This fall we seem to be at a crossroads, especially those of us in the US, the most powerful nation the world has ever known, militarily and economically. How is the US government handling this power?
We’ll touch on Latin America, Ukraine, and Palestine.
Juan González, co-host with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, is a journalist who authored Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, rev. 2022. This past month he provided us with an 8-minute segment on how US “economic warfare” against Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua fuels the migrant crisis, in a way that is both destructive of others, and self-defeating.
As to the US blockade of Cuba, people in the US — and even many corporate news outlets — are more opposed than ever to the blockade that has caused severe hardship for more than 60 years. Even though Obama in 2015 eased the hostilities, Trump undid those initial efforts, and Biden has trumped Trump by making it even worse. With a stroke of his pen, Biden has the power to stop inflicting misery and move toward peace with Cubans.
This year has been heart-breaking when we see how so many of our resources — money, time and attention — have been directed toward destruction through military actions around the globe, rather than toward the health of people and the planet.
This excerpt of a United Nations speech by Gustavo Petro, the first left-leaning president in the history of Colombia, was sent to the Task Force on the Americas board by a compañera on the TFA board of directors. Expressed in a way that is more Latin American than North American, Petro talked about the choices between life and death that face us. As always, we individually and collectively have more power than we realize, through our voices, votes, wallet and rally power, and more. The entire speech in English is here.
Gustavo Petro, President of Colombia, September 2023
While the minutes that define life or death on our planet are ticking on, rather than halting this march of time and talking about how to defend life for the future, thanks to deepening knowledge, expand it to the universe, we decided to waste time killing each other. We are not thinking about how to expand life to the stars, but rather how to end life on our own planet. We have devoted ourselves to war. We have been called to war. Latin America has been called upon to produce war machines, men, to go to the killing fields.
They’re forgetting that our countries have been invaded several times by the very same people who are now talking about combatting invasions. They’re forgetting that they invaded Iraq, Syria and Libya for oil. They’re forgetting that the same reasons they use to defend Zelenskyy are the very reasons that should be used to defend Palestine. They forget that to meet the Sustainable Development Goals, we must end all wars.
But they’re helping to wage one war in particular, because world powers see this suiting themselves in their game of thrones, in their hunger games and they’re forgetting to bring an end to the other war because, for these powers, this did not suit them. What is the difference between Ukraine and Palestine, I ask? Is it not time to bring an end to both wars, and other wars too, and make the most of the short time we have to build paths to save life on the planet?
…I propose that the United Nations, as soon as possible, should hold two peace conferences, one on Ukraine, the other on Palestine, not because there are no other wars in the world — there are in my country — but because this would guide the way to making peace in all regions of the planet, because both of these, by themselves, could bring an end to hypocrisy as a political practice, because we could be sincere, a virtue without which we cannot be warriors for life itself.