Carlos Aznarez

The “friends” from Brazil



For the first time in history, a Brazilian soldier will occupy an important position in the commanding structure of the Southern Command and therefore of the United States Armed Forces. This is a very clear sign of the type of relations that President Jair Bolsonaro wishes to maintain with Donald Trump, but they also warn of how the U.S. is continuing to weave the fabric that, according to their calculations, will end with intervention “by the good or the bad” (in the words of Senator Marco Rubio) in Venezuela. Added to this is the Argentine government setting up a new structure aimed at the “reconstruction” (sic) of the Caribbean country.

Now let’s take it in stages. Based on the recent visit to Brazil by the head of the Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller, and his meeting with military chiefs and Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, it was determined that a military commander from that country would join the Southern Command. Before, Faller visited several military installations and paid special attention to the Itaguí naval base, where a nuclear-powered submarine is currently being built. Also, as could not be otherwise, the visitor was interested in what kind of military structures exist in the Amazon zone.

The fact that a Brazilian general occupies a position in the sub-command dedicated to foreign soldiers is no small thing, taking into account the differences that the soldiers of this country maintained in the past with the U.S. positions regarding the Amazon, which Washington does not consider a territory of Brazil but of international nature. In fact, it is important to remember that certain study manuals and geography books used by U.S. secondary and university students depict the map of Brazil and Peru without the Amazon and the Pantanal. The argument used in both cases is that they are areas of “res communis humanitatis”, i.e. they want this area to be a common part of humanity in a manner similar to what happens with outer space.

Nor is it unknown that during the government of Lula da Silva (now unjustly imprisoned) these interfering positions were replicated, and some military officials declared that “Brazil will never negotiate a territory that belongs to it,” expressing a sovereign position.

But now we live in “Bolsonaro’s times,” that in this way and with the help of a group of soldiers linked to Atlanticist positions and who are in favor of privatizing the country as soon as possible, they sweep aside any hint of Brazilian nationalism and forcefully encolumnize within the framework of strategic leadership made in the USA.

But there is something even more urgent. As far as the continent is concerned, this measure indicates the great offensive that Trump and especially the Southern Command have been carrying out with respect to speeding up direct intervention in Venezuela. Faller suggested in conversations with Chancellor Araújo (who considers Bolsonaro the “great saviour of the West”) that “the case of Venezuela is number one in the short-term plans for the actions of the Southern Command”. This same sentiment was repeated in the dialogue that the military commander held with his Brazilian colleagues, with whom he agreed that they must first resolve the issue of “humanitarian aid”, and then ” confront the reforms that the country urgently needs”.

Within this same doctrine, Admiral Faller had declared that “the true strength of this hemisphere is the long history of partnerships they share. “We have wonderful, very willing partners. We have very good initiatives in the military-to-military dimension and that is why in Brazil, we seek to develop that partnership and strengthen it even more.” It is precisely there that Bolsonaro steps forward and joins in giving the green light to tie the Brazilian Armed Forces to the Imperial Warrior’s chariot, just as he is already doing with his Israeli cronies.

On the other hand, this decision by which a Brazilian military commander joins the Southern Command’s plans speaks clearly of a profound change in the geopolitical vision that the United States wants to implement in the continent. It’s not just about adding allies, but preparing them for wars they imagine as “necessary” in their diseased minds. This is what has already happened in the invasions carried out in the Middle East through NATO, where they required their allies to commit themselves “until defiled”. In some cases by outsourcing the dirtiest part of the interventionist activities and in others by sharing important geostrategic decisions with “friendly” military commanders.

The “friends” from Argentina

If you add Bolsonaro’s decision to participate vigorously in the U.S. interventionist plans against Venezuela to another unusual episode in which the Argentine Foreign Ministry is the protagonist, you can get a picture of how quickly Washington is weaving its warmongering network to try to overthrow Venezuela’s legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro. In effect, the government of Mauricio Macri has announced the creation of the “Unión de Gestión para el Apoyo a la Reconstrucción de Venezuela” (Management Union for the Support of the Reconstruction of Venezuela). The term used leaves no room for doubt: it will be a question of “reconstructing” what will first have to be “destroyed”, in the style of the euphemisms used in the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

To further explain the operation, the Rio de la Plata Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaks of “compiling and systematizing information on the humanitarian needs in that country, as well as the requirements and needs of infrastructure and institutional strengthening”. And they add to this clearly interventionist task the famous “White Helmets” that have already been sent to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, and from the town of Cúcuta they coordinate with the Southern Command. To do what? According to Chancellor Faurie, everything he does is “the reception, administration and sending of donations and/or other humanitarian assistance, facilitating the participation of Argentine entities (companies, academic institutions, NGOs, among others) in different tasks such as cooperation initiatives, training and assistance in human rights issues, education”. That is to say, to sustain the direct intervention that the U.S. intends to implement as of February 23 in that very location.

There are plans and more plans born from the voracity of empire and its conquest schemes, which undoubtedly have in their favour the collaborationist behaviour of right-wing governments that do not hesitate to betray the continent’s history of solidarity. However, neither the Southern Command, nor its chief Faller, nor the Bolsonaro-Macri duo, nor Donald Trump himself, seem to take into account that with their warlike attitudes they are about to light the fuse of a process that can reverse all their expansionist desires. Venezuela, its people, its FANB, its history, its ancestors breathe rebellion. They are very similar to Syria which these same subjects could not conquer. And finally, the continent will surely not be the same if they decide to take the path they are preparing today with so much impudence.