Our Brand is Crisis

"Our Brand is Crisis," is an interesting film that covers the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. It follows GCS, a political consulting firm based out of Washington D.C. and headed by people such as James Carville, and tells the story of how they helped Gonzalez Sanchez de Lozada, "Goni," once again become the president of Bolivia. GCS helped release a number of smear ads against fellow presidential candidates Manfred Villa and Eva Morales. Manfred had a large lead and Morales had much support from the indigenous population of Bolivia. GCS also informed Goni that he must make the people believe he had learned from his past mistakes and could use privatization to help the struggling economy. When Goni decided to run oil through a Chilean pipeline, against  the will of the people, Morales and his supporters took to the streets and Goni was forced to resign and relocate back to D.C. In the end, the movie tells the story of how many Latin American countries have struggled economically as corporations continue to take their natural resources

In the "Slow Death of the Washington Consensus," James Cypher writes that the "Washington Consensus" is the ability of large multinational corporations and other entities, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to influence Latin American countries to adopt neoliberal policies. Cypher goes on to explain that as these countries adopt these polices they suffer economically. Poverty increases, wages drop, unemployment rises, and overall these countries are negatively affected. He writes that initially these effects were described as transition costs and that the overall growth of these nation's economies would have a positive outcome for the people. However, these countries were borrowing tons of money from foreign markets, and when these markets begin to collapse, such as the collapse of the Asian economies in the 1990's, the countries were unable to finance these debts. Cypher further explains that the economies of these countries continue to struggle, but that the collapse of the "Washington Consensus" is the best thing to come out of D.C. in years.

John Perkins goes on to write about his experiences as what he calls an economic hitman. In "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," Perkins tells the story of how he become an economic consultant and en expert witness for businesses to do work in Latin America and other places throughout the world. He believes U.S. imperialism has forced countries throughout the world to continue to struggle economically. He writes that most people, like himself, are just part of the process by following orders and are inadvertently allowing the process to continue, but large companies are keeping the people of these countries from becoming prosperous. Perkins writes about how some leaders, such s Jamie Roldos attempted to fight against these companies. Roldos attempted to pass hydrocarbon legislation and informed the oil companies in Ecuador that their companies must benefit the people of Ecuador. Shortly after this, while his hydrocarbon initiative was working its way through congress, Roldos died in a plane crash that Perkins attributes to a CIA assassination attempt ordered by Ronald Reagan. As Ecuador continues to struggle, Perkins blames it on what he believes are the imperialistic policies of the United States, and writes that we must reevaluate ourselves and consider where we want our children to end up.

The film and the articles offer a lot to think about. The economic struggles of Latin America can very much be attributed to the influence of international organizations such as the World Bank. Entering large amounts of debt was a terrible decision for these countries and of course the multinational corporations would have encouraged it so that they could better use the land, but blaming the U.S. completely for this outcome is a bit over the top. These countries made their own decisions in the end. Most of the U.S. founders were against entering large amounts of debt. They understood that to become a powerful nation we had to do it ourselves. It was a process that took almost 150 years for us to overtake Britain as the world's largest power. We definitely made mistakes, but blaming the U.S. for each poor country's struggles is preposterous.  Did we encourage some of these companies to enter foreign countries? Undoubtedly so, but it seems highly unlikely that a United States president would order the assassination of a foreign leader over his stance on what companies could remain in his country. Hopefully these countries have learned from their mistakes, and hopefully the U.S. stays out of these foreign countries as it seems it would work to our advantage to help our current financial crisis, but  it is hard to believe we are the only reason these countries cannot become economically viable.

La Virgen de los Sicaros

"La Virgen de los Sicaros" is a film about the immense amount of violence that surrounds the Colombian drug wars. The film centers around a relationship between Fernando, an older gay gentleman, and Alexis, a member of a gang who is constantly being sought after by other gang members. Alexis is eventually killed by one of the gang members, leaving Fernando alone again until he meets Wilmar. Wilmar turns out to be the gang member who killed Alexis, because Alexis had killed his brother. Fernando contemplates killing Wilmar, but instead they decide to leave the country together. As Fernando waits for Wilmar to return from returning a refrigerator to his mother's house, Fernando receives a phone call informing him that Wilmar has now died. The amount of violence is not the most surreal part of the film, instead it is the nonchalant attitude of the citizens towards the violence.

In the article "State, Esprit, Mafioso, and Armed Conflict in Colombia," Ricardo Vargas helps explain why this amount of violence became common in Colombia. Vargas explains, "drug trafficking is situating itself so as to capitalize on an eventual reordering of power by the state. Private power is thus being used to create a new public order." He also explains that the geography of Colombia has helped facilitate guerrilla warfare that is promoted by local leaders. The isolation of each Colombian state and the wide amount of poverty has also encouraged the warfare according to Vargas. Local, private elites funded their own private armies, attempting to protect their land and their illegal activities, causing much violence throughout the country. In the "Evil Hour in Colombia," Forrest Hylton helps explain the rifts between the various military groups and mpolitical factions. Hylton writes that Colombia was the one Latin American country in the mid twentieth century that did not succumb to agrarian reform and efforts of organized labor. The Catholic Church helped to keep the Conservative party in control during the 1930's and 1940's, helping to keep these movements out of Colombia. During a time frame referred to as La Violencia, occurring in the 1940's and 1950's, 300,000 men lost their life due to the struggles between the various groups seeking control. This large number of deaths helped to lead to what was known as The National Front, a combining of the Liberal and Conservative parties that was backed by the Catholic Church. However, there was little central power in Colombia and politics was still dominated locally. It is during this time that Hylton explains the guerrilla warfare witnessed in the film began to spring up, as men roamed the country attempting to avenge the death of loved ones. Mafia leaders like Pablo Escobar and others also began to enter politics in the 1980's, helping to continue the violence surrounding the drug wars in Colombia.

After reading these articles it is clear why the people in the film seemed to not be phased by the amount of violence. When 300,000 men lose their life in less than a decade, it is obvious that most Colombian's had to cope with amount of violence they witnessed. Vargas writes that defeating drug trafficking and the violence surrounding it is not an easy task, but notes that attempts by Colombia to deal with it mostly failed because the military approach did not consider the local interests that surrounded the drug war. It appears that the U.S. and Colombian forces attempting to defeat the drug trafficking problem should have been more focused on creating a strong central power that could address the problem. This absence of a strong central government helped fuel the violence for the better part of the 20th century.

Cocaine Cowbys

"Cocaine Cowboys" is a documentary covering the illegal drug rings busted up in 1980's Miami. The film tells the story of drug runners Mickey Munday and Jon Roberts, enforcer Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, and the Godmother, Griselda Blanco. Miami, and the rest of the country, seemed to turn a blind eye to their activities until blood starting puring into the streets through the ruthless crimes committed by people like Rivi. The film tells the stories of how innocent children were murdered at the order of Griselda, but it leaves out how the Latin American nations were affected by the drug wars and how the United States helped fuel part of the drug war. 

The United States has had a long policy of promoting democracy throughout the world. During the 1980's, the United States helped fund a group knows as the "Contras" in Nicaragua. They opposed the military rule in the region and found support in the United States Government. Oliver North, a top ranking U.S. military official, was one of the most involved U.S. officials in funding the Contras. Government documents, taken from the link "Did the U.S. Sell Cocaine in the 1980's?," show North used various drug smuggling outfits to help fund the Contras. One of the largest examples is known as the Iran- Contra scandal. Talked about briefly in the film, the U.S. government sold weapons to a terrorist group in Iran for the release of several U.S. hostages. The government documents show that some of these funds were used to help fund the Contras and General Noriega in Nicaragua.  

An article by Coletta Youngers explains the effects these U.S. policies had on the people of these Latin American countries. Youngers writes, "drug trafficking in the Andes breeds criminality, exacerbates political violence, and hence greatly increases problems of citizen security." Youngers believes that the U.S. policy of funding local military and police forces to defeat the war on drugs has been ineffective and lead to multiple human rights violations. She gives examples of countries like Colombia, Peru, and other countries where the U.S. has funded counterinsurgency campaigns that have only lead to the killings of tons of people. She also writes that these U.S. polices have only increased the amount of cocaine production in countries like Colombia and Bolivia. The millions of tax dollars sent to these countries each year seems to be a lost since it has only lead to the deaths of many and even increased the drug production in these countries. 

"Cocaine Cowboys" does a great job of describing the effects of the drug war in 1980's Miami. However, it only gives us a glimpse of how it affected the countries like Colombia and Nicaragua. Miami eventually recovered from drug war and even benefited from the tons of cash it brought to the city, but the Latin American countries were adversely affected by the U.S. policies to combat the drug war. The question of how we should deal with these drug cartels is a question we are still facing today. Most people do not want their cities to turn into the Miami of the 1980's, but how we deal with these other countries is something we should look at. Promoting democracy throughout the world is something most American's would see as a noble cause, but at what cost should we continue to fund groups that seem as corrupt as the governments they claim to oppose? 

Bus 174

"Bus 174" was an interesting movie about the hijacking of a bus in Brazil. The attempted robbery ended horribly, but the film explains how people like Sandro are forced into making decisions like this. With no family, no real friends, constantly staying high on cocaine and glue, and no chance of getting a real job or education, Sandro brought a voice to people like himself who were constantly ignored their entire lives.

With the death of his mother and the death of his friends at the Candaleria Church, Sandro had witnessed and lived through horrible events at a very young age. Being constantly placed in prison for robbing and stealing only made his life harder. The prison's goals seemed aimed at breaking the inmates, not rehabilitating them. Seeing no way out, it is easy to see how Sandro continued to steal. The article, "The Heart that Bleeds," shows just how children like Sandro get lost in  these Latin American countries. Even though the article is about Mexico, it explains how much emphasis the country and its leaders have placed on modernity. Losing much of its older traditions and focusing on building KFC's and Taco Bell's as the author explained, has some negative effects on the society. Unfortunately, children like Sandro are one of these effects. It is hard to imagine telling these middle and lower income countries not to industrialize, but they should consider its effects on the ones like Sandro. Without an education or previous work experience, Sandro could not get a job even though he wanted one. During the movie an older woman he lived with remembered him asking her who would hire him. The reality is that probably no one would.

The article, "The Drive- by Victim ,"shows what kind of effect unemployment can have on these people. The gang members need to come up with a few million pesos, and the only way to obtain this was by robbing people in need of a taxi ride. Just like Sandro in Bus 174, the robbers are not particularly portrayed as bad people. At the end of the article the author states he would have asked them to breakfast if he was braver. This is hard to understand, but there seems to be a sense of compassion towards the victims in both cases. They all seem to understand that the robbers are just trying to continue to make a living. This does not excuse their actions, but somehow there winds up being an understanding between the victims and robbers.

As these Latin American countries continue to industrialize, they need to consider how to handle the lower income, underprivileged people of the population. "Bus 174" and "City of God" show what kind of disastrous effects ignoring these people will have. They have to find a way to survive and this need for survival usually turns to crime and drugs. This is obviously a very tough situation with no easy answer, but people like Sandro need some sort of way to rehabilitate. Offering some sort of formal education and helping these people find a real job would be a good start. They need to know they have a place in society that does not revolve around drugs and crime.