Clinton has sold this group of LA elites on the plan to institute the neo-liberal expansion of NAFTA throughout the Americas by 2005. There are two keys to success in the view of the US.
1) Suppression of all Left opposition, whether it be guerrilla movements in Peru, Mexico, or Colombia; or whether it be labor unrest in Argentina and other LA countries.
2) A continued emphasis on 'democracy' to disguise the imperial plan.Zedillo began by lecturing others on the necessity of this aspect of the program. This was directed to underline the disapproval from theUS of Fujimori for his openly fraudulent, recent victory of a new termin Peru. The US is not going to do more that verbally slap Fujimori for his current theft, but it is a warning to go no further with overt use of the military against his electoral opponent.
3) It also was a clear indicator, that Zedillo himself will turn over power to the PAN in Mexico's July 2 election. It is necessary to dothis, to provide key cover for the military portion of the game plan. The victory of the PAN will be the start of a stunning campaign to sell the world public on the idea that democracy is spreading throughout all of Latin America underneath the sails of the US economic program. This will be followed by a more aggressive counterinsurgency.
4) The military aspect of this combined offensive against the LA Left was presented by de la Rua, Argentine president. Just days after meeting with Clinton in Washington, DC, he announced the formation of a regional group that would be called....Amigos de Colombia.
The idea is to present the appearance of regional unity behind the US desire to militarily suppress the FARC and ELN of Colombia. These groups are now on the verge of taking power by militarily defeating the Pastrana government. It also is a clear warning sign to Chavez, President of Venezuela, to not advance his program ofnational independence from US dictates any further, or to risk.....a USorchestrated campaign to remove him from power.
5) Behind this hemispheric program that the US has for Latin America, is a desire to thoroughly neutralize any independence in the control or usage of the petroleum resources that exist in the area. But the best way forward for imperialism, is to put on a happy face of common economic prosperity and future democracy, and then to advance this at the head of it's program to militarily suppress all resistance. A key first step ahead, will be to install the PAN leader, Fox, into power in Mexico.
Zedillo and Labastida appear to be fully cooperating with this program. Fox has already been beneficiary of 3 years of public image campaign building so that he can be represented as 'The New Leader'; one that will break away from 71 years of PRI dictatorship and corruption.
It has been announced that there will be 476 foreign observers of the July 2 election. Most are from the US, with 120 being from the State Department, or the Democratic and Republican Parties. Of note, s that the US Left organization, Global Exchange, will also field 97 observers.
Unfortunately, their entire attention is on the possiblity of fraud going to the PRI, not the PAN. In this sense, they are together with the fears of the Mexican Leftist, Cardenas, who appears locked into the mindset of 1988, when he was the only opposition candidate of note, and had the election stolen from him by PRI fraud.
But this is the year 2000, and the danger lies elsewhere. The danger lies in a new 'authenticity' being given to the Mexican government, by allowing a Right opposition candidate to be declared winner.
The Mexican Left seems ready to resist fraud, but unaware of the form that it is arriving in. The Mexican Left newspaper, La Jornada, continues to announce, gigantic rally after gigantic rally of Cardenista supporters in all parts of Mexico. But pays no attention to the reality that the rest of the press (Mexican, US, and World) has announced already that Cardenas doesn't exist as a possiblity.
That the actual vote will not be determinant, because there is no mechanism to support a determination of victory for Cardenas, nor a manner of publicizing it, nor a manner of implementing a Cardenas victory, appears to not have registered amongst the Mexican Left. Thisis a purely Mexican affair to Mexicans, and the international contexthas not yet surfaced into consciousness.
And at hand for the PRI, the easiest manner to demobilize the Left, is just to hand the presidency of Mexico to a 'victor' more neo-liberal han the PRI itself. This is the new program of the party;support neo-liberalism while pretending to oppose it. This is a program for the PRI supported by the US government.
The PRI will be able to maintain control over the majority of the government outside of the presidency, where it will then begin to transform itself into an 'opposition' to privatization and austerity putforward by Fox as 'new politics'. This is a lucrative future for the PRI hacks. And they will quickly leap at the opportunity.
The PRI will then have surrendered the pinnacle of responsibility, for supporting the programs of US imperialism inside of Mexico. But just what will the US itself gain, by the forwarding of this new 'Democratic Mexico'? ,p> Clinton hopes to buy space to pacify Colombia (and any countries) that might want to resist US dictates. The last offers to allow a peaceful surrender by the Colombian Left were made just recently, when the head of the New York Stock Exchange flew into the Colombian jungle to discuss with the FARC leadership some method that they individually could be integrated into selling out their movement.
6) These offers were rejected. It is clear that Clinton understands well the validity of the 'dominotheory'. If Colombia begins to fall, so do other dominoes.Rejection of surrendering the PRI presidency (by Zedillo/ Labastida) would be considered an extremely grave infraction by the Clinton Adminstration. It would invite serious repercussions from the US.
These punishments would be a serious of programs, that would begin to reverse the accrual of wealth allowed to key figures of the Mexican elite. The PRI is not in a position to go it alone. They will 'surrender' power. And they have nothing particular to lose, and much to gain, by doing so.
The International Left needs to seriously reevaluate the political situation in the Western Hemisphere. The lack of discussion about the importance of these elections is a stunning example of how weak theoretically the US Left is.
I will say that it is not a matter of others disagreeing with positions I have just set forth, but rather that there is no position set forth by the US Left at all. No discussion; no mention of the event; not even the slightest wave of awareness that something significant is possibly underway.
This lack of consciousness exists, despite the whole previous debate over NAFTA. It exists despite the whole debate over immigration. It exists despite the size and importance of the Latino population within the US itself.
Something is seriously defective in what we choose amongst the Left to concentrate on. I don't pretend to offer all solutions in how to reverse this refusal to engage in the real political process that integrates US and LA cultures. But the first step is to at least eport on, and follow the real events that occur in our neighboring country of 110,000,000+ people.
Tony Abdo