South vs. North: Snowden's Place in History is Assured (Izvestia, Russia)
"Snowden is a catalyst for changes that have been
smoldering below the surface for many years. The gaping chasm between north and
south of the Western Hemisphere has long existed. But now at the very bottom of
that fault line - a nuclear bomb has gone off. ... Snowden himself is not a politician, not a
statesman, but a hacker who worked for the intelligence services. However, the
course of history has been altered by less substantial figures."
However
the story of fugitive NSA employee Edward Snowden
ends, his place in history is secured.
The
young programmer, who has gone over to the "light side of the Force,"
sitting (presumably) in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo
Airport, has sparked several diplomatic scandals and seriously complicated the
lives of people in foreign ministries in dozens of countries. This will not be
soon forgotten.
It
has been almost three weeks in which Snowden has been in limbo: The U.S.
demanded he be extradited, and one country after another in which he sought
extradition has turned him down. Then out of nowhere, three countries -
Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia - declared they are prepared to shelter the
fugitive.
The
fact that Latin America is the area to hold out a helping hand to Snowden is no
surprise. The region, habitually considered the "backyard" of the
powerful United States, has been growing in strength and becoming a player in
its own right on the infamous "grand chessboard." The region is far
from homogeneous, but generally speaking, it can be said that there is a shared
dislike for its wealthy northern neighbor. The contemptuous word "gringo,"
which darker-skinned inhabitants of Central and South America use to refer to Whites,
was originally a nickname for American sailors. There is a general perception
that for the U.S., Latin America is something like the "near-abroad"
is to Russia. A long life in the shadow of a mighty state is not conducive to sincere
and ardent love. Conversely, it is easier to love from a distance - hence the European
Community countries unanimously denied Snowden asylum, caving in to their
senior partner. Meanwhile, three Latin American presidents - NicolásMaduro, Daniel Ortega and
Evo Morales - didn't shrink from throwing down the
gauntlet to Washington.
Here
of course, we need to bear in mind that two of these men have personal scores
to settle with the United States. Ortega was leader of the Sandinista
revolution in Nicaragua, who fought the dictator Somoza, the son of the same
Somoza whom
Roosevelt referred to when he said, "Somoza may be a son of a bitch,
but he's our son of a bitch." The U.S. long bankrolled Ortega's enemies
the "Contras" (remember
the "Iran-Contra"
scandal that cost Reagan a good third of his team), and supported Violeta Chamorro in unseating him from the presidency.
Evo Morales - an Aymara
Indian - has been accused by Washington of protecting drug dealers (Morales
meanwhile maintains that "coca is not a drug,"
and consequently has resisted U.S. demands that his government eradicate cultivation
of the plant in Bolivia).
Perhaps
the least of these grudges is held by NicolásMaduro (although he was once subjected to a humiliating
detention at John F. Kennedy Airport), but he is the successor to Hugo
Chavez, and will inevitably be compared to his great predecessor. Would Chavez
have given shelter to Snowden? Absolutely. Maduro
aims to measure up to him, stating: "Latin America is a humanitarian territory,
and it is growing by the day. This is probably the only humanitarian or
political asylum in history that has been offered collectively ... asylum in
countries ... which are saying to this young man, 'you are being persecuted by
the Empire, come and live here.'"
There
has been a complete breakdown of stereotypes. The United States won the Cold
War because it was (or seemed to be) the ideal of freedom - a shining city on a
hill. However, the naive counter-arguments of communist propagandists ("but
they lynch Black people!") smashed the invisible armor of this imaginary
freedom to smithereens. The symbol of that America was Easy Rider - a
movie of the endless road and highways as straight as an arrow, along which powerful
Harleys rode into the sunset. But to the south of this citadel of freedom lay
the land of dictatorships, the preserve of murderous juntas, kingdoms of "black
colonels" who were occasionally toppled by agents of the empire of light (a
staple of Hollywood blockbusters). But that was yesterday.
Today
this 'humanitarian territory' opposes the Empire. It is South against North - Liberty
vs. total control.
Once
European countries closed their airspace to the plane of the Bolivian president
(someone told the Americans that Snowden had been secreted aboard the plane from
Moscow, so every available lever had been pressed), and the Austrians held Morales
at Vienna airport for over twelve hours, Latin America exploded. The vice president
of Bolivia said, "Morales was hijacked by imperialism," and that the
honor of Latin America had been desecrated by the Europeans. Morales himself
demanded an apology from the European countries (some apologized, some didn't)
and promised to close the U.S. embassy in Bolivia. Ecuador President Rafael
Correa threatened to recall his ambassadors from the U.S. and countries that
had blocked Morales. Even the quite loyal president of Argentina, Cristina
Kirchner, called the actions of the Europeans an "intolerable subterfuge."
On July 5, 12 Latin American presidents gathered for an emergency summit of the
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and
expressed their indignation at the incident involving Morales' plane, demanding
that the European states disclose the details of what occurred.
Snowden
is a catalyst for changes that have been smoldering below the surface for many
years. The gaping chasm between north and south of the Western Hemisphere has long
existed. But now at the very bottom of that fault line - a nuclear bomb has
gone off. The confrontation between the ideologically left-leaning South and
the imperialist North has become all the more visible and acute.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
The
U.S. has already threatened Latin American countries prepared to offer Snowden refuge
with a loss of trade benefits. "This is serious business," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike
Rogers - and he was absolutely right. The fact is, the attitudes of Anglo Saxons
and Latin Americans toward business are different. Morales, for example, is a
firm opponent of extending NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) to create
the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), seeing
this as an instrument of crypto-colonialism by its northern neighbor. The loss
of preferential trade benefits will hardly scare Venezuela, which is a huge
supplier of oil to the United States. The countries of Latin America may
respond by further integrating themselves - and the region's natural resources
are virtually inexhaustible. In addition, it is predominantly a Catholic
region, which means they can count on help from their influential allies at the
Vatican, who under the leadership of the new pope, clearly don't intend to
become Washington's "junior partners." And this means that this chasm
divides not only the political, but the religious.
Of
course, Snowden himself is not a politician, not a statesman, just a hacker who
worked for the intelligence services. However, the course of history has been altered
by less substantial figures. GavriloPrincip fired the shot that launched the First World War,
and he was just a Serbian schoolboy.
