HispanicVista Columnists
U.S. Soldiers Heading to Southern Border Not About Immigration
- By Robert Miranda
- May 21, 2006
The push to have National Guards patrol our southern border with Mexico has nothing to do with current immigration issues, but plenty to do with the Bush administration’s failure to effectively maintain U.S. influence in Central and Latin America.
The Republican Party continues to fill the political debate with smoke and mirrors rhetoric when discussing the need to secure our southern borders. The argument that terrorists will one day use current routes that undocumented immigrants use as a means to conduct an attack against the United States rings with logic in the minds of many Americans. In truth, this fear mongering gibberish is nothing but a diversionary tactic aimed at detracting Americans from focusing on the real concerns of the United States government—Communist China’s influence in Latin America—and the Caribbean is the greater issue here, not immigration. Immigrants are nothing more than political pawns of the United States.
Indeed, while the American people focus on the issue of illegals entering into the United States, what many are failing to realize is that the need to militarize the southern border with Mexico is forethought of the neo-cons and hard-line Republicans concerned with Latin American nations becoming more hostile to the United States in the coming years—backed by an ever increasing economically and militarily powerful Communist China.
The rise of leftist Latin American governments is causing American leaders in Washington to take note of the situation. These newly elected leftist heads of state have become closely aligned with China politically and economically. No longer is the Monroe Doctrine in effect. This growing concern is making neo-con strategists use the immigration issue as a means to justify militarizing our southern borders.
In reality, the neo-cons are using the immigration issue to stem political backlash coming from Latin America and China because we militarized our borders due to growing political differences growing in Latin America—not to protect us from the undocumented.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roger F. Noriega, during an April 6, 2005 testimony before the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, warned of growing economic and political influence in Latin America being pursued by China as part of its plan to continue to fuel its economic development.
China is seeking raw materials to continue to fuel this economic growth, while at the same time securing political allies in its efforts to isolate Taiwan, Noriega noted. He also pointed out that Dominica and Grenada broke ties with Taiwan in favor of China, and Jamaica has opened an embassy in Beijing. This illustrates China’s ever-increasing influence in the Western Hemisphere knows no bounds. These small economies see China as an economic boom as well as a potential future political partner against U.S. political and economic interest in the region.
China holds observer status in the Organization of American States and has engaged in military-to-military initiatives with several Latin American countries. “In previous testimony before Congress, General Bantz Craddock of the United States Southern Command noted that national-level defense officials from China made 20 visits to Latin America and the Caribbean, while defense ministers and chiefs of defense from nine regional countries have visited China,” said Noriega.
"Our policy is built upon a shared commitment to democracy, free markets, and economic integration. We believe the strong and growing partnership between the United States and the Hemisphere is the foundation of the region's security, prosperity, and freedom," continued Noriega.
But that was said in 2005. Today, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina have moved increasingly towards the Chinese and this is a threat to U.S. commercial interests in this Hemisphere.
In his testimony Noriega stated, “China is now the world's second-largest consumer of petroleum, and has become a net importer of oil. China also imports large quantities of iron ore, copper, bauxite, timber, zinc, manganese, tin, and soybeans. In earlier years of its economic expansion, China sought critical raw materials primarily from sources in Asia, but as the economy has continued to expand, China has increasingly looked to Latin America and Africa as sources of key commodities, most notably petroleum, copper and other minerals, and foodstuffs.”
Nicaragua will soon be having presidential elections. The United States has interfered in Nicaragua’s presidential campaign by telling Nicaraguans not to vote for former Sandinista president, Daniel Ortega in November's elections.
The Sandinistas, led by Ortega are poised to regain the presidency after 16 years of failed neo-liberal economic policies that have left the country’s economy in ruins.
So let’s not use the immigration issue as a rouse to militarize. The United States lost Latin America, and now it is circling the wagons by militarizing our southern border. The American people need to know why U.S. soldiers are heading south, and it’s not because of the undocumented.
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