On June 6, in Los Angeles, the ninth Summit of the Americas will be held. U.S. imperialism will seek a space to update the dependencies that the countries of the continent have with its own imperialism under the cover of the meeting of the heads of state at the Summit of the Americas to deal with issues of diplomatic and commercial importance at the continental level.
Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were already excluded from the invitation to the summit. Beyond the singularities of these three cases, Cuba – unlike Venezuela and Nicaragua – is a Workers’ State, the reason for the exclusion of these countries is their deep and growing rapprochement to the Eurasian pole, led by Russia and China. This exclusion of these countries puts a certain contradiction between U.S. imperialism and the governments of Latin American countries that seek to expand their autonomous features, such as Lopez Obrador’s Mexico, where in protest against the exclusion of countries from the Summit of the Americas Obrador has already announced that he will not travel to the summit itself, but will send a representative in the person of his foreign secretary.
The most important thing is to define what the Summit of the Americas is as an event or instance of the Ministry of Colonies that is the OAS. It is a forum for imperialism to meet with its semi-colonies and there is nothing progressive about it, even if they were to invite everyone.
In the illusionary reactionary utopia of peaceful coexistence, multilateralism or polycentrism of the Cuban workers’ state and the various expressions of Latin American bourgeois nationalism, participating in those events to go whining for US recognition of their right to be independent only ends up validating the formal pro-imperialist instance, because they would never manage to achieve in those forums the right to respect for self-determination, sovereignty or independence. Perhaps it would make some tactical sense if any of the bourgeois nationalisms or the Cuban Workers State took advantage of that platform to do what Chavez did in the United Nations when he said “here it smells of sulfur…” but none of the current bourgeois nationalisms have that characteristic of Chavez.
The current 2022 Summit of the Americas is taking place in a context of U.S. imperialism’s loss of control in its backyard of Latin America and the Caribbean. Increasingly, countries in the Western Hemisphere are moving closer to Russia and China. There are those who seek to take advantage of the current inter-bloc dispute to broaden their autonomy vis-à-vis the US.
This is the case of López Obrador in Mexico or the current government of Xiomara Castro in Honduras, Bukele in El Salvador. As well as in his centrism Fernández, who in Argentina is giving in to the IMF, while preserving Argentina’s growing economic ties with China. As well as Bolsonaro himself in Brazil, more linked to the Trumpist wing of imperialism.
\Revolutionaries must take advantage of these contradictions arising from imperialist domination in the continent to, on the basis of the unconditional defense of the workers’ state of Cuba and all countries under siege by imperialism – as well as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, to advance in the independent organization of the workers with the objective of regrouping revolutionaries with the north in the proletarian revolution that contains such that it constitutes the socialist federation of the Americas.
This Summit has several purposes: Biden wants to show that he has a policy towards Latin America under the vector of “democracy” versus “authoritarianism”, a principle that justifies his confrontation with China and Russia and their allies like Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Another purpose is the strengthening of economic and commercial ties, vital for the U.S. in the face of the penetration of China and others in its backyard and the control of migration. This, among other things, involves activating containment mechanisms in each country of the migratory chains to the United States. The checkpoints not only pass through the northern and southern border of Mexico but also with the northern and southern border of Guatemala and also for the following southern countries. This manoeuvre of U.S. imperialism against the migration of the workers of the continent demands the defense of the democratic right of workers to cross borders from one country to another.
Biden needs to present a face of articulation with Latin America for the November elections and overcome the contradictions over the non-subscription of several important countries of the Americas regarding sanctions against Russia. He also needs to ensure that oil supply is achieved from Venezuela and that grain supply is also achieved – where the countries of the southern end of the Americas are fundamental – in the perspective of the global impact and famine due to the sanctions against Russia and the consequences of the fall in grain production and trade from Ukraine.
The US will probably avoid rubbing salt in its wound and forcing support for sanctions or further declarations against Russia (as it has already won victories in international declarations in Latin America, the OAS, etc.). We insist that the peoples oppressed by imperialism must defend no war against Russia, no sanctions that lead to higher prices of life, fuel, inflation, poverty, international respect for the self-determination of Russia and China by the US, no sending of weapons to incite Ukraine to war and a statement against neo-Nazism and neo-fascism that attack Russian nationality, language and culture. In this sense, we also defend the democratic right of every national to conduct its foreign trade by means other than the dollar.
We defend the need to reject the expansion and aggression of imperialism, to call Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua to an economic and political unity for the right to sovereignty and self-determination in the only perspective of a Socialist Federation of the Americas passing immediately through the defense of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
That leads us to overcome the bourgeois leaderships combining the struggle for democratic and socialist tasks. That struggle is for the true unity of the continent, the socialist unity, which is necessary if they really want to carry forward an independent course, of self-determination and sovereignty of each people and nation which is a basic democratic principle. Which will only be possible under the leadership of the working class of the continent in alliance with the peasants and the whole of the exploited and oppressed majorities.
Communist League /LCFI- Brazil
Militant Bolshevik Tendency/LCFI – Argentina
Socialist Workers League/LCFI – US
Consistent Democrats/LCFI-Great Britain
Socialist Labor Party – Costa Rica
