Sunday, January 13, 2008

The Grand Chessboard-Bolivar to Bhutto

Yesterday I went with my fellow classmate to a former sugar plantation called La Quinta de San Pedro Alejandrino. This is the place where Simon Bolivar died before setting sail for Europe after resigning from being president of Gran Columbia (which included Venezuela, Columbia and present day Panama and Ecuador) . Bolivar´s dream was a Pan American nation similar to the United states that would be strong enough to resist being exploited by more powerful nations. After a painful battle with tuberculosis on December 17, 1830, Bolivar died in Santa Marta, Colombia, a very disillusioned and disappointed man of the age of 47. History has shown that Latin America has been ruthlessly exploited after independance, primarily by the United States for it´s abundance of natural resources. Zbigniew BrzeziƄski in his book The Grand Chessboard talks about the "Great Game" and certainly what is happening in Latin America by the challenges to American Hegemony being posed by the economic allaince of South American nations known as Mercosur and espoused by leaders such as Hugo Chavez have the elites in America very concerned. The Great Game is always about power and how to maintain that power with the long term view always in mind. Bhutto was assasinated ending any credible challengers to Musharraf´s rule and he was able to conveniently blame it on our favorite boogey man Osama Bin Laden and his Al Queda crew. Shorlty after the killing, an announcement was made that Pakistan was going to be allowing more US military into Pakistan. Hmmm, who benefits? Let´s see Musharraf gets to stay in power and the United States get to strenthen it´s military presence in Pakistan. Read the article linked here for more about the assaination of Bhutto. Red Pill or Blue Pill?