Ruminations of an Expatriate

Archive for the ‘Bank of the South’ Category

Oops, There Goes Columbia

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

The International Herald Tribune reports on a Columbia/Venezuela gas pipeline agreement and Columbia’s President Uribe’s desire to join the Bank of the South, which “Chavez has pushed ….. as a counterweight to U.S. influence, especially the U.S.-dominated World Bank, and as a path to economic independence for the region.”

Columbia, remember, receives more USA military aid than any other Latin American nation, ostensibly as part of the drug war, though USA aid is also used in suppressing the long running insurgencies there. Mercenaries hired by Columbian oligarchs, and tied to close Uribe allies, have killed thousands of Columbian peasants, supposedly supportive of the various insurgent groups.

Perhaps Uribe has noticed that Argentina, Venezuela, and increasing numbers of other Latin American nations are doing much better economically since rejecting the “neo-liberal” approach encouraged by the USA and other Western nations.

Yet another indication of the waning of the USA empire.

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