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Peru: Q'orianka Kilcher might present Amazon natives in TV show

LivinginPeru.com
Isabel Guerra

If the natives are not heard by the Peruvian Government, Q'orianka Kilcher (the German actress from Peruvian descent) will let them speak in her new TV show.

"She is preparing a television show, 'The people are speaking' which will be on the Discovery Channel before December," said the actress's mother, Saskia Kilcher.

Q'orianka came to Peru to check on the native communities from Bagua (Amazonas), after the recent bloody clashes, and she says she will hand in 50 videocameras to the natives so that they can "record the reality."

Saskia Kilcher, Q'Orianka's mother, did not specify how long they will stay in Peru but remarked they don't have much time due to Q'orianka's full schedule.

However, it the actress is traveling in the early hours of Saturday to take a closer look at the natives' current conditions.

Have other topics you'd like to see in our news section? If you or someone you know would like to contribute a news article to Living in Peru, whether it's translated or based on a personal investigation, send it to editor@livinginperu.com.

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# Liliana says :
12 June, 2009 [ 18:59 ]

Good marketing for you Qorianka´, Birgit Bardot did it with animals, you do it with natives.
Why did your mother fled poverty from peru and married a foreigner, was it not to have a better live? to have children who could attend good schools? It is so selfish to let the natives stay non educated in the middle of the jungle with no access to schools or doctors. The private entreprises provide them with schools and health services, it is important to know that there are many enterprises worried about social responsability. Unhappily the natives due to their lack of education are manipulated very easily, and those who have interest in shacking our weak democracy have big opportunities here by giving them weapons and money to attack policemen. Do they have the right to kill because they are natives?

# miko says :
12 June, 2009 [ 19:16 ]

She should show a documentary about when her pot head mom was picked up by her brichero dad at the main plaza in cuzco....

# Curt says :
12 June, 2009 [ 20:05 ]

Yeah, enough of the red skins! White Peruvians rule this land, it is ours and the savages can't do anything about it!

# vladi says :
12 June, 2009 [ 20:17 ]

Liliana, your perspective of the world is upside down. It might help you to start asking yourself (or someone else) why is poverty there to begin with. The development model you are talking about  might bring a few schools and postas comunales (as you probably heard from the indigenous leaders in one of their interviews) but by focusing on the extraction of raw material, such as oil, that so call development don't really bring quality job opportunities to the Amazon. It is that poverty that push people to look for a better life overseas to look for a better life... That is why, for example, so many Mexicans have left their country to work illegally in the US after NAFTA. They got in their own country that development you are talking about (But you can see it just on TV, not in your everyday life. Nobody wants indigenous communities (I hope)  to live under poor conditions. it might be a good idea for you to find out what impacts have oil drilling have on the environment and also pay attention to what the indigenous want for them as progress. As you know they want to be considered in the design of laws that affect their lives. Don't be paternalistic, don't think they don't have agency. I am sure they know more than you what they want for their lives. By the way, Qorianka´ you are very welcome. Thanks for making public this issue overseas. 

# Percy says :
12 June, 2009 [ 20:37 ]

This woman is the next Laura Bozzo. It is OBVIOUS that she does not know what is talking about, BUT the only benefit will be for her. She is not risking anything, on the contrary: she will win a lot in her career.
She si not sure what she is talking about... can she demonstrate what she says? If TODAY the answer is not, she cannot talk as if she were the elected by god, the all-knowing ... her presence in Peru now, talking what she is talking is putting in risk to the same natives, but it seems to be that she does not care.

# Manuel Cruz says :
13 June, 2009 [ 00:11 ]

Viva Q'orianka Kilcher  Carajo !

# Percy says :
13 June, 2009 [ 05:19 ]

Making money with the suffering of the indigenous ... ?
Remember that a Chinese descendent that live in Peru (that has Peruvian CUSTOMS and speak Spanish or other native language) is more Peruvian than a quechua, shipibo (whatever) that has OTHER culture, that hasa lived ABROAD, that has other feelings and that does not know anything about the real life in Peru ....
I don't agree with this CLEAR conflict of interests of earning money in a television programme and the suffering of people. Her desire to be "protagonist" is the problem ...

# Vladi says :
13 June, 2009 [ 06:16 ]

Unfortunately I think you are right, Percy. If she were really concerned about Peruvian and Amazonian issues she should know more about them and should be speaking a fluent Spanish. She said before coming here she would also go to Bagua. I am sure people there are waiting for her. Let see if she really goes there, so far she is in Lima still. This article published this morning reveals a little more about her: http://www.larepublica.pe/archive/all/fama/20090613/1/1547/todos

Qorianka, take some spanish lessons before coming here to offer a press conference. Get well informed about details of the conflicts you are discussing about. Take these problems seriously. 

# maria says :
13 June, 2009 [ 11:26 ]

how could anyone possible compare Q'Orianka with Laura Bozzo... it's ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as Bozzo being out and about free as a bird despite having been linked to Vladimiro Montesinos plotting and scheming.  That woman is a common criminal, a sorry excuse for a human being who exploited the misfortunes of others to divert attention from important pressing government issues. Of course now that's in the past, she's even going to Spanish tv to 'reveal all'.  People's memory is oh so fragile, that's the only explanation why Garcia is back on the presidential chair, Keiko fujimori has a seat in congress and there's political propaganda calling for Fujimori senior (sdkfjslgjslkdjgklsd ) to run again for president up and down the panamerican motorway. Nauseating.
Q'Orianka is an activist whose profession happens to be acting, her notoriety allows her to draw attention to matters such as this. Her TV show isn't a trash talk show, it's a documentary to be aired on the Discovery Channel. So please.

# Manuel says :
13 June, 2009 [ 12:14 ]

Viva Ollanta Humala
Viva Evo Morales
Viva Hugo Chavez
Viva Oscar Arias
Viva Fidel Castro
Viva Raul Castro
Viva Che Guevarra
Viva Daniel Ortega

El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sea Vencido  !

Viva La Revolucion.

Viva SCO Alliance

Viva EL ALBA

Viva El UNASUR

Viva El Communismo
Viva El Nacionalismo
Viva El Socialismo

Viva China Russia Iran & South America Alliance.
Viva North Korea

Yankees Go Home.

# juanjo says :
13 June, 2009 [ 13:12 ]

Its a shame that people who call temselves peruvians dont know nothing about our reality like we have the most coorupted and hipocrate police and army, always lookin for their benefit and they are lisensed criminals, who are onthe government side because it gives them the chance to steal with impunity,liliana you are just jealous of q'orianka because you are ugly, and frustrated and cant take the fact that a qechua desendent has made it big time in holliwood, and now she is supporting her brothers nad sister,vladi, miko ,and percy you are just ignorant READ find out reality in the world FTA only damage poor countries because of the lack of leaverage and corrupted authorities
google JOHN PERKINS and find out how poverty is just getting worst around the world because of FTA  but i doubt you understand reasoning you are so stupid and senseless and your opinions are from 16 century that you should have been born then.

# miko says :
13 June, 2009 [ 13:58 ]

juanjo sorry to tell you this but you are a complete moron,, you have no idea on what u are talking about ,, just get your foot out of your mouth,,,... let me just say it again that girl that came from holliwood,, doesnt live here and has no idea just like u on whats going on... its easy to come to Peru every once in a while or better yet to critice from your nice place in california ,, Qorianqa has no right what so ever say shit,, and ill repete it again those natives are nothing but savages like it or not,,what the hell do u want to be call if your are walking half naked with a spear, while gutting cops,, why are they any better than any other peruvian just cause they wear feathers?and therefore the law doesnt apply to them ,,my ass!!!they have the same rights and obligation just as anyother peruvian ,,to respect one another,, so i would say that your opinions are not only senseless but idiotic...

# Paul says :
13 June, 2009 [ 14:29 ]

Perhaps she doesnt have 100% grasp of the problem, but I applaud her efforts.   Those saying it is a cynical career move, wise up.

Why the need to tear her to shreds?  At the end of the day, the Peruvian people are making their voices heard over this matter, and they for the most part are not coming down on the side of the govt. 

Like it or not, that is democracy.  If Garcia was so sure this was a good deal why not put it to referrendum as opposed to a presidential decree.  Because he knows he would lose.

There is now a propaganda war and it would seem Q'Orianka has dealt a heavy blow to the govts. efforts to spin this situation.

# miko says :
13 June, 2009 [ 14:50 ]

I understand what you are saying Paul but i dont think we should go to referrendums every time there is an issue,, thats why we elect a presidet and other types of representatives so they can make the desicions on whats best for our country. 

# Liliana tapia says :
13 June, 2009 [ 15:30 ]

Manuel is a fucking gay who no one looks at because he is so weired and ugly, OUT OF HERE basura!

# vladi says :
13 June, 2009 [ 16:23 ]

This is a quite funny discussion. Juanjo, it is not just about corruption. Get a good book not just google.  Start at the beginner level, go buy (and read) something by Naomi Klein and Chomsky then come back and I will tell you what else to read. 

# Peru says :
14 June, 2009 [ 11:50 ]

this girl Quorianka didn`t even want to have her dad `s last name .. was she ashame of the hispanic last name ??? she is just going to Peru to sell her movie , she doesn`t care about Peru at all... did she go to Peru  when there was this earthquacke ??? is she helping children dying from the cold weather in the Andes?? that means she just cares whenever it`s convenient for her .. go back to California to your huge mansion and to your luxurious life , that´s where you really belong !!!

# Raul says :
14 June, 2009 [ 13:21 ]

Peru: Blood Flows in the Amazon

By James Petras

June 12, 2009 "ICH" -- - In early June, Peruvian President Alan García, an ally of US President Barack Obama, ordered armored personnel carriers, helicopter gun-ships and hundreds of heavily armed troops to assault and disperse a peaceful, legal protest organized by members of Peru’s Amazonian indigenous communities protesting the entry of foreign multinational mining companies on their traditional homelands. Dozens of Indians were killed or are missing, scores have been injured and arrested and a number of Peruvian police, held hostage by the indigenous protestors were killed in the assault. President García declared martial law in the region in order to enforce his unilateral and unconstitutional fiat granting of mining exploitation rights to foreign companies, which infringed on the integrity of traditional Amazonian indigenous communal lands.

Alan García is no stranger to government-sponsored massacres. In June 1986, he ordered the military to bomb and shell prisons in the capital holding many hundreds of political prisoners protesting prison conditions – resulting in over 400 known victims. Later obscure mass graves revealed dozens more. This notorious massacre took place while García was hosting a gathering of the so-called ‘Socialist’ International in Lima. His political party, APRA (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) a member of the ‘International’, was embarrassed by the public display of its ‘national-socialist’ proclivities, before hundreds of European Social Democrat functionaries. Charged with misappropriation of government funds and leaving office with an inflation rate of almost 8,000% in 1990, he agreed to support Presidential candidate Alberto Fujimori in exchange for amnesty. When Fujimori imposed a dictatorship in 1992, García went into self-imposed exile in Colombia and later, France. He returned in 2001 when the statute of limitations on his corruption charges had expired and Fujimori was forced to resign amidst charges of running death squads and spying on his critics. García won the 2006 Presidential elections in a run-off against the pro-Indian nationalist candidate and former Army officer, Ollanta Humala, thanks to financial and media backing by Lima’s rightwing, ethnic European oligarchs and US overseas ‘AID’ agencies.

Back in power, García left no doubt about his political and economic agenda. In October 2007 he announced his strategy of placing foreign multi-national mining companies at the center of his economic ‘development’ program, while justifying the brutal displacement of small producers from communal lands and indigenous villages in the name of ‘modernization’.

García pushed through congressional legislation in line with the US-promoted ‘Free Trade Agreement of the Americas’ or ALCA. Peru was one of only three Latin American nations to support the US proposal. He opened Peru to the unprecedented plunder of its resources, labor, land and markets by the multinationals. In late 2007, García began to award huge tracts of traditional indigenous lands in the Amazon region for exploitation by foreign mining and energy multinationals. This was in violation of a 1969 International Labor Organization-brokered agreement obligating the Peruvian government to consult and negotiate with the indigenous inhabitants over exploitation of their lands and rivers. Under his ‘open door’ policy, the mining sector of the economy expanded rapidly and made huge profits from the record-high world commodity prices and the growing Asian (Chinese) demand for raw materials. The multinational corporations were attracted by Peru’s low corporate taxes and royalty payments and virtually free access to water and cheap government-subsidized electricity rates. The enforcement of environmental regulations was suspended in these ecologically fragile regions, leading to wide-spread contamination of the rivers, ground water, air and soil in the surrounding indigenous communities. Poisons from mining operations led to massive fish kills and rendered the water unfit for drinking. The operations decimated the tropical forests, undermining the livelihood of tens of thousands of villagers engaged in traditional artisan work and subsistence forest gathering and agricultural activities.

The profits of the mining bonanza go primarily to the overseas companies. The García regime distributes state revenues to his supporters among the financial and real estate speculators, luxury goods importers and political cronies in Lima’s enclosed upscale, heavily guarded neighborhoods and exclusive country-clubs. As the profit margins of the multinationals reached an incredible 50% and government revenues exceeded $1 billion US dollars, the indigenous communities lacked paved roads, safe water, basic health services and schools. Worse still, they experienced a rapid deterioration of their everyday lives as the influx of mining capital led to increased prices for basic food and medicine. Even the World Bank in its Annual Report for 2008 and the editors of the Financial Times of London urged the García regime to address the growing discontent and crisis among the indigenous communities. Delegations from the indigenous communities had traveled to Lima to try to establish a dialogue with the President in order to address the degradation of their lands and communities. The delegates were met with closed doors. García maintained that ‘progress and modernity come from the big investments by the multinationals…,(rather than) the poor peasants who haven’t a centavo to invest.’ He interpreted the appeals for peaceful dialogue as a sign of weakness among the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon and increased his grants of exploitation concessions to foreign MNCs even deeper into the Amazon. He cut off virtually all possibility for dialogue and compromise with the Indian communities.

The Amazonian Indian communities responded by forming the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). They held public protests for over 7 weeks culminating in the blocking of two transnational highways. This enraged García, who referred to the protestors as ‘savages and barbarians’ and sent police and military units to suppress the mass action. What García failed to consider was the fact that a significant proportion of indigenous men in these villages had served as rmy conscripts, who fought in the 1995 war against Ecuador while others had been trained in local self-defense community organizations. These combat veterans were not intimidated by state terror and their resistance to the initial police attacks resulted in both police and Indian casualties. García then declared ‘war on the savages’ sending a heavy military force with helicopters and armored troops with orders to ‘shoot to kill’. AIDESEP activists report over one hundred deaths among the indigenous protestors and their families: Indians were murdered in the streets, in their homes and workplaces. The remains of many victims are believed to have been dumped in the ravines and rivers.

Conclusion

The Obama regime has predictably not issued a single word of concern or protest in the face of one of the worst massacres of Peruvian civilians in this decade – perpetrated by one of America’s closest remaining allies in Latin America. García, taking his talking points from the US Ambassador, accused Venezuela and Bolivia of having instigated the Indian ‘uprising’, quoting a letter of support from Bolivia’s President Evo Morales sent to an intercontinental conference of Indian communities held in Lima in May as ‘proof’. Martial law was declared and the entire Amazon region of Peru is being militarized. Meetings are banned and family members are forbidden from searching for their missing relatives.

Throughout Latin America, all the major Indian organizations have expressed their solidarity with the Peruvian indigenous movements. Within Peru, mass social movements, trade unions and human rights groups have organized a general strike on June 11. Fearing the spread of mass protests, El Commercio, the conservative Lima daily, cautioned García to adopt some conciliatory measures to avoid a generalized urban uprising. A one-day truce was declared on June 10, but the Indian organizations refused to end their blockade of the highways unless the García Government rescinds its illegal land grant decrees.

In the meantime, a strange silence hangs over the White House. Our usually garrulous President Obama, so adept at reciting platitudes about diversity and tolerance and praising peace and justice, cannot find a single phrase in his prepared script condemning the massacre of scores of indigenous inhabitants of the Peruvian Amazon. When egregious violations of human rights are committed in Latin America by a US backed client-President following Washington’s formula of ‘free trade’, deregulation of environmental protections and hostility toward anti-imperialist countries (Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador), Obama favors complicity over condemnation.

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York.  He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22813.htm

# Mike says :
14 June, 2009 [ 14:55 ]

Vladi,

It is you who are backwards. Poverty has been a fact of life for all of human history UNTIL the western world economies invented the middle class. The US and other western civilizations are the best in the world - even with the current fiasco. "so many mexicans have left their country to work illegaly in the US" because the economic system is better in the US. the country is better. Not because of western intervention caused poverty!

Poverty was the norm until the US came along. Now we have hope, that with hard work you may be able to achieve something better.

# Raul Milagros says :
14 June, 2009 [ 18:04 ]

Check out John Pilgers website :

http://www.johnpilger.com/

# Jorge Mendoza says :
14 June, 2009 [ 18:10 ]

The War on Democracy

An apt title given America's tendency to wage war on drugs, terrorism and anything else available ("Abstract concepts, we hate 'em!"). America's war on democracy has been going on for a long time side by side with its love for claiming the word along with another abstract concept, "freedom", as an exclusive possession. Specifically, this film features the appalling US record against the southern part of its own continent. John Pilger takes a break from his ITV pulpit to take to the big screen, increasingly the natural home of the leftie doc.

He begins by interviewing Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, an oil-rich country run by a smart, democratically elected socialist and therefore practically a dictionary definition of the US government's worst nightmare. So far he has survived kidnapping and a plotters' coup backed by you know who. But this, Pilger proves, is only par for the course in the bit below Texas and California, which consisted pretty much of wall-to-wall dictators in the 1970s: Pilger claims the US has tried to overthrow 50 governments since 1945 and wheels on a few CIA old hands to prove his point.

Howard Hunt refers to "a little harmless bombing", while Philip Agee owns up that "in the CIA, we didn't give a hoot about democracy". Best of all, for Pilger's purposes, is the odious Duane Clarridge, of Reagan-era Iran-Contra fame, who seems amazed and outraged that anyone should expect his country to act in anything but what he regards as US national security interests. "Get used to it, world," he exclaims, spluttering with red-faced arrogance.

Michael Moore fans may find Pilger's presenting style a bit offputting. He's rather grand, and surprisingly reminiscent of Alan Whicker. Like Whicker, Pilger goes to visit the very rich, who seem to think they're going to be flattered and indulged on film.

Instead they're there as comparison to the downtrodden masses, many of whom seem to be very downtrodden indeed. A friend recalls sitting in a tourist hotel and watching peoples' homes washing down a nearby mountainside during a rainstorm in Venezuela in the bad old 70s - now that's a divided society.

Pilger's film (he's director, writer and presenter) is not all depressing: Chávez is a long way from eradicating poverty but he's making inroads in a country where he's attacked on privatised TV - we see some examples not too far from the Fox News style - and Bolivia has its first indigenous leader since the Spanish conquest in Evo Morales. Comparisons with other hot, oil-rich countries are entirely intentional, but Pilger seems heartened enough to close with Sam Cooke's glorious civil rights anthem, A Change Is Gonna Come. The War on Democracy has not been released in cinemas, nor even on DVD in the US.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/feb/08/dvdreviews.documentary


Or you can see it  on youtube for free:

THE WAR ON DEMOCRACY 1/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHj735t_knk

The War on Democracy (1/10) sub spanish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGjp_0VHy34

# Daniel says :
14 June, 2009 [ 18:42 ]

Racist Myths about Mexican Immigrants
Vernellia R. Randall
Professor of Law
The University of Dayton

So, just who are the "illegal" in California, and who has a greater right to live and work here? As he stated was his goal was on his inaugeration night, President James Polk stole California (and much more) from Mexico by violent force, just a few generations ago. Now we pass laws making it illegal for most Mexicans to live and work here, and forcibly remove them when they cross the border "illegally" (having exhausted all legal means for entry). Let's examine and expose a few of the racist myths behind the outrage against "illegals" that's all the rage in California.

Myth: Mexican "illegals" are "parasites" who want a free-ride from the U.S.
My experience has been the opposite. Everytime I walk in downtown area of any American city, I am constantly approached by the poor looking for a handout ("Spare change for a cup of coffee?" "Spare change for a bite to eat?" "Spare change for a beer?"). Living and working in downtown Santa Cruz, I am confronted each and every day by apparently healthy able-bodied young men wanting a handout.

In Mexican cities, there are more poor than in American cities. However, in Mexico, it is rare to be asked for a handout! Don't get me wrong, the Mexican poor are quite skilled at separating you from your spare change, but they do it by selling you things: jewelry, souvenirs, etc. Even the small children sell chicklets chewing gum in exchange for spare change. Others offer to shine your shoes or provide some other service. However, it is quite rare to be asked for a handout in Mexico. Moral of the story? It is a myth in America that Mexicans want a free ride. The Mexican poor, in stark contrast to the American poor, hold an unquestioned assumption that they have to earn their way, and nearly always offer something in exchange for what they need.
Myth: Mexican "illegals" pay no taxes, contribute nothing to our society or our economy, then rape our social services systems for free, unearned benefits.


The southwest and California were built in large part by undocumented Mexican immigrants. There was a time when Mexican migrant workers passed freely over the border each season to labor in the Southwest. In that time, Mexicans were an important and welcomed source of cheap labor. At the end of the season, the laborers would return to Mexico. The border was always open for their return, so they had no particular reason to remain in "Alte" California ("Upper" California, as the state was called before the U.S. stole it from Mexico).

Throughout the California Gold Rush, which commenced just months after the U.S. took over California from Mexico, Mexican mule trains were crucial in distributing supplies to mining camps and towns throughout California's Sierra Nevada mountains. (Incidentally, although the U.S. gave $15 million to Mexico at the close of the Mexican war as a token for the takeover by the U.S. of California, New Mexico and other Mexican provinces, the California Gold Strike produced hundreds of millions of dollars for America, which was equal in value to billions of today's dollars).

Today, Mexican workers pay sales taxes and work for substandard wages at the shittiest jobs in the state. Paying illegal workers below minimum wage is very common and results in higher profits for the illegal employer, and therefore higher taxes paid by the employer. End result: worker gets much lower pay (essentially payroll withholding) which results more taxes being paid into the U.S. and State treasuries (due to higher profits for the illegal employers). Many illegal employers know their Mexican laborers are illegal, but nonetheless withhold payroll taxes from their paychecks, and rather than pay those taxes to the government, simply pocket them. Quite often the employer will not realize that the Mexican is illegal, and so will go ahead and withhold payroll taxes and pay them to the government.

Since illegal Mexican workers live in fear of deportation, they rarely seek social services or file for income tax returns for fear of being discovered and deported (the only exceptions are emergency medical care and primary education, the two things too urgent to forgo. It's no coincidence that California recently passed a law requiring medical care providers and schools to deny services to illegal immigrants - those are the only two social services they use (in spite of the contributions they make to the economy), because those 2 are the only ones they're willing to risk deportation to use. Justice prevailed - a federal court declared the law unconstitutional).

Myth: Illegal Mexican immigrants are criminals deserving severe punishment.

The typical illegal Mexican immigrant is an honest worker struggling for a better life for himself and his family, not a violent criminal.

In 1995, an article in the San Jose Mercury News reported that it is quite common for families to be divided by the border. For example, the father and one of the sons are legal residents, while the mother and another son are in Mexico and unable immigrate legally. The one father and son cannot afford to give up their jobs in California to return to Mexico, and the rest of the family is unsuccessful at immigrating legally, so the family must live apart.

The anti-immigrant folks never seem to give a second thought to rich U.S. farmers who knowingly employ undocumented workers at sub-standard wages (and in sub-standard conditions). Such employers are a major source of the draw of immigrants into California, but are rarely if ever portrayed as criminals who deserve to be "severely punished". They are indeed breaking the law by employing undocumented workers, but this law is lightly enforced if at all whereas it is becoming quite fashionable for politicians in America to call for increasing efforts at enforcing laws against illegal border crossings (and for Usenet demagogues to scream for severe punishment of "illegals").

In my career in California's high-tech center known as Silicon Valley, I have noticed that the janitors are almost universally Mexicans, and driving through the agricultural areas of California, the laborers breaking their backs in the fields (often covered with carcinogenic pesticides) are mostly Mexican. It seems to me that the Mexicans have really gotten the bottom of the barrel in our society.

So how is it that Mexican immigrants are responsible for all of our economic problems and other troubles, and why all the outrage? To me it bears a chilling resemblance to the way Hitler was able to dupe all of Germany into believing that all their problems were caused by the Jews.

We need to stop being spoonfed our issues by politicians, and stop letting the demagogues push our emotional buttons, and look at the real source of our problems, such as the fact that 50% of what the government collects from us in corporate and individual income taxes is spent on destruction (the military), rather than on building a peacetime social and industrial infrastructure, and a very significant sector of our economy is the "defense" (war) industry, which, unlike peacetime industries, drags down rather than fuels the economy. Why is there no outrage over the fact that the Trident IV first-strike nuclear weapon is still being funded at $300 million a year, when the cold war is long over? Why is there no outrage over the fact that 75% of all international weapons sales are made by the U.S., and 90% of our customers are non-democratic regimes? Why is it that the Mexican worker and welfare mothers are getting all the blame for this country's problems????

It never ceases to amaze and disgust me to see grown adults blaming Mexican schoolchildren and pregnant women for their economic woes, while monthly Space Shuttle missions costing billions (often on "secret military" missions) are not given a second thought.

http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/guadalu4.htm

http://www.brownpride.us/forum/racist-myths-mexican-immigrants-t28208.html?s=b9f94ce620903eaf096d6d8502159ac7&

# Ryan T says :
14 June, 2009 [ 21:53 ]

Thanks for the links to 'The War on Democracy'.

Daniel, Good points, I have witnessed the same type of racism and stereotyping here in Peru as happens agains Mexicans in the US.  Fox news often uses the rare crimes commited by illegal immigrants to demonize all of them. 

Mike, The reductions in US poverty were caused by supporting the creation of a middle class through tax code, education, social security, etc. (this all happened pre-Regan) The exploitation of point-source resources - oil and mining - will not have the same results.  Poverty in Peru is at the root of the recent tragedies.  Violence is obviously not the answer, education and sustainable development are.

# Daniel says :
14 June, 2009 [ 23:43 ]

U. S. Imperialism, Hands Off Latin America

November 9, 2004

Below we print part of a speech given by Michael Thorburn, a representative of the Workers Party, U.S.A., at a Chicago-area meeting organized by the Peace Agenda Forum on October 21, 2004. For the purposes of publication, the speech has been edited by the author.

Very simply, the aim of my speech is to encourage everyone here to work to make sure that the slogan: "U.S., Hands Off Latin America!"

Is a central part of the peace movement and the political agenda of the American people.

This issue is fundamental because, as the saying goes, "no nation which oppresses another can be free." Thus, our Party - the Workers Party - holds that it is the elementary responsibility of every person who genuinely stands for democracy and the rights of humanity to resolutely oppose the national oppression and military intervention imposed on other countries by our "own government."

And everyone knows that for more than 100 years, the U.S. government and the U.S. monopoly capitalist class has considered Latin America their "backyard" and imposed colonialism and neocolonialism on the peoples.

Today, U.S. imperialism is intensifying its stranglehold over Latin America as part of its so-called "war on terrorism." Historically, Latin America is the foundation of the U.S. empire. And as U.S. imperialism fights to extend this empire - to create a unipolar world with itself as the "sole superpower" - it is determined to fortify its strategic base.

- Thus, we see that in February of this year, thousands of U.S. marines invaded Haiti, kidnapped the elected President and began restoring open U.S. colonial rule.

- We see the U.S. branding the Colombian people as "terrorists" and stepping up its direct military intervention in a counter-insurgency war which aims at suppressing Colombia's struggle for independence, democracy and social and economic progress. We see U.S. imperialism using "Plan Colombia" to stretch its military presence and activities throughout the Andes region, militarizing Ecuador and Peru, threatening Venezuela and Bolivia, etc.

- We see the U.S. government tightening its blockade - its war - against Cuba and publicly publishing a blueprint for military intervention and the reimposition of U.S. colonialism in Cuba.

- We see the U.S. government - through the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the highest officials of the government - carrying out a destabilization campaign against the elected, constitutional government of Venezuela.

- We see U.S. capitalism intensifying its economic penetration of the continent, dictating austerity budgets and privatization programs to various governments, pressuring countries to accept such treaties as the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Andes Free Trade Agreement, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and various bilateral treaties which aim at virtual U.S. annexation of Latin America.

History of U.S. Intervention

Before going more deeply into some of these sharpening immediate struggles, I want to review some of the background of U.S. intervention in Latin America. This history helps us see where present-day problems come from, helps us see that the super-exploitation and war against the peoples of Latin America is built into the very foundations of present-day U.S. capitalist-imperialism and that for more than 100 years this colonialism has been the bipartisan program of both the Democratic and Republican parties.

From the very founding of the U.S. republic, U.S. capitalism expressed an appetite for Latin America. For example, by proclaiming the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, the U.S. government declared that the entire Western Hemisphere was its sphere of influence and warned European powers to stay out.

But in its early days, U.S. capitalism, despite its appetite, did not have the power to project itself too far. This changed around the turn of the 20th century as the era of monopoly capitalism and imperialism began.

U.S. capitalism emerged as a major imperialist power by waging the so-called "Spanish-American War," which really was a war waged by the U. S. government against the peoples of Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines who were already fighting for their independence from Spain. Through this war, the U.S. imposed direct colonial rule on Puerto Rico and Cuba (as well as the Philippines), marking the beginning of the wholesale export of U.S. capital and U.S. marines to Latin America - the beginning of U.S. economic and, to a large extent, territorial domination of the continent.

This colonial project was codified by President Theodore Roosevelt in his famous "Roosevelt corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine which asserted U.S. imperialism's intention to intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries to control their economic and political systems.

Roosevelt's doctrine reads, in part:

"Any country whose people conduct themselves well, can count upon our hearty friendship. If a nation shows that it knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters, if it keeps order and pays its obligations, it need fear no interference from the U.S. Chronic wrong-going or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, ... require intervention by some civilized nations, and in the western hemisphere the adherence of the U.S. to the Monroe Doctrine may force the U.S... to the exercise of an international [police] power."

These early years of "gunboat diplomacy" are well described by a U.S. General - Smedley Butler, who writes in his memoirs: "I spent 33 years and four months in active service as a member of our country's most agile military force - the marine corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from a second lieutenant to major-general. And during that period I spent most of my time being a highclass muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism .... Thus I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank to collect revenues in . . . I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916.

I helped make Honduras "right" For American fruit companies in 1903." (quoted from Eduardo Galeano, "Open Veins of Latin America," 1971).

In fact, over the years, U.S. government has waged hundreds of wars and military interventions against the peoples of Latin America and these wars have been waged by every administration, Democratic and Republican.

A partial list of some of the major U.S. wars since the 1950's includes:

- in 1954 CIA-trained U.S. troops invaded Guatemala to carry out a coup against the Arbenz government and reverse the country's agrarian reform which went against the economic interests of United Fruit;

- in 1959 the U.S. began widescale covert intervention against Cuba after the revolutionary government undertook land reform and the nationalization of certain U.S.-owned enterprises. Over the years, U. S. intervention has resulted in the murder of hundreds of Cuban activists, workers, peasants, and students by U.S. covert operatives.

In 1961 the U.S. launched the "Bay of Pigs" invasion, and later Kennedy threatened Cuba with nuclear war, etc.;

- in 1965, some 50,000 U.S. troops invaded the Dominican Republic;

- in 1973 the CIA-organized a coup in Chile which overthrow the elected government and resulted in the murder, imprisonment and exiling of tens of thousands of Chileans;

- in the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's, U.S. advisers on the ground directed the counter-insurgency war in El Salvador which resulted in 80,000 killed and 1.5 million Salvadorans exiled.

- in the 1980's, the CIA directed the "contra war" against Nicaragua which claimed the lives of 30,000 people;

- the 1983 invasion of Grenada by 30,000 troops in 1983;

- in 1985 invasion of Panama.

In sum, for more than 100 years, U.S. imperialism has imposed a series of fascist, military regimes on the peoples in Latin America and has been in a permanent state of war against the continent.

Just as today the U.S. government, in its war against Iraq, can rely only on doublespeak to advertise its aggression as "defense of democracy," to label its destruction and devastation of Iraq as "preventing chaos," etc., so too all the war and fascism imposed on Latin America by U.S. imperialism has been carried out in the name of "freedom" and "democracy."

At the time of the Monroe Doctrine, Henry Clay, Secretary of State, justified U.S. imperial ambitions by calling for "a human freedom league encompassing all nations from Hudson Bay to Cape Horn."

The U.S. wars against the Puerto Rican and Cuban people were waged in the name of "bringing freedom and civilization" to the people.

The invasions of Guatemala and Grenada were carried out in the name of "restoring democracy." The contras mercenaries and the paramilitary death squads in El Salvador, Colombia and elsewhere are called "freedom fighters" by the leaders of the U.S. government.

The 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic like the ongoing occupation of Haiti are justified as a means to "prevent chaos and anarchy."

The U.S. blockade of Cuba and its plan for armed intervention are given such names as the "Cuban Democracy Act" and "Assistance for a Free Cuba." The U.S. government works to destabilize the elected government in Venezuela by branding President Chavez as a "dictator."

The truth is that the path to democracy for peoples in Latin America is and can only be the path of struggle against U.S. imperialism - against its subversion, aggression, and support for internal reactionary regimes.

For the American people, a very touchstone of our commitment to genuine democracy is resolute, uncompromising struggle against any and all interference by the U.S. capitalist-imperialist government in Latin America. The touchstone of genuine American democracy, a vital part of opposition to the colonialism, racism and war program of "our own" government is to struggle to get U.S. imperialism out of Latin America, lock, stock and barrel!

Economic Basis

Of course, behind all this military intervention are the economic interests of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class.

Everyone knows that in Latin America whole countries have been turned into plantations - banana plantations, coffee plantations, sugar plantations, rubber plantations, etc. - owned by U.S. agri-businesses.

The fertile soil of Latin America has not been used to feed its people but turned into profits for the U.S. capitalists. Thus for example El Salvador has lost its self-sufficiency in food as its land has been used to grow and export coffee for the U.S. capitalists. And along with pillaging the land, U.S. imperialism - in alliance with the local oligarchy and fascist regimes - expropriated, by force of arms, the land of the peasants, abolished their communal and other indigenous ownership systems, and deprived millions of people of their livelihood. This same story, repeated in different forms all across the continent, is one of the root causes of today's war in the Colombian countryside, where for 100 years peasants have been fighting to keep their land and livelihood from armed expropriation by landlords in alliance with U.S. imperialism.

So too the mineral wealth of the soil, the patrimony of the peoples, has literally been drained and carted out of Latin America. Just as the conquistadors looted the gold of the indigenous peoples, the U. S. capitalists have grabbed billions of dollars in wealth by taking the copper of Chile, the tin of Bolivia, the oil of Venezuela and Mexico, the bauxite of Haiti, etc., etc.

While grabbing the raw materials and mineral wealth, the U.S. multinational corporations have set up branch plants across Latin America in order to exploit the working class. Under the thumb of U. S.-imposed governments, Latin American workers are super-exploited and often prevented from exercising such elementary rights as the right to unionize. Today, for example, after U.S. imperialism drained Haiti of its huge bauxite reserves, robbing the national patrimony of the people, 150 U.S. companies have set up shop in the country, paying workers as little as $1.60/day.

During the last several years, under the signboard of "neo-liberal economics," U.S. imperialism has been intensifying its economic penetration and superexploitation of Latin America. Through military, economic and political pressure, through bilateral and multilateral such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, etc., through the IMF and other international financial institutions, imperialism is directly dictating the budget of Latin American countries, forcing the privatization of state-owned industries, grabbing control of virtually the entire economic infrastructure. The goal if the virtual annexation of the continent by U.S. capital.

By 2001, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean owned $787 billion to U.S. and international bankers and were paying more than $150 billion/year in debt service (see U.S Commerce Department's "Survey of Current Business," September 2002).

This huge debt in turn is used by imperialism as a lever to further open up the economies of Latin America to imperialist penetration and take-over.

For example, from 1982 to early the 1990's Mexico was forced to privatize 886 state enterprises out of a total of 1,155 with U.S. monopolies gaining control over telecommunications, airlines, banking, mining, steel and other sectors. Similarly in Chile, the Pinochet regime (installed through a CIA coup) privatized 160 state corporations, 16 banks and thousands of mines and agricultural enterprises from 1975 through 1989.

Today, U.S. imperialism is demanding that literally all the wealth and labor of Latin America be put at its disposal. Various U. S.-dictated treaties are turning even the water resources over to U.S. multinational corporations and forbidding Latin American governments from protecting even such sectors as health care, education, or the national forests from foreign ownership. U.S. imperialism aims at nothing less than the virtual annexation of the continent.

As U.S. imperialism spreads its net across Latin America, the apologists for capitalism, portray this process as the road to "economic opportunity, freedom and development."

But, this is just economic doublespeak. The only "freedom" aimed at is the "freedom" of the U.S. monopolies to rob the wealth and exploit the peoples.

Why is it that Latin America remains economically underdeveloped and so many of the people live in poverty and hardship? The continent has fabulously rich soil and vast mineral wealth. And only the racist filth of imperialism could claim that the people don't work and create new values.

The real problem is precisely that the values created by the labor of the people leaves their countries and goes to Wall Street and Washington, D.C. to fill the pockets of the U.S. capitalists. The labor of the people does not go to insure their well-being or the economic independence and development of the Latin American countries, it is, instead, poured into the foundations of U.S. imperialism's empire.

So just as the path to genuine democracy in Latin America can only be the path of struggle against U.S. intervention, so too, the path of economic development and social progress can only be the path of struggle against the exploiting, colonial relations imposed on Latin America by U.S. capitalist-imperialism. This is the path of cancelling the debt, the path of putting the handcuffs on the multinational corporations, the path of nationalizing the economic infrastructure and putting the economic resources of Latin America in the hands of the peoples themselves.

Looking into the economic basis of U.S. intervention again teaches the people in the U.S. that our struggle against U.S. militarism and colonialism in Latin America must strike against the very foundations of the capitalist-imperialist system. In political terms it means that the struggle against U.S. intervention must be directed against the parties of monopoly capital and imperialism - against the Republicans and Democrats. (to be continued).

(This entire speech will soon be published in pamphlet form. For more information contact The Worker at P.O. Box 25716, Chicago, IL. 60625; (312) 409-1127).

http://www.anti-imperialist.org/Hands-Off-Latin-America_11-9-04.htm


Viva Ollanta Humala
Viva Hugo Chavez
Viva Evo Morales
Viva Oscar Arias
Viva Fidel Castro
Viva Raul Castro
Viva Daniel Ortega
Viva EL ALBA
Viva EL UNASUR
Viva Russia, China, Iran & South America Alliance.
Viva The SCO Alliance
Viva North Korea
Viva El Communismo
Viva El Socialismo
Viva El Nacionalismo
Yankees Go Home.

# Jacqueline Gabino says :
15 June, 2009 [ 02:38 ]

Okay enough, just let her be. Every country is different in many ways. Mexico is not a compatible comparison for Peru. Peru has its goods and its bads. I'm Peruvian/Iialian from my parents, but I was born in the USA.There will be many ignorantpeople saying for example, viva communism. That just needs to STOP. People try to live in peace, harmony , and love. Once that is in place everything will come together as a puzzle. I never been to Peru, but I love Peru as I if I was born there. I want the best for Peru, so please stop all the ignorance.

# mericorps says :
15 June, 2009 [ 14:11 ]

No one reads long rambling cut and pastes.  If Daniel and Raul and people like them want to get their message out, they need to learn how to present it.  I am not disagreeing with the message, I am saying the messengers are not smart and presenting their point so people will listen...

And speaking of poor messages, I think Ms. Kilcher is a great actress and i was pleased to see her come to stand by the indiginous of Peru until she was asked about her opinions of the laws and rules that have provoked this outburst and she said she has no idea and has to go study them.

Then she just looked like a fool seeking publicity and using her people.  It does her no good nor does it help the indiginous of Peru.

# Daniel says :
16 June, 2009 [ 02:20 ]

 mericorps
Your opinion is of NO interest to me.

# Mike says :
17 June, 2009 [ 22:57 ]

Just because you can use many words does not mean you have much to say.

# Paul says :
18 June, 2009 [ 10:43 ]

Yeah I have never read any of those long cut and pastes... begets my will to live.   Also some folks post messages in a really small font..  doesnt work for me either.

# Geronimo says :
3 July, 2009 [ 08:33 ]

I doubt that many will read this because the thread is old.  Idid not read the long articles entirely because I am very familiar with them.  However, they are very educational and too many people are ignorant of the facts.  So thanks.  Q'orianka is quite young.  But she has intelligence and compassion.  She has been to Amazonia before and knows the facts on the ground.  The poverty that is spoken of refers to materialism.  Because indigenous people don't embrace it does not invalidate their sustainable lifestyle.  Improvements in health are welcome.  But Western civilization is nonsustainable and self-destructive.  Communism has not worked too well.  But that does not give capitalism a free pass.  It is highly exploitive.  The middle class are the Praetorian Guard of the masters.  Distribute the wealth of the extreme exploiters, reset priorities for  the well-being of all, and we can all take pride in the dignity and progress of mankind.

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