Pence is on his third conspiracy tour, in addition to what other officials have done, such as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who reiterated the Trump administration’s devotion to the expansionist Monroe Doctrine.

The amped up coup-and-interventionist activity against Venezuela by the Cuban-American legislators must also be underlined, especially Marco Rubio, Trump’s number one anti-Latin American squire. Equally, the tactics of war of a new generation that has been financed and prepared in Nicaragua for years, has included other legislators of the same mafia. The law known as the Nica Act, to deprive Sandino’s homeland of loans, is mainly the work of Miami-born legislator Ileana Ross-Lehtinen.In short, Vice President Pence’s trip confirms Washington’s tenacious will to liquidate current and future popular governments in our region. Much more so when Yankee hegemony breaks down in the face of the emergence of China and Russia and their successful efforts to create a large area of Asian cooperation and a union of countries opposed to hegemonies and war.In our America the struggle for democracy, independence and social justice continues, although we suffer setbacks, and the events we are seeing indicate that the victory will be for our people. Wrap your head around that, Mr. Pence.

http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2018/06/28/mundo/026a1mun?partner=rss

Source: La Jornada, translated by Resumen Latinoamericano, North America Bureau