GREEN PAPER 3: Freedoms
That Are Abolished
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by Sean Donahue
New Hampshire Peace Action
A 1997 Pentagon document stated that the purpose of the U.S. military is "to protect U.S. interests and investments." In describing future threats to these interests and investments, the study says, "Although unlikely to be challenged by a global peer competitor, the United States will continue to be challenged regionally. The globalization of the world economy will also continue, with a widening between 'haves' and 'have nots."1 All of this seems to indicate that the U.S. military sees itself having to respond to movements and rebellions spurred by the growing gap between rich and poor caused by the globalization of the economy.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a friend and supporter of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, echoes these ideas writing that "because we are the biggest beneficiaries of globalization, we are unwittingly putting enormous pressure on the rest of the world," and that globalization is "producing a powerful backlash from all those brutalized or left behind." He goes on to say that "the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the builder of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force Navy and Marine Corps."2 Sometimes the "hidden fist" is applied directly, but more often it comes in the form of arms sales and military aid allowing foreign militaries and security forces to do the dirty work of making their countries safe for multinational corporations by destroying anything that threatens foreign investments.
Mexico is a case in point. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) threatened to destroy the economy and culture of indigenous communities in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. In response, in January 1994 a revolutionary movement - the Zapatistas - rose up to challenge the political and economic policies that were threatening the people of Chiapas. In 1995 activists uncovered a secret memo from the Emerging Markets Group at Chase-Manhattan Bank, one of the chief banks funding governments and multinational corporations, that concluded that "While Chiapas, in our opinion, does not pose a fundamental threat to Mexican political stability, it is perceived to be by many in the investment community. The government will need to eliminate the Zapatistas to demonstrate their effective control of the national territory and of security policy." 3
The United States provided the Mexican government with the weapons and military training to carry out this mission, giving Mexico $362 million worth of weapons and training between 1993 and 1997.4 Mexico continues to receive substantial military aid from the U.S.. Just like under NAFTA in Mexico, military force will be necessary to force the economic policies dictated by the FTAA on desperately poor people throughout Latin America, and the U.S. will provide the weapons and military training necessary to make the hemisphere safe for multinational corporations. The new $1.3 billion military aid package the U.S. is sending to Colombia indicates the shape of things to come.
The Colombian military and right-wing paramilitary groups connected to the government and to wealthy landowners have waged a brutal but unsuccessful war against the guerillas as well as anyone suspected of being sympathetic with their goals. The U.S. is providing the Colombian government with weapons, training, and military advisors under the guise of fighting a war on drugs despite the fact that the military and the paramilitaries are involved in most of the heroin and cocaine trafficking in Colombia.5 The real motive behind U.S. military aid to Colombia seems to be guaranteeing U.S. access to Colombian oil. Colombia may have up to 2.6 billion barrels of oil and 260 billion barrels in oil reserves. The U.S. is eager to gain access to this oil in order to decrease dependence on Middle Eastern oil, but the guerillas frequently attack Colombia's oil pipelines.6 The U.S. appears to be getting involved in Colombia's civil war to guarantee our corporations' access to the country's resources. We can expect to see similar stories played out throughout Latin America in the years to come.