America’s destructive interventions in other parts of the world has also disillusioned many people. Under the operative politico-economic framework adopted by the United States, many pressing human concerns are being neglected. For example, global warming and the threat of nuclear warfare are two such concerns, with both having the potential to annihilate the entire species – rich and poor alike. The continuation of American hegemony over the rest of the world (including Latin America) will only increase the chances of such catastrophes occuring. Erosion of national sovereignty, concentration of power in the hands of a few large Multi-National Corporations (MNCs), declining political stability in many regions, hurdles for democracy promotion are all symptoms of flawed American foreign policies. It is clearly in reaction to the excesses of American and capitalistic hegemony that grassroots mass movements are starting to emerge in different parts of the Third World, especially Latin America. (Pozo, 2007, p.55) The sweeping democratic transformations in Latin America is a reaction to America’s haughty attitude toward the region:
“The Latin American turn to the left is well documented. The supposed “pink tide” saw the Brazilian Workers’ Party leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, succeed Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his market-oriented reforms. Similarly, the policies of Argentina’s neoliberal architect, Carlos Menem, have given way to the unilateral repudiation of Argentine external debt, in defiance of international financial institutions. Mass protests in Bolivia toppled President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s government in 2003 and eventually led to a landslide victory for the antineoliberal Evo Morales in 2006 (Potter 2007). In his 2006 address to the UN General Assembly, moreover, the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, delivered one of the most overtly hostile attacks against a U.S. president, likening George W. Bush to the Devil. Add to this the electoral success of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Tabaré Vázquez in Uniguay, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, and Mauricio Funes in El Salvador, and the perceived tilt to the left during the Bush presidency was manifest. Such movement led Sheila Collins to note that America’s “backyard” could no longer be considered safe to play in.” (Emerson, 2010, p.53)
The global solidarity movement, disparagingly projected as the ‘anti-globalization’ movement is another case in point. Centered on universal human challenges like poverty-reduction, access to basic healthcare, free education for all children, social welfare for the disadvantaged, etc, the global solidarity movement presents an alternative operative framework to the United States led global capitalist project. In a few decades time, it is plausible that this more pragmatic form of social organization might have quelled American hegemony in economic, cultural and political domains and might have eliminated the need for economic globalization. (Zakaria, 1999, p.9) The brewing discontent with the excesses of capitalism have spawned a new ideological alternative – consistent with the Hegelian notion of the dialectic. This promising counter-current has Marxist underpinnings to it, but it would be simplistic to term it as a throwback to the failed experiment with communism or socialism. While retaining the essence of socialism, Third-World solidarity movement attempts to cater to humankind’s basic necessities in an atmosphere of co-operation and collaboration as opposed to exploitation. (Zakaria, 1999, p.9)