As President Trump escalated his attacks and threats against the Central American migrant caravans making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration unveiled new sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba on Thursday. National security adviser John Bolton declared Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua to be part of a “troika of tyranny” and a “triangle of terror.” We speak with world-renowned professor, linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky about U.S. foreign policy in Central America. He joins us in Tucson, Arizona, where he now teaches at the University of Arizona. Chomsky is also institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught for 50 years.
AMY GOODMAN: As President Trump
escalates his attacks and threats against the Central American migrant caravans
making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration unveiled
new sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba Thursday. National security adviser
John Bolton declared Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua to be part of a “troika of
tyranny” and a “triangle of terror.” Bolton was speaking in Miami, Florida.
JOHN BOLTON: We will no longer
appease dictators and despots near our shores. We will not reward firing
squads, torturers and murderers. We will champion the independence and liberty
of our neighbors. And this president and his entire administration will stand
with the freedom fighters. The troika of tyranny in this hemisphere—Cuba,
Venezuela and Nicaragua—has finally met its match.
AMY GOODMAN: As John Bolton
spoke in Miami on Thursday, Democracy Now!'s Nermeen Shaikh and I
spoke with the world-renowned professor, linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky.
He joined us from Tucson, Arizona, where he now teaches at the University of
Arizona. Noam Chomsky is also institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, where he's taught for more than 50 years. His recent
books include Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats
to Democracy, Who Rules the World? and Requiem for
the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power.
I
began by asking Professor Chomsky to respond to NSA, national security
adviser, John Bolton’s remarks on Latin America.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, that, of
course, immediately brings to mind the “axis of evil” speech of George Bush
back in 2002, which was the precursor, laying the groundwork, for the invasion
of Iraq, the worst crime of this century, with horrendous consequences for
Iraq, eliciting ethnic conflicts that are tearing the region apart—a major
atrocity. John Bolton was behind that. And his new troika—I doubt that the U.S.
will dare to do something similar, but that’s what it brings to mind.
It’s
kind of interesting to see this hysterical raving alongside of another
astonishing propaganda campaign that Bolton and his colleagues are carrying out
with regard to the caravan of poor and miserable people fleeing from severe
oppression, violence, terror, extreme poverty from three countries:
Honduras—mainly Honduras, secondarily Guatemala, thirdly El Salvador—not
Nicaragua, incidentally—three countries that have been under harsh U.S.
domination, way back, but particularly since the 1980s, when Reagan’s terror
wars devastated particularly El Salvador and Guatemala, secondarily Honduras.
Nicaragua was attacked by Reagan, of course, but Nicaragua was the one country
which had an army to defend the population. In the other countries, the army
were the state terrorists, backed by the United States.
The
most extreme source of migrants right now is Honduras. Why Honduras? Well, it
was always bitterly oppressed. But in 2009, Honduras had a mildly reformist
president, Mel Zelaya. The Honduran powerful, rich elite couldn’t tolerate
that. A military coup took place, expelled him from the country. It was harshly
condemned all through the hemisphere, with one notable exception: the United
States. The Obama administration refused to call it a military coup, because if
they had, they would have been compelled by law to withdraw military funding
from the military regime, which was imposing a regime of brutal terror.
Honduras became the murder capital of the world. A fraudulent election took
place under the military junta—again, harshly condemned all over the hemisphere,
most of the world, but not by the United States. The Obama administration
praised Honduras for carrying out an election, moving towards democracy and so
on. Now people are fleeing from the misery and horrors for which we are
responsible.
And
you have this incredible charade taking place, which the world is looking at
with utter astonishment: Poor, miserable people, families, mothers, children,
fleeing from terror and repression, for which we are responsible, and in
reaction, they’re sending thousands of troops to the border. The troops being
sent to the border outnumber the children who are fleeing. And with a
remarkable PR campaign, they’re frightening much of the country into believing
that we’re just on the verge of an invasion by, you know, Middle Eastern
terrorists funded by George Soros, so on and so forth.
Please continue this interview, or to watch the full video, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/2/noam_chomsky_members_of_migrant_caravan?fbclid=IwAR2WlYUG1ptgMOHbm6xq1djoJ410KB7KaoTGZjdVtGWboDbLkdpjIlGcKVA
No comments:
Post a Comment