The first three months of 2007 have added further impetus to the wave of anti-imperialist, progressive, and patriotic sentiments which swept across Latin America during the preceding year.

In the 13 months between November, 2005 and December, 2006 there were 14 national elections in the region with results, generally speaking, favorable to the forces of the left.

The rate and rhythm of the change which is occurring differs from country to country, and this is only natural, given the wide variety of social and political trends, all of which require different strategic approaches. However, the distinguishing feature of this new progressive cycle has everywhere been its ability to breach the defenses of that hegemonic, seemingly all-powerful, school of thought of contemporary capitalism known as neoliberalism. It has accomplished this by attacking capitalism’s structural gaps and by building a deep new infrastructure of democracy. This deepening of democracy is based on the winning of economic and political rights by the majority of the people in each country.

The common sentiment that motivates all the new governments, which range from center to left, is the quest to re-establish their national sovereignty and independence. The core issue faced by all in this new and promising historical period is the national problem, the search for national rights and sovereignty.

That there is a common process at work behind these various projects of national development is amply demonstrated by the principal events that have taken place in the region during the first three months of 2007:

a) The impact of George W. Bush's visit to five Latin American countries in March;

b) The bold steps taken by Mercosur and the new South American Community of Nations (CASA), steps which were immediately followed by Brazil’s own efforts to address the obstacles arising from asymmetries in development, a central condition for the acceleration of the process of South American integration;

c) The offensive mounted by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in the framework of the ALBA project (the Bolivarian Popular Alternative).

BUSH SUFFERS A POWERFUL REPUDIATION DURING HIS FIVE-DAY, FIVE-COUNTRY VISIT

During those five tumultuous days, in which Bush touched down in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico, all of Latin America, and especially those countries he deigned to visit, became the stage for huge protests, popular manifestations which sharply reflect the steep decline of North American influence in the region.

The main purpose of Bush’s visit was to inaugurate Phase II, so to speak, in American imperialism’s stunned reaction to the steady growth of the forces of progress in Latin America. The offers made by Bush, however, were laughingly paltry, for instance, his pathetic new “aid package,” featuring visits to the region by a US Army hospital ship and English classes for young people in the United States.

In the three countries governed by right-wing forces, one would expect Bush’s song to be listened to appreciatively by those in power. In Mexico, however, the conservative Felipe Calderon stated in press interviews that he would not play the role of a cartoon jester for the US, and meeting with Bush he strongly criticized the building of a border fence between the two countries.

In Guatemala, Bush met with a president in a position similar to his own – at the end of his mandate (there is a presidential election in Guatemala this year, and the Left has a good chance of success).

Following the visit of the “unwanted gringo” to a Mayan temple, the local indigenous people proclaimed they must perform a ritual purification of the sanctuary.

Even in Colombia, despite the unctuous servility displayed by President Alvaro Uribe, a foul aroma still hung in the air because of the burgeoning scandal over the presence of officials with direct links to paramilitary terrorists among the Colombian president’s closest advisors – at the very core of the Uribe government.

Brazil and Uruguay are cases apart, since both now have center-left governments. In these two countries, given the lack of any political identification with them, the US put forward an “economic agenda” as a pretext or kind of “bait.” Thus, given the shared interest of Brazil and Uruguay (and, one might say, of all the countries in the region now governed by progressive forces) in promoting projects of national development and economic growth which are in their own interests and under their own control, Bush resorted to “peddling his own fish.”

In Brazil, Bush tried to exploit the justified national enthusiasm generated by the enormous potential of the rapidly emerging global biofuel market, in which Brazil, in only a few years, could become a key player. However, Bush adamantly refused in his meeting with Lula to even discuss the powerful combination of lavish agricultural subsidies and trade protectionism, which creates enormous obstacles to any partnership with the United States in this area.

President Lula and his government were correct in receiving Bush in the way in which they did. In the area of biofuel and ethanol, initial steps toward an agreement (in accordance with Brazil’s national interests) were to be expected. But it order to reach this goal, less agricultural protectionism on the part of the US was demanded. Lula also insisted that the Doha Development Round work to achieve an economic balance that will really address the needs of developing countries, and cease to merely serve as an instrument for the prolongation of the present neoliberal world order.

On the political level, Lula noted that Brazil 'respects the political and economic choices of each country', refusing to allow President Bush the opportunity to criticize Venezuela or any other country in the region.

In Uruguay, the majority of its bourgeoisie defend the thesis that the country can only achieve development by signing separate trade agreements with the “central” economic powers, apart from the entire membership of Mercosur [the regional trade agreement between Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Paraguay, founded in 1991]. This is an enormous mistake. Looking at the ongoing Doha Round of negotiations, one can easily see that the more powerful, wealthier nations are seeking to impose a second phase of their neoliberal agenda and to preserve the current world order, one marked by a severe North-South asymmetry.

REMOVING THE OBSTACLES TO INTEGRATION

It is not surprising that Brazil, which has a vital strategic interest in the process of integration and the formation of a South American economic and political pole, has been actively taking the steps necessary to achieve that goal. Only days before Bush’s arrival in Montevideo, Lula journeyed to Uruguay with an important new cooperation package in his briefcase. The terms of this trade agreement include a proposal for the full integration of the Uruguayan and Brazilian chains of production. Just prior to that, Brazil made some significant technical changes in the contract language for the binational hydroelectric power station at Itaipu (the largest in the world), aimed at transferring tens of millions of dollars in revenue to Paraguay.  Brazil also recently agreed to an adjustment in the price of the natural gas it imports from Bolivia, which will result in millions of additional dollars for Bolivia, as well as stabilize the flow of hydrocarbons into the Brazilian industrial grid.

To this we can add the very positive meeting of Mercosur heads of state in Rio de Janeiro last January, as well as the landmark meeting of the South American Community of Nations (CASA) in Cochabamba, Bolivia last December.

Regarding Mercosur, despite the ideological malice displayed by the corporate media, the meeting actually resulted in several important advances, such as the incorporation of Venezuela and Bolivia into the block of Mercosur member-states, the creation of a South American gas pipeline, and the setting up of a banking structure, known as the Bank of the South, to finance the process of regional integration.

The Bank of the South, if it fully becomes reality, will be a funding mechanism composed of only a small part (10%) of the member-countries foreign exchange reserves, but it would have the combined power of being able to direct some 15 billion dollars toward the integrated financing of massive construction projects such as the South American gas pipeline. It is noteworthy that Brazil, at the recommendation of its Ministry of Finance, has now thrown its full support behind the Bank, a markedly positive change from its previous attitude.

CHAVEZ’ ALBA MOVES AHEAD

In closing, a third fact needs to be mentioned: Venezuela President Hugo Chavez’ steady persistence in promoting the ALBA movement (the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas). The motor which drives the ALBA initiative is PDSVA (Venezuela's state-owned oil company) and its two subsidiaries, PetroCaribe and PetroAndina, which together provide the material base for Venezuela’s essentially anti-imperialist foreign policy. By providing cheap subsidized oil or by exchanging petroleum for other products, ALBA promotes relationships which can be defined, in some cases, as 'non-capitalist'. Venezuela’s offers of relatively cheap oil is an import act of solidarity, especially in a period of skyrocketing oil prices. Countries like Nicaragua, which up until a few months ago regularly experienced four-hour electric blackouts, see in ALBA an important base of support.

The nucleus of the ALBA movement centers on the cooperation between Venezuela and Cuba (which first began in 2004), along with the subsequent addition of Bolivia, Nicaragua, and small Caribbean island nations such as Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda. Also under the aegis of ALBA, Venezuela has invested heavily in Ecuador and Argentina, in the latter case with a mutually profitable, billion-dollar investment in Argentinian bonds to help liquidate the country’s IMF debt.

By embarking on his own whirlwind tour of five countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Jamaica and Haiti) simultaneously with Bush, Chavez enhanced his role as a leading anti-imperialist agitator. In hot pursuit of the “devil”, Chavez delivered an incisive political critique of Bush’s visit and the motives behind it in his own inimitable populist style.

Throughout Latin America, the opening months of 2007 clearly point to further intensification of a powerful trend characterized by regional awareness, patriotism, and anti-imperialism. In spite of the wishes of US imperialism and the neoliberal establishment, a whole series of movements have now appeared on the political left which are, generally speaking, convergent.

However, we must be on guard against readings of the political situation which seek to accentuate differences. Such interpretations are strongly charged with Eurocentrism and developed according to preconceived stereotypes. They fail to see the real direction of the new phenomena now occurring in Latin America.

Now is the time to deepen the process of economic and political integration already under way in Central and South America, a process that will provide the firm foundation necessary for creating an alternative vision, an anti-neoliberal model of society, a democratic vision that unites the broad confluence of forces that today is moving steadily toward a new form of socialism in Latin America.

--Ronaldo Carmona is a member of the international relations commission of the central committee of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB).