We must understand the issue of hegemony as a well thought out organizational structure. Today this structure or superstructure has a higher vertex where the United States is.
The US always says that Latin America is its “backyard.” The problem is that we are 33 backyards — if we were only one facing the capitalist hegemony of US empire, it would be another story.
What are the factors of hegemony?
The cultural hegemony of empire makes us believe that the Western world, the Christian model, would not be possible without the cultural base that the West imposes on us, from the manner of dressing, walking, and expressing ourselves. Cultural hegemony is perhaps the most important and influential element of worldmaking.
Nuclear hegemony: When Trump agrees to talk with North Korean President Kim Jongun, we are witnessing a change in the world. The change is that today, the US or imperialism doesn’t respect countries that don’t possess nuclear capacity.
The world is now entering a difficult era regarding important issues like the safety of our nations and of all the peoples of the world, facing the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe initiated, obviously, by the US. What we can be sure of is that neither China, nor Russia, nor India, nor Pakistan, will start such a war.
Today nuclear hegemony is in dispute, as it is no longer clear that the US has its hands on the nuclear controls of the world. Is this more dangerous? I believe the US is more dangerous with all the cultural, political, and economic power and, above all, the power to detonate or not to detonate an Armageddon. Therefore, I view it as a positive that there is some room for balance in the issue of nuclear hegemony.
In terms of financial hegemony, the world is changing — fortunately for the better, I would say — because there is not a single source of power or financial axis that emanates from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the London Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange, as they are already beginning to face competition with other world actors.
Food hegemony: It is a great achievement that courts, even in the US, have condemned BayerMonsanto, one of the largest, most perverse business associations in the history of mankind. Monsanto poisons the people and Bayer tries to cure them. Today there are four businesses in the world that dominate the technology of transgenic seeds. The world’s food security is in danger.
Energy hegemony: It is well known that the US and Europe intend to dominate both the energy sources and energy routes given that oil supposedly runs out. Therefore, they want to dominate the remaining oil to continue accumulating “capital” for the arrival of the New World Energy Order.
Hegemony of the routes: A geopolitical conflict is about to erupt in the Strait of Hormuz for cultural and religious reasons, with Israel and Saudi Arabia facing Iran. We are also witnessing the war of Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries against Yemen, precisely for trying to maintain dominance over the Gulf of Aden.
Cybernetic hegemony: This is the extraordinary capacity to exercise influence over the performance in terms of development, exchange, and knowledge. We know that this is essentially concentrated in no more than ten countries. Fortunately, China and India are among these countries.
Hegemony of drugs: The US, for example, from 15 thousand kilometers away, at a drone control center, is able to launch a missile through the window of a humble home in the Middle East and kill an entire family. But the US, curiously, with all its technology and radars and planes and satellites is incapable of intercepting drugs that arrive in the US from Colombia and Peru.
The US is also incapable of intercepting illegal arms trafficking. The planes that arrive with drugs then return to Peru and Colombia with guns and ammunition. The US also cannot detect the movement of its own dollars; they do not know how dollars were once freshly printed in federal reserve are then transported in packages by the millions in an airplane, which is also not detected. This undetected airplane on US territory leaves an airport and then transports this money, like the weapons, to Colombia and Peru. Why? Because of the power of drugs.
Communicational hegemony: The media are very knowledgeable about the issues of cultural, political, geopolitical, economic, and financial hegemony, so we must not overlook these elements.
Historically, the US has always had three major fears: the growth of China, the loss of dollar hegemony in the world economy, and Latin American unity.
If we come together, this continent would have a different story. The US is desperate because the Organization of American States has renewed its role that it was assigned when it was founded: to ensure that geopolitics in this continent, its natural resources, water, everything, work in favor of the US economy.
There is a theorist who says that if the world ends immediately and only the American continent remains, Canada and the United States have their future secured.
They do not need Asia, or Africa, or Europe — they just need Latin America and the Caribbean so that they feel satisfied and comfortable in the house that they believe is theirs.
* This text is a summary of the speech of Ambassador to Venezuela in Chile, Arévalo Méndez Romero, presented on May 16, 2018 in the Le Monde Diplomatique bookstore in Santiago, Chile. This event was organized by a local chapter of SOAW in Chile.
