Graziella Pogolotti
People protest in Santiago on Nov. 16, nearly a month after demonstrations began.
Something, perhaps insufficient, was taught to us by the school curricula about Latin America. In a superficial way, we learned about conquest and colonization and about the heroes of the war of independence. Despite Marti’s warning, we did not understand the essential reasons for our Americanity. We failed to understand the concrete substance and complexities of the social fabric of countries built from violence that castrated the organic development of their original inhabitants and marginalized them. Providing the hands for the extraction of raw materials introduced brutal African slavery. In this context, different cultures clashed, contaminated each other to a certain degree, although above all the domination of one over the other was exercised with the objective sustenance of economic oppression and, at the subjective level, of a racism that permeated the conscience of many and that subsisted in terms of bad memory, harmful to the unity of our peoples. However, the marginalized and forgotten have demonstrated an enormous capacity for resistance. They begin to emerge in very adverse situations. Their voices and values are beginning to become recognizable. Against its renovation projects, neoliberalism unleashes economic power and its instrument of action on subjectivities, the monopoly of the media, including personalized work through the sophisticated use of social networks.
The events that occurred after the triumph of the Revolution gave us a learning of the deep realities of America, hidden behind the splendorous showcases of some of its great cities. After the victory of January 1959, many came to share our work, to exchange ideas, to offer knowledge. Some remained with us forever. Others found refuge here on dark days of exile. We discovered the cinema and music of Brazil. We were closely touched by the drama of dictatorships that cut short lives and produced thousands of disappeared people. We became familiar with the image of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. We lived with intensity the transforming wave that invaded the continent.
The progressive shift from Venezuela to the south increased our proximity. Latin America assumed a new language, simultaneously affirmed its identity values and proposed, according to the circumstances of each one, development models that improved the conditions of existence of millions of citizens as opposed to the formulas established by neoliberalism. For the first time, the voice of our native peoples was being heard.
The electoral defeats in some countries baffled us and raised numerous questions. For some, those recently lifted out of poverty are beginning to think differently. They embrace the aspirations of the petty bourgeoisie. Regardless of what they have won, they forget that the return of neoliberalism will deprive them of their conquests. The argument is not entirely satisfactory to me. Changes in consciousness do not happen so quickly, especially when material benefits are added to a systematic work of citizen education. The matter deserves in-depth study, because social phenomena respond to multifactorial causes.
The elected vice-president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández, has recounted the infamous defamatory campaign to which she was subjected by the big press and private television channels. Contravening all ethical principles, the infamy transgressed the limits of her personal life, even putting her mental health in doubt. Accused without evidence of all kinds of crimes, suffered the deterioration of his public image and paid a high cost in the family plane with the breakdown of the physical state of her daughter. The propaganda racket undermined the essence of a government project to rescue the nation, expand opportunities for the most underprivileged, promote science and protect culture.
The current panorama shows a profound perversion of democratic institutions. Coups d’état are carried out using other methods. Transparency of information implies knowledge and constitutes a way of exercising power through access to reality in its complexity and in the contradictions inherent in the dialectics of all historical evolution. The events that have occurred in Brazil are revealing in this respect. The fierce media campaign was complemented by the parliamentary coup d’état perpetrated against President Dilma Rousseff, despite the fact that she was not charged with any crime. With the active complicity of the Judicial Branch, in the name of a just cause, the fight against corruption, the convictions are concentrated in the persons of the PT. In order to conjure his great popular support and marginalize him from the electoral process, without any evidence and in violation of constitutional principles, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva is imprisoned.
This is what is called the judicialization of politics. In truth, the operation corresponds to the enormous oil reserves existing in the seas of Brazil and to the raw materials – water included – conserved in the immense territory of the country. The formulas can be even more extreme. In the case of Bolivia, violent groups are organized with the intention of destabilizing the nation in terms of civil war. In an even more sinister background, in a plurinational territory, where the historical demands of the original peoples have been vindicated, latent racism is invoked.
In all cases, the traditional role of the three powers has been annulled. In the name of freedom of the press, the possibilities of taking measures against the systematic use of slander and defamation are curtailed. Meticulously prepared, the fascist coup d’état was consummated, as a tragic turnaround in the development of a national project, the rescue of sovereignty, of the richest mining resources and the vindication of the full rights of our native peoples.
This is a lesson we must learn. Our in-depth knowledge of Latin America continues to be a pending issue. Hand in hand with the empire, the oligarchic right acts in a cohesive manner and articulates the use of violence with the systematic use of the media and social networks. Palliating differences of nuance, the left and progressive movements have to forge, in theory and practice, a common platform against the savage capitalism represented by neoliberalism. The stakes at this decisive moment are high. They are our right to life and the future of our children.
