![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/dno\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/commentary1.jpg\" "\\"commentary\\"")
I am a student of history\u2026..no I am not studying history at college or university right now, but I do read a lot about it. I enjoy reading about factual events that have played a role in where we are today as a people, a country and region. Our country, Dominica, is young in terms of Independence as compared to other countries, but with our limited natural resources we have been resilient.<\/p>\n
I remember Grenada\/Cuba and our actions and pleas to the US, we were rewarded for it in the mid 1990\u2019s by Bill Clinton and Bob Dole\u2026no longer are the roads around the Deep Water Harbor clogged with our beloved banana farmers trucks, the US certainly put a stop to that. The Prime Minister\u2019s recent calls on the US to lift the Embargo on Cuba made writing this little commentary much easier as the topic is out in the news right now. Even today, bombs fall in Libya because the Colonel will not bow to these Western Powers\u2026and plus his oil is the good stuff which the\u00a0 America needs.<\/p>\n
All countries (Dominica included) do things that will benefit them first and foremost. We are all out for ourselves! What I would like to pay particular attention to is some events of the last 70 years with particular focus on America, yes America and its meddling has brought much unneeded pain on many nations. It is a land where many Dominicans have migrated to for better lives\/studies\/careers etc. Although I can argue that Dominicans living in Dominica have a much better life than those in America do.<\/p>\n
Some people are critical of Dominica\u2019s relationships with China\/Cuba\/Venezuela and other countries not totally aligned with the American Doctrine. These critics may have a point as there are always two sides to any disagreement and reason can be made for supporting either position. However, I am totally supportive of Dominica\u2019s relationships and it is not a position I arrived at just last night.<\/p>\n
I would like to go back to a few specific occasions in history that shows the United States acts only in their best interests. The British did so as well, but that is a subject for a future commentary as I would need a lot more time to write<\/p>\n
A.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The Cuban Revolution was a direct result of the US influence on Dictator, Fulgencio Batista, a corrupt and greedy man. During his reign many businesses and lands in Cuba were owned by foreigners, particularly Americans.\u00a0 The Revolution brought Fidel & Raul Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos among others to prominence and rule in Cuba. On March 10, 1952, General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the president of Cuba, Carlos Pr\u00eco Socarr\u00e1s, and canceled all elections. Fidel Castro was angered, and for the next seven years he attempted to overthrow Batista\u2019s government. On July 26, 1953, Castro led an attack against the military barracks in Santiago, but he was defeated and arrested. Fidel and Raul were sentenced to 15 & 13 years in prison, but were released in 1955 by Batista. Castro did not back down and gathered a new group of rebels in Mexico. On December 2, 1956, he attacked and was again defeated by Batista\u2019s army but this time he fled into the Sierra Maestra Mountains.<\/p>\n
He began using guerrilla tactics to fight Batista\u2019s armed forces, and with the aid of other rebellions throughout Cuba, he forced Batista to resign and flee the country on January 1, 1959. At the beginning of his rule, the United States supported Castro. However, once he embraced communism, the U.S. attempted to overthrow him. The Bay of Pigs invasion was a victory for Castro on April 17, 1961. The invading forces were crushed by Castro after President Kennedy refused to directly involve the U.S. armed forces, and 1200 of the invaders were captured. To this day the US has an embargo on Cuba that does nothing except harm the Cuban people.<\/p>\n
B.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0In 1953 the United States this time acting on the British behalf (and theirs of course), in a coup d’\u00e9tat, overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953. They installed in his place Mohammad Rez\u0101 Sh\u0101h Pahlavi, Shah of Iran or emperor of Iran. It can be argued that the Shah ruled from 1941 to 1979, but there is a period where he spent time in Egypt while the US fomented the coup d’\u00e9tat. Today we see how relations between the United States and Iran are affected by this event in 1953. The United States is advocating regime change, but their hands are very dirty from their activities in 1953.<\/p>\n
One of the people I am keenly interested in is Ernesto “Che” Guevara. I find him to be an interesting figure- a man who believed in his cause and was willing to die for it. I am in no way advocating violence or armed struggle.. He once spoke of the US imperialist attitude by saying, \u201cThe last Latin American revolutionary democracy \u2013 that of Jacobo\u00a0 Arbenz\u2013 failed as a result of the cold premeditated aggression carried out by the U.S.A. Its visible head was the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, a man who, through a rare coincidence, was also a stockholder and attorney for the United Fruit Company.\u201d Dulles International Airport in Dulles Virginia is named after him.<\/p>\n
C.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0The United States influenced, funded and carried out the coup d’\u00e9tat against the democratically elected president of Guatemala, Jacobo \u00c1rbenz Guzm\u00e1n in1954.\u00a0 This was done at the behest of United Fruit Company, or what we know today as Chiquita. Mr. Guzm\u00e1n or \u00c1rbenz as he was notably called wanted to institute land reforms in Guatemala, he himself losing approximately 1700 acres in the process. The United Fruit Company was vehemently opposed to such a process and asked the US government for assistance on this matter. The assistance they sought was not a \u2018legal\u2019 one, but they got a listening ear when Dwight D. Eisenhower became US President. The United Fruit Company was the largest land owners in Guatemala with 85% of their land uncultivated. The government of Mr. \u00c1rbenz through his Land reform program offered to compensate United Fruit Company for the full value of the land that they declared on their taxes in 1952. At tax time, United Fruit Company placed a value of $3.00 per acre. United Fruit Company knew in 1952 that to avoid paying more taxes a low value would save some money, but when the Government decided to redistribute the land and compensate them in 1953, the value miraculously skyrocketed to $75.00 per acre. What happened next is well recorded in history. The country suffers even to this day. Remember Bill Clinton and Bob Dole\u2026they crippled our Banana exports in the 90\u2019s with their petition to the WTO on behalf of Chiquita and Dole and our quota was eliminated\u2026.<\/p>\n
D.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Ecuador \u2013 1981 Jaime Rold\u00f3s Aguilera was President of Ecuador from August 1979 to 24 May 1981. His death in a plane crash has given rise to accusations he was surreptitiously assassinated by the United States government. I among many believe that Se\u00f1or Rold\u00f3s was assassinated, allegedly by a bomb located in a tape recorder. He had a plan to reorganize the hydrocarbon sector and that would have threatened U.S. interests in Ecuador. Se\u00f1or Rold\u00f3s had entered into a pact with neighboring Colombia and Peru, a pact which US President Ronald Reagan saw as a tilt toward the Soviet Union. We all know how crazy the US was about the U.S.S.R. Just months after Se\u00f1or Rold\u00f3s died, another Latin American leader who had been at odds with U.S. interests in the control of the Panama Canal, died.<\/p>\n
E.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Panama \u2013 1981 Panama’s Omar Torrijos, died in what was allegedly just a plane crash. Although he was not the most liked person and was never elected leader of Panama we know how vital keeping the Panama Canal flowing was for the US and other manufacturing nations. Se\u00f1or Torrijos’ death brought about speculation that he was assassinated. In 1992, Manuel Noriega’s attorney at his trial, Frank Rubino, was quoted saying “General Noriega has in his possession documents showing attempts to assassinate General Noriega and Mr. Torrijos by agencies of the United States.” As expected, the documents were not allowed as evidence in the trial- the judge agreed with the U.S. government’s claim that their admission as evidence would violate the Classified Information Procedures Act. John Perkins alleges in his book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that Se\u00f1or Torrijos was assassinated by American interests, who had a bomb planted aboard his aircraft (by CIA organized operatives). He claims that the motive is that American business leaders and politicians strongly opposed the negotiations between Se\u00f1or Torrijos and a group of Japanese businessmen led by Mr. Shigeo Nagano, who were promoting the idea of a new, larger, sea-level canal for Panama. Se\u00f1or Noriega, in claims that the negotiations had garnered a very unfavorable response from America. Se\u00f1or Torrijos died shortly after the inauguration of Ronald Reagan and two months after Se\u00f1or Jaime Rold\u00f3s died in\u2026.a plane crash as reported above. Se\u00f1or Manuel Noriega is now in France serving time in Prison after serving more than15 years in an American Prison. Se\u00f1or Manuel Noriega was once a paid contractor by the CIA<\/p>\n
F.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0On 11 April 2002, mass protests took place in Caracas against the Ch\u00e1vez government. A group of high ranking anti-Ch\u00e1vez military officers supported by the business community, media, CIA & opposing political parties, had been planning to launch a coup against Ch\u00e1vez. Their goal was to create civil unrest and use it as an opportunity to remove Ch\u00e1vez from power. After they gained power, Se\u00f1or Ch\u00e1vez agreed to step down, and was transferred by army escort to La Orchila. He asked to be allowed to leave Venezuela but he refused to officially resign from the presidency at the time. Wealthy business-leader Pedro Carmona declared himself president of an interim government. Protests began in support of Se\u00f1or Ch\u00e1vez as the Pedro Carmona regime was seen as totalitarian and gained very little support among the common Venezuelan people. Pedro Carmona resigned and Ch\u00e1vez was returned to power on 14 April. There is no doubt about the US role in this coup d’\u00e9tat. They will deny it but when the US does not get their man in the office they use any means necessary to achieve it.<\/p>\n
G.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Iraq\u00a0 2003 \u2013 We all know how this one played out. Saddam Hussein was no one\u2019s friend at the time of the war. He rose to his position as a trainee and contractor for the CIA. Oil was the draw here under the guise of WMD. Today Iraq produces 2.4 million barrels of oil each day, and exports 1.9 million Barrels. It is the 9th top producing country in the world.. The US does not only use military force or coup d’\u00e9tats to gain their foothold or resources in a country it needs or wants. They use other measures sometimes involving entities such as The World Bank, the IMF, OAS, USAID and a few others. The Master plan is laid out in a simple three step process below. If followed closely, the US wins every time and we in the world suffer.<\/p>\n
H.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Libya\u00a0 2011\u00a0 Colonel Moammar Gadhafi’s country is being hit. The outcome I am do not know specifically of, but as with all the above countries now aligned with America I can make a wild guess how this one ends.<\/p>\n
The three (3) stages of \u2018destroying\u2019 a country are as follows:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Step One: The Economic\u00a0 Hitman \u2013 Identify A Natural Resource that the Corporation or Country Covets
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Step Two: Send in Jackals \u2013 Overthrow Governments or Assassinate
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Step Three: The Military \u2013 Give them an ultimatum if they refuse, Bomb them.
\n4.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Step Four: Reconstruction \u2013 Promote and prop up allies and cronies to keep natural resource flowing<\/p>\n
In closing, I want to extend my thanks to DNO for posting this little opinion piece. My views are not that of the Government or people of Dominica. My views are just that, my views. I like to think of things bigger than in my own little world. There are a select few who possess the power and financial means that enslave all mankind. Should the price of oil or other materials be this high today? It should not but Capitalism breeds greed and greed breeds corruption.<\/p>\n
I am in no way better than the next person, but in my short lifetime I have seen many things that make me realize life is but a slow march to death.<\/p>\n
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the management and staff of Dominica News Online and its parent companies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I am a student of history\u2026..no I am not studying history at college or university right now, but I do read a lot about it. I enjoy reading about factual events that have played a role in where we are…","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n