the missing paragraph

For almost twenty years Europe has been trying to build a strategic partnership with Latin America. In many ways it is a practical representation of the theory, which claims that political, social and economical stability in every corner of the world translates into much more measurable gains than exploitation and submission of the weak – it stimulates, at least theoretically, harmony and prosperity. Therefore Europe’s actions are not an echo of the remorseful exclamation “mea culpa!”  for all the suffering caused, but rather a cold calculation of crowds of geopolitical analysts, economists, strategists and diplomats. Europe needs new markets for its products and grieves at the decrease in exports to Latin America (from 6.48% in 2000 to 4.95% in 2004), however at the same time, Europe continues to occupy top places as the primary importer of South American goods.  European Union needs stability that would guarantee safe trade. Reaching this goal would mean economical growth of the region, in other words – full wallets and bellies of the Europeans. Let’s not be overly picky then, let’s not try to find the hidden agenda in this politics. Let us concentrate on identification of the factors that would present an obstacle on Europe’s path.

Natural born losers

In 1971 one of the most acclaimed analysts of South American issues, the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, published his most famous book to date: “The open veins of Latin America”. It opens with the following passage:

“The international distribution of work consists of some countries specializing in winning and others in losing. Our corner of the world, known today as Latin America, has specialized in losing from the times when Europeans of Renaissance crossed the sea that divided us, and sunk their teeth in its throat. Centuries have passed and Latin America perfected its functions”.

Exploitation of South American people and massive extraction of the natural treasures of the continent began practically when Christopher Columbus set his feet on the sandy beaches of the Bahamas. Soon news about “paradise on Earth”, rich not only in thousands of species of plants, fruits and animals, but also in what has always been a traditional prelude to blood shed (gold, silver, precious stones), started reaching Europe. To Europeans, the discovery of America was almost equivalent to setting foot on the doorstep of the eternal kingdom, and exclusive rights to govern this land had been awarded to queen Isabella I of Castille by pope Alexander VI (who, by the way, originated from Valencia, Spain). Under the pretext of converting the indigenous people of the new land to the only correct and true faith, the conquistadors set about to plundering everything that represented any value to them.

“If you don’t do it (convert to Christianity), or will maliciously delay it, by this you certify that with God’s help I have the right to step among you, and do you war in all parts and according to my own judgement, and I will take you in shackles and I will force you to obedience to the Church and His Majesty, and I will take your women and children and turn them into slaves, and as such I will sell them and I will dispose of them how His Majesty orders, and I will confiscate your goods and do you all evil and harm that I possibly can…”

In 1534 ships with the loot called at Seville: a chamber full of gold and two other ones filled with silver, that Francisco Pizarro received as ransom from the Incan ruler Atahualpa, before he killed him. In 1546 on the highlands of today’s Bolivia the Spanish established a mining city called Potosi. Mountain Cerro Rico, situated nearby, is to this day exceptionally rich in silver. Just twenty-eight years later 120 thousand people inhabited Potosi, a population equal to that of London, the biggest city of the time. Splendour of Potosi sometimes assumed absurd dimensions – in 1658, during the celebration of Corpus Christi, all the streets leading to Recoletos church were paved with silver bars. According to some estimates, the amount of this precious ore extracted there over the centuries would be enough to construct a silver bridge connecting Spain with South America. Today the city if whipped by cold wind and rain – nothing but a couple of impressive houses if left from the years of prosperity, accompanied by 8 million bodies of forced indigenous workers, who from the moment they entered the depths of Cerro Rico until their premature death would never again see the sunlight. On the main square in Potosi appeared a small plaque with official apologies from the government of Spain, placed just a couple years ago… More than 4 thousand shafts are still busy. During my last visit in Potosi, 15 thousand miners worked there, including women and children. The average life expectancy of a miner in Cerro Rico is 40 years.

“<< The City, that has given the most to the world, and has the least >> as one old woman told me in Potosi, enwrapped in a kilometre long lama shawl, when we chatted in front of the Andalusian patio of her 200-years old house. This city, condemned to nostalgia and tortured by suffering and cold, is still an open wound, inflicted by the colonial system of South America: an accusation. The world should begin with asking it for forgiveness.” – writes Galeano in his book, and although he wrote it more than 40 years ago, not much has changed since then. There are only more tourists wanting to descend into Cerro Rico. An attraction…

Northeast coast of Brazil, Cuba and other islands of the Caribbean cultivated sugarcane, that supplied Europe with sugar, but at the same time continuously turned once fertile and productive land into sterile desert, where today nothing grows anymore. Coffee and cacao plantation is Ecuador and Colombia looked similarly.

“Cuba (…) exports sugar to import candies” – said a young Cuban lawyer and revolutionist in 1954. After the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro set about to rebuild his country, destroyed by hundreds of years of European rule and, later, puppet governments dependent of United States’ imperial politics. Before Castro reformed education and health sector, illiteracy in Cuba was going through the roof. In the 70’s Cuba was proud to show the smallest percentage of illiterate population, and the biggest percentage of youth enrolled in schools from all the countries of Latin America. Unfortunately the cost of reforms and incompetent administration forced Castro to abandon his dreams of diversification of the Cuban export and his motherland once again became a slave of sugar.

“Today, in the eyes of the world, America is nothing more than United States: we live in sub-America, America of second sort and of blurry identity. This is Latin America – the land of open veins.“

Talking with the executioner

Rapprochement between Latin America and Europe was initiated at the end of the 90’s within the framework of ‘Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union Summit’, which took place in 1999 in Rio de Janeiro, and since then has been called every two years in various cities of Latin America and Europe. During the first summit the representatives of the EU member states and the states of Latin America laid foundations under the future strategic partnership between the two regions. Main areas of co-operation were identified, such as politics (inter-institutional dialogue, democratic values, human rights, international peace and security), economy (multilateral trade system, regionalization, intensification and liberalization of trade, prioritization of investment in countries with weaker economy), education (universal access), and culture (protection and promotion of cultural values).

The dialogue is not an easy one, if not to say unilateral. Announcements published after each summit often disappoint with lack of any substantial commitments, are full of general statements and wishful thinking. It seems that the main force behind the rapprochement is European Union, while the Latin American states appear on the summits propelled by their aspiration to ratify Free Trade Agreements with EU, even though it already guarantees them preferential access to the European market, mainly within the framework of the Generalized System of Preferences initiative, Mexico and Chile being the only exceptions as these states have already signed their FTA’s.

Within this scheme EU selects the least developed countries and offers them exclusion from the Most Favoured Nation principle, adopted by all the member states of WTO, which guarantees equal treatment in trade relations. As a result, all the countries participating in the GSP programme are treated in privileged way – the most common products are not subject to customs tax, while the so-called “sensitive” products are subject to reduced tariffs. It means that for example in the case of Colombia 90 per cent of exported products are not taxed, nor subject to any additional tariffs. GSP exists in a couple of versions, including: GSP+, focusing on countries not classified by the World Bank as high-income countries (for example Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia) and EBA (Everything But Arms), which includes 49 countries from the LDC list (Least Developed Countries) and guarantees preferential access to European market for all products except armament. The last GSP agreement expires on December 31, 2011.

In its relations with Latin America, EU particularly accents its drive for stabilisation in the region, both in the aspect of social cohesion and regional integration. The last available data (2005) distinctly shows the abyss that separates the poorest from the richest in Latin America: 200 million people live below the poverty threshold and 88 million in absolute poverty. 10% of the population controls 50% of the continent’s wealth.

Above all, then, the goal is to level the differences between the South American countries, to create a unified market, and to standardize the immigration system. Free flow of goods and workforce translates into increased dynamics of economic growth. Part of these postulates is currently in implementation, the best proof of which is the creation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in May last year, however the organization (modelled on EU) has yet to undertake any decisive action and operates within the existing structures (MERCOSUR – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela; Andean Community of Nations – Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia). Representatives of the organization estimate that UNASUR will achieve operating capacity similar to that of EU in the year 2019.

In the meantime, EU does all in its power to help its South American brothers to embark on the path of progress. Three main areas of co-operation have been identified, enforced by a handful of educational programmes, experience interchange forums and research centres. These are:

1)    URB-AL / EUROsociAL: reduction of poverty, promotion of equality of rights, public administration, combating drug trafficking. (Budget 2001-09: 80 million euro)

2)    AL-INVEST / @LIS / Euro-Solar: regional integration, economic co-operation, and sustainable energy. (Budget 2002-10: 133.5 million euro)

3)    ALFA / ALBAN / ERASMUS MUNDUS: education and promotion of mutual understanding between the regions. (Budget 2000-10: 140.5 million euro)

Albeit the amount of designated resources looks quite pale when compared to over $6 billion that, over similar period of time, the US government has spent on coca leaf eradication in Colombia alone, the EU approach to this problem seems much more rational. Apart from the fact that these resources are available to all the countries of the continent (as opposed to United States’ focus on Colombia, Peru and Bolivia), the EU strategy essentially comes down to reduction of demand for drugs on its own turf, not to supplying arms and equipment or destroying plantations with highly toxic herbicides.

These programmes are intended to cover everything from urban planning, through stimulation of experience exchange between companies, educational programmes, scholarships, reforms of legislation, sustainable energy for isolated settlements, to disaster relief programmes.

These are not just empty words. I have personally participated in an expedition organised by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Natural Environment to the jungle in the Yasuni National Park, where I spent three days travelling by boat between indigenous settlements, installing solar panels and CB radios. In this region, and don’t forget it’s a national park, various oil companies operate, and illegal deforestation is conducted. It’s not without importance that this region is habited by two groups of the Tagaeri tribe, that have no wish to maintain any contact with modern civilization, and are able to manifest it in a rather brutal way (last case took place in March, 2008, when a body of illegal lumberjack was discovered in the jungle, pierced with a dozen spears.)

The eye of the beholder

Regretfully, the EU projects clearly lack exposure in the everyday life of Latin American people. Many people that I have talked to didn’t have a slightest idea about them; even mainstream media lacks information. It makes it difficult for the EU to have adequate impact on the way people of this continent see European efforts, and without this crucial element Latin America’s attitude is still largely formed by centuries of exploitation and enslavement.
We all know the saying: “the truth is in the eye of the beholder”. Personally I think there’s something my father once told me that compliments it nicely: “one can very quickly and easily turn his good name in a pile of rumble, but it takes years and years of hard work to rebuild it”. Both truths have never been more actual that today, in relations EU-Latin America.

It took only (and as much as) 50 years for Germany to erase the bitter taste World War 2 left in the mouths of European citizens. Today, apart from occasional clashes in the context of atonement for the caused damage, Germany is a widely accepted and respected member of the European Union, serious trade partner, wielding important vote in matters of our corner of the world. Besides a small group of radicals, no one is surprised by the way things are now.

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about Europe’s relations with Latin America. It’s true that the local media here don’t announce yet another crisis in diplomatic relations between the old and the new world, however five hundred years of harm inflicted by Europe still remain a thorn in the hearts and the memory of people living here. However good the intentions and the hard work invested, the representatives of EU should perhaps first ask for forgiveness. I haven’t found it in a single official document on this subject, and the ever so stressed years of common history and cultural values are, in this case, a reason for shame, not pride.

Originally written in Polish and published on MojeOpinie.pl (follow the link to retrieve the original version)