Failed meeting of the 'Alliance' and businessmen

Marco A. Gandásegui h.

17/10/2013

Opinión

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The new hybrid emerging from the neoliberal laboratories, whose nostrums have been thwarted by the global financial crisis of 2008, but that still survive thanks to the policies of looting to uphold the financial sector, is meeting in Panama. They are celebrating the 9th Iberoamerican Meeting of Business Enterprises, promoted by the governments of Spain and the United States, bringing together some thirty businessmen from the region and their counterparts from the Iberian peninsula, along with a number of Latin American heads of state.

The meeting of business leaders is taking place almost simultaneously with the 23^rd Iberoamerican Summit of heads of government from the New and Old worlds, beginning on Friday, October 18 , in Panama City.

The encounter was characterized by the attempt to mix heads of state, businessmen and facilitators such as Juan Cebrián and Carlos Montaner. From the 1990s the U.S. "think-tanks" have insisted that the most successful business enterprises of the region should replace governments in economic planning and the implementation of public policies. It is hardly by chance that the Panama meeting follows these prescriptions that by all evidence represent the agenda of those who control international finance.

The organizers of the Meeting proposed, in the beginning, to bring together the most powerful business enterprises of the region with the Presidents of the group of countries that make up the "Pacific Alliance". This group, under the sponsorship of the United States, is intended to undermine regional integration and, at the same time, exclude Chinese commerce from the region. Among the heads of State invited were Sebastián Piñera (Chile) and Ollanta Humala (Peru), countries that depend on the sale of minerals to China. In addition there were Enrique Peña (Mexico) and Manuel Santos (Colombia). Not one of these leaders appeared at the Round Table as foreseen. The only participants were the President of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes; while Danilo Medina, of the Dominican Republic, announced a presentation. The leaders of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, and Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, who hope to join the Pacific Alliance soon, showed no enthusiasm for the meeting

The heads of state of member countries of the Pacific Alliance are characterized by conservative ideological stances, as well as favouring private enterprise even as they oppress the workers. In addition, all of them have signed trade agreements with the United States that have in fact weakened their economies. Each one of these countries has also made bilateral agreements among them destined to promote commercial exchange.

The most recent countries to do this were Panama and Colombia, who have an asymmetrical trade relationship. In spite of the agreement, Panama has been unable to persuade Colombia to open its doors to Chinese products that move through the Free Zone of Colón.

The most powerful Iberoamerican executives are present in the Business meeting. Outstanding in the list are Antonio Brufau, President of Repsol, who is the head of the Spanish business "Armada".

From the Pacific Alliance countries were present Carlos Yepes, President of Bancolombia, Blanca Treviño, President of Softek, Mexico, and Jose Graña Miro-Quezada, Peruvian entrepreneur in construction. From countries not participating in the Alliance were present Isabel Noboa, of the Ecuadorian banana empire, Ricardo Poma, President of the Poma group of El Salvador, Ricardo Silva, Vicepresident of the Banco Espíritu Santo de Sao Paulo, Brazil, Lorenzo Mendoza, President of Empresas Polar of Venezuela, Alejandro Bulgheroni, President of the OHL Group of Argentina, and Pedro Heilbron, Executive Vice-president of the airline COPA.

What the majority of these businessmen have in common is that over the past twenty years they have gone from being millionaires to multi-millionaires. In addition, they all have excellent relations with the heads of state of the countries of the Pacific Alliance and with the mentor of the initiative, the United States.

The close relationship of the big business leaders with presidents is an indication of the good relations between them. The public policies in these countries have enabled them to increase the profits of the business sector without any real increase in production. The so-called prosperity celebrated by the business leaders and their counterparts in government can only be seen in the one per cent of the population that can access speculative capital that circulates even in stagnant economies.

In Spain, some 27 per cent and more that 56 per cent of young people are unemployed. In the countries of the Pacific Alliance, inequality has increased by nearly 50 per cent. In the United States the numbers are resounding. In the case of Panama, the national government opposed the five-yearly survey of the World Bank at the beginning of this year so that the extreme poverty of the ever increasing majority would not be revealed.

The missing piece in the business meeting is the increasing militarization of the region. Military expenditures of the member countries of the Alliance have multiplied in recent years. Countries such as Mexico and Chile have purchased highly sophisticated weapons. Colombia spends some two billion dollars annually on arms. Panama spent more than 500 million over the last three years. This theme may be added to the agenda at the last minute.

October 17 2013

(Translated for Alai by Jordan Bishop)

- Marco A. Gandásegui, Junior, Professor of Sociology at the University of Panama and researcher with the Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos Justo Arosemana (CELA). http://marcoagandasegui11.blogspot.com

https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/80224?language=en