Seven Oaks Magazine.

From Edmonton, to Miami, and to Washington, D.C., North American politicians have been taking dead aim at Latin America in the last couple of weeks. Ralph Klein, Alberta’s irreverent rightist premier, took the bizarre occasion of a debate on auto insurance in the province’s legislature to apologize for the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

"Pinochet came in, Mr. Speaker, and I'm not saying that Pinochet was any better, but because of the only elected Communist in Chile, Allende, and the socialist reforms he put in, Pinochet was forced, I would say, to mount a coup," Mr. Klein asserted, perhaps as a subconscious threat to "communist" advocates of public car insurance (Globe and Mail, May 14, 2004).

It turns out Klein recently submitted a paper on Chilean history, as part of a communications course he’s taking at Athasbasca University. It also turns out that large portions of the essay are copied from articles on the internet, without proper citation. The plagiarism may or may not hurt Klein’s popularity, given the Teflon Conservative’s long record of debauchery, including a drunken night of poor-bashing at an Edmonton homeless shelter.

While Ralph Klein makes apologies for coup d’états of the past, in the United States the rivals for the presidency compete for hawkish positions against present-day threats to international capital in Latin America, notably Venezuela and Cuba. Both countries promise to be election issues, especially in the all important state of Florida, where Miami’s rapidly expanding Little Caracas is eager to overthrow Hugo Chavez, just as the aging millionaires of Little Havana still dream of removing Castro and regaining their long-lost property and power.

Understandably eager to change the subject from Iraq, –new polls in the wake of the prisoner torture scandal show Bush’s job approval rating at an all-time low –George Bush has been aiming his rhetoric at foes in Uncle Sam’s backyard.

On May 6, the White House announced the implementation of a number of measures aimed at the fulfilment of a goal of U.S. administrations dating back to Eisenhower –the overthrow of the Cuban revolution. The measures, part of a 500-page report issued by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, which was chaired by Secretary of State Colin Powell, include further restricting travel and monetary remittances by Cuban Americans to the island. And, alarmingly, it was announced that U.S. C-130 aircraft will be used to broadcast the signal of U.S.-based, anti-Castro stations Radio Marti and TV Marti, in a clear violation of Cuba’s airspace and sovereignty.

"We're not waiting for the day of Cuban freedom, we are working for the day of freedom in Cuba," said President Bush in announcing the new measures, which included a 400% increase in funding to anti-Castro groups in Cuba (Washington Post, May 7, 2004).

The report’s ambitious goals are outlined in Chapter 1, entitled "Hastening Cuba’s transition". The authors are critical of past U.S. efforts to overthrow Castro, asserting that these attempts "tended to initiate policies towards Cuba that were implemented in isolation from each other" (U.S. Department of State).

Indeed, the Bush administration’s prescriptions for regime change in Cuba are comprehensive, and the Cuban government and people organised a hasty response. On Friday, May 14, over one million Cubans rallied and marched past the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

"You have no moral standing nor any right whatsoever to speak of freedom, democracy and human rights when you boast enough power to destroy mankind and with it, you are trying to impose a global tyranny ... and carry out wars of conquest," Castro told the crowd, referring to the U.S. president.

Meanwhile, the rhetoric back on the John Kerry campaign trail also took aim at Castro. "Four years after candidate Bush came to Florida and promised Cuban-Americans the moon, all they've gotten from this president is lip service and broken promises," said John Kerry in a campaign statement, implying that a more round-the-clock effort at regime change was required. Kerry has previously stated that he, unlike Bush, favours easing travel restrictions to Cuba as a tactic for spreading the good word of American democracy.

Kerry has been at pains to project a tough, robust foreign policy, from Iraq to Latin America. While critical of the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq, Kerry voted for the war and now advocates sending more troops to bolster the occupation or, in his words, to "win the peace". Kerry’s campaign has been silent on the coup d’état that removed Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, while repeatedly attacking the government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

The Bush administration has been relatively quiet in its public statements against Venezuela, having been embarrassed by its public support of the short-lived coup against Chavez in April, 2002. But there is evidence of continued U.S. involvement in subversion against the Bolivarian Revolution, in many cases with the cooperation of the reactionary Uribe government in Colombia.

On May 9, at least 77 Colombian paramilitaries were arrested on a ranch near Caracas. Venezuelan authorities allege the mercenaries were to be part of a coup attempt against Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan president wasted no time in turning the incident against the foreign policy of the United States.

"There are people in the United States who keep thinking how to start a war in Venezuela so that they can justify an invasion," Chavez said, alluding to ongoing tensions along the Colombian-Venezuelan border in addition to the recent arrests.

"We have serious doubts about the U.S. government. I'd like to believe them, but the U.S. government is like Pinocchio, its nose is longer than the earth's diameter," Chavez added, in response to U.S. denials of any involvement in the incident (Reuters, May 14, 2004).

The hawkish positions taken by John Kerry have earned him the epithet of ‘Bush-lite’ among many progressives; writer Bill Berkowitz has astutely observed that Kerry is "trying to out-Bush Bush on foreign policy" (Alternet, April 27, 2004).

Lest we indulge in any Canadian smugness about the bi-partisan U.S. policy of Empire, we need only remember the Pinochet apologetics of Ralph Klein. Other, less extreme, examples of Canada’s complicity abound, from the troops in Afghanistan and Haiti, to the negotiations around the dangerous missile defence program.

But with the regime change in Iraq going badly off the rails, this election year in the States promises ramped-up rhetoric and pressure against other countries, with Cuba and Venezuela clearly in the cross-hairs.

An attack against either of these countries, however, would meet an organised and defiant people. In Cuba, particularly, the people as a whole have long been prepared to mobilise in defence of their country. The mass march led by Fidel Castro last week, in response to the new U.S. measures, was obviously designed to make that point clear.

"Since you have decided our fate is sealed, it is my pleasure to bid farewell as did the Roman gladiators: Hail, Caesar, we who are about to die salute you," the 77-year-old Cuban leader told the Havana crowd in his trademark rhetorical style.

With the Democratic-Republican consensus on the Latin American front, one can easily imagine either John Kerry or George Bush in the role of the metaphorical Roman emperor.