Back to Justicia Global
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Hoy, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Expert sees US interests behind FTAA
by Odalis Mejia
The German sociologist Heinz Dieterich said that the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement does not guarantee equal circulation of the market; it is not a true commercial exchange, but rather part of the offensive by the United States to dominate the American conintent.
Dieterich, participating in the First International Student Summit hosted by the Movimiento Sin Aula (MSA), said that these [free trade] agreements are designed to reduce the capacity of Latin American states to intervene in their nation’s economic life and in the public sphere.
“Free trade agreements are a lie because they don’t guarantee the circulation of the market. They are not exchanges in which two subjects freely exchange one good or service for another. Rather, they are larger plans to – among other things – reduce public power and reduce the possibility for Latin American intervention in issues of economics,” Dieterich said.
He argued that the FTAA is one part of the United States’ imperialist re-annexation project – it is a broad offensive of economic domination in Latin America, and a consummation of the doctrine, “ America for [North] Americans.”
Dieterich, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), expressed that if these measures are passed, “the possibility of Latin American people controlling their own history will be extinguished. For more than 500 years, they have been objects, manipulated from the outside, incapable of creating their own destiny.”
The sociologist argued that this offensive of domination is implemented in four ways: political, military, economic, and cultural.
“The FTAA is an offensive in the field of commercial economics. In the political sphere, domination is meted out by the Office of American States (OAS), which is a colonial minister of the United States. This offensive is also a military re-annexation because the empire dominates people’s minds to such a degree that when this doesn’t work, they’ll use military force. In this way, imperial domination functions through various forms of power: economic, political, cultural, and military,” Dieterich emphasized.
Dieterich warned that today we are in the midst of a process of military penetration that is reaching levels of militarization in Latin America of the 1980s – an era during which if Washington needed to destroy something, it destroyed it. He compared the current process militarization to a cancer in the body.
“In politics, the instrument of domination is the ‘interamerican democratic letter,’ something that was originally meant for fighting the drug war but is now being applied to any Latin American project that does not have Washington’s best interests in mind. This is an anti-democratic initiative whose goal is the isolation of Latin American states.”
He said that this project is not exactly new; it does not come directly from the current Bush administration, but was rather a strategy of ex-President Bill Clinton, who understood very well the idea of empire.
Dieterich added that the process began in earnest in 1994 when NAFTA was passed, and now is being extended into Central America with the FTAA. The last obstacle left is to conquer South America, where the US has encountered resistance in Brazil and Argentina.
“This project began with the US looking to obtain oil, other energy sources, fresh water, biodiversity. To reach their goals, the North American political class needed a scientific plan that requires the annexation of Latin America,” Dieterich said.
He said that Clinton understood all of this and made the first steps toward its implementation. In 1994 he launched strategic plans and began to create institutions that didn’t exist before, such as: The Conference of the Ministers of the Defense of America, Latin American presidential summits, and regional commerce offices, among other things.
He said that upon the implementation of the FTAA, services that are now regulated by the state would risk privatization. These services could include: education, health care, land reform in favor of large agro-industrial corporations, and transgenic seeds in agriculture.
About the Conference
The international conference, “Global Justice,” which got underway yesterday [Monday, April 11], will go until Thursday at the Technical Institute of Santo Domingo (INTEC) and in the Autonomous University (UASD). In this encounter, students from Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States will participate.
The idea for conference was born out of the international movement against the US invasion of Iraq and the necessity of generating an international resistance force against all forms of injustice, inequality, and oppression, such as the FTAA, according to Raquel Ovalle, publicist for the event.
“Among our objectives in ‘Global Justice’ are to analyze the realities of social injustice and economic inequalities that we see in Latin America. We have to coordinate strategies from and for young people at an international level, in order to move toward our long-term goal, which is the construction of a society based on justice and equality,” Ovalle said.
Jose Contreras, vice rector of INTEC, noted the importance of creating an event such as this as a space for reflection and discussion of global problems. He praised the participation of youth in the struggle for democracy, peace, and peaceful interactions.
Contreras said that our society has to wake up, that many of these issues are not given adequate treatment. Given the interdependence among countries, global issues need to be addressed.
Thairy Tiburcio, national coordinator of the MSA, emphasized that [through this conference,] the MSA is trying to influence various audiences with the goal of increasing trust and commitment. "If we mean to change our society, we have to understand it first.”
“Global Justice” began Monday morning with a performance by the band Batey 0, who sang about their cultural roots, slavery, rebellion, and freedom.
