Originally published at Anticonquista on November 29, 2020
On November 25, 2020, the fighting peoples of the world lost a humble legend: Diego Armando Maradona. He was 60 years old at the time of his passing.
Arguably the greatest soccer player to ever grace the pitches, the spirited striker combined unparalleled skills in his sport and an unflinching outspokenness against oppression. No other sports figure’s public statements and transformation has equally captured the changing momentum across Latin America.
Maradona was for Latin Americans what Mohamed Ali was for Black people in the United States.
The Falklands War
Raised in the oppressed community of Villa Fiorito in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, “the golden kid’s” talent from an early age fetched him million dollar contracts first in his homeland and then in Spain and Italy. No stranger to controversy, “the soccer god,” with his rebellious natural hair, was irreverent before elites and defiant to the core. When a Spanish player hurled racist epithets at him because of his Indigenous ancestry, Maradona head butted him, leading to a brawl that was broadcast before King Juan Carlos, hundreds of thousands of fans in the stadium and half of Spain watching on television.
The 22-year-old player was radicalized by England’s 1982 Falklands War, which was an assault on his homeland, known in Latin America as La Guerra de las Malvinas. Causing untold agony and trauma, hundreds of soldiers died on both sides and hundreds of veterans committed suicide for years after. Former President Ronald Reagan claimed that the United States was a “mediator,” but stayed faithful to their colonial partner led by the much-reviled Margaret Thatcher.
This was the backdrop of the 1986 semi-final showdown between the two countries without diplomatic relations at the World Cup in Mexico City. Argentina was Latin America and Latin America was Argentina.
Maradona famously scored a crafty goal where slow motion highlights showed he illegally used his hand to redirect the ball into the English net. After the game when the English team accused him of cheating with his hand, he responded: “sería la mano de dios” (“it must have been the hand of god”). Sports analysts applauded the “picardia” or Argentine cunningness behind the maneuver. The second goal was a full sprint through a minefield of English defenders that went down in history as “the goal of the century.”
These heroic acts sealed Maradona’s destiny as an idol of the masses combatting neo-colonialism. To beat England in Latin America was to exact revenge on the invading enemy. The soccer field was an extension of the battle field. The arrogant English were expelled. This was the symbolic recuperation of Argentine and Latin American dignity.
“Patria es humanidad” (Our Homeland is Humanity)
Cuban revolutionary José Martí once wrote that “our homeland is humanity.” The relationship Maradona established with Cuba was the full expression of the Cuban poet’s words.
In 2000, an overweight and beleaguered Maradona traveled to Cuba to treat his drug addiction. Fidel Castro visited him in his worst moments and helped take care of him. The Cuban president took off his military coat and gave it to the patient. He said he adored Fidel because he was “genuine and cared about human problems that others brushed aside.” The down-and-out, “wretched of the earth” soccer player was not rejected in Havana. Instead, he was accepted, treated like a dignified human being and loved. This moment of healing was another of Maradona’s entry points to the tide of resistance that was flowing across the Americas.
The same year, Japan denied Maradona a visa because of strict laws barring anybody from the country who had a history with drugs. Always a “tribune of the people,” in the Leninist sense of the word, Maradona exclaimed he would never return to Japan. He fired back: “They will not let me into Japan because I did drugs. But they will allow gringos in who dropped two atomic bombs on them.”
The Frontlines in the Battle of Ideas
The Argentine took great pride in the rising of Latin America’s second independence, which began on December 6, 1998, with Hugo Chávez’s electoral victory in Venezuela.
In 2005, the Frente Amplio’s Tabaré Vázquez received former U.S. President George Bush in Uruguay in a move that was considered a betrayal by his party and the region. Bush was promoting the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, known as the FTAA. “Free trade” to Maradona and millions of Latin Americans is the freedom of U.S. capital to expand its tentacles across more of the continent.
The Bolivarian Revolution was advancing across Latin America and had recently paid off Argentina’s foreign debt. Chávez traveled to Argentina in a showdown with the warmongering U.S. leader. La Plata River divides the two countries and the two sides of history. Rising to the historical occasion, with Maradona by his side donning a “Stop Bush” t-shirt, the Venezuelan leader famously chanted: “El que no brinca es yankee” (Whoever doesn’t jump is a yankee). Maradona gave credence to Evo Morales’ catch phrase: “the empire stands with the right wing, football stands with the left.”
This was the battle of ideas Fidel spoke of.
“To be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a good thing”
It is difficult to appreciate Maradona’s greatness here in the U.S., where sports loyalties are divided between baseball, U.S. football and basketball. In Latin America and Europe, soccer is king. In Napoli, restaurants have alcoves reserved for hanging religious idols. There beside them is Maradona. The mayor has announced the famed Saint Paul stadium should be renamed after one of the city’s most beloved.
The mainstream press is also remembering the football titan, but consciously shying away from his political commitments. Other outlets are accusing Maradona of being “anti-American.” Like the political leadership he so admired, Maradona never expressed ire towards the people of the United States, but rather towards its political leadership, who thought they were “the county sheriff.” Through the years of the Pink Tide, Maradona was a regular on television programs and at rallies with Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Daniel Ortega, José “Pepe” Mujica and other anti-imperialist figures of the continent.
His tattoos of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and Fidel brought a new meaning to the phrase “he wore his feelings on his sleeve.” His program “De Zurda” on TeleSUR in 2014 with Victor Hugo Morales, the famed Uruguayan sportscaster, combined humor, sports analysis and leftest political commentary. Last year, following a coaching win in April, he stated: “I want to dedicate this victory to Nicolás Maduro and all Venezuelans, who are suffering. These Yankees, the sheriffs of the world, think just because they have the world’s biggest bomb they can push us around. But no, not us.”
Those who had the honor to meet Maradona remember him as a people’s person who was always accessible. Though he had his own personal struggles, he never wavered in his commitments to elevating the voices of the poor and defending the underdog. In plain proletarian English, Maradona never forgot about the hood. On November 25, 2020, the fourth anniversary of Fidel’s passing, one of his students and admirers joined him in eternity, having left so much for us all to savor and learn from.
Originally published at Anticonquista on February 4, 2021
In a matter of days, on February 7, Ecuador goes to the polls to elect their next president and 137 representatives for the National Assembly. There are three major candidates seeking to win the race in this Andean country of 17 million. Andrés Arauz and his vice presidential candidate, Carlos Rabascall, represent La Unión por la Esperanza (The Union of Hope, UNES), what was Alianza País led by former president Rafael Correa before the party split in 2017. Guayaquil banker Guillermo Lasso and Alfredo Borrero are the candidates for the conservative alliance Creando Oportunidades (Creating Opportunities, CREO).
The election represents a showdown between ten years of the Revolución Ciudadana (Citizens’ Revolution, 2007-2017) and the past four disastrous years of unfettered neoliberalism. As of now, polls show Arauz, Correa’s candidate, is clearly in the lead, polling at 37 percent and Lasso at 24 percent.
The Advances of La Revolución Ciudadana
Correa’s presidential victory in 2006 was a key part of the Pink Tide and South American effort to realize Simón Bolívar’s dream of regional economic and political integration and independence from foreign domination. As Minister of Economy and Finance in 2005, Correa distinguished himself by opposing International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans, advocating for social planning and proposing a National Assembly to tap into the power of Ecuador’s diverse working sectors.
During Correa’s two terms, Ecuador saw increases in the minimum wage and social security benefits, a progressive tax on the rich, and higher investments in education and social programs, all while attaining economic growth. For this reason, traditional interests and their U.S. backers opposed Alianza País and sought to sew internal divisions and solidify alliances with sections of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE.
The Story of a Vendepatria
The leadership and rank-and-file of Alianza País understood that Lenín Moreno, who had served as Rafael Correa’s vice-president for six years, was best positioned to carry Correísmo forward. Within months of winning the presidency in 2017, however, Moreno reneged on his campaign promises. In one of the great about-faces in the history of South America, Moreno betrayed the movement and embraced a neoliberal model for Ecuador. Under Moreno, Ecuador also withdrew from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) in 2018 and pulled out of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2019, weakening two of the most important instruments of continental unity.
Throughout the ups and downs and contradictions of the Ecuadorian class struggle, the leadership of the Citizens’ Revolution has maintained a self-critical posture. After the election of Moreno, Alianza País split into pro-Moreno and pro-Correa tendencies. Sections of CONAIE have sustained legitimate critiques of Correísmo, including concerns over the environmental impact of resource exploitation and infrastructure projects. These are problems the Correista leadership continues to address and it shows the importance of the revolutionary formation of a new generation of Ecuadorians.
“Construir Poder Transformador: Debate Latinoamericano,” a book by Ricardo Patiño, Arauz and other Citizens’ Revolution leaders, lays out the pitfalls of over reliance on Correa’s charisma and indicates some of the challenges that lay ahead (Patiño is the Former Minister of Foreign Affairs under Correa’s presidency). The grassroots leadership of UNES asserts the importance of building an entire movement that can independently defend its interests: “The fundamental problem has been an absence of a solid and profound counter-hegemonic ideology that guides the decisions, practices and relations of the popular sectors as well as political leaders.”
Carlos “Yacu” Pérez is the candidate of the Indigenous Pachakutik Party. Many from the Correa camp have questioned Pérez’s genuine commitment to defend Indigenous communities and remember that some factions of the Pachakutik Party have, in the past, opportunistically aligned with the right against Correísmo. A blatant example of identity politics on steroids, Pérez has also insulted Venezuela and supported the coup in Bolivia.
Will the Tide Turn Again?
In an example of flipping reality on its head in 2017, the incoming Moreno government immediately accused the Citizens’ Revolution of wanton corruption. Similar to the oligarchies’ attacks demonizing the Pink Tide in Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and across the continent, this was a classic case of lawfare. The neoliberals, fearful of the enormous popularity of Correísmo, waged a war through judicial means. Jorge Glas, former vice-president under Correa, is still in jail on trumped-up charges and recently contracted the COVID-19. Patiño and the President of the National Assembly Gabriela Rivadeneira are still in exile in Mexico. Correa himself is banned from his homeland and faces years in jail on highly dubious charges of corruption. An Arauz victory would open the country back up to those who put human life in community before private accumulation and carry forth an agenda that targets the real culprits of corruption.
U.S. banks are fearful of Correísmo. IMF loans to the region and exploited countries have long been a neocolonial tactic for extracting wealth from developing countries. As the old proverb goes: “those who lend, command.” Under the guise of humanitarian help with the raging pandemic, the IMF issued loans to an all too willing Moreno administration to the tune of $6.5 billion just before the close of 2020. As always, the IMF stipulated austerity, the deregulation of the Central Bank and sale of gasoline and diesel without subsidies and at world market prices. Lasso has indicated that if elected president, he would not disavow the IMF agreement. Arauz promises to defy the IMF.
One of Trump’s 11th hour actions before leaving office was to oversee a U.S. Development Corporation loan to Ecuador for 3.5 billion dollars that requires the government to privatize a major oil refinery and parts of the country’s electrical grid, and to exclude China from its telecommunications development. Washington is alarmed at the growing Chinese influence across South America and the Global South and sees Ecuador as an important beachhead to prosecute this “New Cold War” through the Growth in the Americas (CRECE) program.
What’s at Stake
In October 2019, a massive protest movement rocked the country. The world watched with bated breath as a grassroots movement opposed to austerity measures occupied Quito and nearly toppled the Moreno government. The government attempted to crush the protests, leaving at least ten dead, more than 1,000 people arrested and more than 1,300 injured. When repression failed to quell the protests, Moreno rescinded on an International Monetary Fund-backed program, known as Decree 883, that raised fuel prices, proving again the power of a united, mobilized people.
The year 2020 ushered in a new tragedy for Ecuador. The Moreno government failed to respond adequately to the COVID-19 pandemic in any serious, unified way. Abandoned bodies lined the streets of Guayaquil last April putting on tragic display before the entire world, the misleadership of Ecuador’s largest city, long governed by neoliberal politicians. These dehumanizing images encapsulated what three years of Moreno’s economic and political agenda has meant for everyday people. On January 29, police in Quito shut down a clinic for giving out 70,000 fake vaccines. TV presenter Efraín Ruales, who had reported on corruption in the current administration, was gunned down and murdered on January 27. As of now, there are 249,779 coronavirus cases in Ecuador and 14,851 deaths.
This is the backdrop for this week’s election, not just for the 17 million people of Ecuador and millions of others in the diaspora, but for the future of the Pink Tide in Latin America. Will Ecuador continue down the road of subordination to imperialism, or will it resume the Citizens’ Revolution and rejoin the movement towards continental integration and independence? This decisive election will determine Ecuador’s direction for the next four years and beyond.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en Anticonquista el 29 de noviembrede 2020.
El 25 de noviembre de 2020, los pueblos combatientes del mundo perdieron una humilde leyenda: Diego Armando Maradona. Tenía 60 años en el momento de su fallecimiento.
Posiblemente el mejor jugador de fútbol que haya adornado los campos, el enérgico delantero combinó habilidades incomparables en su deporte y una franqueza inquebrantable contra la opresión. Las declaraciones públicas y la transformación de ninguna otra figura del deporte han capturado igualmente el impulso cambiante en América Latina.
Maradona fue para los latinoamericanos lo que Mohamed Ali fue para la comunidad negra en los Estados Unidos.
La guerra de las Malvinas
Criado en la oprimida comunidad de Villa Fiorito, en las afueras de Buenos Aires, el talento del pibe de oro desde muy joven le valió contratos millonarios primero en su tierra natal y luego en España e Italia. No ajeno a la controversia, “el dios del fútbol”, con su rebelde cabello natural, fue irreverente ante las élites y desafiante hasta la médula. Cuando un jugador español le lanzó epítetos racistas por su ascendencia indígena, Maradona le dio un cabezazo, lo que provocó una pelea que se transmitió ante el rey Juan Carlos, cientos de miles de aficionados en el estadio y media España viendo por televisión.
El jugador de 22 años fue radicalizado por la Guerra de las Malvinas de 1982 en Inglaterra, que fue un asalto a su tierra natal. Causando una agonía y un trauma incalculable, cientos de soldados murieron en ambos lados y cientos de veteranos se suicidaron durante años. El ex presidente Ronald Reagan afirmó que los Estados Unidos era un “mediador”, pero se mantuvo fiel a su socio colonial liderado por la muy denostada Margaret Thatcher.
Este fue el telón de fondo del enfrentamiento de semifinales de 1986 entre los dos países sin relaciones diplomáticas en la Copa del Mundo en la Ciudad de México. Argentina era América Latina y América Latina era Argentina.
Maradona anotó un gol astuto donde los reflejos en cámara lenta mostraron que usó ilegalmente su mano para redirigir el balón a la red inglesa. Tras el partido en el que la selección inglesa le acusó de hacer trampa con la mano, respondió: “sería la mano de dios”. Los analistas deportivos aplaudieron la “picardía” o astucia argentina detrás de la maniobra. El segundo gol fue un sprint completo a través de un campo minado de defensores ingleses que pasó a la historia como “el gol del siglo”.
Estos actos heroicos sellaron el destino de Maradona como ídolo de las masas en la lucha contra el neocolonialismo. Vencer a Inglaterra en América Latina era vengarse del enemigo invasor. El campo de fútbol era una extensión del campo de batalla. Los arrogantes ingleses fueron expulsados. Esta fue la recuperación simbólica de la dignidad argentina y latinoamericana.
“Patria es humanidad”
El revolucionario cubano José Martí escribió una vez que “nuestra patria es la humanidad”. La relación que Maradona estableció con Cuba fue la plena expresión de las palabras del poeta cubano.
En 2000, un Maradona con sobrepeso y asediado viajó a Cuba para tratar su adicción a las drogas. Fidel Castro lo visitó en sus peores momentos y ayudó a cuidarlo. El presidente cubano se quitó el abrigo militar y se lo dio al paciente. Dijo que adoraba a Fidel porque era “genuino y se preocupaba por los problemas humanos que otros ignoraban”. El futbolista decadente, “miserable de la tierra” no fue rechazado en La Habana. En cambio, fue aceptado, tratado como un ser humano digno y amado. Este momento de curación fue otro de los puntos de entrada de Maradona a la marea de resistencia que fluía por las Américas.
El mismo año, Japón le negó una visa a Maradona debido a leyes estrictas que prohíben a cualquier persona del país que tiene antecedentes de drogas. Siempre un “tribuno del pueblo”, en el sentido leninista de la palabra, Maradona exclamó que nunca volvería a Japón. Él respondió: “No me dejarán entrar a Japón porque consumí drogas. Pero permitirán que entren gringos que les han arrojado dos bombas atómicas”.
El frente en la batalla de las ideas
El argentino se enorgullecía del surgimiento de la segunda independencia de América Latina, que comenzó el 6 de diciembre de 1998 con la victoria electoral de Hugo Chávez en Venezuela.
En 2005, Tabaré Vázquez del Frente Amplio recibió a George Bush en Uruguay en una medida que fue considerada una traición por su partido y la región. Bush estaba promoviendo el Tratado de Libre Comercio de las Américas, conocido como ALCA. El “libre comercio” para Maradona y millones de latinoamericanos es la libertad del capital estadounidense para expandir sus tentáculos por más del continente.
La Revolución Bolivariana avanzaba en América Latina y recientemente había saldado la deuda externa de Argentina. Chávez viajó a Argentina en un enfrentamiento con el belicista líder estadounidense. El Río de la Plata divide los dos países y los dos lados de la historia. A la altura de la ocasión histórica, con Maradona a su lado vistiendo una remera de “Stop Bush”, el líder venezolano cantó: “El que no brinca es yankee”. Maradona dio crédito al eslogan de Evo Morales: “el imperio está con la derecha, el fútbol con la izquierda”.
Esta fue la batalla de ideas de la que habló Fidel.
“Ser atacado por el enemigo no es malo sino bueno”
Es difícil apreciar la grandeza de Maradona aquí en los Estados Unidos, donde las lealtades deportivas se dividen entre el béisbol, el fútbol americano y el baloncesto. En América Latina y Europa, el fútbol es el rey. En Nápoles, los restaurantes tienen nichos reservados para colgar ídolos religiosos. Allí junto a ellos está Maradona. El alcalde ha anunciado que el famoso estadio Saint Paul debería cambiarse de nombre a uno de los más queridos de la ciudad.
La prensa dominante también recuerda al titán del fútbol, pero rehúye conscientemente sus compromisos políticos. Otros medios acusan a Maradona de ser “antiestadounidense”. Al igual que el liderazgo político que tanto admiraba, Maradona nunca expresó su ira hacia el pueblo de los Estados Unidos, sino hacia su liderazgo político, que pensaba que eran “el oficial de policía del condado”. Durante los años de la ola progresista en Nuestra América, Maradona fue un habitual en programas de televisión y en mítines con Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, Daniel Ortega, José “Pepe” Mujica y otras figuras antiimperialistas del continente.
Sus tatuajes de Ernesto “Che” Guevara y Fidel le dieron un nuevo significado a la frase “llevaba sus sentimientos en la manga”. Su programa “De Zurda” en TeleSUR en 2014 con Víctor Hugo Morales, el afamado comentarista deportivo uruguayo, combinó humor, análisis deportivo y comentario político más izquierdista. El año pasado, luego de una victoria de entrenador en abril, dijo: “Quiero dedicar esta victoria a Nicolás Maduro y a todos los venezolanos que están sufriendo. Estos yanquis, los alguaciles del mundo, piensan que solo porque tienen la bomba más grande del mundo pueden empujarnos. Pero no, nosotros no”.
Quienes tuvieron el honor de conocer a Maradona lo recuerdan como una persona de pueblo siempre accesible. Aunque tuvo sus propias luchas personales, nunca vaciló en su compromiso de elevar las voces de los pobres y defender a los desamparados. Maradona nunca se olvidó del pueblo. El 25 de noviembre de 2020, en el cuarto aniversario del fallecimiento de Fidel, uno de sus alumnos y admiradores se unió a él en la eternidad, habiendo dejado tanto para que todos podamos saborear y aprender.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en Anticonquista el 4 de febrero de 2021.
En cuestión de días, el 7 de febrero, Ecuador acude a las urnas para elegir a su próximo presidente y 137 representantes para la Asamblea Nacional. Hay tres grandes candidatos que buscan ganar la carrera en este país andino de 17 millones. Andrés Arauz y su candidato a la vicepresidencia, Carlos Rabascall, representan a La Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), lo que era Alianza País liderada por el expresidente Rafael Correa antes de la escisión del partido en 2017. El banquero de Guayaquil Guillermo Lasso y Alfredo Borrero son los candidatos a la alianza conservadora Creando Oportunidades (CREO).
La elección representa un enfrentamiento entre diez años de la Revolución Ciudadana (2007-2017) y los últimos cuatro años desastrosos de neoliberalismo desenfrenado. A partir de ahora, las encuestas muestran que Arauz, el candidato de Correa, está claramente a la cabeza, con un 37 por ciento y Lasso con un 24 por ciento.
Los avances de La Revolución Ciudadana
La victoria presidencial de Correa en 2006 fue una parte clave de la Marea Rosa y el esfuerzo sudamericano para hacer realidad el sueño de Simón Bolívar de integración económica y política regional e independencia de la dominación extranjera. Como Ministro de Economía y Finanzas en 2005, Correa se distinguió por oponerse a los préstamos del Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI), abogar por la planificación social y proponer una Asamblea Nacional para aprovechar el poder de los diversos sectores laborales de Ecuador.
Durante los dos mandatos de Correa, Ecuador vio aumentos en el salario mínimo y los beneficios de la seguridad social, un impuesto progresivo a los ricos y mayores inversiones en educación y programas sociales, todo mientras se lograba el crecimiento económico. Por esta razón, los intereses tradicionales y sus patrocinadores estadounidenses se opusieron a Alianza País y buscaron coser divisiones internas y solidificar alianzas con secciones de la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador, CONAIE.
La historia de un vendepatria
La dirección y las bases de Alianza País entendieron que Lenín Moreno, quien se había desempeñado como vicepresidente de Correa durante seis años, estaba mejor posicionado para llevar adelante el Correísmo. Sin embargo, pocos meses después de ganar la presidencia en 2017, Moreno incumplió sus promesas de campaña. En uno de los grandes cambios en la historia de América del Sur, Moreno traicionó al movimiento y adoptó un modelo neoliberal para Ecuador. Bajo Moreno, Ecuador también se retiró de la Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) en 2018 y se retiró de la Unión de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR) en 2019, debilitando dos de los instrumentos más importantes de unidad continental.
A lo largo de los vaivenes y contradicciones de la lucha de clases ecuatoriana, la dirección de la Revolución Ciudadana ha mantenido una postura autocrítica. Después de la elección de Moreno, Alianza País se dividió en tendencias pro-Moreno y pro-Correa. Secciones de CONAIE han sostenido críticas legítimas al Correísmo, incluyendo preocupaciones sobre el impacto ambiental de la explotación de recursos y proyectos de infraestructura. Estos son problemas que la dirección correista sigue abordando y muestra la importancia de la formación revolucionaria de una nueva generación de ecuatorianos.
“Construir Poder Transformador: Debate Latinoamericano”, un libro de Ricardo Patiño, Arauz y otros líderes de la Revolución Ciudadana, expone las trampas de confiar demasiado en el carisma de Correa e indica algunos de los desafíos que se avecinan (Patiño es el exministro de Relaciones Exteriores bajo la presidencia de Correa). La dirección de base de la UNES afirma la importancia de construir todo un movimiento que pueda defender independientemente sus intereses: “El problema fundamental ha sido la ausencia de una ideología contrahegemónica sólida y profunda que oriente las decisiones, prácticas y relaciones de los sectores populares como así como líderes políticos”.
Carlos “Yacu” Pérez es el candidato del Partido Indígena Pachakutik. Muchos del campo de Correa han cuestionado el compromiso genuino de Pérez de defender a las comunidades indígenas y recuerdan que algunas facciones del Partido Pachakutik se han alineado, en el pasado, de manera oportunista con la derecha contra el Correísmo. Un ejemplo flagrante de política de identidad con esteroides, Pérez también ha insultado a Venezuela y ha apoyado el golpe de Estado en Bolivia.
¿Cambiará la marea de nuevo?
En un ejemplo de cómo se dio la vuelta a la realidad en 2017, el gobierno entrante de Moreno acusó de inmediato a la Revolución Ciudadana de corrupción sin sentido. Al igual que en los ataques de las oligarquías que demonizaban la Marea Rosa en Brasil, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia y en todo el continente, este fue un caso clásico de guerra legal. Los neoliberales, temerosos de la enorme popularidad del Correísmo, libraron una guerra por la vía judicial. Jorge Glas, ex vicepresidente de Correa, todavía está en la cárcel por cargos falsos y recientemente contrajo el COVID-19. Ricardo Patiño y la presidenta de la Asamblea Nacional Gabriela Rivadeneira siguen exiliados en México. El propio Correa está expulsado de su tierra natal y enfrenta años de cárcel por cargos de corrupción muy dudosos. Una victoria de Arauz volvería a abrir el país a quienes ponen la vida humana en comunidad antes que la acumulación privada y llevan adelante una agenda que apunta a los verdaderos culpables de la corrupción.
Los bancos estadounidenses temen al correísmo. Los préstamos del FMI a la región y los países explotados han sido durante mucho tiempo una táctica neocolonial para extraer riqueza de los países en desarrollo. Como dice el viejo proverbio: “los que prestan, mandan”. Bajo el disfraz de ayuda humanitaria con la devastadora pandemia, el FMI otorgó préstamos a un gobierno de Moreno demasiado dispuesto por una suma de $6.5 mil millones justo antes del cierre de 2020. Como siempre, el FMI estipuló la austeridad, la desregulación del Banco Central y venta de gasolina y diesel sin subsidios ya precios del mercado mundial. Lasso ha indicado que si es elegido presidente, no negará el acuerdo con el FMI. Arauz promete desafiar al FMI.
Una de las acciones de 11 horas de Trump antes de dejar el cargo fue supervisar un préstamo de la Corporación de Desarrollo de Estados Unidos a Ecuador por 3.500 millones de dólares que requiere que el gobierno privatice una importante refinería de petróleo y partes de la red eléctrica del país, y excluye a China de su desarrollo de telecomunicaciones. Washington está alarmado por la creciente influencia china en América del Sur y el Sur Global y ve a Ecuador como una importante cabeza de puente para perseguir esta “Nueva Guerra Fría” a través del programa Crecimiento en las Américas (CRECE).
Lo que está en juego
En octubre de 2019, un movimiento de protesta masivo sacudió el país. El mundo observó con gran expectación cómo un movimiento de base opuesto a las medidas de austeridad ocupaba Quito y casi derrocaba al gobierno de Moreno. El gobierno intentó aplastar las protestas, dejando al menos diez muertos, más de 1.000 detenidos y más de 1.300 heridos. Cuando la represión no logró sofocar las protestas, Moreno rescindió un programa respaldado por el Fondo Monetario Internacional, conocido como Decreto 883, que elevó los precios de los combustibles, demostrando nuevamente el poder de un pueblo unido y movilizado.
El año 2020 marcó el comienzo de una nueva tragedia para Ecuador. El gobierno de Moreno no respondió adecuadamente a la pandemia de COVID-19 de una manera unificada y seria. Los cadáveres abandonados se alinearon en las calles de Guayaquil en abril pasado, exhibiendo ante el mundo entero el engaño de la ciudad más grande de Ecuador, gobernada durante mucho tiempo por políticos neoliberales. Estas imágenes deshumanizadoras resumen lo que han significado para la gente común tres años de la agenda económica y política de Moreno. El 29 de enero, la policía de Quito cerró una clínica para distribuir 70.000 vacunas falsas. El presentador de televisión Efraín Ruales, quien había informado sobre la corrupción en la actual administración, fue baleado y asesinado el 27 de enero. A la fecha, hay 249.779 casos de coronavirus en Ecuador y 14.851 muertes.
Este es el telón de fondo para las elecciones de esta semana, no solo para los 17 millones de personas de Ecuador y millones de personas en la diáspora, sino para el futuro de la Marea Rosa en América Latina. ¿Seguirá Ecuador por el camino de la subordinación al imperialismo, o retomará la Revolución Ciudadana y se reincorporará al movimiento de integración e independencia continental? Esta elección decisiva determinará la dirección de Ecuador durante los próximos cuatro años y más.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en TRT World el 24 de diciembre de 2024.
La República de Haití no es solo el país más pobre del hemisferio occidental: es el más explotado, el más incomprendido y el más desigual.
Haití tiene la tasa de millonarios más alta de cualquier país de América. En una entrevista titulada “Las familias gobernantes haitianas crean y matan monstruos”, el veterano autor, analista y activista haitiano, Jafrik Ayiti, pone la lupa sobre una decena de oligarcas de piel clara que controlan las principales actividades económicas y políticas de la nación caribeña.
“Familias” que se mantienen fuera de la atención de los medios internacionales, a los cuales sólo les preocupa la “crisis que genera la violencia de las pandillas”. Los paramilitares representan al lumpenproletariado de Puerto Príncipe, que empuñan armas y abrazan la violencia en un intento por controlar franjas cada vez mayores de los crecientes guetos de la capital. Aunque, sin duda, no son los peces más gordos.
Este, sin embargo, es un error epistemológico intencional. La mayor parte del análisis debería centrarse en las tres fuerzas principales detrás de la crisis paramilitar de Haití: 1) una pequeña camarilla de magnates que detentan el poder económico y político; 2) la clase política corrupta, encabezada por los funcionarios antipopulares del Partido Haitiano de los Calvos (PHTK), y 3) lo más importante, el Estado imperial estadounidense que, durante más de un siglo, ha definido a Haití como una de sus colonias.
El Estado dentro del Estado: los señores de la guerra
Los Bigio, Apaid, Mev, Brandt, Boulos y un puñado de otras familias multimillonarias, junto con sus políticos contratados por el gobernante Partido Haitiano de los Calvos (PHTK), como Ariel Henry, Michel Martelly y el asesinado Jovenel Moïse, forman un Estado dentro de un Estado. Gran parte de lo que ocurre en la política haitiana, desde golpes políticos, llamados a intervención militar, hasta asesinatos selectivos, se remonta a la lucha de poder que ocurre entre los diferentes grupos rivales títeres del Core Group.
Es importante identificar y demarcar quiénes son los señores de la guerra, en su mayoria blancos, completamente aislados de las necesidades y la realidad del 99,9% de la población haitiana. Sólo esta pequeña camarilla bien conectada tiene los aeropuertos, puertos y contactos fronterizos privados necesarios para contrabandear armas y otros objetos de contrabando a Haití.
Echemos un vistazo a otras familias poderosas en Haití y su historiales en materia de “democracia”.
La familia Bigio: lo más ricos y dueños de un puerto señalado por tráfico de armas
El sitio web Ayibo Post informa sobre la amplia cartera económica de la familia del multimillonario haitiano Gilbert Bigio, incluido su propio puerto privado recientemente construido de Lafito, justo al norte de la capital.
Hay acusaciones de que los grupos paramilitares que destruyen al Estado haitiano han empleado el puerto para importar armas pesadas necesarias para superar a las del estado. Por ello, Canadá ha sancionado a Bigio, el ciudadano más rico de Haití, por su presunto papel en la financiación del tráfico de armas y de las pandillas. Lo que hace que estas acusaciones sean aún más interesantes es el señalamiento de que el presidente dominicano, Luis Abinader, tiene relacionescon Bigio. Pablo Daniel Portes Goris es el director general de la empresa GB Energy de Bigio y asesor financiero de Abinader. Walkiria Caamaño y Joan Fernández Osorio también son ejecutivos de Bigio y trabajan para el presidente dominicano.
Individuos como Bigio han sido históricamente intocables en ambos lados de la frontera. Las élites dominicanas no son antihaitianas cuando se trata de trabajar con sus oligarcas que representan un 0,01% de Haití, y quienes facilitan el drenaje de las riquezas del otro tercio de la isla. La clase política y económica dominante de República Dominicana históricamente se ha asociado con líderes haitianos corruptos contra el 99,9% de Haití y ambos poderes en la isla inciden en las situaciones políticas de ambos países.
La familia Apaid: contactos con Coca-Cola, “donaciones” de presidentes y talleres clandestinosç
Los Apaid, una de las familias más ricas de Haití, son propietarios de GMC Zone Franche (Zona de Libre Comercio) y Alpha Industries. Como la mayoría de las familias ultrarricas haitianas no viven en Haití.
Según las autoridades constitucionales de Haití y de toda la región, el mandato presidencial de Jovenel Moïse finalizó el domingo 7 de febrero de 2021, pero al día siguiente, el periódico Le Moniteur publicó un decreto presidencial, en el que Moïse regalaba 8.600 hectáreas de las reservas de tierras agrícolas del país y 18 millones de dólares en subvenciones, al empresario Andre Apaid. Coca Cola contrató al multimillonario haitiano para cultivar stevia en el departamento de Artibonite, 80 kilómetros al norte de Puerto Príncipe. Esta exuberante tierra es ahora el hogar del proyecto de zona franca agroindustrial Savane-Diane, propiedad de Apaid, que paga a los haitianos salarios miserables para producir aguacates, stevia y otros cultivos de exportación. Los sindicatos haitianos realizaron protestas el 1 de mayo contra los Apaids, propietarios de talleres clandestinos, declarando: “Denunciamos la inestabilidad planificada y los miserables salarios de la tuberculosis”.
André Apaid fue el fundador del Grupo 184. Después de que Jean Bertrand Aristide ganara nuevamente las democráticas elecciones presidenciales en 2001, creó el Grupo 184 para oponerse a la agenda del nuevo presidente, que incluía un salario mínimo más alto y 21.000 millones de dólares en reparaciones de parte de Francia.
Las mismas familias, hoy sancionadas por Canadá, son las que siempre han trabajado contra cualquier verdadero sentido de democracia popular en Haití. Sólo una exposición exhaustiva de estos individuos, muchos de los cuales han trabajado estrechamente con el gobierno y las finanzas estadounidenses, revelará quién está armando y financiando a las pandillas en Puerto Príncipe.
La familia Boulos: dueña de medios, cadena de supermercados, hoteles y concesionaria de autos
Reginald Boulos es otro ejemplo vivo de un oligarca sombrío e intocable. Nacido y formado principalmente en Estados Unidos, este inversor de 68 años se convirtió en presidente del Intercontinental Bank S.A. en 1996. En representación del grupo familiar Boulos Investment Group, supervisó en 1998 la fusión de su empresa con Sogebank, uno de los bancos más grandes de Haití. El Sogebank obtuvo en 2020 las mayores ganancias de toda la banca en el Caribe. A medida que la economía mundial y caribeña se contraía con la crisis económica generada por la pandemia de COVID-19, Sogebank vio cómo sus márgenes de beneficios aumentaban en un 40%.
Al igual que en Estados Unidos, existen muchos lazos entre la propiedad privada y los medios de comunicación. Boulos es uno de los propietarios claves de Le Nouveau Matin, uno de los diarios más antiguos de Haití. Es uno de los vástagos más ricos de Haití y también es propietario de la cadena de supermercados Delimart, de Autoplaza, una importante concesionaria de automóviles, de Megamart, tiendas de comestibles y el famoso hotel El Rancho.
En cualquier conversación formal o informal en Haití, la gente se apresura a recordar que Haití no produce armas ni drogas. En un informe del pasado año la ONU reconoció que las armas que llegan a las agrupaciones paramilitares en Haití salen de puertos en Miami, e incluso llegan a usar puertos dominicanos para penetrarlos a Haití.
La población define la crisis paramilitar (“pandillas”) como una crisis planificada y organizada por estos principales actores detrás de escena, el caos dentro del caos es planificado. Recuerdan con entusiasmo a cualquiera que esté dispuesto a escuchar que ellos no dirigen las aduanas ni la seguridad fronteriza. Tienen claro de dónde provienen todas las armas que alimentan los ataques indiscriminados de los escuadrones de la muerte contra la vida civil.
Un pueblo contra los mafiosos de traje y corbata
El pueblo haitiano se apresura a señalar que la principal contradicción no es con los ignorantes buscones que obedecen a intereses extranjeros. Los paramilitares son maestros en denunciar las masacres pero no a los culpables. No importa cuántos dedos y cabezas corten, de algún modo se presentan como los más inocentes de los 16.000.000 de haitianos que habitan el planeta Tierra.
El pueblo haitiano dice que su batalla no es contra “los mafiosos en chanclas”, sino contra los “mafiosos de traje y corbata”. Ven que Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, líder de una alianza de los 9 grupos pandilleros más poderosos de la isla, es como un estafador de medio pelo. La contradicción central es con los amos que pagan, secuestran y arman a Barbecue y al resto de agrupaciones paramilitares.
Barbacue no es más que un lacayo ruidoso en una conspiración mucho más amplia contra Haití. Muy por encima de Barbecue, los Gobiernos de Haití, República Dominicana y Estados Unidos presiden una elaborada conspiración que lleva siglos en marcha contra la autodeterminación de Haiti. Y las familias de multimillonarios en la isla, seguirán moviendo cielo y tierra para que esa conspiración siga en marcha por toda la eternidad.
All names are fictitious to protect the privacy of the families I work with.
Lucas is 17. His parents reached out to my agency in search of a Sober Companion because Lucas threatened them and turned violent every time they tried to limit his screen time on his phone and laptop. He was addicted to pornography, which he consumed for hours, day and night. Two weeks into working with Lucas and seeking to implement structure and top-line behaviors in his life, I confiscated both of his devices and locked them in a safe1. When I walked down from their upstairs guest bedroom where I slept and left the safe, Lucas had his 47-year-old mother in a headlock with a knife to her throat.
Hassan and Kathleen were set to be married on the weekend of July 4th in Malibu. Kathleen caught her fiancé of 10 months using pornography for the fourth time in their two-year relationship, a week before the big day. She called off the marriage and moved out. Despondent and suicidal, Hassan contacted me to help guide him through withdrawal from a powerful drug that impacts an estimated 40 million Americans – pornography.
Francisco is a 26-year-old successful model. He has landed gigs and billboards from Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing to New York City’s Time Square. He knew intrinsically that porn was draining, misdirecting and siphoning off his energy and affecting his work performance. An insomniac and occasional bedwetter since he was first sexually abused by a family “friend” at nine, Franscisco scrolled through porn for hours. He told me — embarrassed but curious — that he was not even aroused by the merry-go-round of naked, defenseless zombies. But he was transfixed. And most importantly, numbed. No different than an anorexic or an overeater, he had found his fix.
Marty was addicted to child pornography. We did an intervention at his sister’s request because the FBI was patrolling him and closing in on him. Surely 99 percent of readers have already condemned Marty for his addiction. Marty was mildly autistic. He was bullied, sexually abused and tortured as a child. No one ever cared about “the local retard.” Do you hate Marty or do you hate the sexual trauma he was reenacting?
The drug matters little; the escape itself is the fix.
I work as a Sober Companion supporting other men and teenagers through one of the most simultaneously harrowing and liberating human processes – Withdrawal. The majority of withdrawals I assist in are from benzos, alcohol, opioids and other drugs. But increasingly, the United States is waking up to an addiction that has been on the rise since the advent of the internet and social media age and has destroyed untold lives and relationships – pornography.
Porn, in its current expression, is the exploitation of frozen images and vulnerable, dehumanized, captured, inanimate bodies. One 12-step recovery group explains pornography as participating in another’s trauma.
How do we understand and confront this modern-day plague, arguably the most global of all?
Misogyny is Big Business
This essay is not a moralistic commentary on what we should or should not watch. Porn is not the root problem. It is a symptom. Like the suicide epidemic, “random” mass shootings, more that 200 just on the first day of this year, and Black Death Porn2, pornography is part and parcel of the normalization of a general societal demoralization.
Pornography is a $100 billion dollar industry. For comparison, all social media nets $231 billion in annual revenue. Sex tourism produces $20 billion in revenue for the global overlords of Thailand, The Dominican Republic and other sex tourism neocolonies. Pornography is the most profitable manifestation of the hyper-sexualization of our society and youth.
Veteran sex workers warn about the growing trend towards rape porn and other violent porn. They recounted how porn was comparatively more “lovey dovey” in the past. One BBC study indicated that 88 percent of porn videos contain physical aggression towards women. As any addict knows, addiction is progressive. I have sponsored and worked with men who started with “soft porn” and descended into Dante’s lower rungs of porn that shows illegal material, content with underage young people, children, rape scenes and seemingly endless variations of violence, humiliation and misogyny. The porn pandemic has long been out of control. Racist fetishes like “the submissive Asian” or “spicy Latina” dominate porn menus. For many men, this reinforces their racism and misogyny and may be their only “interaction” with these demographics. For many women, they measure themselves according to the metrics of their abusers and oppressors, internalizing dominant “beauty” standards and concluding that they will never measure up.
Who Cashes in on Porn?
Porn critic Amy Leather writes: “Cable companies and distributors like Time Warner Cable in the U.S. make millions from adult video on demand and pay per view sales. Search engines such as Google and Yahoo make money from people accessing porn. So the porn industry has links to mainstream finance, media and communications businesses. It has powerful allies.”
Not satisfied with the damage done to men and teenage boys, the porn industry targets ever younger audiences through the use of Artificial Intelligence, avatars and cartoons. They strategically place advertisements on movie and videogame websites to lure more vulnerable minds into their grip.
@OnlyFans presents yet another modern form of sexual exploitation and an artificial form of human connection. The $2.5 billion dollar British startup delivers cheap parasocial dopamine hits for mostly male clients and an abundance of risks for the sex workers seeking to put food on the table. Younger women or girls look up to their more-experienced peers and are forced to compete in the free market of sexual exploitation. Such videos can be leaked and later used to discriminate against women workers. The need for immediate gain and survival stares down the reality of systemic sexism and permanent consequences.
Pharmaceutical companies also cash in on the hyper-sexualization trends. Barceloneta is a small town in PR that twenty years ago produced pineapples. Today the pueblo is America’s top viagra producer. On March 27, 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s miracle drug for limp pensises, raking in how many tens of billions of dollars in profits in the past quarter century plus? There are natural cures for Erectile Dysfunction but doctors encouraging people to study nutrition and exercise is not profitable. Dependency and addiction are.
Survival in Hostile Neoliberal Economic Terrain
Sex workers did not create the plague of unemployment, the gigification of the economy and inflation. No Brazilian or Filipino woman determined that their currency would be worth a fraction of an American or European’s money. No Honduran or Haitian woman decided that sex work could pay much more than vanishing sweatshop jobs making clothes for Western fashion behemoths like Victory Secret or Nike. Victim-blaming and victim-shaming is the capitalist art of deflecting blame from the origins of these myriad manifestations of violence against women and children.
A pathological society can only produce pathological people.
The research questions before us are not a matter of when a woman in New York City will be harassed or a child in Oakland will be traumatized. These two phenomena are inevitable under the prevailing social relations we inhabit. The relevant research questions are at what rates is this transpiring? Only the Marxist researchers will go deeper and dare to ask how we can transcend this insidious chapter of human prehistory.
Take Back Your Dopamine
What happens when the dark web and other murky corners of the internet become your sex education? There is a competitive campaign of shock and awe to get likes, with necrophilia, gore porn, bestiality and beyond at the center of the new soul harvesting. 50 percent of videos on Pornhub contain incestuous content. Like the 3-headed cerberus, the beasts of desensitization offer infinite dopamine hits, stealing any sense of self-respect and sexualizing children. All obnoxiousness is a cry for help. Our children are warning us in 1,000 ways. Spikes in autism, school shootings and other forms of addiction are our sons and daughters wailing “enough!”
Will we heed the warnings contained within their screams?
The United States of Porn promotes further isolation. It is a centerpiece of Incel culture.
The Hollywood blockbuster “Don Jon” starring Scarlett Johansson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks at a relationship interrupted by the protagonist’s addiction to porn. In the 2013 movie “Her,” Joaquin Phoenix’s character “Theodore” falls in love with a woman created from artificial intelligence on his computer. Porn is but one part of a much larger pandemic, Sex Addiction. Strip clubs, the dark web, massage parlors, sex work, sex tourism and child trafficking belong under the same umbrella of sexual exploitation and sexually acting out. Capitalism and patriarchy have taught us men to sexualize our rage, isolation, sadness, low self-esteem and trauma. Perhaps the most common male character defect and socially-sanctioned emotion, since we are not allowed to grieve and be vulnerable, is rage. Anger is the superficial facade hiding our deep-seated sadness, pain and trauma. The Old Norse word for anger is “angra,” meaning grief. Porn, in its addictive form, is but one soother we use to repress what often needs to come up from our childhoods.
Located somewhere between coffee and cocaine on the dopamine scale, a sexual release floods the brain with this bewildering chemical. According to Dopamine Nation author Dr. Anna Lembke, coffee increases dopamine flow by 50 percent, sex by 100 percent and crystal meth by 1000 percent. From the outside, colleagues, family members and friends can objectively observe addicts’ compulsive need to continue to chew on shiny razor blades, but from the skewed viewpoint of the addict, they are trapped in the quest for the next hit. Dr. Lembke’s book, well-known in recovery circles, takes up big, necessary questions related to dopamine fasting, self-binding and healthy sources of substitute dopamine for the addict experiencing “loss.”
How many of us could benefit on the life journey from dopa-mean to dopa-serene3?
Withdrawal: The War to End All Wars
Men are 543 percent more likely to be addicted to porn than women. Just in one year, there were 109,012,068,000 videos watched on Pornhub, that is enough for every human being to have watched 4 porn videos. “Porn addicts” collectively consumed over 5,824,699,200 hours of porn just on Pornhub in that same year. These were 6 billion hours that were not spent studying different cultures, languages and peace. 4 out of 5 Americans only speak English, but how many are fluent in the language and cruelty that characterizes the porn industry. We are what we eat. We are both enveloped by and devoured by the insidiousness.
Has any pandemic ever been so global? Pornhub, XVideos, and XNXX alone receive 134,491 visits per minute. Porn is miswiring humanity.
This crisis will not heal itself. What is the way forward?
Withdrawal is the Way
The withdrawal symptoms from pornography mirror what any of us addicts who have tried to quit know all too well – anxiety, insomnia, depression, stomach issues, haunting, ruminating obsessions. Young men talk about how when they don’t get their P&M fix (porn and masturbation), they “get the jitters.”
The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense explained, struggled and died to establish that Capitalism + Dope = Genocide. Similarly today, Capitalism + Social Alienation = A Porn Plague. The Porn Plague – like “mass shootings,” sexual violence and addiction in general – are reflections of a sick society. The largest economy in the history of the world – with an unprecedented Gross Domestic Product of $25.46 Trillion – specializes in producing alienation. We are disconnected from the work we do, estranged from the products of our labor, one another and from ourselves. In a society based on hyper-profits, materialism, individualism and conquest, are we really surprised as the social pandemics that surround us? As Malcolm X accurately told us in 1964, “the chickens are coming home to roost.” The multiple plagues we are living through, unprecedented in human history, are easily explained through the social sciences4. The only logical conclusion the social sciences can draw is that at this rate, our days are numbered. Capitalism is the end of life. Our choice, as Rosa Luxembourg told us, is between Socialism and Barbarism.
From Shame to Grace: The Revolution within the Revolution
We have dwelled on the problem long enough; recovery teaches us we must live in the solution.
There are many anonymous 12-step programs that speak directly to this particular addiction from different angles – Sex Addicts Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, Sexual Recovery Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Codependents Anonymous and Sexual Compulsives Anonymous. There are online and in-person meetings for different communities across the country. Fusing recovery and Marxist language, top line behaviors are the only solution for empty negation. As every addict let’s go, let’s g-o-d5 and let’s good, they dive into new activities, hobbies, travels, languages and beyond. Recovery cannot be experienced as loss. We are only as dark as our secrets. Porn use is often wrapped up in a web of lies and secrecy. Open up to a friend, spiritual leader, therapist or fellow.
Again, this is not an attack on pornography and a human being’s right to participate in what could under a different societal power arrangement, arguably, reflect art. For example, there are women directing porn to prioritize women’s pleasure. The new forms of human and sexual interactions that will be ushered in by a system of egalitarianism are mere fantasies at this point on the human timeline. The German documentary “Do Communists Have Better Sex” makes the argument that emancipation in the economic realm reverberates to all areas of social life, even the bedroom. Professor of Russian and Eastern European Studies, Kristen R. Ghodsee argues in her book Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism that collective creches and state support freed up human beings from economic duress so they could at last stop surviving, and begin living…
Withdrawal from porn, as with withdrawal from all addictions, represents a journey from Shame to Grace…
1. This is recovery talk for substitute activities we addicts implement to replace the lost dopamine hits that come from our DOC, Drug of Choice, whatever it may be. ↩︎
2. Black Death Porn refers to the sensationalistic violence pushed by mainstream television and corporate-dominated social media. As a society, how many images are we exposed to everyday showing images of decontextualized “senseless” horizontal violence in Black America, Haiti and some African countries? There is no “Black-on-Black crime.” There is only Oppressed-On-Oppressed internalized violence promoted by the power structure. ↩︎
3. An anonymous quote from an anonymous sober men. ↩︎
4. Some people mistakenly call the modern social sciences “Marxism.” Should we then call Physics “Einsteinism?” Marx was but the ultimate synthesizer of centuries of accumulating contributions to a knowledge base the Hegelian dialectician built upon. ↩︎
5. The traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous which all other 12-step programs descend from encourage fellows to connect with a g-o-d of their own understanding. For some, it is nature. For others, the universe. For others, a deity or deities. Recovery is in no way religious, but it is spiritual in that we believe there is something beyond our own selfish needs and self-seeking behavior. ↩︎
Originally published at Covert Action Magazine on April 22, 2025
[Certain names and details have been changed to protect the on-the-ground organizers who met with the author.]
Black America has the term “Uncle Tom” for sellouts. In South America, a “vendepatria” is someone who is willing to sell their homeland to the highest bidder. Simón Bolívar, José Marti and Jan-Jak Dessalin conceived of a united, integrated Americas, or “la patria grande,” “the big fatherland;” and fought against enemies from within and without who sought to break that unity.
What can one say in 2025 of a South American president who attacks Caracas more than Washington, D.C., and Havana more than Tel Aviv? What social class and foreign forces does such a president serve when he hides behind “progressive” and “leftist” rhetoric and frequently beckons his credentials as a former “student leader”?
Gabriel Boric Font, Chilean president since 2022, is no friend of the working-class causes he has claimed to champion. With one year left in his presidential term, he has proven to be a loyal, “leftist” mouthpiece for the Chilean military and economic brass and their foreign backers.
Similar to the Democrats, Boric claims to represent an alternative. Similar to the Democrats, he presents the far right, and not the capitalist system, as the problem. After a social upheaval in 2019 that left dozens of Chileans dead and maimed, similar to the Democrats, Boric represents a safe, acceptable escape valve for the Chilean establishment and foreign capital.
The Boric lesson is that imperialism is quite willing to pivot toward a “new leftist” where it is convenient, especially given that by definition they prioritize identity politics over class politics. This offers cover for a neo-liberalism that continues to favor the ten richest families in Chile who are unsurprisingly the most connected to international finance.
Boric: The Backstabber and Betrayer
A look at the Chilean president’s relationship to the state reveals even more about his class loyalties.
The Boric administration boasts of 60 new “anti-terrorist” laws. Grassroots movements, such as Radio Plaza de la Dignidad, consider the new legislation an attack on their rights to organize and mobilize:
“The ‘improvement’ of the previous repressive law now allows the arbitrary criminalization of popular fighters, imposing a much more aggressive and arbitrary category of ‘terrorist.’ Not even the Pinochet dictatorship dared to do so much. Such laws include the trigger-happy law, the critical infrastructure law and the anti-occupation/anti-poor law. With the excuse being the fight against crime, the legal-repressive framework has been strengthened, unleashing a brutal threat against the entire Popular Movement in Struggle.”
Boric has put teeth behind this legislation, training 1,300 new carabineros (militarized police). Amnesty International has critiqued the absolute impunity for the police force after the massive clampdown on the 2019 rebellion.
Chile’s patagonia continues to function as a refuge for Zionist war criminals with areas that cater to them in modern-day Hebrew, the official language of the occupiers of historic Palestine.
The 39-year-old, 37th president of Chile brazenly claims that the leaders of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela are not leftists. No different than Milei, Noboa, Trump and other reactionaries in the hemisphere, he pushes unfounded claims blaming Venezuela’s leadership for insecurity, crime and traffic of arms and drugs in the region. Why would a “leftist” promote a right-wing view of the countries most in the crosshairs of imperialism? However, Boric did not hesitate to recognize “the victory” of “president” Daniel Naboa and the Ecuadorian narco-state last weekend, on April 14.
Here in the United States, we know such leftists well. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and their ilk have long functioned as the sheepdogs of the Democratic Party to lasso in the more radical elements.
The Borics of U.S. politics with Obama and others. [Source: nytimes.com]
In the summer of 2024, Boric and Minister of Defense Maya Fernández Allende and Chief of the Chilean Military Joint Staff Vice Admiral Pablo Niemann hosted the U.S. Southern Command cooperation joint meetings. General Laura Richardson warned of “authoritarian, communist governments attempting to seize all they can here in the Western Hemisphere.” The neoliberal military and economic partners touted themselves as “Team Democracy” for the region.
U.S. Air Force General C.Q. Brown, Jr., former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Army General Laura Richardson, commander of the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and U.S. Ambassador to Chile Bernadette Meehan, meet with Chilean Minister of Defense Maya Fernández Allende in Santiago on August 28, 2024, to discuss “bilateral security cooperation.” [Source: southcom.mil]
To his credit, Boric has condemned the Zionist genocide but has attempted to find a half-way point between the Palestinians and the genocidal Zionist entity. He has also not hesitated to give full support to the U.S.-NATO proxy war on Russia and Ukraine. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier just wrapped up a visit to Chile, condemning the legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship, as the West cheers on and funds their seven decades old, so far impregnable military base in the Middle East, known as “Israel.”
While China continues to be Chile’s top trading partner. The Boric administration has turned its back on and undermined Bolivarian and BRICS initiatives to build a more multipolar world. While Chile remains strongly in the Western imperialist sphere, the second-longest country in the world depends on strong trading partnerships with Brazil, South Africa and Russia.
The global astronomical community is condemning U.S. energy behemoth AES Corporation for polluting some of the clearest skies in the world above Chile’s northern desert region.
Venezuelan Ambassador Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein discusses Boric’s opportunism and quotes President Allende in his final words: “Other men will overcome this gray and bitter moment in which betrayal tries to prevail.”
Chile Ablaze
Wallmapu is the Mapuche name for their historical homeland which stretches across the Andes between modern-day Chile and Argentina. Currently, there are 22 forest fires burning through Wallmapu, where two million Mapuches live on the Chilean side of the Andes. Licarayen of the local Temuco Mapuche leadership explained that Spanish colonizers used similar tactics to push her ancestors off their lands and set up their cash crops, like wheat.
A group of her colleagues showed the author the prehistoric Araucania trees that were around during the epoch of the dinosaurs and are now at risk of extinction. Boric’s Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, accused the ancient, local communities of being behind the blazes. The Coordinator of Wallmapu Territories rejected the customary vilification from state power, “blaming the crisis on capitalist logging interests” and characterizing as “ridiculous the political classes’ claims.”
Chile is South America’s California. Hundreds of thousands of acres of forests are burning as Chile faces some of the worst droughts in its history due to climate change. Licarayen explained that the spiritual toll the fires are taking on the community is leading to more despair, alcoholism and suicides. She compared the dire social indices and resistance of the Mapuche to the historical struggles of native communities in the U.S. and across the hemisphere.
Boric is all bark and no bite. Currently there is a struggle to prevent a statue of Piñera from being built. Boric visited Antarctica to discourage the further exploitation of Chile’s neighbor to the south. Yet, as Wallmapu burns, it is clear how powerless the president himself is to stop the ongoing repression of the historic Mapuche community.
There are over one hundred political prisoners denied their constitutional rights because they have stood up in defense of their land and way of life.
Boric is all bark and no bite when it comes to meeting his promises of redressing the deep grievances of Chile’s Mapuche people. [Source: las2orillas.co]
Pinochet’s Constitution: Boric’s Great Failure
There is a basic leftist consensus on why Boric and the left failed to overturn the Constitution in 2023.
Working-class districts wanted economic and social rights, but were arguably turned off by the greater emphasis in the Constitutional Convention on feminism, environmentalism, or plurinationalism. These same woke politics with no economic teeth are one of the key reasons why the Democrats have lost twice to the MAGA movement.
Light liberal left identity politics over class politics combined with a vicious right-wing media campaign to defeat the constitutional plebiscite. There was intense red-baiting and fear-mongering of Chile becoming “Chilezuela,” complete with the right-wing media promoting sensationalist images of Venezuelans forced to eat stray dogs to survive. The true power brokers resorted to Trump and Musk-esque rhetoric exclaiming “Abortion will be allowed at whatever stage of pregnancy”; “All border controls will be lifted”; and “The law will protect criminals over victims.”
The barrage of propaganda harkened back to the 1970s’ anti-communism of the CIA-backed Pinochet regime which convinced many Chileans that the return of socialism in Chile would mean the end of all freedoms, including the right to be Christian.
The failure to pass an updated constitution transcending the 1980 Pinochet-era one is arguably the greatest setback of the “New Left.” The right wing continues to win the war of narratives. Mega and Chilevisión convinced more than 60% of voters that the new constitution would mean Mapuche supremacy over Chile’s majority European-descendent population.
Javiera Manzi, a leader of La Coordinadora Feminista 8M, denounced the Pinochet continuity, highlighting the 2011 student mobilization, Apruebo Dignidad movement and “radical tenderness” as the way forward. Valparaiso-born journalist Pablo Vivanco summed up the collective disappointment: “Boric has not delivered on his main promises. There has been no new constitution. There is no pension, education or tax reform. He told us: ‘Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism and it will be its tomb,’ but that is not the case.”
Resistencia: Another Way Forward for Chile
In contrast to Boric, political prisoner and Communist Party leader Daniel Jadue represents another vision for Chile and la patria grande. Jadue is the former mayor of Recoleta, the northern area of Santiago and home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East. A spokesperson for the mass rebellion, he was the potential next president of Chile. In this interview with #AVosPatria (To You Homeland) and Radio con Aguante (Radio with a Punch), he, explains why the bourgeoisie got behind the feckless Boric.
Currently, there is a lawfare campaign against the former mayor of Recoleta. Jadue is a political prisoner because he carried out socialism on a local level, implementing programs such as the Popular Pharmacy, the Popular Optician, Open Schools, Salud en tu Barrio, Popular Real Estate, the Open University of Recoleta, the Popular bookstore “Recoletras” (a word play on the historic Palestinian neighborhood of Santiago), the “Energía Popular,” the popular dentist, the Common Pots, the Communal Public Security Plan with a focus on Human Security, among many others.
The ruling class recognizes that Jadue and the Chilean Communist Party are the real threat, whereas they are willing to work with Boric beyond the liberal-conservative divide over secondary issues. Political analyst Leonel Poblete Codutti predicts that his “alliance and agreements with the class enemy will clear the way for the extreme right to win the elections next year, similar to what happened to the Democrats in the U.S.”
Despite the attacks, the popular leader asserts there can be no change “without a people, without mobilization, without a transformative spirit that is felt.” Boric is a key part of the campaign against the true left, the inheritors of Miguel Enriquez, the Revolutionary Leftist Movement (MIR) and Victor Jara.
Inequality with a “Progressive” Mask
Labor leader Luis Mesina is the founder of the “No + AFP” (No More AFP) movement to defend pensions. He explained: “In the end, [Boric has] been subjugated to the power of financial markets.” He explains how such privatization schemes of social security and other benefits for the people have been siphoned off to foreign capital to the tune of $90 billion, characterizing Chile as “the most neoliberal country in the world.”
Hugo Fazio, Chilean economist and former vice president of the Central Bank under Salvador Allende, denounced the new pension laws as a further bamboozling of workers. Fazio argues that the pact reflects further collaboration between anti-worker sectors and the left of pacotillas (cheap sellouts) and farándula (show business). The cold reality for many retirees is that they have to continue to look for other jobs because they cannot survive. Jadue explained: “We are gifting them [foreign investors] five to seven billion more dollars every year in capital markets. That is who is most celebrating this law.”
Private mining interests that control 70% of the surplus, or profits, recently announced their largest investments in Chile’s copper and lithium resources in the past decade because their taxes have been so low. The president had promised progressive taxes on the country’s elite but has again cowered before his history’s strong demands. Iris Fontbona, of the Luksic mining dynasty, is worth $26 billion. Julio Ponce Lerou, president of the Chemical and Mining Society of Chile (SQM) and son-in-law of former dictator Augusto Pinochet, is another billionaire.
Julio Ponce Lerou, Pinochet’s son-in-law, and a billionaire. Boric promised to raise taxes on him and his class but has failed to deliver. [Source: theclinic.cl]
As absurd as it sounds, social spending under the “left-wing” Boric is lower even than under Chile’s last president, the reactionary billionaire Sebastian Piñera.
Boric: The Impotent Tip of the Iceberg
While there were big expectations in 2022, and Boric’s victory was heralded as a historic win, Boric is not Allende. His moderate positions were never a real threat. He is a deterrent to regional solidarity, echoing imperial policy on the Bolivarian-bloc countries. While it is easy to wail about Boric’s lack of class instincts and anti-imperialist fight, he is merely an Obama, the most convenient puppet for the moment.
The Chilean power structure with its media and banking arms is the same one that overthrew the socialist government of Salvador Allende in 1973.
Now-deceased media baron Agustín Edwards Eastman and his heirs received covert payments from the Nixon government to plot the coup against President Allende. The National Security Archive recently published declassified documents showing Edwards’ secret meetings with Henry Kissinger, Attorney General John Mitchell and CIA Director Richard Helms in Washington, D.C. To this day, the Edwards heirs are the owners of Chile’s largest newspapers El Mercurio and La Segunda, Radio Corazón and an endless array of other mouthpieces for the rich.
Álvaro Saieh—who Forbeshas listed as the 729th wealthiest person in the world and 4th wealthiest in Chile—is the chairman of CorpGroup, a conglomerate with investments in finance, retail, real estate, hotel and media businesses. Saieh owns Publimetro, Diario La Hora, Revista Paula, Radio Carolina and a web of other media outlets. Saieh, a Chilean Colombian of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian roots, also owns the banking conglomerate Itaú CorpBanca, Banco Cóndel, Unimarc supermarkets, 60 strip malls, three power plants, Hyatt Hotels and seemingly infinite other businesses.
Here we have but two of the managers and molders of Chilean public opinion.
Chile—no different from any other capitalist country, whether shrouded in social-democratic or hard-right camouflage—is run by a tiny clique of families connected to international finance. Similar to us here in the U.S., arguing over who is worse, Republicans or Democrats, the Chilean bourgeoisie presents a fake contest between two contenders, confident under their Neoliberal “democracy” paradigm their interests are untouchable. Chile continues to be the society of the cuicos and flaites (local slang for rich and poor). Boric knows who his masters are and dares to question them only so much.
Boric and Obama: Two Pseudo-Progressive Peas in a Pod
Malcolm X presciently explained how the ruling class swings the political pendulum in front of us:
“The white conservatives aren’t friends of the Negro either, but they at least don’t try to hide it. They are like wolves; they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of the ‘smiling’ fox.”
In an interview with the author, Chilean journalist Pablo Jofré Leal clarifies: “In reality, Boric was never a standout ‘student leader.’ It was the Chilean media that artificially created him and inflated his leftist credentials. It is not the first time they have done this. He went from being a ‘student leader,’ to Congressman to President in no time. He never had any real base in the labor movement or the left.” The right wing catapulted his career forward because he was the counterweight to the communist student movement. A decade later, while the stakes are higher, the dynamics of the fake vs. fighting left remains the same.
Gabriel Boric delivering a speech as a student leader in 2012. [Source: time.com]
The right wing recognizes that Boric represents a break from Bolivarian politics and true class struggle. Libertad y Desarrollo (LYD), a conservative think tank charts Boric’s meteoric rise through politics precisely because he condemned the historic left focused on class struggle. His pivot toward the “new left” and identity politics ensured that he was not a threat to the entrenched political and economic establishment.
The Chilean elite’s “Boric strategy” is reminiscent of the “Obama phenomenon.” Both faux “progressives” were touted as representing “change” and were elevated to the summits of bourgeois power almost overnight. Both are phonies. High finance uses such lapdogs at times as mouthpieces, or at other times as distractions, and at all times as faux “resistance.”
For Chile, it was the 2019 social explosion (el estallido social). For the United States, it was the deep-held anger against the unpopular, Bush-era wars on Iraqi and Afghani sovereignty. The aging Piñera and Bush were seen as the personification of “the old way.”
A significant wing of capitalist power succeeded in presenting the youthful Boric and Obama as proof that the system can be changed from within.
The memories of the militant social rebellion in Chile and U.S. anti-war, left-liberal protest movement in the U.S. 2001-2008 were buried in what has long been the institutional graveyard of social movements—capitalist elections.
Este artículo originalmente fue publicado en Listín Diario el 16 e octubre de 2022.
El analista político estadounidense Danny Shaw ofreció su perspectiva sobre la crisis en la que se encuentra estancado Haití desde hace más de un año y sobre lo susceptible que se encuentra la vecina nación a una intervención militar extranjera.
Durante una entrevista concedida a periodistas de Listín Diario, el catedrático de la Universidad Pública de Nueva York, también definió los retos sociopolíticos de Latinoamérica y analizó la nueva tendencia del resurgimiento de los gobiernos de izquierda en estos países, entre otros puntos.
Partiendo del reciente llamado realizado por el primer ministro haitiano, Ariel Henry, a la comunidad internacional donde pidió apoyo de tropas extranjeras para su país, mismo que puso sobre tapete la posibilidad de que ese territorio sea intervenido, Shaw opinó que la medida sería exagerada.
“He estado viajando a Haití desde 1998, de darse realmente una intervención u ocupación, sería la quinta vez, en cien años, que ese país esté bajo el mando de tropas militares extranjeras”, dijo el analista.
El catedrático agregó que “para entender a Haití hay que retrotraerse a la historia y entender que esa nación nunca ha sido pobre, sino un país explotado, oprimido y mal entendido”.
Shaw aseguró que el pueblo haitiano, desde su perspectiva, no necesita injerencia extranjera. “Ellos solo necesitan una cosa sencilla: que los dejen en paz, porque ellos mismos pueden determinar su futuro”, agregó.
Asimismo, expresó que la comunidad internacional ha tratado anteriormente de “lavarse las manos” con la situación de Haití, pero que realmente sus economías y su capital extranjero están fuertemente vinculados a esta nación y es por esta razón que “nada pasa desapercibido en Haití para ellos”.
Al ser cuestionado sobre si realmente considera que ese país pueda sobreponerse por sí solos a la escasez de combustible, la crisis sanitaria, las bandas criminales y al estallido social, Shaw manifestó que sí y que las movilizaciones son una señal de que el pueblo quiere cambios positivos para su nación.
“Lo que estamos viendo ahora mismo es una continuación de las protestas que comenzaron hace años, el pueblo tiene el derecho de protestar, de movilizarse”, explicó.
Shaw indicó que su planteamiento no sugiere que el camino hacia la recuperación de la paz social en Haití sea fácil. No obstante, dijo estar convencido de que ese país “no necesita muros, sino puentes”.
Latinoamérica y los gobiernos de izquierda
La subida al poder de gobiernos de izquierda en países latinoamericanos como Chile, Colombia, México, El Salvador, Argentina y Perú fue otro de los fenómenos analizados por el experto estadounidense.
Según Shaw, el triunfo de izquierdistas como Gustavo Petro, Gabriel Boric y Andrés Manuel López Obrador en naciones que históricamente han estado bajo el mando de partidos conservadores, se debe a un desgaste del sistema sociopolítico tradicional.
Desde su punto de vista, la globalización nunca llegó a la región, sino que solo experimentó una “gringolización”.
Esto, según explicó, porque no se trataba de un intercambio equilibrado entre estos países y las grandes potencias, sino que siempre ha habido más beneficios y ventajas para el capital japonés, norteamericano, francés o inglés.
“Los pueblos colombianos, peruanos, chilenos, argentinos, mexicanos, se cansaron de tanta explotación, esa coyuntura ha dado espacio a que esos presidentes suban al poder”, dijo.
Shaw expuso que los gobiernos latinos se están evocando en crear su propio sueño, en fortalecer su propio niño. “Ese debería ser el camino, que ningún joven latino tenga que salir de su país para ver cumplir sus sueños”, señaló.
Hizo hincapié en que no siempre los gobiernos de izquierda resultan exitosos para estas naciones y prueba de ello es la situación de crisis en la que se encuentra sumergida Venezuela.
Injerencia de Estados Unidos
“Estamos en una época donde el modelo unilateral de Estados Unidos ha demostrado ser un fracaso y los pueblos se están dando cuenta de eso”, dijo el analista refiriéndose al papel que ha jugado la nación norteamericana a lo largo de los últimos siglos en la realidad sociopolítica de la región.
Sobre esto, Shaw consideró que se puede hablar de que el poder económico de Estados Unidos sobre la región latinoamericana está en declive, no obstante el poder militar se mantiene.
“República Dominicana va a ser la última neocolonia de Estados Unidos, yo creo que este país basa el 50% de su economía en el intercambio comercial con Estados Unidos y dudo que el presidente quiera cambiar eso para asociarse con otra potencia, por ejemplo, China”, añadió.
Sin embargo, acotó que la perspectiva a seguir debería ser que se pueda acabar con esa dependencia histórica, que haya más integración unidad e iniciativas multilaterales.
Movilizaciones
Pasando un balance por los más recientes estallidos y movilizaciones sociales en Latinoamérica, el analista expresó que los mismos son positivos para el fortalecimiento de la democracia.
“Históricamente hemos planteado que las movilizaciones son la antesala de algo mayor, de un cambio real, un pueblo movilizado es un pueblo consciente”, sostuvo el catedrático.
Finalmente, consideró que para cualquier cambio sociopolítico trascendental en la región y en el mundo, los medios de comunicación y últimamente, las redes sociales, tienen un gran peso en las agendas de los países y tienen el poder de visibilizar unos temas sobre otros, por lo que estos deben velar porque no haya censura y se le dé cobertura a todos los hechos.
