Over the past year the U.S. rulers had put their challenges in Latin America on the back burner, while focusing on the conquest and occupation of Iraq, their broader economic and military offensive in the Mideast and Asia, and efforts to deepen their penetration of Africa.

The billionaire owners of the U.S. monopolies and banks have huge stakes in Latin America. They are determined to protect their investments and economic domination in the Americas. To do so, they are reinforcing their pressure on Latin American governments to maintain the flow of interest payments on the foreign debt—one of their main vehicles for siphoning off surplus value created by the labor of workers and farmers. No matter how much these governments pay—by tightening the screws on workers and farmers—the debt keeps mounting. The combined external debt of 23 Latin American and Caribbean countries grew by 50 percent in the years 1991-1997, and today stands at nearly $700 billion—more than one third of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product!

A two-pronged focus of U.S. imperialism’s offensive in the region is its stepped-up military presence in Colombia and its support to efforts by the dominant sectors of the Venezuelan bourgeoisie to overthrow the government of President Hugo Chávez.

Through Plan Colombia, Washington is backing the Colombian regime’s army with funds, military training, and Special Forces. Carried out in the name of “fighting drugs and terrorism,” this U.S. military intervention is aimed above all at the struggles of unionists and peasants. The U.S. military presence is expanding regionally: Washington uses military bases in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay, and is conducting semisecret military exercises in northern Argentina and elsewhere.

In Venezuela, the U.S. rulers are seeking ways to undermine and overthrow the Chávez government. They are concerned about the raised expectations and confidence of working people following the defeat of three attempts by the pro-imperialist opposition to topple the government—an April 2002 military coup, a bosses’ “strike” last December and January, and the recent attempt to recall Chávez through a referendum. The September 19 bomb blast in the presidential palace compound was a sign that the imperialists and their local allies are prepared to resort to rougher methods. These include assassination attempts and efforts to intervene militarily against Venezuela through a regional war with Colombia.

The imperialists have reason to be concerned about Latin America. In face of the devastating impact of the capitalist economic crisis and the exploiters’ demands for more and more “sacrifice,” workers and farmers have organized continuing resistance. They have mounted general strikes in Uruguay, Chile, and today in Bolivia. Land occupations by landless toilers have stepped up in Brazil.

The U.S. labor movement has a deep stake in these developments. Workers and peasants in Latin America face the same enemy as working people here—the billionaire capitalists in the United States and other imperialist powers. To gain the experience and forge the political organizations and leadership they need to mobilize for a revolutionary overthrow of the system, our fellow workers and farmers need to get the boot of Washington and its military off their necks. We should join with others to demand:

Withdraw all U.S. military forces from Latin America!

Cancel the Third World Debt!  
 
 
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