The Donkey Is Back at the Wheat

If the naïve inhabitants of San Antero (Córdoba, Colombia), during the recently concluded, spectacular Summit of the Americas, in Cartagena, would have thought it better, they would not have gifted the donkey “Motorola”— a twenty-five inch Colombian television with 4 legs – to the charismatic President Obama, but to the delegation of detectives and secret service agents in charge of his safety. The gift was not considered a symbol of the U.S. Democratic Party, but a spectacular example of the predatory mentality of the gringo, which takes into account, of course, that sexual violence is never satisfied. It is not by chance that the English word “ass” derives from the Latin word “asinus”, which is “asno” in Spanish.

Despite the extension of demagoguery and of the last call for the ten-years visa to the “immense minority of privileged persons” in Colombia who travel to the country of economic opportunities, and because “Motorola” had not been timely vaccinated against yellow fever, he will have to stay in the bloody savanna regions of Córdoba, where the “Uribérrismo” is located, philosophizing about the three issues vetoed by Anglo-Saxon imperialism at the summit: the criminal blockade against Cuba, the Falkland Islands, and the political solution to the Colombian conflict.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos paid $100 million to mount the international stage at the beginning of Obama’s reelection campaign, uselessly showing off in Cartagena then appearing with an angelic face on the cover of Times Magazine. A business summit that only made clear the political, but not the military, decadence of imperialism – no empire has lasted forever – could have been held in the lobby of any convention center without the cheapness and banality seen here. We could have also added a national anthem by Shakira: “The horrible night is over, sublime liberty,” or the nonsense of the diplomatic Santista, who, in order to justify the premeditated forgetfulness of his president, who said, “If Turbay Ayala supported England in the Falkland’s war, why would Colombia change its diplomatic “respice polum”* doctrine, which has brought great benefits?” There are still many naïve that believe that the English do not directly advise Colombian militarism.

With the exception of right-wingers like Piñera and Calderón, the rest of the presidents did not feel so submissive and devoted to the traditional, centennial “big stick” imperialist policy initiated by President Monroe. This revealed a hopeful sovereign awareness in our America, which augurs great new contradictions and advances in the liberating march to a second, definitive independence. A continental awareness also arrived in Colombia, where, at the same time as the OAS summit, the alternative summit of the people took place, which, while giving rise to uniform, comprehensive and popular conclusions, unfortunately suffered the usual opportunists, who attempt to capitalize to on their “simply electoral” aspirations of the moment.

But the real background of this circus summit has also become clear: the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the U.S., and military commitments. The latter is being materialized in the sale of strategic equipment, such as American-Israeli unmanned drone aircraft. On a hurried visit to President Santos, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak evaluated the possibility of selling drones with the aim to indiscriminately bomb the Colombian periphery, where mineral and energy resources can be found, escalating the Colombian conflict.

Given the fact of the well-known and irreversible opposition between Uribe Velez and Santos, cracks have been completely confirmed – and are constantly enlarging – among the different factions of the oligarchic and military forces that dominate Colombia for their own benefit. The traditional and pre-modern landowning mafia faction has finally confronted the financial oligarchy because of: 1) political hegemony, 2) control of military machinery with impunity, and 3) the economic fate of unproductive, useless rent-oriented landowning. The financial oligarchy wishes to start exploiting land areas efficiently, ceding them by granting millions of hectares to the imperialist and transnational mining and energy companies. In 2008, 3 million hectares were turned over to investments by Canadian mining companies, while 400 thousand hectares went to palm oil. And this doesn’t even take into account the other energy/oil mega projects. This situation has given rise to a “displacement” of the strategic axis of armed conflict to the periphery zones, where this natural wealth is found and must be secured. “Consolidate,” says President Santos, smiling.

While the donkey goes back to the tasty wheat of this recurring, bogged-down war, the Colombian people move forward in the serious processes of political organization and awareness, like those expressed in events such as “Dialogue is the path, ”“Congress on Lands, Territories and Sovereignty,” among others. These efforts are now being conducted in two significant, comprehensive dynamics of popular unity: the patriotic march and the people’s congress, with a clear prospective of social mobilization to power. While pro-gringo militarism insists on war to impose its neoliberal engine, patriot people march to politics. As Colombian peasants say: “while the donkey goes to the wheat, the ass goes to the barley.”

* Translator’s note: this translates as “looking to the northern star,” in this case, referring to the United States.