<div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:7.5pt"><a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4907:raul-zibechi-latin-america-today-seen-from-below&catid=30:international&Itemid=60" target="_blank">http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4907:raul-zibechi-latin-america-today-seen-from-below&catid=30:international&Itemid=60</a></span></b><u></u><u></u></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Raúl Zibechi</i><u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:13.5pt;color:blue">Latin America Today, Seen From Below</span></b><u></u><u></u></p></div><div>
<p class="MsoNormal">by Raúl Zibechi, Thursday, 26 June 2014<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br>Here
Raúl Zibechi offers a wide-ranging look at the geopolitical reality of
the continent from the perspective of social movements, touching on the
organizing model of the indigenous Chilean Mapuche and Mexican
Zapatistas, conflicts occurring over the extraction industries in many
countries, and the increasingly dominant role of Brazil in the region.<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Raúl Zibechi is a Uruguayan writer, professor and analyst whose newest book<i> The New Brazil: Regional Imperialism and the New Democracy</i> was just published in English by AK Press.<u></u><u></u></p>
</div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Original interview published in the June 2013 issue MU Magazine, from the<i> La Vaca popular</i> media collective in Buenos Aires. Translated by Margi Clarke. Reprinted with permission.<i>
{Brian's note: I have searched the web for the original spanish version
of this interview and cannot find it; if anyone locates it, please send
me the link!}</i><u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>1- ECUADOR</i></b><br><br>In
Ecuador there is a government that proclaims a "citizen revolution" and
that has a constitution with explicit environmental values that speaks
of Well Being and the rights of Nature. At the same time, there are 179
or 180 indigenous leaders and activists accused of sabotage and
terrorism for doing what they always have done: blocking roads and
occupying public land to protest and stop the mining projects that
threaten their livelihood and communities. The greatest struggle of the
social movements right now is to defend water and to halt open-pit
mining. President Correa calls them "full-bellies" ('pancitas llenas')
who have plenty to eat and can dedicate themselves to criticizing the
government and the mining industry alongside their imperialist NGO
allies (non-governmental organizations).<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><i>MU:
Bolivian President Evo Morales also calls out NGO's as organizations
promoting imperialist interests with the intention to erode Latin
American state power.</i><u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br>Yes,
Correa and Morales accuse the social movements of being manipulated by
the NGO's, as if the indigenous communities were underage children.
Ecuador and Bolivia have several things in common: one, the popular
movements are strong; another is that the governments call themselves
'revolutionary'; and in both countries there is an fierce confrontation
between the governments' modernization policies with the social
movements who are criminalized and persecuted.<br><br>But an interesting
fact is that the dominant classes in Bolivia as well as in Ecuador are
changing rapidly. The financial bourgeoisie in Guayaquil (in the south)
has collapsed and today it is the financial sector in Quito (the
northern altiplano) that is dominant. At the same time, new analyses
coming out of Bolivia speak of a new bourgeoisie in which the Aymara and
Quechua indigenous leaders have an important role. This contradiction
was evident in the conflict over Tipnis, when a huge indigenous
mobilization halted a highway project into their ancestral lands, which
are part of a national park. In Tipnis the conflict is between the
coca-producers who are now part of the ruling structure against the
indigenous [whom they had previously been allied with to bring Evo
Morales into power]. We see this process happening in several
countries.<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><i>MU: So, what does the power map look like now?</i><u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br>Basically
what we have on the one hand is the old ownership class, and on the
other hand the "management" class ('gestores'). People who are not the
owners of the banks but who manage the banks, those who control the
pension funds, the capital that is the raw material for financial
speculation. These managers are now the critical players, they are paid
well and they are part of the ruling class even though they do not own
the industrial means of production. They dominate the
financial-economic circuit that reproduces capital. We see
contradictions in these countries between the owners and the managers
who are allied with each other in some ways, but not in others. It is
interesting to see how the dominant class that has become more complex
and where there are conflicts. And how parts of the ruling class make
use of the popular sectors and others depend on other social sectors, in
service of their own interests, and that there are points of unity and
points of conflict between and among them. Basically we are seeing a
re-structuring and re-positioning of the ruling classes and we see these
shifts very clearly in Bolivia and Ecuador.</p></div><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><b>Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..</b></div>
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<br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div>
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