The Business of Anti-imperialism

North American anti-imperialism has been useful for everything, even to sit on. There is not any poor person that does not offer objections against Yankee imperialism, nor poor devil that does not receive applause for doing it and that does not pluck at Uncle Sam’s beard. Leftist intellectuals delight in filling their lectures with the topic of imperialism and the horrors that the gringos have committed in Bolivia. Keep in mind, the lecturer gets paid. Anti-imperialism is an easy lucrative business without major risks.

There is no risk in spouting this type of diatribe because the U.S. has so much power that they pay no mind to those who merely want to cover their faces with their hands. It is like a bull that frightens the flies with its tail without ceasing its grazing. It is undeniable that anti-imperialism unites supporters from everywhere; a partisan document or statute does not exist that doesn’t sound an alert warning against the Yankee danger, its greed, its plundering, or the evil CIA and DEA. Now they even treat President Obama as a “negro,” and those that do it that are not exactly Aryans.

The U.S. has its interests just like any world power, but one cannot say that it has been harsher than colonial English, German, Spanish or French, or even its most recent adversaries the Russians. Of course, for the lovers of democracy –in Bolivia now everyone is fanatically democratic – the U.S. should be an example of respect, tolerance and cooperation. That’s only if there are not nuclear warheads pointed at Washington or planes flying into towers in Manhattan. The U.S. is not a castrated rooster either.

The new president Evo Morales, before even reassuming power, is already echoing Chávez by accusing the U.S. of invading Haiti. He ordered the resignation of the Chancellor who requested a meeting of the United Nations in order to censure the North Americans for sending troops to Port-au-Prince. The purpose is to annoy imperialism. It wasn’t important that the U.S. had put in immense floating hospitals, collected money or even set up an airport to aid victims. He had to avoid his presence in Haiti, although the Haitian government called to them with screams, imprisoned by grand impotence. He had to create a scandal so that the idiots would applaud Morales for showing guts.

In the same tone, the day before yesterday Morales changed the military and police leadership and without motive, removed imperialism by force. Morales has a hatred for the U.S. that is not ideological but rather commercial; it comes from the times of the forced eradication of coca in the Chapare. He says that he suspects misfeasance in the police force which maintains “secret agreements” with gringo agents. Does he have a test for what he says? Is it another deceit? Will the military and police one day tell him that they suspect him?