For some months now, a ghost has been haunting the world of neoliberal intellectuals, the ghost of the left, which they generically call populism. Almost a month ago, the Spanish nationalized Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, a lecturer always present in political processes defending neoliberalism, pointed out with alarm that “… these days we may be losing Latin America …”, referring to the general optimism among progressives for the triumph of Gabriel Boric in Chile. However, he must have reasons for his alarm since the results of the last presidential elections in Mexico and the United States of America.
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However, almost since its promulgation as an independent country, the United States has maintained very strong economic and military ties with the United Kingdom, including Canada, and with the rest of Western Europe, while with the rest of the American continent, with Latin America and the Caribbean countries, their relations have oscillated between invasions and direct, open or underground interventions, to keep them as suppliers of raw materials and labor, as well as an important factor during the cold war and for the elaboration of the national security strategy of the great power of the north. From the dissolution of the USSR, at the beginning of the 90s, the USA emerged as a hegemonic global military power, with an undeniable capacity to impose a new integral system of relations, through a process called globalization, supported by the impressive technological advances, especially in the field of information. Under his hegemony the values of neoliberalism prevailed: Shrinking of the states and predominance of market mechanisms by transforming rights into merchandise, as well as strict privatizations, accompanied by rampant corruption.
Despite the fact that neoliberal globalization caused national and regional economic crises, it was not until 2008, when the great crisis of the mortgage bubble exposed all the immense defects of the new paradigm, especially the very serious error of leaving the world to rule. to the finance moguls, busy and concerned only with accumulating wealth without any restraint. Pope Francis called this new paradigm, “the economy that kills.” However, the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on all orders, have totally exposed the damage caused by the four decades of neoliberal hegemony: precarious and insufficient health systems, unacceptable concentration of the vaccine and drug industry, exclusionary economies that benefit tiny minorities, irresponsible production systems that cause immense damage, which may be irreversible, to our common home, planet earth.
In this scenario, the peoples of our continent are generating political changes aimed at dismantling neoliberalism, to recover the recognition of the states of their obligation to guarantee the validity of human rights and their enjoyment by all people, as well as to create new inclusive economic models of countries and people. It is important to note that even in the USA, surveys indicate that most people, especially young people, want the strengthening of the public health and educational systems, salary increases to regain lost purchasing power and, above all, a reform comprehensive tax so that the minority of super millionaires contribute the resources to finance the enforcement of all rights and, above all, the global fight against global warming. The progressive narrative, championed primarily by Senator Bernie Sanders since 2016, has already been embraced by the administrations of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In addition, what seems fundamental to me, that narrative is convergent with the one that emerges uncontrollably in Latin America, building political groupings with the capacity to displace the promoters of neoliberal dogma from power, as has just happened in Chile. All the polls indicate that this trend may also be successful in the 2022 elections, in Brazil with Lula, and in Colombia with Gustavo Petro.
One does not need to be very intelligent to understand that the left in all of America are creating conditions to agree on mechanisms of continental integration. It is clear that progressive leaders are already building a convergent narrative, which takes into account the particularities of their countries and regions. Various leaders have been talking about this at the meetings of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), and the president of Mexico presented the idea, in its most general terms, to his counterparts from the US and Canada, Biden and Trudeau, during the summit of North American leaders held at the White House in Washington in mid-November 2020. AMLO left no doubt about his will to promote the formation of a new continental bloc that contributes to global balances, peace , and development with justice for all peoples, as well as responsible and equitable collaboration to contain and reverse global warming.
Thus, the approach is done and the Americans do not have the conditions or the arguments to defend the exhausted system of international relations (global and continental). It is already clear that, for example, large migratory flows can only be managed effectively if the root causes that drive them are seriously addressed.
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