Buying Capitalism

     Two decades following WWII, the United States government became inclined to search for a way to entice foreign leaders to yield to U.S. interests without the use of force. Thus, an entirely new government-puppet group, comprised of influential CIA agents, came into existence—the economic hit men. The idea is fairly simple: If a foreign leader refuses to comply with corporate interests, an economic hit man is sent in with a multi-million dollar proposal in order to suppress any nationalist sentiments which could potentially remove such interests’ stake in claiming resources. If the hit man fails, what are known as “Jackals” are sent in to attempt assassination of the leader and aid in a political coup that places a comprador in power through propaganda and fear campaigning. The comprador acts basically as a bourgeoisie middle-man for private multinational corporations, leaving but minute fractions of the resource-profit to benefit the general public; if any at all. However, if by some chance both the hit men and Jackals fail, as a last resort the military is sent in under the guise of “eradicating evil communism.” Of course, this is actually geared toward the expansion of U.S.-based multinational corporations and those supposed “saviors” of Humankind everyone’s been clamoring about these days—capitalism and democracy.

     Ecuador, in the late 1970s, was the setting for practically unregulated corporate plunder of the countries’ natural resources, such as oil. Jaime Roldos was elected president in 1979 and was wholly focused on protecting the interests of the Ecuadoran people whom were suffering rising poverty levels and degradation in the general standard of living. John Perkins, an economic hit man contracted through the CIA, was sent in to persuade Roldos to take the multi-million dollar deal, or face impending assassination. Refusing to take the deal, Roldos died in a plane crash in May of 1981, following what would be his final speech. Strangely enough, the entire area surrounding the crash was sealed off by U.S. military personnel. Not surprisingly, those individuals that were to testify on Roldos’ behalf also died within the week following the crash. The investigation lasted a mere week.

    The story of Omar Torrijos’ assassination began in 1904 when the United States started construction on the Panama Canal. Sixty year later, Panamanians demanded control of the canal due to a steady decline in Panama’s economy; all the while the U.S. reaped literally all of the financial benefits. Torrijos, elected in 1968, wanted sovereignty for his nation and insisted upon a canal treaty. Again, Perkins was sent in to attempt to buy the president’s allegiance. Despite the ultimatum of “here’s the cash or here’s a bullet,” Torrijos simply stated, “If I play your game, I will become rich; but, I want to help my poor people.” Sadly, only three months after the Ecuadoran president’s death, Omar Torrijos died in a strikingly similar plane crash scenario which was undoubtedly conducted by the CIA.

     So, how has this corrupt conduct shaped political events? For starters, Ecuador is in a current state of political turmoil, boasting one of the world’s largest external debts. Fifty percent of the country’s budget goes to the IMF and the World Bank; both of which are based in Washington, DC. In fact, there are basically three hegemonic entities that control the flow of money around the world—corporations, banks, and governments. And guess who was appointed president of the World Bank in 1967: Robert McNamara, former president of Ford Motor Corporation and former Secretary of Defense under President Johnson—the whole shebang in one man. This screams ‘Inherent Corruption;’ right into the ears of those who complacently “buy into” capitalism, “Chase what matters”, and ask some imaginary “man” in the sky called ‘god’ to bless America—you know, the best damn country in the whole wide world. (Here’s the new national slogan: ‘America: Bringing democracy to a country near you!) But the screams seem to fall upon deaf ears. Thus, the representatives of corporations, banks, and governments hand the rest of Humankind a future with shovels for each and every one of us—so that we can dig ourselves out of all the propaganda, 1,000-page-plus bills, ignorance-inducing bullshit we are now forced to clog around in.

     In 2003, “W’ sent troops into Iraq. Need I go any further? The controversy was surrounding an oil pipeline owned by the Bechtel Corporation that would essentially privatize Iraq’s oil and channel it through Jordan. Suddam Hussein declined so Jackals were sent in along with Perkins in an attempted coup d’ etat which failed. Of course, this failure led to another—the 2003 “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” In fact, $20-billion in Iraqi assets were confiscated by the U.S. government and declared a “development fund.” 144 pallets of $100 bills were flown to Iraq where three government officials were in charge of simply handing out cash all day long. Not surprisingly, $18-billion was actually spent and roughly $9-billion is still unaccounted for.

     The bottom line is this: The reconstruction of economies is based on expanding markets to serve the interests of multi-national corporations; not necessarily to benefit the citizens of a particular nation indebted to the criminals at the IMF and World Bank. Case-in-point; in 2005, Paul Wolfowitz was appointed president of the World Bank. Immediately following his appointment, Wolfowitz established a World Bank office in Iraq. Meanwhile, the IMF decided to set conditions to get Iraq out of the debt these two companies basically forced onto the country. In 2006, Iraq shifted oil from the public sector to multinational corporations, while Wolfowitz toured the country on a “poverty reduction” campaign—signing a contract to indebt Iraq for billions plus interest with one hand; waving to countless citizens that directly suffer the consequences of such massive debts with the other hand. Stories such as these are still taking place while OPEC stands virtually powerless against multinational corporations that have more political clout than a large portion of entire countries. The future looks great, but only for a few of us—you and I are probably not privileged enough to be included in that few.