Oiled by Distance

Iraq is a long way from South America, both in distance and in culture.  Yet, the link between many South American nations and the USA is the same as for Iraq.  Oil.

Colombia and Venezuela have high oil production, and succour transnational oil companies. Venezuela competed with Arab nations in oil output until the Chavez Presidency induced massive strikes in the industry.  This week Shell opened its pumps to motorists in Bogota, the capital of Colombia.  National and international oil companies pay substantial amounts of money to the large armed revolutionary groups in Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia, to keep the oil lines free of bombs.  The Canon Limon oil line of Occidental Petroleum in Colombia suffered 200 bomb attacks in 2001.  The bribe dollars buy armaments to fight governments supported by the USA.  Look at Iraq and Afghanistan.  Do any bells ring?

Two Colombian television and radio networks blatantly calculate the financial benefit for the oil industries of South America, should the USA attack Iraq and destroy their oil production.  The oil industry is pragmatic.  War on an oil nation is good news for them.

Many military and social aid dollars flow into South American nations, particularly Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. The money comes from blocs which support intervention in Iraq - the USA and the European Union principally. You dont bite the hand that feeds. The voices of these governments support any USA strategy, but it is a silent consent.  The mainstream press of South American countries report the daily thrusts of the intervention plan as if through a veil, being mostly non-committal and if critical, then gently so.  However, their enthusiastic reportage of the recent world-wide anti-war protests created many editorials in support of peace.

This week, Venezuela is struggling to meet its promises of the resumption of oil exports to the USA.  Chavez who sees himself as the second Bolivar, does not resile from condemning the imminent war on Iraq, seen by the Venezuelan press as a fait accompli.

The Bolivian government of President Sanchez de Lozada is beset by a different intervention, that of the International Monetary Fund.  The Bolivian cabinet is falling apart under the weight of massive pressures including that of increasing its oil exports to the USA.  Subsequently, its media are somewhat obsessed by these concerns to be troubled by the parallels with Iraq.

The Argentinian President Duhalde is similarly beset, but this week he openly criticised the IMF role in Bolivias current hardships.   Argentinian press criticise the EU role in the Iraq intervention plan.  Editorials call on the EU to take a stand for what is morally right, non-intervention. A tinge of the same sentiment runs through Brasilian newspapers.

Chiles left-wing papers call for courage from the EU to stand against a USA-led war on Iraq.  They state what the other national medias imply this is an oil war, nothing more, fueled by Bush who will be followed to the breach by his yes-men, Blair and Howard.

Given the long histories of Spain and Portugal in this continent, South American media look to their former colonists for their stances on any international issue.  The equivocations of the EU are seen as the last light of hope in preventing the war on Iraq.

As I write this, I am listening to one of the national Colombian talk-back radio shows.  The topic is the proposed war on Iraq. The last caller said, La paz por toda la vida or Peace for all living, all our lives.  Wearied by 40 years of war, the people on my streets, here in Bogota, say leave Iraq in peace. 

Miriam Taylor Oz in Bog