Recommended reading and more

[link removed] Share ([link removed])

[link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2Fisraels-partnership-w-us-led-imperialism-in-latin-america Tweet ([link removed]: https%3A%2F%2Fmailchi.mp%2Frightsaction%2Fisraels-partnership-w-us-led-imperialism-in-latin-america)

[link removed] Forward ([link removed])

December 15, 2023

Israel’s partnership with US-led western imperialism in Latin America
[link removed]
Below: “Latin America and Caribbean Stand with Palestine: Israel Viewed as a US Proxy”, by Roger Harris

Israeli ethnic cleansing update

Rights Action is horrified by Israel’s bombardment and killing in Gaza that are fully supported (militarily, economically, politically) and legitimized by the US, EU and Canada.

The Palestinian health ministry reported on December 14, 2023 ([link removed]) that the death toll from Israel’s air bombardments and ground attacks on Gaza had risen to at least 18,787; that 50,897 had been wounded.

Different sources estimate that thousands of Palestinians are believed to be buried, unaccounted for, under the rubble.

The UN reports ([link removed]) that 1.9 million people (over 85 per cent of Gazan population) have been displaced, some multiple times. Families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. All of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants lack sufficient food and clean water, and face malnutrition. 135 UN workers have been killed since start of Israel's bombardment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that as of December 15, 2023 at least 63 journalists and media workers ([link removed]) had been killed.

As of yet, there is no end in sight to this US, EU and Canadian-backed ethnocidal killing and forced displacement.

Latin America and the Caribbean Stand with Palestine: Israel Viewed as a US Proxy
By Roger D. Harris on December 13, 2023
[link removed]

The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with a few notable exceptions, have been critical of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide ([link removed]) in Gaza. Perhaps more than any other region ([link removed]) , they have expressed their solidarity with Palestine ([link removed]) . Most recognize that the partnership between US imperialism and Israeli Zionism applies not only to Palestine, but also to Israel’s role as attendant to US domination in this hemisphere.

President Gabriel Boric of Chile condemned Israeli’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. The largest Palestinian population outside of the Middle East (more properly West Asia) resides in Chile. Belize and Peru, likewise, joined the denunciation of Israel. Bolivia, meanwhile, has severed diplomatic relations with Israel, while Honduras and Colombia recalled their ambassadors.

Cuba had cut relations back in 1973 and Venezuela in 2009. Except for Panama, almost all of the region’s states recognize Palestine. Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela all have sent aid to Gaza. Even Argentina, with the largest Jewish population in the region, censured Israel over its violations of international law when hostilities first flared up.

Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, addressed ([link removed]') the General Assembly on November 23: “It is repugnant to see how, despite the cruelty…the government of the United States of America and its satellites aim to justify the unjustifiable.”

Cuba and Iran called for a global coalition ([link removed]) to protect the rights of Palestinians on December 4, noting that the world community has failed to stop the US-backed ([link removed]) genocide.

A month before the October 7 offensive by Hamas, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia had presciently taken the occasion of the opening of the United Nations session to call for a united world effort at achieving peace in Israel-Palestine (along with Ukraine).

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador and ironically of Palestinian heritage, stood out in his support of Israel among the regional heads of state. That is, until the militantly pro-Zionist Javier Milei assumed the presidency of Argentina two months after the most recent eruption of aggressions.

Henchman for the hegemon

The head of Colombia publicly criticizing Israel would have been unthinkable until Gustavo Petro won the presidency in 2022. The former M19 guerilla turned center-left politician was the first president from the portside in the entire history of Colombia. Pre-Petro, Colombia was known as Washington’s closest client in the region, the largest recipient of US military aid, and the only NATO global partner in Latin America.

Back in 2013, then Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reflected on his country’s status as the regional equivalent to the US’s proxy state in the Middle East. He proclaimed that he was proud ([link removed]) that Colombia is considered the “Israel of Latin America.” Indeed, Israel had an extensive role ([link removed]) as henchman for the US hegemon in Colombia. The right-wing linked Colombian military and paramilitaries had long been closely intermeshed with the Zionist state.

The United Self-Defenses of Colombia (AUC in its Spanish initials), a drug trafficking cartel with a reputed 10,000-20,000 combatants at its peak, was one of the largest paramilitary ([link removed]) groups in South America. The AUC was used by the US-allied official Colombian military to do its dirty work against left campesino and worker organizations. AUC militaries were trained by Israeli ([link removed]) operatives. Some fifty of its most promising cadre received “scholarships” to Israel. Operating out of Guatemala, the Israeli arms supplier ([link removed]) GIRSA sold Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition to the AUC paramilitaries in Colombia.

Another Latin American country with a closely intertwined relationship ([link removed]) with Israel was Nicaragua before the Sandinista revolution. During the long US-backed Somoza dictatorship, Israel maintained a “special relationship” with this dynasty of ruthless autocrats. In the last days of the dictatorship, the US cut off arms supplies in response to public revulsion over atrocities committed by Somoza’s forces. Undaunted, Israel continued to supply them with military equipment.

Then, when the US instigated the counterinsurgency after the successful Sandinista-led national liberation, Israel again served as supplier of the contras. Paralleling the Somoza-Israel bond were the Sandinista-Palestine ties ([link removed]) , which continue to this day.

Israel’s partnership with US imperialism in the region

For the 31st time in November, the UN nearly unanimously condemned the US blockade of Cuba for its devasting effects on civilians and as a violation of the UN Charter. The vote would have been unanimous except for “no” votes cast by the US and Israel along with an abstention from Ukraine. The latter, which is now essentially a US dependency, is a newcomer. But Tel Aviv, on the other hand, has consistently stood with Washington in support of its coercive and illegal economic measures that have created a dire crisis ([link removed]) in Cuba.

In fact, Israel has served ([link removed]) as Washington’s partner in training reactionary death squads and supplying repressive militaries throughout the region for decades. Al Jazeera reported ([link removed]) that Israel has trained, supplied, and advised militaries in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela in addition to Colombia and Nicaragua.

Not only was Israel entangled with the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua, but it had a similar relationship to the 29-year Duvalier dynasty ([link removed]) in Haiti, selling arms for the dictators’ repressive forces. Ditto for the 35-year dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, the 17-year Pinochet ([link removed]) dictatorship in Chile, and the military dictatorships in Argentina ([link removed]) and Brazil.

Likewise, Israel was the supplier of arms and trainer of death squads in the “dirty” wars in Guatemala and El Salvador ([link removed]) . In all these grisly ventures, Tel Aviv was joined at the hip with Washington.

The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP) explains ([link removed]) that many right-leaning Latin American countries see a “close military relationship with Israel as a political asset in restoring or maintaining military and political ties with Washington.”

When reactionary regimes in the region need coercive muscle for hire, Israel is a prime choice. After right-winger David Noboa won the Ecuadorian presidency last month, he called in Israel ([link removed]) to help restore government control of its prison system, which had been taken over by criminal gangs. Israel is also being tapped to design maximum security prisons in Ecuador.

According to Israeli psychologist Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi’s The Israeli Connection ([link removed]) , “Israel is generally admired in Latin American military circles for its macho image of firmness, ruthlessness, and efficiency…Latin American military establishment is where most of Israel’s friends are found and where Israel continues to cultivate support.”

Case in point is the far-right Javier Milei, who assumed the presidency of Argentina on December 10. He campaigned on the promise to realign the second largest economy in South America with the US and Israel and away from its largest trading partners Brazil and China.

On his first trip abroad after his election victory, Milei went to the US where he made what was described as a pilgrimage ([link removed]) to the grave of an ultra-orthodox Jewish rabbi and announced his intention to convert ([link removed]) from Catholicism to Judaism. The self-described anarcho-capitalist had accused ([link removed]) the Argentina-born pope of being a communist and a false prophet.

Palestine’s friends and foes

Support of Israeli Zionism is a unifying issue ([link removed]) for the fractious far right in the region, where virulent antisemites buddy up with Jewish nationalists, wrapping themselves – literally ([link removed]) as in the case of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – in the Israeli flag.

When the now disgraced and exiled Juan Guaidó first got the nod from the US to self-declare himself “interim president” of Venezuela in 2019, he staged the announcement on a street corner in Caracas with an Israeli flag flying behind him. Just as the red flag has been adopted as the banner for the left, the pennant of Israeli has become the insignia of the right. That blue and white banner can be seen at right-wing political rallies and at market stands owned by evangelicals throughout the region.

A growing ([link removed]) evangelical Christian movement views Israel as a crucial part of their theology of the “end times” and is becoming an influential political force in the electorates of Guatemala (42%), Costa Rica (26%), Brazil (25%), Venezuela (22%), and elsewhere. The evangelicals have yet to exert a significant pro-Zionist political influence in the region. But that potential should not be discounted as events unfold.

On December 12, the United Nations General Assembly voted on a ceasefire ([link removed]) in Gaza. Only Guatemala and Paraguay in Latin America voted “nay,” joining the US and Israel, while Uruguay, Argentina, and Panama abstained. The rest of the region united with the world super majority of 153 nations supporting the resolution.

For now, Latin America and the Caribbean remain a bastion of support for Palestinian freedom. Palestine’s cause is popular with countries striving for independence from the US. Factors contributing to that stance are large Arab diasporas in the region, small pro-Zionist Jewish populations, and no powerful lobbies like AIPAC ([link removed]) . For many, the struggle to assert national self-determination under US hegemony finds a kindred affinity with the cause of Palestine.

(Roger D. Harris is with the human rights group Task Force on the Americas ([link removed]) , founded in 1985.)

Bare minimum demands

Immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Massive delivery of comprehensive humanitarian relief.

Then support – for as long as it takes - a comprehensive negotiation process that deals with the extreme death, suffering and destruction happening right now (beginning on October 7), and that addresses the historic root causes, going back to 1948, including the establishment of the current Israeli Apartheid system and the violent, illegal colonialist settler expansionism occurring year in, year out.

Urgent need to diversify media sources

Rights Action urges everyone to diversify their news sources. We suggest the daily news coverage provided by Al Jazeera news ([link removed]; @AJEnglish) and Democracy Now (www.democracynow.org; @democracynow).

These are not the only other sources, and it is not a question of agreeing with every story they cover, but they provide serious media reporting on the Israel/Palestine situation, and are a necessary antidote to the oftentimes harmful, misleading reporting coming from most of the mainstream government and corporate media in the U.S., E.U., and Canada.

Learn more / Take action in the US and Canada
* Medical Aid for Palestinians: [link removed], @MedicalAidPal
* Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East: [link removed], @CJPME
* Jewish Voices for Peace (U.S.): [link removed], @jvplive
* Independent Jewish Voices (Canada): [link removed], @indjewishvoices
* Ceasefire Now: www.ceasfirenow.ca, @Ceasefirenow_ca
* Ceasefire Today: [link removed]
* BDS Movement: [link removed]
* CAIR California Resource Guide: [link removed]
* Palestine Solidarity Campaign: [link removed]

*******

Rights Action (U.S. & Canada)
Work and struggle in unjust, unequal global order

Since 1995, Rights Action funds land and environment, justice, human rights and democracy defense struggles, community development and projects in Guatemala and Honduras, and provides emergency relief funds (hurricanes, victims of repression, Covid19, etc.).

Rights Action works to hold accountable the U.S. and Canadian governments, multi-national companies, investors and banks (World Bank, etc.) that help cause and profit from exploitation and poverty, repression and human rights violations, environmental harms, corruption and impunity in Honduras and Guatemala. Rights Action chips away at work and struggle to transform our profoundly unjust and unequal local-to-global economic and political order.

*******

Tax-Deductible Donations (Canada & U.S.)

To support land and environmental defenders, and democracy, human rights and justice struggles in Honduras and Guatemala, make check to "Rights Action" and mail to:
* US: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: Box 82858, RPO Cabbagetown, Toronto, ON, M5A 3Y2

Credit-card donations: [link removed]
Direct deposits, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])
Donate securities, write to: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

TESTIMONIO
Canadian Mining in the Aftermath of Genocides in Guatemala
Edited by Catherine Nolin & Grahame Russell
[link removed]
[link removed] ([link removed])

*******

[email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) / www.rightsaction.org
Subscribe: [link removed]
Previous e-Newsletters: [link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed] ([link removed])
[link removed]

*******


[link removed] Facebook ([link removed])
[link removed] Twitter ([link removed])
[link removed] Website ([link removed])
[link removed] Instagram ([link removed])
[link removed] YouTube ([link removed])

============================================================
Copyright © 2023 Rights Action, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are one of our subscriptor

Our mailing address is:
Rights Action
Box 50887
20091-0887
Washington, DC 0
USA
** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
** update subscription preferences ([link removed])
Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp
[link removed]