Al-Ahram Weekly takes stock of the Summit of the Americas in Monterrey, Mexico
'A new America'
Although excluded from the Monterrey Summit of the Americas, Cuba was central to the debate,
writes Faiza Rady
Almost out of the blue, the sprawling industrial town of Monterrey, Mexico, witnessed an unscheduled Summit of the Americas meeting last week. Hastily summoned by United States President George W Bush on 13 and 14 January, the meeting included heads of state from 34 countries from North and South America -- with the exception of Cuba, which the US excluded from the Organisation of American States (OAS) in 1962 for being "undemocratic": ie a socialist republic.
At first glance, the reasons for convening last week's summit seemed unintelligible. The next Summit of the Americas -- a follow-up on the 2001 meeting in Quebec, Canada -- was supposed to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2005.
In an attempt to explain Washington's urgency in convening the summit ahead of schedule, White House permanent representative of the OAS, John Maisto, said the idea was to address the US government's classic sales pitch of "economic growth, social development and democratic governance in the Western hemisphere". Oddly enough, Maisto forgot all about his boss's choice centre piece: the war on terror.
Over and above dabbling in semantics, however, Bush administration officials eventually expressed more palatable, down to earth concerns for convening the summit.
Thus it came as no great surprise when it surfaced that Washington's real goal was to rein in a number of recalcitrant Latin American countries and keep them on a short leash: a process that would include their cutting all ties to Cuba.
Judging by US State Department and Bush administration statements, the tiny and besieged Caribbean island of 12 million people remains a potent threat to the world's only superpower. Shortly before the summit, US Under-Secretary of State for Hemispheric Affairs Roger Noriega criticised Cuba for "supporting destabilising elements in several democratic countries in the Americas."
Among the "destabilising elements" supported by Cuba, Noriega presumably included the Argentine government, which he stopped just short of calling a subversive follower of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Argentina apparently fell out of line -- and somewhat out of grace -- with the US after Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa travelled to Cuba and failed to meet with US-backed Cuban dissidents.
More importantly, however, it looks like Argentina may form a regional trade axis with other like-minded South American countries. Indeed "US President George W Bush went to Monterrey with the aim of halting a number of measures that clash with the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)," wrote the Cuban daily Granma.
The US-backed FTAA, which plans to provide American multinationals with a gargantuan market in the US's own backyard -- in addition to a vast and captive pool of cheap labour -- has necessarily produced a regional backlash.
"Cuban leader Fidel Castro has raised his voice against creeping neo-liberalism and capitalist globalisation in all international forums," Pedro Ross Leal, secretary-general of the Cuban Federation of Trade Unions, told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that "globalised policies are being imposed against the world's poor".
In Latin America, like elsewhere, the figures are devastating. According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, 220 million Latin Americans, representing 43.4 per cent of the region's people, live in poverty. Following two and a half decades of creeping neo-liberalism, highly conservative estimates place the number of unemployed people in Latin America at 17 million, some 11 per cent of the region's population.
Meanwhile, the objectives of the Summit of the Americas, as expressed in its charter, include "the quest for sustained and equitable economic growth that reduces poverty and eliminates hunger".
Led by Brazil and Venezuela, a South American offensive is reportedly in the making. According to Granma, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva -- also known as Lula -- and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are planning to create a new regional trading block sometime in 2004 -- which may also extend to Ecuador and possibly Colombia.
"Clearly, an axis can be seen -- and it is not an axis of evil as some people say -- but an axis that passes from Caracas, through Brasilia and reaches Buenos Aires," President Chavez told the Venezuelan parliament in a state of the nation address on 15 January. "There is a new America present, a new voice," he added.
Such a wanton show of Latin American independence, which the US attributes to Cuba's vexing influence on the continent, naturally worries Bush administration politicos.
"They don't know what to do with us. We are an inconvenient model because we have achieved First World standards in health and education, although we are besieged and impoverished," Leal told the Weekly.
"We top the United Nation Development Programme's (UNDP) list of Latin American countries for education, health and social indicators, and we sometimes rate higher than the US and other developed countries. Average life expectancy is 77 years, education is free and there is no illiteracy. The unemployment level is at 3.4 per cent, which rates as full employment according to international standards. Even in sports, our athletes have accomplished much. We rank seventh worldwide." A tremendous success story despite the weight of the US blockade, Cuba's model surely looks "destabilising" to the neo-cons sitting in Washington.
"In this context, it is crucial for the Bush administration to isolate Cuba because we are an example to other Latin American countries," said Leal. Beyond the embargo, the US has attempted to isolate Cuba and crush its revolution since day one.
"Cuba has become a symbol of courageous resistance to attack," said distinguished linguist, writer and political activist Noam Chomsky in an interview with Radio Havana Cuba. "Since 1959 Cuba has been under attack from the hemispheric superpower. It has been at the receiving end of terrorism, repression and denunciation, but it survives."
Cuba has in fact become a symbol of resistance that has taken off in South America. After the democratic elections that swept Hugo Chavez to the presidency in 1998, Venezuela veered towards socialism. "The impoverished people of this immensely rich country have progressed considerably," Leal said of Venezuela. "Chavez is struggling against tremendous corruption and the ruling classes' looting of the country's resources. In addition, he has established sweeping land reforms," explained Leal. Hence the US-supported backlash of the rich aiming to oust Chavez.
But the Cuban model has not been lost on Chavez; he has learned to resist. On a visit to Havana following the summit, Chavez lauded the social and economic cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela, exemplified by more than 10,000 Cuban doctors working in Venezuelan public health projects -- defying the Bush administration. Said Chavez: "Yes, we are destabilisers, Fidel and Chavez, against death, injustice and inequality."
