'[The year] 1492 was the first perverse globalization of humanity," Garcia said. He added that the 1492 beginnings of European colonization had a double impact that destroyed both continents of North and South America, as well as the ancient civilizations of West Africa.
The transport of 30 million Africans to America, who were kidnapped to repopulate the new world, 'was how Europe underdeveloped Africa," Garcia said, quoting the infamous book title written by Walter Rodney.
Garcia is the founder of the Afro-Venezuelan Network, an organization that reaches out to the political and economic struggles of African and Indigenous descendants throughout Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.
Minnesota was just one of many stops on Garcia's U.S. speaking tour, where he discussed the impact of corporate globalization and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) on communities of color and poor people around the world.
Thirty-four presidents from the countries of North and South America met in Miami, Florida, during 1994 to develop the FTAA plan. Their mission was to increase trade of goods and services throughout the Western hemisphere.
The FTAA was preceded by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Plan Panama, and Plan Colombia, which essentially established trade routes that reduced tariffs on the exchange of commerce in Latin America.
Garcia compared what occurred in Miami in 1994 to what occurred during 1492. 'They were representing all of us when they decided to make a proposal to develop this continent south of the Rio Grande," he said. 'But we have to ask why Latin America, and what is in Latin America?" he added.
Many of the answers can be found in the abundance of natural resources available in these countries. 'We have the water we drink, the air we breathe, the diversity of animals and energy resources," Garcia said. 'There is a great richness to be brought [into the United States]," he added.
Although the governments of 34 different countries in the Western hemisphere support the FTAA, Garcia said that four major U.S. cartels are the masterminds behind the plan. They include the Council of the Americas, the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries, the Business Roundtable and the Congress of International Business.
'When we look into the FTAA, it is above the sovereignty and does not respect the rights and self-determination of the people," Garcia said. Instead, it is about commerce, he said.
Garcia said only a few U.S. companies dominate the agendas of all four of these cartels. He named Coca Cola, Pepsi, Chevron Texaco, Ford Motor Company, Colgate Palmolive, General Electric, Federal Express, Chrysler Motor Company, Microsoft and Citibank as the major forces involved in the four organizations.
'They are the same ones [companies] — they only change their suit. They call a meeting of the coalition, they put on a new suit, and now they're a new coalition," he said.
Venezuela resists the FTAA
Garcia is from Venezuela, a country in South America that borders Colombia and Brazil. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has rejected the FTAA because he said it would 'put Latin America's unprepared economies at the mercy of powerful U.S. corporations."
Chavez was elected as Venezuela's president in 1998. Prior to his presidency, the old government had signed an agreement with the FTAA.
Garcia said that President Chavez's opposition to the trade plan caused a disturbance in the U.S. State Department and at the Pentagon. 'They said there is 'un Negro y un indigena,' which means there is a Black and indigenous man in Venezuela," Garcia said, that has a different discourse.
The State Department and the Pentagon were not able to understand why they were able to buy everybody else in Latin American countries, but not Chavez, he added.
In April 2002, a political coup temporarily ousted Chavez from office. Chavez blamed the U.S. for financing and providing military support for the coup because of his criticism of the Bush administration and U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. embassy in Venezuela denied any participation in the coup.
Chavez is known to support the Fidel Castro government in Cuba and Lula de Silva in Brazil. The three left-wing governments (Venezuela included) have been called an 'axis of evil" by the Bush administration.
Shortly after the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan, Chavez criticized the Bush administration for fighting terrorism with terrorism. 'The fascist sectors of this country [the U.S.] connected with the racist fascists in Venezuela and provoked the coup of April 2002," Garcia said.
But Chavez was returned to office within 24 hours, after massive protests by Venezuelan citizens. 'What they didn't know was [that] this was not anymore just a project of Chavez, but this was a project of the whole people, a people who are ready to die for their sovereignty," Garcia said.
Garcia is the editor of the magazine Africamerica and
general coordinator of the Afroamerica Foundation.
The Jesus 'Chucho" Garcia U.S. speaking tour was organized and sponsored by Sin Fronteras Video Productions and Global Exchange. A copy of his speech can be obtained from www.sinfronterasvp.com.
D'Ivoire Johnson welcomes reader responses to detailz1@hotmail.com.