[Peace-discuss] Stephen Kinzer: Latin America is ready to defy the US over Snowden and other issues

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/25/edward-snowden-ecuador-defy-united-states

Latin America is ready to defy the US over Snowden and other issues
Latin America has long lived in the US shadow, but the fact that some
countries might take Snowden shows how that's changed

Stephen Kinzer
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 25 June 2013 12.16 EDT

No offense to Iceland, but Latin America is where the fugitive leaker
Edward Snowden should settle.

He apparently has the same idea. News reports suggest that he is in Moscow
awaiting transport to Cuba, Venezuela, and/or Ecuador. A Facebook post
suggests Bolivia may have granted Snowden asylum. Nothing has been heard
from Nicaragua, Peru, Brazil, or Argentina, but any or all might also
welcome him.

Any country that grants asylum to Snowden risks retaliation from the United
States, including diplomatic isolation and costly trade sanctions. Several
don't seem to care. The fact that Latin America has become the favored
refuge for a United States citizen accused of treason and espionage is an
eye-popping reminder of how fully the continent has emerged from
Washington's shadow.

"Latin America is not gone, and we want to keep it," President Richard
Nixon told aides as he was pressing the covert operation that brought down
the Chilean government in 1973. A decade later, the Reagan administration
was fighting proxy wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the
1980s the US Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to
depose leaders who had defied Washington.

During the 1990s the United States sought to impose the "Washington
Consensus" on Latin American governments. It embodied what Latin Americans
call "neo-liberal" principles: budget cuts, privatization, deregulation of
business, and incentives for foreign companies. This campaign sparked
bitter resistance and ultimately collapsed.

In spite of these military, political, and economic assaults – or perhaps
because of them – much of Latin America has become profoundly dissatisfied
with the made-in-USA model. Some of the continent's most popular leaders
rose to power by denouncing the "Washington Consensus" and pledging to pull
their countries out of the United States orbit.

Because President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was the most flamboyant of these
defiant leaders, some outsiders may have expected that following his death,
the region would return to its traditional state of submission. In fact,
not just a handful of leaders but huge populations in Latin America have
decided that they wish for more independence from Washington.

This is vital for Snowden because it reduces the chances that a sudden
change of government could mean his extradition. If he can make it to Latin
America, he will never lack for friends or supporters.

One would be the American-educated President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, an
avowed socialist and admirer of Fidel Castro. In 2009 Correa forced the
United States to abandon its military base in his country, despite repeated
protests from Washington. He has already granted a form of asylum to
Wiki-leaks founder Julian Assange, who is living inside the Ecuadoran
embassy in London. Having publicly welcomed Assange to "the club of the
persecuted," he would presumably embrace Snowden as another member.

Ecuador, with its long coastline, majestic mountains, and lush rain forest,
is an ideal place for such a club to assemble. It is more than twice the
size of Iceland and considerably warmer. Its people, not just its
president, are known for gentle hospitality.

>From Ecuador, Snowden could travel widely. Everything from the splendor of
Bolivia's Lake Titicaca to the vibrancy of teeming Caracas awaits him. With
luck, he might even be able to visit Guatemala in September to attend the
grand festival being planned for the 100th anniversary of the birth of
Jacobo Arbenz, the reformist president who the United States deposed in
1954.

Snowden would have much to celebrate upon landing in Latin America, and
much to anticipate. He might not be truly free, however. Some in Washington
have raised his case, like those of Assange and Corporal Bradley Manning,
into major national security tests. They might press for a "rendition" in
which Snowden would be snatched and brought home for trial.

Two breathtakingly different possible lives await Snowden. If the United
States has its way, he will probably end up with something like the long
prison sentence that is being prepared for Corporal Manning. If not, he
could spend years in an Ecuadoran beach town like Playas, where the lobster
is cheap, the sunsets are spectacular, and internet connections could keep
him on the front line of the information war for years.

-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
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