Paolo Dabandan
April 12, 2009
SNN187
In the documentary “The War on Democracy”, John Pilger talks about the history of
South America and its fight against “a modern form of slavery”. The documentary starts out
with one of the wealthiest countries in South America, Venezuela. Venezuela is described to
have multiple, extravagant mansions with names such as “Country Club”. Meanwhile the
majority of the country lives in barrios and is excluded by the rich. However, the people of
Venezuela are starting to believe in change with their current president Hugo Chavez. To the
people of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez represents hope, but for the rest of the world Chavez is a
“criminal”.
Since Hugo Chavez has come to power, Venezuela has experienced a lot of change.
Using the wealth from the oil exports, Chavez has set up many supermarkets in the barrios with
more affordable prices for the citizens of the area. Chavez was able to set up free health clinics
around Venezuela allowing people who have never been treated to get free treatment. Schools
were set up that allowed the even poorest to get an education and made sure that they would
receive at least one hot meal a day. Still with all this change the upper class does not favor
Hugo Chavez. In the old Venezuela, the U.S. had made a deal where Venezuela would provide
the U.S. with cheap oil, and the ones providing the oil would, in return, expect a great profit.
But ever since Hugo Chavez has come into power, the deal no longer went on, thus losing the
U.S favorable interest in Venezuela. With this, Chavez has been targeted by the U.S. wanting
him removed from power. The media has been driven to describe Chavez as a dictator and
anything else with a negative connotation. In 2002, there was an anti-Chavez rally where a
march was held, were it was secretly set up to overthrow Chavez. However, on the same day,
another march went on; the pro-Chavez march. Although the marches were supposed to be
separated, the anti-Chavez march was secretly directed themselves towards Mira Flores Palace
where the pro-Chavez march went on, thus causing a riot. Secret police stationed around the
palace open fire against the crowd. A footage shown in the new shows Chavez supporters being
the ones who opened fired against the crown, but in actuality were really defending
themselves. This caused renegade army officers to surround the Mira Flores trying to over
throw Chavez. The plotters then told the people that Chavez has resigned, but in reality he was
kidnapped. Pedro Carmona was sworn in as the new leader of Venezuela, but the Venezuelan
people wouldn’t allow it. Hundreds of thousands of Chavez supporters started marching
towards Mira Flores demanding Chavez to return. The presidential guards soon took over the
palace and the fake government ran away, later that same day Hugo Chavez returned to power
Since 1945, the U.S. has tried to overthrow over fifty countries in South America, some
of them already being Democratic. In 1950, Guatemala elected its first democratic leader,
Jacobo Arbenz who brought about reform such as developing the economy, distributing land
reforms, but the U.S. did not like it. The U.S. started propaganda against Arbenz to stir up
distrust and fear amongst the citizens against their leader. They did this in hopes that they
would be able to control the economy of Guatemala. In addition, the U.S. bombed Guatemala
causing panic amongst the people, thus causing them to believe that Arbenz was indeed no
good, a Communist, and that this was his fault. In the end, Arbenz was overthrown, stripped
naked and exiled. The U.S. then replaced the leader of Guatemala with one of their own to
ensure control over them. Rios Montt was Guatemala’s new leader. During his reign, thousands
of people were killed because of death squads, in which the U.S. was the one providing the
weapons.
Another country Cuba has been shunned by the world for over 40 years since Fidel
Castro has lead a revolution against the former government. The U.S. responded with scare
tactics, stirring up fear in the U.S. know as the red scare to make people believe that
communism is bad and democracy is the only way to go. Nicaragua another country who
overthrew a Washington appointed dictator named Samosa, became another target for the
United States. They responded by threatening them with death squads known as the Contra.
The U.S. used harsh tactics because they feared that other smaller countries would follow and
try to overthrow their leaders. They made sure no country should revolt to prevent any
negative influences on the rest of the countries.
In 1973, the national stadium in Chile was used as a military coup, lead by a fascist
named General Pinochet. He was backed up by the U.S., who supported them with weapons, to
overthrow the democratic leader Salvador Allende. Pinochet rounded up around two thousand
of Salvador Allende’s supporters and were brought them to the national stadium, were the
people were tortured and left to live in cramp rooms. In September 11, 1973 British made
bombers were used by Pinochet to bomb Salvador Allende palace, Allende refused to leave and
give up the government and shot himself. Governor Pinochet then took over Chile as its new
leader. The U.S. denied the fact that they helped Pinochet take over Chile, but secret
documents proved that the U.S. planned the coup from the very beginning.
In 1980, the U.S. came up with a new tactic where it would bring democracy to the
countries, and promised that it’s economy would be in step with the United States. The
establishment of this new tactic was known as the National Endowment. This new democracy
was brought upon many countries in Latin America, but Chile was the most successful one.
Washington was pleased with the success of Chile and the new government and saw high
hopes for the National Endowment. However, what America did not see was the other side of
Chile; the poverty-stricken. Chile was economically too divided. If you weren’t rich, you were
poor; there was nothing in between.
Bolivia is the last country featured in the film. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada became
president of Bolivia in 2003, where he backed up a law, a fire sale that bought up Bolivia’s
resources. This caused the Bolivian’s to become deprived of what was theirs, this lead the
people to revolt against the government. Bolivians blocked the road leading to La Paz and the
president responded with military force. Still, they refused to give up and continued to revolt
causing Gonzalez to resign and fled the country. In 2005, the people of Bolivia elected Evo
Morales as president.
By the end of the movie, you can see the horrors the people of South America has
suffered, sadly these crimes against humanity not only happen in South America, but
everywhere in the world. Watching this documentary I have come to the conclusion that the
U.S. is run by power hungry people who don’t care of the countless people that dies for them to
live their lavish life style. The U.S. doesn’t care whether your country is already a democracy or
whether you leader is fascist who uses terror to control his people like Pinochet. The United
States just cares about protecting itself and making a profit.