On January 3,
Democracy Now! interviewed John Perkins, author of
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Perkins recapped the basic idea of the economic "hit" during
the interview:
- Find a poor country with coveted natural resources and loan them billions of dollars you know they can't repay.
- Have 90% of the money go to contracted US companies such as Bechtel and Halliburton, with the rest going to local elites, but none of it to the poor or the middle class.
- When the unmanageable debt payments come due, arrange to have them sell us their natural resources for pennies on the dollar in lieu of the loan payments.
- Additionally, force them to gut their social programs to facilitate loan payments, insuring they stay poor.
And if the leaders of such countries refuse this con game?
Well, says Mr. Perkins, then we just kill them.
Perkins gives, as an example, the former president of Panama, Omar Torrijos. Perkins was sent to convince Torrijos to accept one of these many-strings-attached loans, and Torrijos steadfastly refused. Torrijos said he knew this game, he knew it would make him personally rich, but he was there to help the poor of his country. Shortly thereafter, the US sent in "the jackals," to use Perkins' term: CIA assassins. President Torrijos' plane, it is believed, was blown up by a tape recorder full of explosives.
We did the same sort of thing to the former president of Ecuador, Jaime Roldos, when he wouldn't come around. And of course, there is Allende.
What struck me was the end of the interview, when Perkins said:
JOHN PERKINS: And I knew all along that if I failed to bring this man [President Omar Torrijos] around, something dire would happen to him. And, you know, this is what's going on in Latin America right now. Evo Morales is being visited this week by an economic hit man who's going into his office saying, `Congratulations, Mr. President -'
AMY GOODMAN: Who? Who is he being visited by?
JOHN PERKINS: Well, an economic hit man who has to remain nameless at this point....
Of course, we don't always kill men who stand up to the US, the World Bank, and the IMF. Sometimes we "Aristide" them, as we tried to do to Chavez: we fake an internal coup, which is in fact carried out with strong US support, including money, plans, soldiers, and planes.
Leftist leaders now represent 80% of the population of South America. Lula, Chavez, and now Morales have stood up against the influence of the United States. The precedent has been set, and it would appear the tide is now unstoppable. Still, there has been an expansion of US troops in neighboring Paraguay and there are already rumors of a planned US-backed coup in Bolivia. So I can't help but fear for President Morales and the Bolivian working and middle classes. It is obvious Morales will refuse any offers from economic hit men and the "neo-liberalism" he has publicly denounced.
If anything happens to Evo Morales or the next government of Bolivia, we should all look immediately for the US fingerprints.