By Gustavo Espinoza M. on October 23, 2023
US military forces arrive in Peru
Walt Whitman in his beautiful tribute to Abraham Lincoln announced to us that the legacy of the valiant woodsman, turned president has become extinct, or is about to perish. It would seem that this painful premonition is coming true, as expressed by current U.S. government spokespersons. In any case, today all that is further away than ever.
It could be assumed that feminism has prevailed in the U.S. Armed Forces, or that the struggle for gender equality, so dear in our times, has gained ground. But this is not really the case. One swallow does not make a summer. And the fact that Mrs. Laura Richardson is the 32nd Chief of the Southern Command is nothing but the exception to the rule that the high commands in the imperial army are occupied only by men.
But Ms. Richardson is not just a flower of any garden either. She has what could be called a brilliant record of service in the U.S. Army, where she holds a specialty: Military Aviation.
As the symbol of the Southern Command is the Condor, and she is the swallow, perhaps it could be said ironically that she looks like a high-flying bird. And her role has no limit.
When they speak of the south in this country, they do not refer to the states located south of its geographical space, such as Texas or Florida, but to the countries located between the Bravo River and Patagonia, that is to say, the entire continent.
Mrs. Richardson, the General, a veteran of several wars, who served at the time in South Korea, Iraq – “Operation Freedom” 2003- and Afghanistan, today looks with singular concern at the vast territory that James Monroe considered to belong to them, back in 1823.
Honoring such an illustrious antecedent -Monroe’s, by the way- the current General assured at the time that this region is very rich in oil, gold, silver, copper, lithium and other minerals, as well as in water, forest and bio diversity, and maintained that these resources could not benefit “extra continental powers”, but only them.
“They belong to us”, she assured, honoring part of her functions that also allow her to protect the interests of the United States “in the face of the advance of China and Russia”, which is a barrier for them.
If such a statement had been made by an official of the White House, it could be considered an expression of the proverbial voracity of the Empire; but said by a high military chief of the Armed Forces of the United States -man or woman- it looks like a rude aggression that attempts against the basic wealth of independent and sovereign countries.
This statement was recently accompanied by another one: Mrs. Richardson took the liberty of attacking Telesur, the Latin American news agency that keeps her awake at night, as well as RT and other international news agencies not linked to Washington’s interests.
For her, their transmissions threaten the security of the United States, which, according to Foster Dulles, has no permanent friends, but only permanent interests, and they stir up the people. In other words, they put large corporations and American investment at risk; in short, they destabilize capitalism on a global scale.
In this confusing and convulsive framework, Dina Boluarte the usurper president has operated a notorious turn in Peruvian foreign policy, she has slavishly submitted to the designs of the US. And this, which had been apparent since the initiatives of Lisa Lane – CIA exigent and US ambassador to Peru – was overstated with the presence of Mrs. Richardson here.
In recent months, the Ministers of the Interior and Defense have traveled to the United States to “exchange ideas” regarding the “fight against drug trafficking and terrorism”. Obviously, this “exchange” was unequal. They left without ideas, and came back with those of the White House.
What can the country that consumes the most drugs in the world contribute in terms of drug trafficking, and what can the most terrorist country on the planet contribute in the fight against terrorism?
Before the DEA operated in Peru, drug trafficking was at very low levels. Today, it is one of the highest in the region. And as for terrorism, there are high rates in the US where deranged people kill children in schools and neighborhoods on a daily basis.
If we add to this already unhealthy relationship between Biden and the regime of Boluarte and Otarola, the presence of US troops operating here in secret, which will be accompanied by warships and new weapons, we will have the image of a warmongering link that responds to a policy completely alien to the interests of the country.
The business of war is not inscribed in Peru’s DNA. Moreover, Lincoln’s legacy, among us, is not dead.
In Latin America as a whole, one can well hope with Pablo Neruda “that the woodcutter wakes up…”.
Source: Rebelion translation, Resumen Latinoamericano – English