“If we have to use force, it’s because we are Americans. We are the indispensable nation. When we can change things we should do so, and the rest of the world should follow.”
The United States government
believes it has legitimate interests wherever US companies are located. Many
business interests are also government interests and, by extension, military
interests. Thus, war becomes the mechanism for the control of strategic
interests such as oil.
According to independent journalist
Joe Vialls (1993), “For decades, the United States Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) has coveted global domination, not with the consent of the American
people, but by directing the actions of the American president the way a child
pulls the strings of a puppet. With the collapse of the USSR, the CIA
recognized an opportunity and sought global domination through control of the
world’s oil resources.”
Oil was the reason for the 1991 Gulf
War, which served as a mechanism for Western countries, especially the United
States, to destabilize OPEC, control the price of oil and create a new
correlation of forces in favor of the US in the region which contains the
world’s major oil reserves. One-and-a-half million Iraqis lost their lives in
this war and 5,000 children died in the months following hostilities as a
result of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq[1].
At home, Iraq has unleashed a war on the Kurdish people whose territory
contains significant oil reserves.
For the same reason, the United
States declared war on the Vietnamese people. At the time, Mobil Oil
Corporation was exploring off the coast of what the US referred to as “South
Vietnam.” In the 1990s, Mobil obtained an exploration concession in the same
field in which it has been working three decades earlier (Blue Dragon, 280
kilometers from the Mekong Delta), but later pulled out when it failed to
discover commercially viable reserves.
In East Timor, significant petroleum
reserves in the Sea of Timor prolonged Indonesia’s occupation, as well as
Australia’s participation in the conflict in a bid to benefit from the
distribution of reserves. East Timor has recently gained its independence.
In the tiny Spratley Islands, where
oil reserves have been discovered, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Brunei have staked claims, and there have been clashes between
some of these countries as a result.
THE RESOURCE WARS IN AFRICA: THE
LEGACY OF COLONIALISM
European countries colonized the
African continent for the purpose of sacking it. When African nations achieved
independence, a series of conflicts were yet to be settled and new conflicts
came into being. The former colonizers were determined to continue benefiting
from the territories they had once ruled in order to maintain control over
resources. As a result, African countries were unable to stabilize politically
through the creation of democratic states characterized by civil rights and
sustainable social, economic and environmental policies. But above all, many of
these nations have been unable to break the cycle of war.
This is the reason for the war in
Angola, one of the major oil producers in Africa. The ruling Popular Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (PMLA) has historically controlled the nation’s
oil resources in Angola, whereas UNITA, a guerrilla organization financed by
the United States, maintains control of the nation’s diamond resources. This
never-ending war is a contest for oil, and it is financed on both sides by oil
and diamonds.
UNITA’s primary military objectives
are oil producing areas (which account for 90% of the national budget). New oil
fields, especially those located in deep waters off shore, have attracted
transnational oil companies, which generate the money the government needs to
continue fighting the war.
After the colonial period ended,
Portugal maintained a large standing army in Angola for the purpose of controlling
oil and diamond resources; by the time independence arrived, the military force
based in Angola was the largest on the continent. The bloody war for
independence lasted for thirteen years during which Portugal allied itself with
the racist South African government, where the foundation was laid for the
creation of UNITAS in 1966.
With independence in 1975, three
groups came into being: PMLA, backed by the USSR, Cuba and Eastern Europe, and
UNITAS and the FNLA supported by the United States and South Africa. The United
Nations recognized the government established by the PMLA, but a civil war
broke out, with UNITAS supported by South Africa and the United States. Through
the CIA, the US financed this group to the tune of a billion dollars between
1970 and 1980. During the civil war, which produced thousands of deaths, land
mines were planted throughout the country and these have led to the maiming of
3.3 million Angolans.
Meanwhile, protected by the
Portuguese army, the US based Gulf Oil Corporation expanded its operations,
with investments growing from $150,000,000 in 1969 to $300,000,000 in 1975,
providing a 50% increase in income for Portugal. Other US oil companies active
in the country included Union Carbide, Texaco, Mobil and Argo Petro. In addition,
Universal Leaf and Tobacco, First National City Bank of New York, Firestone,
Chase Manhattan, General Electric and IBM also set up operations in Angola.
A peace accord was signed in 1991,
and PMLA’s candidate was elected president in 1992. After a brief pause, UNITAS
reignited the civil war, once again with the support of the US and South
Africa. The group financed its activities with the contraband sale of diamonds,
while the government used oil income to finance its army. The war in Angola is
the result of US Cold War policies.
Today, the largest oil companies in
the world have interests in Angola.
France’s former colonies have also
been the victims of French oil companies. They are responsible, to a great
extent, for the absence of political stability in the region. According to Liberation, a French newspaper,
corporations such as ELF have been the secret weapon of French foreign policy.
The war for the liberation of
Algeria, one of the bloodiest in the history of Africa, lasted for nearly a
decade. Its underlying cause was the country’s oil wealth which, until 1968
when oil fields were nationalized, was exploited by French oil companies.
Algeria achieved independence long after other French colonies such as Morocco
and Tunis.
The fall of Mobutu Sese Soko in
Zaire represented a change in the control of the country’s economy, from French
and Belgian to US companies who supported the rise of Kabila.
Mobutu ruled the country for three
decades. He received support from Western countries after the CIA-sponsored
assassination of Patricio Lubumba. The US provided more than $300,000,000 in
arms and more than $100,000,000 in military training.
After thirty years, Laurent Kabila
overthrew him. He left the nation with a $14,000,000,000 debt. Evidence
indicates that North American oil companies were behind the fall of their
former ally. When Kabila came to power, Clinton immediately offered military
aid. Today, the oil reserves of the new Democratic Republic of the Congo (the
former Zaire) are controlled by US companies, including Chevron and UNOCAL, as
well as the French-Belgian corporation TotalFinaElf.
In the Congo, French president
Jacques Chirac called his colleague Denis Sassou Nguesso to congratulate him
after his victory, achieved after a four-month bloody civil war. Sassou had
overthrown the democratically elected Pascal Lissouba in a coup that resulted
in widespread damage to Brazzaville, capital of the Congo.
Western diplomatic sources claim
that Lissouba created alarm in Paris when he secretly negotiated an advance
payment of oil with US Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Lissoube received a
large sum of money in exchange for ceding rights to the Congo’s oil reserves to
Occidental. The same diplomatic sources indicate that as a result, Elf began an
aggressive campaign against Lissouba, which led to clashes in urban areas and,
ultimately, the end of his rule.
According to French newspapers Liberation and Le Canarad Enchainé, Elf financed Lissouba’s army and
simultaneously provided money for Sassou, while shipping arms to the Congo
through Gabon, another important source of oil for Elf.
The French company Elf produces 60%
of its oil in the Gulf of Guinea and, just before the war in the Congo,
operations had begun on the largest underwater platform in the world, located
off the coast of the Congo. France has always viewed the Congo as an important
source not only of oil but also of mineral and timber resources.
OIL AS A CATALYST OF INTERNAL
CONFLICTS
The presence of natural resources,
including oil and gas, in the lands of indigenous groups and ethnic minorities,
and in areas populated by those traditionally excluded from power, has led to
internal conflicts that in many cases have turned into civil wars.
Dominant groups have used these
territories as a resource base, destroying the means of survival of their
traditional custodians. In many cases, oil companies have fanned these
conflicts, supporting one of the parties involved, in order to benefit their
own interests.
This is the case of the Ijaw people
of Nigeria who live in the Niger River Delta where Shell drilled its first well
in 1956 in the community of Oloibiri. Since then, the Oloibiri, with a
population of 12,000,000, have suffered unspeakable human rights violations as
well as environmental degradation, and have lived with constant violence caused
by clashes between oil companies and civil society leading to the deaths of
many Ijaw. As a result, in December of 1998, the Ijaw people signed the
Declaration of Kaiama, demanding an end to all oil activities (exploration and
production), and the withdrawal of all transnationals from Ijawland. But the
violence continues.
The presence of Shell and other oil
companies in the Niger Delta has caused additional conflicts, such as that
between the Ogoni, a people victimized by a brutally repressive system. The
Ogoni created the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in
response to this aggression. At the end of May 1995, the president of the
MOSOP, Ken Saro-Wiwa, was taken into custody for the alleged murders of four
Ogoni elders. Eventually, he was executed in extra-judicial proceedings
together with eight community leaders who had organized against Shell due to
the company’s destructive activities in Ogoni territory. Some sources claim
that members of the “Operation for the Restoration of Peace and Order in Ogoni
Territory killed Saro-Wiwa,” a committee created by the Nigerian government to
protect Shell’s interests in the area.
Shell has admitted that it has asked
for government assistance on a number of occasions in order to assure the
continuity of its operations. On one of these, eighty people were killed when
government forces opened fire on a peaceful demonstration against Shell.
Shell has produced crude in the
Niger Delta for more than fifty years; the area represents 40% of its global
operations.
Chevron is another company operating
in the Niger Delta. The corporation has been taken to court in the United
States for the deaths of two activists, killed by the company’s security force.
Another telling case is that of
Aceh, in Indonesia. In that area in
North Sumatra, Mobil provided for military support from the government to stop
the secessionist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
This movement had been organized, in large part, as a result of the
deterioration in the quality of life, the degradation of the environment and
the violation of human rights resulting from Mobil’s operations in the area.
Most human rights violations
suffered in Aceh have taken place in the north, and many victims have testified
that Indonesia’s Special Forces (Kopassus) are responsible for said violations.
Members of Kopassus are based in Camp Rancong, owned by the PT Arun Oil Company[2].
Others claim that they have been interrogated at Post 13, a facility provided
by Mobil Oil.
Extra-judicial executions and
disappearances take place in Aceh. Most of the disappearances have never been
explained. A number of people have disappeared while in jail serving long
sentences (Aditjondro, 1997).
In 1989, an estimated two thousand
civilians died while in army custody in Aceh and the north of Sumatra. In that
year, counter insurgence operations began against the armed resistance movement
(Aditjondro, 1997).
The 1989-1993 period was the most
difficult for the people of Aceh. Amnesty International charges that women and
children were among those executed and that the murders took place both
publicly and in secret. While violence has diminished in subsequent years, it
has yet to come to an end.
Since 1991, at least 35 persons have
been accused of subversion for supporting the separatist movement; they have
been sentenced to 20-year prison terms. When military authorities freed hundred
of persons jailed for alleged collaboration with Aceh Merdeka, they reported
having been tortured and mistreated.
In 1998, more than one hundred mass
graves were discovered in Aceh; one of these contained close to 200 bodies.
By the end of the 1980s, Aceh was
providing approximately 30% of the oil and gas produced in Indonesia; this
represented 11% of the country’s exports. However, 40% of the people of Aceh
live in poverty, according to government figures.
The situation in Sudan is not widely
known. For 34 of the 45 years since independence, the country has been immersed
in civil war. An estimated two million people have died in the conflict, while
500,000 people are refugees and four million have been displaced from ancestral
lands. Sudan is a country divided in geographical, cultural and religious
terms. Sixty-five per cent of the population is African in origin, and 35% of
the people are descendents of Arabs.
The nation’s dominant group is
Muslim (about 70% of the population). Members of this group live in the north
of the country and see the south as a source of goods and resources they cannot
produce. This has led to differences with ethnic groups in the south who are
primarily Christian and the result has been the longest civil war in Africa’s
modern history.
Oil has a role in the current civil
war in Sudan. In September 1999, Sudan became Africa’s newest oil exporter. The
largest oil fields are in the south of the Upper Nile. A 1,540 kilometer
pipeline built to transport oil has already been sabotaged by forces opposed to
the government.
The crude is extracted in the south
of the country and refined in and shipped from the north. This has led to
rebellions among the southern populations who demand self-determination and the
right to manage their natural resources. Intervention from imperialist European
nations seeking greater control over oil production has exacerbated the
situation.
Most of the profits generated by oil
go to finance the war. Sudan spends $1,000,000 per day on war. Meanwhile,
3,100,000 Sudanese are chronically hungry and the nation’s foreign debt stands
at $17,000,000,000.
Oil companies operating in Sudan
include Talisman of Canada, the China National Petroleum Corporation and
Petronas of Malaysia. A number of companies have left for security reasons or
due to sanctions imposed on Sudan by the United States in 1997. Chevron was
exploring there in 1983, but in spite of services provided in the oil fields by
a private security firm staffed by veterans of the Vietnam war, the company’s
operations could not be protected.
According to some observers, the
United States would back independence of the southern states of Sudan in order
to create a barrier to Islamic expansion.
At the same time, Russia and Sudan
have developed relations based on arms and oil. Slavneft of Russia/Belarussia,
signed a $126,000,000 agreement with Sudan to undertake oil production
activities. The agreement provides that Russia will give technical and military
assistance to Sudan. Included in the technical assistance provided is training
of Sudanese workers in the assembly of T-75 tanks in the industrial city of
Giad. In addition, Minister of Defense Bakr iHassan presented a list of arms
the Sudanese wanted to buy from Russia. A second arms purchase took place two
years ago. The arms are financed by oil income, creating a vicious circle in
which oil feeds the flames of war.
HOW OIL WRITES HISTORY
British Petroleum began its
activities in Iran under the guise of the Anglo Persian Oil Company (the name
was later changed to Anglo Iranian Oil Company or AIOC) at the beginning of the
twentieth century with the complete support, including military assistance, of
the British Empire. For fifty years, AIOC (or British Petroleum) fashioned
Iranian politics according to its own interests. To maintain its hegemony,
England established and brought down governments and supported insurgent
movements such as the Bakhtiaris in oil
producing areas, through the provision of arms and intelligence in order to
create instability whenever the Irani government had to renegotiate the terms
of its contract with AIOC. England provoked a number of confrontations with
Iraq for oil resources in the south of the country, and with Russia for oil in
the north.
When World War I broke out, England
needed oil to mobilize its troops. The British government thus had an even
greater interest in the oil reserves of Iran and the state invested in AIOC.
Iran’s oil was also a key element in
the mobilization of British troops during World War II. The oil provided a
source of energy. In addition, during the war years, the British government
reduced the royalties Iran received for its oil from 3.7 million British pounds
(in 1937) to 2.8 million British pounds (in 1940). The Shah declared his
dissatisfaction with a policy that reduced his nation’s earnings simply because
the company involved was controlled by a government at war.
The US government, exerting
diplomatic pressure, unleashed its own war to benefit its oil companies and
assure them access to Irani crude. But it was only when British economic
dominance came to an end at the close of World War II that the US managed to
break the monopoly of British Petroleum. This effort finally succeeded with the
fall of the nationalist government of Mossadeq in 1953, brought about with
military support from the CIA whose chief officer for the Middle East was Kermit
Roosevelt, and also through an international boycott of Iranian oil. The new
government that took over gave 40% of the nation’s oil concessions to North
American companies. British hegemony in Iran had come to an end.
Iraq has also been converted into war
booty for Western powers as a result of its oil reserves. This nation was under
the control of Turkey until World War I at the end of which it was turned over
to England. The British government provided support to British Petroleum and
Royal Dutch Shell and was successful for a time in blocking oil exploration by
North American companies in Iraq. Finally, after extremely complex diplomatic
negotiations, the two countries signed an agreement in 1929 dividing the
world’s oil resources, and Iraq’s reserves were turned over to a consortium
formed by Exxon and Mobil.
Rivalry between the US and England
was exacerbated during World War II over who would control oil reserves in
Saudi Arabia. Chevron came to an agreement with the US government providing for
royalties to be paid to the king of Saudi Arabia from a war fund set up to
support England, but when the British sent its geologists to Saudi Arabia in
1943, the money was paid directly to the monarch.
CONFLICTS IN CENTRAL ASIA
The latest conflict in Central Asia
(Afghanistan) is related to access to and control over the vast oil resources
of the region, both in the Caspian Sea and the Arabian Gulf. After successful
exploration by Argentine company Bridas in Turkmenistan, the company signed a
contract for the Keimar block near the Caspian and the Yashlar block near the
Afghan border. In 1995, Bridas signed a contract to build a pipeline between
Turkmenistan and Pakistan, which would run through Afghanistan, but work on the
pipeline could not begin until negotiations were concluded with the Afghanis
who were engaged at the time in a civil war.
The following years, after intense
negotiations with Afghan leaders, Bridas signed a thirty-year agreement with
the government of Rabbani to build and operate the 875 mile natural gas
pipeline. Bulgheroni, chief of Bridas, approached other companies, including
UNOCAL, to form an international consortium.
However, UNOCAL had plans of its own and subsequently formed a
consortium which included the Saudi company Delta Oil, with strong ties to
Saudi Prince Abdullah and King Fahd, the Russian company Gazprom and the
state-controlled Turkish company Turkmenrozgas. A deal was finally reached in
1995 for a 918 miles natural gas pipeline.
Interest in the trans-Afghan
pipeline was based on more than simple economics. There was also a geopolitical
interest: military control of the Euro-Asian region (including the Middle East
and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia). The United States was
particularly interested in control of oil production and transport. This was
one reason for US military intervention in the 1990s in the Balkans, the
Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.
In 1992, eleven oil companies
controlled 50% of oil investments in the Caspian region; they included British
Petroleum, Amoco and ARCO (three companies subsequently merged to form BP),
UNOCAL, TexacoChevron (also merged), Exxon-Mobil, Pennzoil and Phillips. There
are additional companies and political consultants working in Central Asia with
the full support of the US Departments of State and Energy, and these include
oil company associations.
Principal advisors in the area
include Brezezinski, a consultant for Amoco who designed the Afghan-Soviet war
in the 1970s. Henry Kissinger advises Unocal and Dick Cheney has been an
advisor for Halliburton and the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. Unocal’s
envoy in Central Europe was Robert Oakley, a US intelligence and defense
official.
Subsequently, a consortium led by
UNOCAL obtained another contract for the construction of a 1,050 miles pipeline
to pass through Afghanistan and connect Dauletabad and a port in Pakistan on
the coast of the Arabian Sea.
Although UNOCAL had an agreement
with the government, the contract Bridas had with Afghanistan was still in
force. The CIA solved this problem and a group supported by the Taliban. After
a visit by a high US State Department official in the autumn of 1996, the
Taliban entered Kabul and overthrew the Rabbani government. Nevertheless,
UNOCAL considered the possibility of running the pipeline through Afghan
territories controlled by the Northern Alliance.
Since the contract with Bridas had
to be renegotiated, UNOCAL immediately implemented a program of humanitarian
aid and installed a cell phone system between Kabul and Kandahar, while USAID
made a large contribution to a Taliban education program. For its part, Bridas
worked with a number of important leaders in Saudi Arabia. The rivalry between
UNOCAL and Bridas began to reflect a conflict between members of the Saudi
royal family. Until 1997 neither company signed an agreement. The Taliban
government presented demands beyond royalties, including infrastructure such as
highways and energy generating facilities, and the reinstatement of the state
petroleum company which had been abolished by the Soviets. UNOCAL was not
prepared to comply with these demands. Bridas, on the other hand, offered
higher royalties and a pipeline for local use; the company also enjoyed the
support of Osama Bin Laden. In addition, the Bridas plan did not depend upon
outside financing whereas UNOCAL’s proposal would have required loans from
Western institutions such as the World Bank, which would have put the Taliban
in a vulnerable position vis-a-vis the demands of Western governments.
Bridas sold 60% of its holdings in
Latin America to Amoco (now BP), to strengthen its position. Meanwhile, the Russian company Gazprom
pulled out of the UNOCAL consortium, forcing the company to look for new
partners in South Korea and Japan while fending off criticism leveled in the US
by human rights groups. Attacks on the US embassy in Kenya and the subsequent
US bombing of that Central Asian country led to the breaking off of diplomatic
relations between the US and Afghanistan. This ended UNOCAL’s contract
negotiations with the Taliban, and the Saudi company Delta was unable to
continue as the consortium’s leader.
After the events of September 11 and
the fall of the Taliban government, the situation changed. In May 2002, the
presidents of Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement to
build and maintain a 1,460 kilometers natural gas pipeline. At the same time,
the president of the World Bank began to consider a $100,000,000 loan to
finance the project.
It is believed that Afghan has
considerable hydrocarbon reserves. During its occupation of the country, the
USSR estimated natural gas reserves at five trillion cubic feet.
The Afghan oil fields that have not
been exploited include Jorqaduq, Khowaja, Gogerdak and Yatimtaq, all located
within nine kilometers of the Shebrghan people in the northern province of
Jowzjan.
Azerbaijan, Kazajstan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan together have 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and
eleven trillion cubic meters of gas. Until now, Russia has maintained exclusive
control of oil transport in the region, a situation the US would like to
change.
For the US, the significance of the
region lies in the fact that Caspian crude could provide a counterweight to the
leadership maintained by OPEC countries in the fixing of crude oil prices. This
role was previously exercised by North Sea oil, but reserves there are far
below those of the Caspian, and the US believes that it would be easier to
control production in the Caspian in light of the institutional weakness of the
countries in the region.
Currently, more than forty projects
are being developed in Kazajstan and Azerbaijan, involving eleven US companies,
24 companies from other Western countries and two Russian companies. Chevron
leads a consortium that includes ExxonMobil and LukArco (joint ventures between
Lukoil of Russia and Arco, now merged with BP-Amoco) in the Tengiz field, the
largest in Kazakhstan, with ten billion barrels of crude. US companies control
75% of operations.
At the same time, oil income will
probably attract other US companies to these countries (service companies,
secondary industries, etc.).
The European company Agip, member of
a consortium that includes BP, TotalElfFina and Royal Dutch Shell, is
developing a gas field in Kashagan in the same country, and thus the situtation
involves rival groups. Both consortiums depend on the pipeline that runs
through Russia from Grozny in Chechenya to Novorossisk in the Black Sea.
Chechenya is also involved in a war
because in order for the Russians to maintain control over the oil transport,
it must maintain control over Chechenya. Because the pipeline runs through
Russia, the Russians control energy transport and prices and thus can also
maintain political control over the region. For example, Russia cuts oil supply
to Georgia whenever it wants to impose policies on that country.
Chechenya is also the country
through which pipelines take Siberian crude to the Black Sea.
US and European groups want to end
Russian hegemony in the transport of crude. Those interested in building new
pipelines include TotalFinaElf, which would like to build a pipeline in
Kazakhstan ending in Iran. In Azerbaijan, a consortium lead by BP is planning a
multi millon dollar pipeline to run from Baku (Azerbaijan) through Tbilisi
(Georgia) to Cayhan (Turkey), ending in the Mediterranean. Other potential
pipeline routes are also being studied.
THE BALKAN WAR
Crude oil leaves from the Black Sea
and eventually comes to the Mediterranean. This is where the countries of the
former Yugoslavia come into the picture. The US’s interest in the region is
based on the desire to consolidate its presence in southern Europe. To achieve this objective, they are going to
establish a transport, communication and pipeline corridor which joins the
Black Sea with the Adriatic coast (the Trans-Balkan pipeline, or AMBO)[3],
and assure the supremacy of these countries-in conjunction with England-over other
countries of the European Union.
Who is behind the Balkan pipeline?
BP and ChevronTexaco are the leaders of a consortium, which controls the
project. They are competing with European oil companies TotalFinaElf and ENI,
which have significant interests in the oil fields of Kashagan in the northeast
of the Caspian in Kazakhstan.
Brown & Root Ltd. (the British
subsidiary of Halliburton, in which US Vice President Dick Cheney has
significant investments) did a feasibility study for the pipeline.
Subsequently, a high Halliburton executive was named executive director of
AMBO. This company was awarded the service concession for support of US troops
in Kosovo during the construction of the Bondsteel base, the largest US
military base overseas since Vietnam. Coincidentally, the legal firm associated
with the company now includes former president Clinton.
Another strategic project is the
Baku-Cehyan pipeline, which will run through Turkey and is also in the hands of
US companies. Both projects depend on US military presence, both in the Caspian
and in the Balkans.
According to some observers,
Washington hopes to separate the three countries involved in the AMBO project
from German influence and from French, Belgian and Italian oil interests.
These countries have been involved
in the “Southern Balkans Development Initiative” (SBDI) to facilitate the flow
of public and private capital in order to implement the initiative. A
Memorandum of Intent has been signed Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia; as a
result, these countries renounce their sovereignty over the pipeline and the
communications corridor, ceding all rights to the Anglo-American consortium.
The AMBO pipeline is tied to another
strategic project, known as “Corridor 8,” which was part of an initial
proposal, the “Stabilization Pact for the Balkans” which included highway,
railroads, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure. As for existing
infrastructure, it is to be deregulated under the supervision of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Although the European Union’s
Minister of Transport declared “Corridor 8” a part of the political integration
of these countries into the EU, feasibility studies have been carried out by US
companies, including Bechtel, Enron and General Electric, with financial
support from the US government.
The strategy for the region includes
militarization of the corridor. This fact was admitted by former president
Clinton’s Secretary of Energy.
Robert Forwick, chief of the OSCE
mission in Macedonia, began talks with the leader of the rebel National
Liberation Army (NLA), Ali Ahmeti. He participated in putting together an
agreement between Ahmeti and the leaders of
the Albanian political parties which form part of the transition
government. This agreement contributed significantly to instability in
Macedonia and opened the way for greater US intervention via “humanitarian and
military aid.”
According to Chossudovsky (1999),
the CIA is behind the NLA and KLA (Kosova Liberation Army) rebel groups, whose
members carried out terrorists attacks against the security forces of
Macedonia. Two rebel commanders responsible for terrorist attacks in the Tetevo
region were trained by British Special Forces in the north of Albania between
1998 and 1999 (Walker, 2001).
While the NLA received arms made in
America, Germany donated arms to the Special Forces of Macedonia. This conflict
between Germany and the US in military matters in the Balkans is a reflection
of divisions in the Western military industrial complex between, on the one
hand, the US and England and, on the other, France and Germany. Oil is
intimately related to this process because the corridors for pipelines and
transport leaving the Caspian Sea must be protected.
BLOOD AND CRUDE IN LATIN AMERICA
There were at least two wars related
to oil in the 1940s in Latin America: the war of the Chaco, as a result of
which Paraguay lost a part of its territory containing significant oil
reserves, and the was between Ecuador and Peru.
In the 1980s, the civil war in
Guatemala was centers in the Izxcan, the region from which the indigenous
population was evicted and where oil exploration is taking place today.
Why did England go to war with
Argentina over the Malvinas? At the time of the war, people believed that the
real reason for hostilities was oil. Today, years after the war, Argentina and
Great Britain have undertaken joint off-shore activities in the region, in a
“Specific Cooperation Area.” Four companies, Shell, Amerada Hess, LASMO and the
Canadian International Petroleum Corporation, are leading international
consortia in the first round of exploration in the Malvinas.
But the most recent case involving
war and oil is Plan Colombia, the objective of which is to control oil
production in that country. Plan Colombia is being implemented in the Putumayo
region of the Amazon where, although oil production is relatively modest, the
new concessions awarded suggest that reserves could well be greater than those
proven to date. Ecopetrol directly manages most production, but partnerships
have been formed with US companies.
The problem in the region is the
continual sabotage of oil infrastructure carried out by irregular armies in the
country, resulting in significant economic losses for the oil companies. In
other areas of Colombia, this type of attack has affected companies such as
Occidental and BP. President Geroge Bush has announced that Plan Colombia will
include providing protection for Occidental.
With the so-called Andean
Initiative, the US will control oil and gas production in five Andean-Amazon
countries. All of the five countries
are characterized by circumstances worrisome to the US: insurgency in Colombia,
reactivation of OPEC by Chavez in Venezuela, the indigenous movement in
Ecuador, resurgence of the peasant movement in Bolivia, and the renewal of
civil society in Peru after the fall of Fujimori.
As regards Hugo Chavez, a number of
analysts have suggested that it was the role he plays in oil policies that led
to the coup attempt in April 2002. Since he came to power in 1998, his policies
have irritated Washington, especially his role in the rehabilitation of OPEC and
the stabilization of oil prices in March 2000, as a result of which said prices
quadrupled in relation to their 1999 levels. At the same time, Venezuela’s new
constitution, supported by Chavez, prohibits the privatization of the state oil
company. Chavez has also signed an agreement with Cuba providing for the sale
of crude at subsidized prices and he has also replaced the state’s petroleum
officials.
PLAN PUEBLA PANAMA
National and foreign business
interests come together in an area that extends from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
in the southeast of Mexico to Panama. This region contains an extraordinary
range of biological diversity, one of the most impressive in the world. And it
is here that transnational corporations have joined hands to implement a multinational
project.
The intervention in the area
includes three programs: the Puebla Panama Plan, the Mesoamerican Biological
Corridor and the New Horizons military operation
The plan
includes the south of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Costa Rica and Panama. Its purpose is to integrate the southeast of Mexico
with Central America by opening a series of logistical corridors made up of
transport infrastructure including highways, seaports and airports, as well as
communications infrastructure that includes fiber optic systems and energy
infrastructure for the generation of electricity and the flow of hydrocarbons
through pipelines.
On February 16, 2001, from his
ranch, San Cristobal, Vicente Fox “discussed the details of PPP with US president
George Bush,” who promised support for the project. Subsequently, the existence
of PPP was officially announced on March 12, 2001.
Plan Puebla Panama has a number of
components. The first is an attempt by US capital to control the Pacific basin
through the creation of interoceanic corridors in order to have access to
markets in Asia. This geoeconomic plan includes the expulsion of millions of
peasants from their lands so that these can be turned over to industries which
will be established along the corridors, especially maquiladores, where US and
Asian merchandise will be assembled and then shipped to the dynamic centers of
the world economy.
Another objective of the corridors
is rapid access to natural resources, especially the biodiversity of the
region. The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor “has as its objective the
integration of conservation policies through the establishment of biological
connectors among the protected natural areas of southeast Mexico to avoid the
biological isolation of these and to guarantee the equilibrium of land and
marine ecosystems under the guise of sustainable development,” according to the
World Bank which is financing the creation of the biological corridor. This
corridor is located in a strategic zone for the appropriation of Latin
America’s biodiversity.
As for energy resources, the Mexican
portion of the region includes Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roa, Tabasco and the
Yucatan, from which more than 90% of the nation’s oil resources are extracted.
In addition, the greater part of the infrastructure for the generation of
electricity is located in the same area. All the Central American countries
involved in the plan have proven oil reserves. The plan will strengthen control
over these, and includes the construction of a series of natural gas pipelines,
including the Mesoamerican pipeline.
The final objective of the plan is
military control. On February 15, 2001, the Guatemalan congress authorized
“exercises” between the armies of the US and Guatemala in El Peten, the oil
region that borders on Chiapas and also includes the biological corridor. These
exercises are part of the strategy developed by the armed forces of the US, and
officially known as New Horizons.
The New Horizons operation,
developed by US armed forces in Central America, has as its immediate
predecessor the “exercise” undertaken jointly by the Salvadoran army between
February and May of 2002. This exercise was carried out in the department of
Chalatenango and directed by Coronel Clayde Leavelle. According to information from the US embassy
in El Salvador, he was sent as the commanding officer of the Personnel and
Administration Batallion 324 to Ryad, Saudi Arabia in 1990, as part of the
Desert Storm support group.
Furthermore, he was the secretary general of the head team of the Tenth
Personnel Command and assistant to the commander in chief of the Tenth
Operations Battalion. Colonel Clayde Leavelle’s education includes basic and
advanced courses as official of artillery in aerial defense, master of
parachuting in the rapid aerial combat forces, and training for officers of the
medical corps and as general adjunct officer, as well as other courses at the
US Navy War School.
In El Salvador, within the context
the New Horizons 2000 exercises between February and May, the “Santa Fe Joint
Task Force” built four schools, two kitchens and a clinic, drilled ten wells
and rehabilitated several kilometers of roads. According to reports on these
activities, “the tasks were undertaken by members of the armed forces of the
United States, El Salvador and, for the first time, members of the Guatemalan
army.” The report adds that “in addition, more than 30,000 persons and 10,000
animals received medical attention from medical and veterinary teams
participating in the exercises.”
In Nicaragua, $10,000,000 has been
budgeted for New Horizons 2002. Contrary to declarations made in Guatemala, the
US government will also cooperate in Nicaragua in combating drug trafficking
and terrorism.
According to Cesar Montes, secretary
of the United Democratic Left of Guatemala, congressional approval of New
Horizons in his country is “the historic embarrassment of the new millennium”;
Montes believes that the presence of 12,000 US soldiers participating in
military exercises was “technically, an invasion.”
Although Plan Puebla Panama, the
Mesoamerican Biological Corridor and New Horizons appear to be three distinct
initiatives, the three projects demonstrate affinities not only in terms of
stated ecological, social and humanitarian concerns but also, and principally,
in their interest in the Mesoamerican region. These affinities are worrisome in
terms of the true economic reasons for the initiatives and their consequences
for the subordination of this extensive region to the interests of
transnational capital.
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[1] Ironically, the money Irak received through of
the “Food for Oil” program, which provided for the sale of a fixed amount of
oil, was used essentially to repair damages caused by the war in Kuwait and to
cover costs incurred by the United Nations in pulling out of the country.
[2] PT Arun is a partner of ExxonMobil in
Indonesia.
[3] The pipeline would pass through Bulgaria,
Macedonia and Albania.