Dealing With the Americans
by Jorge Vargas
It requires quite a bit of patience to put up with the United States. Their minds perceive every criticism as a threat and their only response is force; for they, lacking any great philosophers to speak of, have never completely grasped the power of intellectualism over barbarity.
But they must be tolerated for the same reason that every single nation in the world must be tolerant. Their perspective, though many times undesirable, remains an independent and unique perspective like that of any other nation.
Furthermore, despite the fact that they are slowly slipping further and further into the world of political irrelevance, the United States remains a significant nation that cannot and should not be ignored.
President Evo Morales of Bolivia seems to think differently, however. President Evo Morales seems to believe that Bolivia, a small and land-locked Andean nation that would long ago have ceased to exist had it not been for the kindness of some of its neighbors, can go it alone, without the United States.
Brazil can afford to shun the United States. So, too, can Chile. So, too, can Venezuela and Peru. To a point, so too, can Argentina.
But Bolivia can not even afford to shun Paraguay, let alone the United States. The same is true for a nation like Ecuador and for Colombia, which so often finds herself directly underneath the thumb of the nation that still thinks herself the dominant hegemon of that upper-case America which stretches from Patagonia to northern Canada.
However, President Morales of Bolivia does not want to accept this.
He has decided to stop all Bolivian-U.S. cooperation efforts in the U.S. 'war' (note: They really only know militarism and nothing else) on drugs. As a result, the drug dealers who have plagued the Andes and who, in Peru and in Colombia, have allied themselves with those armies of hatred that so indiscriminately kill and torture civilians, will soon be going to Bolivia. Under President Morales, they will have no problems. After all, no one will persecute them.
But when President Morales is no longer in power and if that future leader opposes this lack of cooperation with the U.S., these drug dealers will fund internal conflicts in Bolivia as eagerly, and as criminally, as they have done in Peru and in Colombia. And then there is, of course, the fact that Bolivia faces the wrath of a United States that knows no word other than conflict, and which will view this as an insult (this time, though, the United States will be correct) meaning that the United States could, if she wished, attempt to castigate a Bolivia that is in no economic position to withstand castigations.
Bolivia is a great nation with a history that few countries on this Earth could ever hope to rival and any one foolish enough to tell Bolivia what to do would meet with great humiliation upon finding that cultures as ancient as that of Bolivia must always be respected and never condescended upon.
However, any one or any nation unwilling to take advice is more foolish still.
Bolivia's President Morales has a vision for his people, and he is the only leader in Latin America to be speaking out in defense of the Indigenous peoples of that country and of the entire southern half of America. However, he rules a country that, unfortunately, lacks true economic strength and, as such, he rules a country far too susceptible to the whims and sensitivities of petty tyrants thousands of miles north of La Paz.
Therefore, Bolivia would be wise to deal with the United States in a friendlier manner. While this may upset Bolivia's national pride, such is the truth of history and of geopolitics today. Bolivia will one day be a great and powerful nation, but today she is small and impoverished, and she must act within the framework that history and geopolitics have allotted her.
Let Venezuela cast away U.S. Ambassadors, and let Brazil require visas from all U.S. citizens, and let the Chileans slap on a hundred restrictions on U.S. companies and let Peru tell the United States that the terms of trade are currently not as one would want them, but Bolivia must not fight. She is too weak to fight. She must, instead, be patient and cooperate with the tyrants from thousands of miles north of La Paz and work to improve her economy, for only then will Bolivia be able to say what she truly believes, but not until then.
Bolivia must tolerate the United States.
Any intolerance on the part of Bolivia will be characterized as the action of a 'rogue' state by the northern oppressor, and who will stand up for Bolivia then?
Certainly not Chile and Brazil, and this time, perhaps, not even Peru. Who, then? Venezuela, a nation that is today crumbling at her foundations?
Shall that be Bolivia's ally as she stands up against the tyrant?
No one can presume to tell a great nation like Bolivia how to act, but certainly, one can advise. So here is the advice: Work with the United States for now, and supplant her only when you are legitimately strong enough to do so. But not until.
Not waiting demonstrates a complete disregard for international norms and a total lack of geopolitical maturity. Now, Bolivia, who does that remind you of?
Do you really want to be like them? To supplant the arrogant, will you yourself be arrogant, President Morales?
