THE DISINFORMATION INDUSTRY AND THE DIGITAL DISINFODEMIC
Obese state or institutional strangulation
by Juan J. Paz and Miño Cepeda: Once the conquest and subjugation of the aboriginal peoples had been consolidated, during the colonial era the Crown of Spain organized the territories under new administrative forms: two initial viceroyalties, several audiences, governorships, some general captaincies, corregidors and councils, subject, ultimately, to the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contratación. The King issued the norms and laws that should regulate the life of the American “provinces.” It was a complex system that included regulations on the indigenous population, initially subject to repartimientos and encomiendas and subjected to brutal forms of labor and human exploitation. In addition, thousands of black slaves were moved to the colonies. A legally hierarchical society was established and divided into “castes”, under the rule of whites, among whom only those of Spanish origin could occupy the highest positions in the State. And, with respect to the laws issued from Spain, contradictions arose from the early colonial times, because the colonizers and their Creole descendants resisted the norms that could in some way harm their rule, as well as the indigenous people and settlers subordinated to the rule of the “whites.” ” They also created resistance and evasion mechanisms to avoid being affected. So, in American lands, an official and widespread practice arose of receiving the provisions with an observation that said: “The law is followed, but it is not fulfilled.”
The independence processes of Latin America had as their ideal the overcoming of the colonial regime and the construction of republics based on enlightened principles of constitutionalism, democracy, freedom and equality. However, realities once again prevailed: economic control, social exploitation, political dominance, control of the State, passed into the hands of oligarchies that established their hegemony. So, if we follow the republican 19th century, there is no Latin American country that has managed to establish democratic and, worse, socially egalitarian States, with strong and stable institutions, under respect for the laws as a guide to social and political coexistence. This does not mean ignoring the role that liberal and radical forces played in advancing and strengthening institutions and managing to affirm at least individual rights. In Argentina, Chile and Mexico, these liberal advances since the middle of that century stood out.
Institutional progress, the rule of law and the advancement of social legislation in the region practically occurred in the 20th century, at the pace of the progress and consolidation of capitalism. In the pre-capitalist, primary-exporting and oligarchic societies of the past, “the law (and institutions) is obeyed, but it is not fulfilled”, if we use the old formula from the colonial era. But this capitalist development was built on a series of legacies, which also include social and political behaviors that have slowed down the possibilities of building institutions and legality that remain ideals yet to be conquered.
As is well known in all types of studies, Latin American capitalism has never overcome social inequalities, the concentration of wealth and the private domain of the economy. Consequently, political disputes occur, with increasing clarity, within the framework of acute confrontations between social classes. The bourgeoisies of the region have not promoted economic development with collective well-being and have normally been a constant brake on creating social economies, with broad and universal public services in education, health, medicine and social security. And what is being observed at present is that, by embracing neoliberal and now libertarian ideology, Latin American business elites have resumed not only the path of oligarchic dominance but also the perversion of institutionality, law and legality in the States. where they have achieved control of political power.
Indeed, by questioning the “obese” State and seeking to shrink it, they have broken the institutions that suffer the weight of tax cuts, the expulsion of bureaucracy, the dismantling or aggravation of the external debt conditioned by organizations such as the IMF. At the same time, they have turned tax systems into mechanisms of collective affectation, but of privilege for “investors” who profit from evasion, tax havens, remissions, forgiveness or the reduction of their taxes. They have also devastated social and labor rights, which are civilizational achievements and which have passed into the hands of the flexibility and precariousness of contractual conditions. The questioning of social security and medical and health care in order to achieve its destruction and transfer these services into private hands has increasingly affected national populations that fall into helplessness, exacerbated by greater poverty and marginalization. The situation is combined with a climate of non-observance or manipulation of laws and rights to persecute opponents or attack social movements, subject to what is called criminalization of protest. Latin Americanism, which was an ideal born in the independence processes and subsequently maintained by leaders and progressive forces in the region, has been broken by business governments. In Argentina and Ecuador, military agreements are reached with the United States that privilege their direct presence and subjection to the geostrategies of global hegemony maintained by that great power. As a result of the unprecedented diplomatic conflict with Mexico (https://t.ly/vWFo6), in Ecuador there are people convinced that everyone is wrong and that the flaws are in international standards on asylum. The advance of drug trafficking and crime in all countries is the result of this set of factors that strangle the capacities of States and that have not prevented the penetration of these interests in public institutions and apparatuses, but also in private sectors to which that the origin of their assets and the wealth they concentrate is rarely investigated. In Ecuador, the risk that activists and politicians of social progressivism, as well as members of the indigenous movement, will be accused of being “terrorists” or having links to “narcos” has already materialized against farmers who resist mining exploitation in the province of Cotopaxi. (https://t.ly/vUrDi).
The lack of institutionality and respect for the laws is fully combined with the private domain of the economy. When the anarchist philosopher and revolutionary Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) declared that property is theft, he was referring to capitalist private property, which is what robs society of the value generated by its work. The neoliberal-libertarianism of Latin America has overturned the concepts and now says that the State is the one that “steals” when it collects taxes, finances public goods and services or serves the population with its investments. This ideology is reinforced daily with the work carried out by media outlets linked to big capital. Reversing the incidence of these ideas in popular media has become not only a political but also an academic challenge to achieve a future of improvement in the living and working conditions of Latin American populations.
"EL RÉGIMEN Y SUS SUBDITOS INTENTAN CONVENCER AL PUEBLO DE QUE CRIMINALES ALTAMENTE PELIGROSOS ESTÁN TRAS LAS REJAS"
CANADIAN (GUANTANAMO) HOSPITAL DESIGNED FOR TORTURE
HOSPITAL CANADIENSE (GUANTANAMO) DISEÑADO PARA LA TORTURAListen to what they did. Listen to what`s to come.
Listen to the blood.
Listen to the drum.
- James Fenton
"CANADÁ EL INFIERNO VIVIENTE QUE NADIE NO CONOCE" ¡UNA PRISIÓN MONSTRUOSA QUE ELEGIMOS VIVIR!
Escuchen lo que hicieron. Escuchen lo que está por venir.
Escuchen la sangre.
Escuchen el tambor.
-James Fenton
No comments:
Post a Comment