By Carlos Aznárez on November 6, 2023
Hugo Chávez and Maradona, on November 5, 2005 in Mar del Plata.
When today the heroic Palestinian Resistance are in a tremendously unequal fight against the Zionist criminality, and the unstoppable force of the Russian soldiers continue denazifying Ukraine, it is worth remembering another enormous patriotic victory, this time an American one, which took place exactly 18 years ago in the Argentine city of Mar del Plata.
At that time, on November 5, 2005, the streets of Mar del Plata were filled with crowds. Banners, drums, and banners, all pointed to a single objective made slogan: “No to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)”. The aim was to stop this interfering “free trade agreement” with all the power possible. Moreover, it was absolutely necessary to show Mr. Bush that the continent was not his “backyard”.
The seaside resort city was hosting the Summit of Presidents in which the ill-fated initiative promoted by the United States and some of its acolytes would be approved or not. But in addition, the most gigantic counter-summit ever remembered in these lands would also close its sessions there in a great stadium, with the fundamental figure of the convocation none other than Commander Hugo Chávez.
The day dawned rainy but nevertheless, from all parts of the country, men and women arrived in all types of transportation, men and women who were clear that if this project monitored by the empire continued to advance, each country would lose even more its independence and a colonizing wave in the economic, political and social spheres would rush again as in the 90’s throughout the continent. The FTAA was, at that point, the flagship of the landing of a new type of marines whose uniforms would be the suits and ties of the CEOs of the transnationals, eager to devour the ancestral riches of each territory. For this reason and many others, Mar del Plata had suddenly become the place where the nobodies, represented by themselves and with the endorsement of a handful of presidents, would have the strategic mission of stopping the bulldozer of another undesirable participant, George W. Bush, who, used to playing the winning game, would think that success would smile on him once again.
If any element was missing to add more color and warmth to that morning, a special service had arrived at the Mar del Plata railway station, baptized “ALBA Train”, in clear reference to the liberating alternative promoted by Venezuela and Cuba. Various social and political leaders and the so-called “personalities” traveled in their cars. the Bolivian leader Evo Morales, who was about to become the first indigenous president of the continent, the filmmaker Emir Kusturica, the great Diego Maradona, who before leaving had declared among applause: “Bush is human garbage and the biggest criminal in the world”, also Father Luis Farinello, Miguel Bonasso and Luis D’Elía (both co-organizers of this counter gathering) and many others.
All of them and a crowd awaiting them marched boisterously down the traditional Luro Avenue, led by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Maradona, and at one of the corners they were joined by a huge delegation of Cubans, waving their flags, who had arrived in a charter sent by Comandante Fidel Castro to support the unequal battle against the Empire. A strategist, as he always was, Fidel knew that a game was being played there that could change the destiny of Latin America for a long time, and as was usual for him, he set out to do his best to help win it.
In the stadium, overflowed by the crowd, with Hugo Chávez as the main baton bearer, a great popular assembly took place which would show the world that the empire is not invincible. In a memorable speech, the Bolivarian leader, between jokes and songs and giving the floor every now and then to different popular leaders of the continent, made clear the harmful significance for the peoples that the reaffirmation of the FTAA would bring. As a counterpart, he gave guidelines of the people-to-people solidarity initiative that a project such as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas and the Caribbean (ALBA) would bring. From that mass pedagogy that a communicator such as Chávez handled to perfection, it was clear that there was an extreme need to bury the FTAA right there in Mar del Plata, and if it was necessary to graph it in gestures, who can forget the whole stadium jumping and shouting next to a smiling Chávez: “FTAA, FTAA, ALcarajo”. As an epilogue to that mass people’s party, Silvio Rodriguez, guitar in hand, would encourage even more the push to victory.
Some time later, the ceremony would be repeated in a more formal way, in a Summit of leaders militarized to the maximum, in which the trio of Chávez, Kirchner and Lula (as he used to do repeatedly,Uruguyan President Tabaré Vázquez shamefully left the forum before the final definition), representing the yearning of millions of Latin Americans, Latin American and Caribbean women, scored points against the imperial chief, who with a haggard face saw how his dream of more opulence collapsed. The FTAA had been doubly defeated, first in the streets (where at that time U.S. flags were being burned and “Yankees go home” could be heard on every street corner) and in the courage of those three presidents who joined forces to cut off the predatory advance of the transnational corporations represented by Bush.
Eighteen years after that heroic deed, the panorama of the continent is not the same. The Empire has rearmed itself and with the complicity of several of its cronies, co-governs several countries and tries to make up for lost time through threats, pressure and blackmail. Once again, the IMF and the World Bank are meddling in the internal affairs of each nation of our region, aided by presidents and ministers who seem to care very little about the fact that the majority of their peoples are mired in poverty. Moreover, formulas that were thought to have been overcome, such as coups d’état or palace intrigues, have produced undeniable setbacks. Only three of the countries that suffered this stigma managed to overcome and recover their governments, Bolivia, Brazil and Honduras, but in spite of this, they are still under check by the empire. Through permanent resistance, and preserving historical revolutionary values, Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua continue to stand up and produce, as far as possible, advances that benefit their peoples. All of them, dealing with imperial blockades and sanctions, trying to destabilize them, but clashing with the demolishing force of the populations willing to prevent the return of those who did so much evil when they governed.
A new element, when speaking of threats, is the fact that from the hand of the European and North American ultra-right wing, Latin American emulators have appeared who, through media campaigns and deliberate confusion instilled in the popular sectors, can come to govern or are already doing so in some countries. Capitalism, once again, feeds on fascist expressions to crush the peoples.
However, ALBA-TCP is still standing and everything experienced in recent years at the level of fraternal alliance between peoples, in the heat of the solidarity presence of Bolivarian Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia, together with other progressive governments has not been in vain. The people know, they have lived it, that there is another world different from the one offered by capitalism and that is why in each country struggles and challenges to the established power continue to be repeated. The door opened by that historic day of November 5, 2005, which at the same time was the conclusion of hundreds of demonstrations against the FTAA, carried out during several years, show that the only recipe to push back the current enemies (very similar to those of yesterday) is the mobilization and coordination of efforts in all possible scenarios, but having the street as the main vector. As Chávez repeated: “it is not a matter of winning or dying, we will have to win”.