If you think the chasm between the right and left in the U.S. is wide – read this from a Latin America perspective. For Brazil’s Carta Maior, columnist Emir Sader explains why the interests of the Latin American right lay squarely with those of the United States, which as far as the left is concerned, is hostile to Latin America.
For Carta Maior, columnist Emir Sader starts out this way:
The right hates Latin America.
First of all, because its colonial mentality and interests bind it to countries at the heart of capitalism, particularly the United States, which has historically had a relationship of conflict with our continent. The right never hides its subservient position in relation to the U.S. For example, the right loved it when Latin American countries were the empire’s backyard. When in the 1990s, for instance, did the right express interests at all at variance with those of Washington; and when didn’t it look to reproduce its policies?
The right doesn’t understand Latin America, nor can it. Its mind goes blank before what the imperial powers send to our countries; it reacts with only acceptance and happy resignation to the interests of these powers.
To begin with, understanding Latin America as a continent is to understand what unifies it as a continent: the historical phenomenon of having been colonized by European powers and being later transformed into a region of privileged U.S. domination.
Hence the right’s inability to understand the meaning of nationalism and national leaders: For the right, there is no imperialist domination or exploitation, let alone the concept of nationhood.
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