LATIN AMERICA: Its giddy head (Mexico) and its restless spine

Most Americans favor globalization, but most Latin Americans view it as a form of US domination. An experience with the Palo Alto TV cable system helped me to understand their mentality. Palo Alto Cable Coop was a local company with serious difficulties, but one could talk to the people there. Recently it was bought by big AT&T Broadband, located where? Three days ago reception became very bad, so I called up the 800 number. A recording kept repeating that the system was having problems in various places, among them Menlo Park. After listening to this recording 800 times, I gave up. Yesterday I tried again, and got to a human, located where? He asked me my zip code and my telephone number. He located my name on a computerized list and asked me where I lived: Stanford University. Where's that? Next to Menlo Park. Where's Menlo Park? Near San Francisco. Finally he saw the light. I felt as though I were living in Patagonia.

We must not delude ourselves about the attitude of Latin Americans. Tim Brown says "On whether Castro or globalization is the more popular in Latin America, I disagree. If one reads the major newspapers, listens to the pundits on national television, and talks with academics as they visit the US or attend international conferences, I agree entirely that for them Castro is by far more popular, as he is in US universities and newsrooms. But none of them are representative of the masses". I cautiously stick by my statement. A new poll shows that 44% of Mexicans support Marcos, and only 25% Fox, who is viewed as an ally of the Colossus of the North. The Zapatistas are spending these days in the outskirts of Mexico City, where they will make their dramatic entrance on Sunday.

Attribute this if you will to a populist infatuation. The ski mask has become the hall mark of the Zapatistas. Marcos had made a fad of them, and they are selling in quantities in Mexican stores. The trick is of course that they make individuals unrecognizable. If there is violence, the police will not be able to identify the individuals. The Mexican Congress is a scene of intrigue. A masked Marcos comandante met with the left-wing PRD members, but newsmen were kept at a distance (lest they find out what was being plotted).

Tim Brown is right when he speaks of the popularity of Castro in certain US groups, especially at universities like Berkeley. Throughout the capitalist world there are people critical of capitalism, and the number will grow if the recession becomes worse. Intel here has just announced that it is firing 5,000 people, adding to the number of discontented in capitalist countries. These have found a new cause in Marcos, and a large number of them turned up to accompany the Zapatour from Chiapas to Mexico. There was a surprisingly large group (1,000?) from Italy. Dressed in white, they were called the "white monkeys". A Mexico City group imitating them dressed in yellow and were known as the "yellow monkeys." Many of the white monkeys had been in Chiapas before, but President Zedillo deported them. This time Fox decided to let them back in, saying he could handle them. Fox is thought to have blundered when he said that he could settle the Zapatista problem in 15 minutes. He counted on meeting with Marcos, who now refuses to meet him. Who are these "tourists"? Bringing them all to Mexico is an expensive operation. Where does the money come from?

Marcos is the most conspicuous actor in a drama which stretches all the way to southern Chile. The native populations are being used to destabilize the area. They have grievances, but an important element is the sense of having been defeated. The stress on respect for their customs and languages has an emotional appeal, but will do little to improve their condition. Unrest is endemic in Central America, but there is a campaign, like that in Chile against the military and their brutality. In Guatemala several military leaders have been tried, and even in Panama the military have been accused of killing innocent people and burying their bodies.

The most troubled country is Colombia, where the FARC controls a large area and conducts operations elsewhere. President Pastrana goes to the area to hold talks with its leader Tiro Fijo These talks, which inspired Fox of Mexico to seek a meeting with Marcos, have led nowhere. Now 27 representatives of other countries have accompanied Pastrana to the jungle for talks with the FARC, giving it publicity comparable to that the Zapatistas have gained in Mexico, but not the popularity. In Ecuador there have been revolts by Indians allied with some soldiers. For the moment things are under control, but if there were a concerted international protest, serious riots would break out again.and the question is whether his talking like a good capitalist is really a mask. Peruvian and foreign businessmen are

In Peru, Fujimori won popularity by his firm handling of the Sendero Luminoso terrorists, but he is disgraced.The Westernized Indian Alejandro Toledo is leading in the polls. The question is whether his talking like a capitalist is just a mask. Business circles, Peruvian and foreign, are concerned. Their favorite, one-time presidential candidate Vargas Llosa, is part of a campaign against Toledo, accusing him of having secretly acquired US citizenship and given up his Peruvian citizenship (similar to the charge that Fujimori was really a Japanese citizen). Toledo is also accused of fathering an illegitimate child. It all sounds like a plot to destabilize his rocky marriage with a woman he met at Stanford. He enjoys a mass popularity similar to that of Marcos, and the plot seems to be failing.

At the end of the Andes is Chile. which has been in the news because of the trial of General Augusto Pinochet. Little publicity has been given to the southern region known as la Araucania, home of the legendary Araucanians, famed for their resistance to the Spaniards. Traveling in the area, I always felt their hostility to me as a white man. The fighting there is serious; the armed forces are using armed carriers and planes.

While the Andean countries are agitated, the trouble is spreading east, especially to Brazil, where the landless have been conducting a campaign against the government and the FARC has considerable influence. There are now reports of trouble in an Indian reservation on Rio Grande do Sul, where I did not know there were any. Fire over the Andes, to use the title of a book by Carleton Beals. The governments from Mexico to Chile are trying to put it out. We must hope they do, otherwise the US would be faced with a very real and direct threat. My impression is that the Bush Administration lives in ignorance of the gravity of the situation.

Ronald Hilton - 3/9/01