The Geopolitics of Plan Colombia

Monthly Review, May, 2001 by James Petras

To date, the upsurge of the multi-faceted opposition in the radical triangle has checkmated or reversed U.S. policies at the edge of imperial concerns. Washington's historical policy of isolating the Cuban Revolution from Latin America and the Caribbean has been effectively shattered. Chaves' visit and the oil agreement consolidates Cuba's energy sources. The Ibero-American Conference in Panama in November, 2000, calling for an end of the Helms Burton Act, totally isolated U.S. diplomats. Washington's carefully calibrated steps to weaken the Chaves' regime have been repulsed. OPEC elected a Venezuelan, Ali Rodriguez, to head the organization. The Caribbean countries eagerly sought out and signed beneficial oil agreements with Venezuela. The conflict in the Mid-East has strengthened Chaves' hand in dealing with the U.S.: witness his public attack on Plan Colombia and the favorable diplomatic responses from Brazil, Mexico, and other key countries.

The strategy of Washington follows a "domino approach": Plan Colombia means first, to defeat the guerrillas, then surround and pressure Venezuela and Ecuador before moving toward escalating internal destabilization. The strategic goal is to reconsolidate power in northern South America, secure unrestricted access to oil, and enforce the "no alternatives to globalization" ideology for the rest of Latin America.

Maintaining the Mystique

Plan Colombia is about maintaining the mystique of the invincibility of empire and the irreversibility of neo-liberal policies. The power elite in Washington knows that the beliefs held by oppressed peoples and their leaders are as effective in retaining U.S. power as the actual exercise of force. As long as Latin American regimes and their opposition continue to believe that there is no alternative to U.S. hegemony they will conform to the major demands emanating from Washington and its representatives in the international financial institutions. The belief that U.S. power is untouchable and that its dictates are beyond the reach of the nation-state (which the rhetoric of globalization reinforces) has been a prime factor in reinforcing U.S. material rule (i.e. economic exploitation, military base construction, etc.). Once U.S. dominance is tested and successfully resisted by popular struggle in one region, the mystique is eroded as people and even regimes elsewhere begin to question the U.S. defined parameters of political action. A new impetus is thus given to opposition forces in challenging the neo-liberal rules and regulations facilitating the pillage of their economies. Where such destabilization occurs, capital, threatened with a revival of nationalist and socialist reforms and redistributive structural adjustments, will flow out. The reversion to more restricted markets and the constraints of risk and declining profit margins within the U.S. empire will threaten the position of the dollar. A flight from the dollar will in turn make it difficult for the U.S. economy to finance its huge cur rent account imbalances.