HispanicVista Columnists
China Fast Becoming Influence in Latin America
- Robert Miranda, a frequent contributing columnist to HispanicVista.com (http://www.hispanicvista.com/) is a national award winning columnist, Latino community activist and Editor-in-Chief of the Milwaukee Spanish Journal. Email at: rmiranda@wi.rr.com
By Robert Miranda
Ultra right-wing conservatives are almost literally waving the red flag in an attempt to raise neo-conservative concerns about China’s growing influence in the Western Hemisphere—specifically, Latin America.
American right-wingers are sounding the alarm and their panic comes on the heels of China's political networking with new leftist governments in Latin America—Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil.
Indeed, the neo-cons have been in a fit for some years over China’s control of the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is the Hemispheres most important shipping canal which cuts through the isthmus of Panama in Central America, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Before the United States lowered its flag on December 31, 1999, giving up control of the Canal, U.S. influence in the area lasted since 1903. The administration of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt successfully negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty with Panama, conceding to the United States a ten-mile-wide strip across the isthmus for construction of a canal.
As a result of the Carter-Torrijos treaty of 1977, a treaty that called for the United States to surrender control of the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999, U.S. armed forces and most of its interests pulled out of the Canal region. The Treaty however, does allow for the United States to defend the Canal militarily if needed, but such an action today would cause serious concerns for China, who would probably challenge the U.S. military presence in the region now.
China is now in effect and without question the gatekeeper of the Canal.
In charge of China’s business interests in the Canal region is the giant shipping corporation, Hutchison Port Holding. According to its Web site, the company “traces it roots back to Hongkong & Whampoa Dock Company.” The company’s history can be traced back to 1866.
This corporation operates the ports of Cristobal and Balboa located at each end of the Panama Canal. The company states that it is committed to transforming the two ports into major hubs to serve the Atlantic and Pacific trade routes.
This is interesting when you consider the changing political dynamics taking place in Latin America. Anti-American feelings are on the rise and Latin American nations, namely Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil, have become economic and political partners with China. They are inviting China into their nations for more discussions centered on economic growth in Latin America.
Beijing is in Panama for the long haul and this is causing concern in Washington. The Bush Administration is losing influence rapidly in Latin America, and extremist anti-immigrant rhetoric being spewed by right-wing media zealots, such as Lou Dobbs of CNN and Rush Limbaugh is fueling mistrust and suspicions against Latin American immigrants. Anti-immigrant laws being pressed for by Congressman James Sensenbrenner, is giving leftist movements in these nations political leverage.
Bush’s global economic policies, the implementation of global neo-liberal economics, in the form of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), have helped to shift the political paradigm in Latin America closer to the political left.
These policies have opened fertile economic and political grounds for China.
Indeed, newly elected president of Bolivia, Evo Morales recently met with Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 9, 2006.
President Hu Jintao suggested that Bolivia and China deepen economic cooperation and trade and explore possibilities of expanding cooperation in areas of mutual economic interests. The Chinese president encouraged strong and prestigious Chinese companies to invest in Bolivia and welcomed Bolivian companies to do business in China. This without question sends a strong message to Washington regarding China’s economic intentions and Bolivia’s readiness to establish itself as a leading player in Latin American economics.
President Morales has met with Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, this has Bush and his administration concerned. In fact, president Morales' spokesman, Alex Contreras, called the meeting of Latin America’s leftist leaders the “axis of good," clearly a play on president Bush's labeling of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil."
China is moving fast in Latin America. The world’s most populated nation has signed deals to develop Venezuelan oil fields, and has invested heavily in Brazilian steel mills and copper mines in Chile and Peru.
To be sure, the dragon has met the Incas and Mayans. It is they who now hold the fate of their people’s prosperity in their hands, and it will be the United States left behind holding an empty economic and political bag.